Board Bios — Photo/Bio Availability and 'Learn More' Links
Overview
When building or maintaining a board member directory on a website, not every board member will have a photo or bio available — sometimes despite years of outreach. This article documents the strategy used on the [1] website for handling incomplete board member profiles, particularly around the display of "Learn More" links.
Strategy
Standard Board Members
Board bios are managed through a shared Google Doc tracker. When bios are finalized and approved by the client, they are pushed to the website in a single update pass to minimize the number of times the developer needs to touch the same content.
Workflow:
1. Client updates the Google Doc with final bio text
2. Client marks the page as approved in the tracker
3. Developer implements all bio updates in one pass
Members Without Photo or Bio
For board members where a photo and/or bio cannot be obtained, the recommended approach is:
- Display: Name and title only
- Remove: The "Learn More" link or button entirely
- Do not: Leave a broken or empty "Learn More" link pointing to a profile page with no content
This avoids dead-end clicks and presents an incomplete profile as a clean, minimal card rather than a broken one.
Client Example — VCEDC
During the [2], the VCEDC board member Emerson Coy had no photo or bio available. Tracey noted that outreach had been attempted for four years without success.
Decision: Remove the "Learn More" link from Emerson Coy's board card. Display name and title only.
"Just board member Emerson Coy." — Kathy Schmitz
All other board bios were to be finalized by Kathy in the Google Doc prior to the December 15 launch.
Related Notes
- Board chair transition (Jim → Kate Farrell) was planned for January 1; the website update was scheduled for January 2
- Press releases for the new board chair and Business of the Year award were approved and ready to post after the December 12 annual meeting
See Also
- [3]
- [4]