DURHAM, N.H. - Family councils can be a useful way to clarify roles and strategic goals at a family business. How to form these councils and use them effectively is the topic of the next meeting of the University of New Hampshire Center for Family Business.

"Family Councils: Understanding & Developing the Differing Goals of Family Members, the Family and Business" will be held Wednesday, April 6, 2011, at New Hampshire Distributors, 65 Regional Way, Concord. The event begins at 8 a.m. with a continental breakfast, with the program following at 8:30 a.m. The program ends at noon, followed by lunch and networking.

The program will help family business members get started in creating a family council. The council's role in the family business and recommendations for developing processes and goals for family members who are both in and outside of the family business will be discussed.

Family councils are useful for educating, clarifying boundaries, conveying business information, conflict resolution and developing a family strategic plan for family members. Councils can be effective in encouraging family members to express their true wants and needs and feel secure that it all stays in a safe place.

Following a brief presentation on family councils by Everett Moitoza, EdD, MBA, a panel of family members will share their experiences in forming a family council and what they have found works and doesn't work. Panelists include Elisabeth Robinson with Intermatic, Inc., Thomas Sullivan with Sullivan Construction, Inc., and Michele Dupont with the Lake Opechee Inn and Spa.

Please register by Wednesday, March 30, 2011. To register or become a member of the Center for Family Business, call Barbara Draper at 603-862-1107, or barbara.draper@unh.edu. For first-time attendees, the cost is $99 per person and $250 per company for nonmembers.

The Center for Family Business, under the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics and the UNH Graduate School, is sponsored by Mass Mutual Financial Group; Moitoza Consulting; Baker Newman & Noyes; Pierce Atwood; Management Planning, Inc.; and Optima Bank and Trust. It is a membership program to provide owners and managers of entrepreneurial businesses with an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to discuss business challenges, concerns, and solutions. For more information, visit http://www.familybusiness.unh.edu/.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.

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