A non-board committee does the evaluation. The evaluation is done by an outside consultant. An outside consultant may be particularly useful if a board has never evaluated its performance before. The consultant can provide some objective criteria, offer a perspective on the co-op board standards, and can help the board set up criteria on which to base future evaluations. An outside consultant may be useful where there are emotionally-charged issues, or where the board's internal process has not been the best.
Management undoubtedly has a perspective on the board's effectiveness.
If management evaluates the board, the board needs to recognize that they may receive a different set of answers from their own self-evaluation. But this is not the end. One or two board members could review the data and prepare an initial analysis for the board. A board evaluation should provide guidelines for effective board of director performance. The board may choose to evaluate itself annually or have an outside consultant conduct the evaluation annually.