The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services is committed to the principle that future growth in child care be in the non-profit sector; thus it commissioned this Fall 1989 study with the purpose of collecting information to guide the development of policy and program initiatives for effective and efficient management practice within that sector. The project had the following objectives: (1) to describe the characteristics of child care board members; (2) to describe current governance practices of child care boards; (3) to identify tasks that the boards have found to be difficult; (4) to identify resources that have been useful to boards; and (5) to describe opportunities and support for parental involvement in the child care system. Several principal conclusions were drawn from the project's work, including: (1) governance of nonprofit child care organizations currently depends on parents; (2) people who sit on child care boards are long-term resources to the volunteer sector; (3) child care organizations are under-resourced and underdeveloped; (4) finances and fundraising interfere with other essential areas of responsibility; (5) more focus is needed in maintaining long-term stability; (6) the image of child care suffered from a lack of community awareness; (7) board members show a lack of experience in governing their organizations; (8) access to training and resource materials is inadequate for all, including senior staff; (9) Ministry requirements are inconsistently interpreted; (10) board size is inadequate; and (11) the startup phase of development is inadequate. (SD)