The slow moving traffic drew little attention form Wilma Jefferson this afternoon. She was headed for Westside quarterly board meeting and was decidedly uncomfortable about what lay ahead. "Why do I keep on doing this when its so frustrating ?" Wilma grumbled to herself.
Four years earlier, Wilma had been nattered by Executive Director Don Carlisle's call asking her to serve on the board. She was sure that the request had been linked to her family's ownership of one of the largest manufacturing corporations in the city, but the prospect of helping improve the quality of what was already a top-notch community center had caught her interest.
She'd like to feel that she was a part of such an effort to " ratchet up Westside," as Don had put it, so she had agreed to this venture onto a nonprofit board. Over her first year on the Westside board, Wilma had kept a low profile as she watched how this group conducted its business. The organization's budget had been balanced every year, membership and participation were growing, and programs were of good quality. Everyone on the board and the management team seemed quite contended with how things were going for the organization. Although fund accounting still struck her as a curious way of financial management, Wilma really enjoyed the occasional talks by senior members of the staff at board meetings.
The four meetings a year were efficient, usually starting with committee meetings in the afternoon, followed by a social dinner sometimes including a staff "show and tell," after which the board met as a whole from 7 p.m. until about 10 p.m. to hear and discuss committee reports. Some of the committee reports were through; others seemed vague and pointless. Neither sort evoked much response from anyone in the meetings, and Wilma wondered if others found these sessions as tedious and boring as she did. Only occasionally were the recommended actions that were not routine and, for all intents and purpose, predetermined. "Surely," Wilma mused to herself, "there's more to being a board member than approving contacts with suppliers, building renovation projects, and joint activities with other organizations in the city. The only real discussion each year was about setting membership fees and staff salaries."
When Wilma joined the board, she had acquiesced to the request that she serve on the fund-raising campaign committee. Soon, however, she became dismayed at the confusion in signals form the CEO and the committee chairman. She made several calls to friends and opened some doors that led to other contributions. However, the campaign ended far short of its goal, and it seemed to have concluded with a whimper, not a bang. Even more curiously, from Wilma's perspective, the boardhad never addressed the lingering dissatisfactions from that experience. Two years later, Don was pushing hard for the board to start yet another campaign, this time with an even higher goal.
One evening after the end of that last campaign, Wilma and several other members of the board had talked in the parking lot after a board meeting about what might have gone wrong. Part of the problem seemed to have been that there was no clear strategic plan for the organization, a point brought up at the next board meeting by another member. Don had really gone to work on that challenge and had done a fine job with it. Over the next nine months, a series of planning meetings included many of the board members and several of the staff and community leaders. The plan that emerged was saluted by everyone-staff as well as the board- as excellent, distinctive, and comprehensive. There was a sense that the document, although ambitious and a bit ambiguous in places, had instilled in Westside a new sense of purpose and overall direction.
Why, then, Wilma wondered was she still uncomfortable? The strategic plan was unquestionably good, just what the organization needed. However, the subsequent board meetings seemed to have continued with business as usual, with only occasional references to the plan. It didn't appear to have any evident effect on either the substance or the processes of the meetings. At the most recent meeting, Don had pushed hard for the board to authorize the new campaign. Backed by the board chair, Don called for volunteers to form a campaign committee. However, few members had responded. The "usual suspects" had raised their hands but with little evident enthusiasm. The spark just did not seem to be there from anyone in the room.
During the break in the meeting, Arnold Moore, the chair of the committee on programs and services, had commented to Wilma and a few others gathered around the coffee urn that there seemed to be a lethargy in the room. Everyone, including Wilma, had nodded in agreement, but no on raised the issue once the meeting resumed. Apparently nobody wanted to seem like a wet blanket, Wilma surmised, especially without some specific reason or recommendation about how to improve things.
After that meeting, Wilma had tried to engage Don in some conversation about her unease, but somehow the response seemed to miss the point. "I'm not sure that our board members see how we fit into the plan," she said to him. "isn't the board itself one of the organization's strategic assets that should be included in our thinking somehow? Shouldn't life on the board be different now that we actually have a strategic plan?"
"Certainly the board is central to the plan," insisted Don. "Its job now is just to roll up its sleeves and get to work raising money so Westside can achieve the goals detailed in the plan. We're all counting on the board this time, Wilma, to make sure that we reach our target. And frankly, I see you as a key player."
"Get o board or get out of the way," Wilma thought as she drove to the next board meeting. That was a motto that Wilma had often heard among her own company's senior staff when a new venture was getting started, and now she was hearing it at Westside. Why did it seem so irritating now? "Maybe its just me," Wilma mused as she pulled into the parking lot. "Am I just getting too old for all this? Should I just get out of the way, resign this volunteer position, and take that long overdue vacation?"
The meeting was getting under way when Wilma walked into the conference room. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," boomed the chairman. "We have a full agenda this evening, so I hope you are prepared to work a little later than usual. In addition to all out usual committee reports, we have two bids for renovations to review, a proposal for some changes in programs and in membership regulations, plus several budgetary adjustments. Then I'd like for us to get back to preparations for the campaign and see what we need to do to get that project launched. Any questions before we dig in?"
By the time the meeting ended, Wilma was exasperated by what she regarded to be an endless stream of trivia and minutiae. On her way out to the parking lot, she walked with Freddie Ackerman, assistant director of Westside, and said, "Freddie you know this organization and this board better than I do. Am I crazy to think the board should be dealing regularly with crucial issues like strengthening out competitive advantage, monitoring the quality of our programs, improving our market share, and controlling costs? It seems like our leaders steer issues like that in favor of discussions of programs regulations and rehabbing the physical plant. Those things may be important to somebody, but frankly they just sap my energy. Furthermore, I just don't think the board's heart will be in another campaign now. So, I have two questions for you: First, am I correct, what should be done to change things? I really hope you can help me out, because frankly I've about had it."
Above article came from:
Edwards, R., &Yankey, J. (2006). Effectively Managing Nonprofit Organizations (pp.369-372). Washington, DC: NASW Press.
What should Freddie do?
What should Wilma do?
What should the executive director do?
What should the Board do differently?