Principled Innovation LLC

Sad but true

November 4th, 2006

Bob Harris, a highly-regarded association consultant, recently posted the following item to an ASAE & The Center listserver:

Board Members Say the Darndest Things

• The board chairman about to complete his term of office says,”I don’t know if we have a strategic plan or not.”
• The treasurer, who had just seen approval of his budget, responded to a query with: “I don’t know the size of our budget.”
• The director responsible for reporting on a committee’s work, when asked the purpose of the committee replies: “I don’t know the committee’s purpose, I’m just the liaison.”

I certainly get the joke (and I have no problem with Bob’s post), but I’d probably find these tidbits a bit more amusing if they weren’t so sad. Naturally, I realize that the dumb statements of three random board leaders cannot and should not be used to evaluate the competence of all senior association volunteers. And I have met and worked with many, many fine volunteers of all types throughout my career. Still, it is hard to shake the nagging concern that there is a real and growing leadership vacuum in our community, a problem that seems particularly acute at the board level. In a time of genuine paradigm shift, not to mention growing scrutiny, we must act to fill that vacuum with leaders who are able to understand the real meaning of effective stewardship, and who are willing to fully embrace it.

You may conclude I lack a sense of humor or that I’m taking Bob’s post too seriously. Fair enough. Let me simply suggest, then, that you undertake an honest assessment of your association’s current and future stewards to confirm your members have exceptionally-capable, highly-motivated people collaborating with them on the challenge of creating a more vibrant future. Anything less and the joke will be on you and your organization.

Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator