|
Printer Friendly
Municipal Research News - Life Cycles of Boards
Life Cycles of Boards
By Lynn Nordby, Public Policy and Management Consultant, Municipal Research and Services Center
I was attending a training session being conducted by the manager of our county-wide department of emergency management. He opened the session by asking each of the participants to state, not only the jurisdiction they represented, but also any volunteer affiliation outside of their primary employment to which they devoted time and energy. Nearly all present stated a specific affiliation or participation in one or more volunteer organizations serving their communities.
Since that time, I have reflected on my own public service career of over 30 years and the volunteer service organizations with which I have been involved. I noted some interesting themes common to the evolution of leadership of both public agencies and private nonprofits.
I believe the origins and evolution of these agency boards, whether volunteer or elected, share common patterns we can observe and learn from. Examining the relationship of the policy-makers to the organization and how the policy-making body develops and matures may help managers understand and recognize the phases of that process and how that development process affects the ability of the organization to fulfill its mission.
Two Nonprofits and a City
A Sheltered Workshop
While I was serving a city in the greater Seattle area, our city council was approached by the board of directors of an agency that provided skills training and employment experience for developmentally disabled adults. The state of Washington had grant money available for buying and renovating facilities for such agencies, provided the agency had a local government sponsor to apply for and administer the grant. This nonprofit had been renting space in a large warehouse from a bank that had repossessed it. The bank was looking for a potential buyer. The agency saw this as an opportunity to stop paying rent and have a permanent home. The bank saw an opportunity to dispose of a liability. The city council was promised that no city funds would be needed. The match would come from money that had already been raised and through a discount from the appraised value offered by the bank. The basic terms of the grant were easily satisfied, and the city council agreed to apply for the grant, take title to the property, and lease it to the nonprofit agency.
One of the terms of the grant was that the city had to maintain the agency (or another providing the same services) for a minimum of 20 years or turn the property back to the state. Without going into the financial details, suffice it to say the agency eventually fell into financial difficulty, and I was asked by the city council to join the agency's board of directors to help stabilize it. The city council reasoned that it was better to try that than to recruit and establish a new tenant that would meet the state's grant terms.
I quickly realized that the board had been initially made up primarily of the parents of many of the clients. Their motivation was the welfare, healthy development, and potential independence of their children. With that positive motivation, they had established this sheltered workshop and nurtured it through the first several years of operation. Now it appeared to be finally established in what they saw as a permanent home. Their intentions were good, and they accomplished a great deal. Eventually board membership began to turn over as founding members aged and were replaced. The type of commitment shared by board members with a personal stake in the organization was supplanted by new members who were required to make business decisions detached from the direct connection to the workers/clients. There was strain between long-time board members who viewed the work of the agency as a personal service to the clients and new board members who were grappling with the realities of trying to close the gap between the subsidy provided by state and federal agencies and the income derived from contracted piece work.
Without the vision and dedication of the founders to the goal of training and potential self sufficiency of their children, the agency wouldn't have existed. Yet without the evolution toward a more business-like model, the agency risked failure.
A Habitat for Humanity Affiliate
A second example of this aspect of organizational development involved the establishment of a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in the county in which the city I was serving was located. Looking for a way to put my personal values to work, as well as all those episodes of "This Old House" I'd watched, I sought out a meeting of the local board of Habitat for Humanity. As it turned out, they were in the process of preparing their charter application to Habitat for Humanity for official recognition. Although what I really wanted to do was pound nails, I jumped right in.
Once we received our charter, the really hard work began. As we expanded the board from the first few enthusiastic volunteers, we recognized the need for many different skills to form the variety of committees necessary to raise funds and to recruit and prepare the future occupants for the responsibility of homeownership of the houses we intended to build.
As the board expanded, so did conflict. All those associated with the organization wanted just one thing, to be able to provide decent, affordable housing for people living in substandard conditions. With the variety of talents needed to meet the needs of the board, however, came a variety of interpersonal styles. New board members, recruited for their business acumen, were impatient with many of the older board members who were more motivated by altruistic goals. Success in meeting the real human needs required a strong business model that would show donors, vital to keeping the projects affordable, that we were responsible and capable of achieving the goals we set. I knew they all wanted to succeed in eliminating poverty housing, but there were board meetings when an outside observer might not have been so sure. Hard noses ran headlong into tender hearts. Feelings were hurt. Some board members resigned. With perseverance, the organization moved through this phase and successfully built, and continues to build, many homes throughout the county.
The City
After multiple attempts over many years to gain a measure of home rule through incorporation or annexation, success was finally achieved when the voters approved, by a very narrow margin, an annexation to the adjacent small city, increasing the population nearly 850% overnight.
The small city had a council of five members under the laws of the state, but, with the increased population, the law required two additional councilmembers be appointed for a total of seven. Statutorily, the council could have asked for applicants, reviewed them, and appointed the two additional members directly. Instead, they announced they would hold an advisory election and appoint the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes. Approximately a dozen candidates filed for the election. Not surprisingly, reflecting the results of the annexation election, the top two vote getters were one of the leaders of the "Home Rule" committee and the former co-chair of the "No City" committee. The incumbent city council kept its promise and appointed both to seats on the new seven-member council. A clear majority of the new group had favored the annexation. In fact, it was essentially six to one. However, even the newly-appointed member formerly from the "No City" camp acknowledged that the election was over. While he had opposed the measure, he now believed it was his obligation to see that the new city did the best it could to keep the promises made during the campaign and create an efficient organization.
For the next eleven years, as issues and councilmembers came and went, the composition of the city council was largely drawn from a fairly large pool of citizens who had been involved in the home rule campaign. Throughout this time, even though there was turnover in the membership, a majority of the city council shared the experience of working toward home rule and getting the new city off and running.
With the passage of time and population growth, new members of the community became involved in the issues of the day and wanted a voice on the city council, hoping to influence public policy. Eventually, a majority of the city council was composed of individuals who did not share in the common experience of the home rule campaign. They had other concerns related to current issues important to them. A group that had been relatively collegial became more confrontational as the newcomers challenged the other councilmembers and the staff. A lot of time, energy, and money were spent trying to define roles and responsibilities and establish effective working relationships. Although the collegial bond shared by the council for many years was not a prerequisite to effective local government, once it was lost, much organizational energy was expended simply trying to figure out how to work together. There was nothing similar to the shared goal of establishing the new city that the councilmembers once had in common.
True Believers, New Blood, Conflict
Each of these examples shares a common pattern. Beginning with a foundation of shared values and a focus on a common goal, whether it is social, political, or economic, the people involved initially join together for that primary purpose. These are what one might call the true believers. They are the visionaries willing to start organizations and institutions in order to achieve a goal they believe in.
At some point, whether from outside influences or because the founding group recognizes a need for additional skills, new blood is injected. Even when the injection is intentional and desired, there is a reaction. The founders may feel threatened by the questions, challenges, and ideas offered by the newcomers. They may perceive that the new members do not share their commitment to the principles on which the organization was founded. They may feel that their contributions are not recognized or appreciated. The new members sense these reactions as resistance and can become frustrated. Each faction feels that its contributions aren't valued, and original goals of the group that initially motivated its formation can fall victim to the conflict.
Recognizing that these stages can affect any organization allows the members of the board and the staff to anticipate them before change occurs and to take measures to integrate the new members. This is especially important when several new members are added simultaneously or over a short period of time. Private, nonprofit boards may be able to do this more deliberately than public agencies with elected boards. Elections may tend to emphasize differences rather than commonalities but, nevertheless, it is preferable to make a concerted effort rather than to do nothing. It may be helpful to provide formal and informal orientation sessions and make available as much background information as possible. Staff members who have not been involved in the electoral process can make presentations and provide orientation.
Acknowledge that there will be a difference in the perspective of the continuing members versus the new members and talk about it. Concentrate on what they may already have in common and build on that. This should be recognized as more than just a "get acquainted" exercise, as important as that may be. The purpose is not, as a former city councilmember complained, to "stand in a circle, hold hands, and sing Kum ba yah" at the end of the day. Focusing on the organization's reason for existence and what skills the individuals bring to it can minimize the potential for trivializing this process.
Regardless of the tensions, misunderstandings, and conflicts that inevitably seem to accompany the life cycle of policy-making bodies, all the members share an underlying goal, even if they have vastly different visions of how to achieve it. If not, they wouldn't have joined in the first place. Keeping that first and foremost can help you through.
| 
