<VV> Communique improvement idea number 7]

[corvairs]

Bob's methodology for accomplishing these things is totally correct. 
There is one great flaw - and that is the reality of volunteers on the 
Board. Having been on the Board for 3 years myself, I guess I'd better 
enlighten people to the realities.

The Corsa Board meets officially for one day out of the year - just 
before the convention. Every member of the Board is a volunteer, 
including the officers. Some board meetings have gone late into the 
evening. Having a great deal of experience with political meetings I can 
tell you that anything over 10 hours is counterproductive. But I digress.

A common flaw in new board members who are all worked up for "fixing 
everything", is to assume that they are entering a professional setting, 
and are dealing with paid employees. Some of these board members are or 
have been successful business managers in their real life. The actual 
realities really throw them - and rather than learn to work with things 
as they really are, many of them get frustrated and quit.

Quite frankly, the Corsa Board can barely handle the "normal" decision 
making process that is required to operate the organization. Expecting 
most board members to put out an additional heroic effort to deal with 
some of these other issues is unrealistic. So that means we have crappy, 
lazy, incompetent board members? No. We have normal people who have 
other lives and other, more important (to them) responsibilities. As it 
is they are already putting out substantially more effort for Corsa than 
99% of the rest of the membership.

And please don't say, "Well then we need to elect better board members". 
This process has been going on for literally 40 years and the realities 
remain the same. Or does anyone believe that, in every single board 
election, we've been getting slackers?

Bob's ideas are very good, but they cannot be viewed as "solutions". The 
truly brilliant person will be the one who comes up with a way to find 
those unique volunteers who will follow through with all these "great 
ideas".

I know this isn't what some people want to hear, but it all comes back 
to being willing to look at reality and deal with it accordingly. Don't 
forget Hanks cautionary tale about the Riviera club. Too often I have 
seen organizational situations that function very well - all because of 
one or a few dedicated volunteers, only to discover that when they are 
gone the entire organization falls apart. In those cases, as a post 
mortem, I ask my favorite question. Were all those members riding on the 
back of those few dedicated volunteers? Obviously yes.

Let's quit coming up with ideas and put all our efforts into figuring 
out how to identify "Super"-Volunteers (And yes, how to reward them as 
well). Because without them none of these other ideas will go anywhere.

Lon Wall
Former Western Director
>  
> In a message dated 2/17/2009 11:36:14 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
> mcvair at sbcglobal.net writes:
>
> Solcitation and coordination would be great, "somebody" should do  that.
>
> You write that "CORSA" should do this and that.  Who is  "CORSA"?  CORSA is
> its members.  If you can suggest a plan, or a  volunteer to do something,
> great.
>
>
> OK, Mike,
> You bring up a lot of questions. So here is what i suggest.
>  
> First, the BOD, who has the responsibility for running CORSA, should  review 
> my ideas and any others that they want. There should be a wide-ranging  and 
> comprehensive discussion on all subjects and the BOD should  formulate a plan 
> for the future. This plan should include the ideas they  want to implement and 
> postpone or reject the others. The BOD should determine  who should run each of 
> the new programs they have selected to implement, as  follows. 
>  
> If a BOD member volunteers for any leadership positions then all for the  
> good. If the BOD determines that M&P should be doing any of these tasks,  then 
> that's good too. For all unfulfilled leadership positions some member of  the 
> BOD (the Pres should ask for BOD volunteers) , or other appointed person (or  
> volunteer), should write up the scope and intentions of that program, publish it 
>  in the Communique and ask for a volunteer to come forward to take over the  
> program. In my opinion writing that up should be a task for the Secretary, but 
>  anybody could do it after it was discussed/explained by the BOD. 
>  
> If that fails, then the BOD should make inquires as to who might be the  best 
> candidates and the President (or his delegate) should approach each of  these 
> candidates directly and ask them to take a leadership role on that  program. 
> If that still fails, then consider revamping the program to split it  into 
> more manageable tasks that a volunteer might accept. Then repeat the above  steps.
> Regards,
> Bob Helt
> **************Need a job? Find an employment agency near you. 
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