This is so heartening! I love the idea of tiny groups of passionate people holding the torch for one another and being juuuuust organized enough to do it. 🥰
Thank you for this. I've mostly been self-employed, once managing one or two people, and now occasionally hiring another freelancer; rarely have I been an employee or member of an organization. Then, I served on two boards and worked so closely with another I might as well have been a member. Extrapolating from those experiences helped me understand viscerally just how easily and quickly things in a bureaucracy can fall apart, from the smallest to the largest (say, a corporation or a national government).
Among the lessons I learned is that all boards have a culture, and those cultures can be good or bad; collaborative or combative. Great boards are wonderful. Critically, though, if a board drifts from the mission of the organization, all may be lost. If there was an institutional memory of better days , the holders of those memories are not around. Sounds dire. Boards can get better if they put in the work, but like any patient they have to want to get better.
Thank you for sharing this! Community organization are great exemple of empowerment of « normal people ». They can be very impactful quickly and closely to your everyday concern.
I which I would be less annoyed or scared by taking charge and make things happen.
There is a trick to making this better. Each position elects a second and a third. Then the three meet occasionally to discuss the duties. The positions can change annually ... the value is that one is mentored into the main role, and you act as mentee in turn to someone aware that they will accept the responsibility. Volunteers are much easier as you are selecting a role two years in the future ... many say yes enjoying the approval at time of selection and then hesitating to not take up the mantle.
This is so heartening! I love the idea of tiny groups of passionate people holding the torch for one another and being juuuuust organized enough to do it. 🥰
Thank you for this. I've mostly been self-employed, once managing one or two people, and now occasionally hiring another freelancer; rarely have I been an employee or member of an organization. Then, I served on two boards and worked so closely with another I might as well have been a member. Extrapolating from those experiences helped me understand viscerally just how easily and quickly things in a bureaucracy can fall apart, from the smallest to the largest (say, a corporation or a national government).
Among the lessons I learned is that all boards have a culture, and those cultures can be good or bad; collaborative or combative. Great boards are wonderful. Critically, though, if a board drifts from the mission of the organization, all may be lost. If there was an institutional memory of better days , the holders of those memories are not around. Sounds dire. Boards can get better if they put in the work, but like any patient they have to want to get better.
Thank you for sharing this! Community organization are great exemple of empowerment of « normal people ». They can be very impactful quickly and closely to your everyday concern.
I which I would be less annoyed or scared by taking charge and make things happen.
You are courageous! Great experience for you!
There is a trick to making this better. Each position elects a second and a third. Then the three meet occasionally to discuss the duties. The positions can change annually ... the value is that one is mentored into the main role, and you act as mentee in turn to someone aware that they will accept the responsibility. Volunteers are much easier as you are selecting a role two years in the future ... many say yes enjoying the approval at time of selection and then hesitating to not take up the mantle.