Effective Leadership for Nonprofit Organizations by Thomas Wolf

Author:Thomas Wolf
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628738858
Publisher: Allworth
Published: 2013-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

George was the president of the board of a local nonprofit organization that was moving toward the completion of a planning process. He was troubled by the fact that three of his trustees were taking up much time focusing on pet peeves and issues in discussions of the plan. Others were getting irritated. George felt he needed to get past these long digressions without offending the individuals, two of whom were major donors.

As it happened, George was to testify at a city council meeting the week before a critical board meeting to discuss that plan. He was supposed to give some expert testimony on a building project he favored that had no bearing on the nonprofit. He examined the city council agenda and saw that his item was quite far down the list. He settled in for a long meeting, letting his mind wander to his board problem. Yet within ten minutes, he was shocked to hear his name called. He fumbled around, grabbed his papers, and hurried up to the lectern. He had been completely unprepared for the rapid call-up.

When the meeting ended, George turned to the assistant city manager and asked him why things had moved so quickly. “Well, they approved the consent calendar and you were next.” George had never heard of a consent calendar. What he learned was that on city council agendas, the items that most city councillors agreed upon would be put on a list called a consent calendar, and all the items would be voted through without debate at the beginning of the meeting, unless there were a vote to remove one or more items for discussion.

Voila, George’s perfect solution for the planning process! Here was a way to keep most trustees satisfied most of the time by avoiding endless talk about what the great majority of people had already agreed to. George met with the executive director and planning committee chair. They divided the plan into sections by subject area and action steps and sent the draft to board members. Each was asked to indicate in advance those items they agreed with, those they disagreed with, or those they wished to discuss. Except in cases where 20 percent or more of the trustees identified items that they either disagreed with or wished to discuss, everything would be put on a consent calendar and voted on at the outset of the meeting without discussion. The result was amazing. Instead of the long meeting with dreaded discussion about someone’s pet peeve or wish, the board discussed only four substantive items, resolved them, and approved the plan in record time

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