Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Rudy Giuliani Syndrome

Not being a New Yorker, I had never given a lot of thought to what kind of guy, or what kind of mayor, or what kind of politician Rudy Giuliani was -- but 9/11, which for some reason unfathomable to me made him a hero, turned him into a pariah in my book. His sin was his willingness to suspend the law that made him ineligible for re-election so that he might remain in office to see the city through its trauma. I might have been able to forgive him for the show of egotism -- but never for his willingness to flout the law.

I was reminded of this the other day when, paging through a trade association house organ, I noticed its officer roster, and was reminded that this stalwart group unselfishly re-elected themselves in contravention of the association's decades-old policy, enshrined in its bylaws, wherein members of the executive committee "went through the chairs," but could not repeat any, assuring the organization not only of a constant infusion of new energy at the top, but also of a mechanism to encourage ambition among the next generation of leadership.

We might call this the Smoky the Bear syndrome -- only YOU can prevent forest fires. This group persuaded themselves that only they could put out the forest fire that in truth was raging around them. And in fact, they did put out the fire. Trouble is, they have not re-planted the forest But even more important, they have not cleared out the dead wood to make room for new growth.

Now it must be said that I am not a member of this association -- and if the members are willing to stand for it, who am I to complain? Whether it's in our voluntary associations or in public life, we see the results of ignorance and apathy, shrug, and say I don't know and I don't care.

As a believer in term limits in the voluntary sector, I define the job of leadership as being to come in and see what's wrong, fix it, find a successor, and get out of the way. If you can't find a successor, maybe that's a clue to what's wrong!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

After the Hiatus

I haven'tosted anything for a while on Bored of Directors, maybe because I got a little bored. I wasn't making any effort to send folks to the site; if anybody was finding it on their own, they weren't commenting; and I realized that I had started the site largely to vent, and I guess I just didn't have much to vent about.

In the past week or so, I've attended a couple of seminars on blogging, and have been impressed by the opportunities the medium affords to be seen and heard, and to be purposeful in the process.

Ergo, I'm adding blogs that will be more specialized and focused, and if they bring me some business or consulting gigs or facilitating gigs, so much the better.

Bored of Directors has tried to cover all kinds of voluntary boards, and has been sort of anonymous. On the first of the new blogs, my identity will be perfectly clear. The new site is Temple Board Authority (templeboardauthority.blogspot.com) and will focus on issues that are central to synagogues, even if not necessarily unique to them. Tune in -- and talk back!