Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize. My patience has worn thin. I'm on several boards (corporate, civic, and social justice). Resources like BoardSource are made available to all the boards I am part of. It's one way that boards try to improve themselves. Some board members use the resources, some don't. On no board, including this one, is participation required. But I haven't been part of any other board that argues about something given at no cost, is optional to use, might help and probably won't hurt. The deeper issue is the posturing that is going on. There is energy spent here that needs to be spent on improving the ARRL, serving our members better, and assuring that amateur radio continues to be important and vital. I have a lot of respect for all the Directors and Vice Directors I know and, through their emails, for the ones I have yet to meet. I'm impressed at the wealth of knowledge and the strong sense of dedication. As has been pointed out by several of you, we have lot's of work to do. We are fortunate to have a Board with very capable people who can get this work done. Let's get on with it. 73, Art K0AIZ On 4/8/2019 12:59 PM, James Tiemstra wrote:
Greg,
Whether you believe that membership in BoardSource would be useful or not, the decision is for the Board to make. I am sure that Walt's offer is well-meaning, but that does not make it necessarily right for our Board. (Indeed, we are still struggling today with the legacy of some of the policies advocated by Walt when he was a Director.)
My point is that most of the "commonalities" described by BoardSource's Recommended Governance Practices are no more than/pro forma/ rules and protocols that are of questionable usefulness to a fairly successful 100+ year old organization. Our principal job should be to make the tough decisions on matters that directly benefit our members, not polish our professional credentials as members of a non-profit Board or mistakenly adopt rules and protocols that are not appropriate to our type of organization.
We can't forget that we are very different from BoardSource's target audience: not-for-profit charitable organizations with appointed boards. Very few of their members are member organizations themselves, let alone with voting memberships. I submit that companies designed to support a "cause" are not a particularly good model for an uniquely member driven, mutual benefit organization such as the League.
73,
*/Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT/*
*/Pacific Division Director/*
On April 7, 2019 at 2:26 PM G Widin <gpwidin@comcast.net> wrote:
Jim, Walt Stinson came to this weekend’s A&F meeting, and described his reasons for recommending and supporting ARRL’s membership in BoardSource. He made two points which I found especially persuasive.
1) While every Board has its particular issues, there are more commonalities among boards than differences. Walt said this as someone with experience on many boards over many years. The important implication is that ARRL doesn’t have to create or discover solutions to governance issues by itself, and can take advantage of the experience of other similar bodies.
2) We don’t know what we don’t know. There is likely some wisdom in the experience of other boards that we can derive benefit from, but in some cases, we won’t even know we could improve our practices if we don’t have access to what other groups have already found out.
This doesn’t mean that we should unquestioningly change our practices, but our involvement with BoardSource may suggest some areas where improvements may benefit our members.
Walt was an important and influential member for the years in which he was an ARRL Director. He has had years of experience with BoardSource and personal validation that its information can be helpful. I think these facts provide a recommendation for BoardSource that we should not ignore.
Perhaps not every member of our current Board wishes to engage with BoardSource, and I think that is their prerogative. For those who are interested, however, it seems there is reason to expect some positive outcomes. 73, Greg, K0GW
On Saturday, April 6, 2019, k6jat < k6jat@comcast.net <mailto:k6jat@comcast.net>> wrote:
Thank you for the response, Howard, but I remain unconvinced. While our Board certainly should pursue excellence and strive to inculcate the same objective in our staff, the Board's responsibilities run to the members who elected us, not to self-appointed outside consultants or directors of unrelated corporations and their objectives. Spending time on such endeavors is an unnecessary distraction from our primary duties.
With all due respect, you have attended a single meeting of the Board which, in my opinion, was one of the most "deliberative and generative" meetings of the Board in recent history. So, I fail to see what experience or standard your criticism of our Board is based upon. Indeed, the Board arrived at a number of tough decisions in that meeting which are very popular with the membership.
I have reviewed the paper you attached from BoardSource on Recommended Governance Practices, and I believe that our Board already follows 65% of those recommendations, 25% of which are irrelevant to our type of Board and about 10% are either unhelpful or counterproductive. I would welcome a Board discussion of whether involving ourselves with that organization is a productive use of our time, but I think you would find more interest in a focus on the consideration of policies to benefit our members.
73,
Jim K6JAT
Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S8.
-------- Original message -------- From: "Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO)" < wb2itx@arrl.org <mailto:wb2itx@arrl.org>> Date: 4/4/19 4:25 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "Tiemstra, Jim, K6JAT" < K6JAT@comcast.net <mailto:K6JAT@comcast.net>>, "Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO)" < wb2itx@arrl.org <mailto:wb2itx@arrl.org>>, arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org <mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>> Subject: Re: [arrl-odv:28089] BoardSource
Hi Jim, Rod, ODV,
At the January A&F committee meeting, Director Ryan (Chairman) stated that Walton Stinson W0CP, wanted to make a donation to ARRL so that ARRL could become a corporate member of BoardSource. I jumped at the opportunity because I know of BoardSource and have used their resources at the IEEE, and seen their material being used at other large associations.
To quote from BoardSource "The nonprofit boards best equipped to lead their organizations are self-aware, function in constructive partnership with their chief executives, and are committed to continually improving their performance." Being self-aware and continually improving are things we should always strive for.
I think that the ARRL Board can improve. We can become a more effective deliberative and generative body. Let me say that again -- deliberative and generative. That is the key benefit of a Board, the ability to bring everyone's experience to bear on issues facing the organization, and together create something. The sum is greater than the parts.
I have attached a sample of paper from the BoardSource web site on Recommended Governance Practices. If you look at it, they have Essential Practices, Leading Practices, and Compliance Practices. It is informative, not dictatorial Some of these practices ARRL currently follows. Some we do not. But in the interest of continuous improvement, I think the Board should discuss them. We may chose to operate differently, but I believe it should be an informed decision based on documented best practices, and a honest look at ourselves.
Here is a list of sample topics with educational material from their web site. There is a wealth of information that we can benefit from. I hope that you will consider this in the spirit in which is it offered.
The Board-Staff Partnership Roles & Responsibilities Oversight & Accountability Strategy & Planning Fundraising Advocacy & Ambassadorship Structure, Committees, & Meetings Board Composition & Recruitment Orientation & Education Culture & Dynamics Executive Transition Executive Evaluation & Compensation Assessing Board Performance
73, Howard, WB2ITX
On 04/04/2019 1:44 PM, Tiemstra, Jim, K6JAT wrote:
Howard,
I am troubled by your request. There are many sources of information concerning Board governance of non profit corporations. I have taken continuing legal education courses and reviewed written materials on the subject for my own edification, some were better than others. As expected, there also are differences of opinion among the experts, and different issues and concerns depending on the type and purpose of the entity of interest.
I have never heard of BoardSource, nor do I know of anything to recommend it, other than what I have read in your email which calls it "preeminent" without explanation or qualification. Also, I note that there is no description of what benefits the Board is expected to receive from this membership, other than the imposition of a survey on the Board members that promises to be "very enlightening."
Further, I don't recall the EC or Board approving acceptance of this membership. The failure to do so would seem to violate the resolution passed by the Board just this past January in Minute 39.
73,
*/Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT/*
*/Pacific Division Director/*
On April 3, 2019 at 1:25 PM "Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO)" < wb2itx@arrl.org <mailto:wb2itx@arrl.org>> wrote:
Dear Officers, Directors and Vice Directors,
I am pleased to inform you that, because of a very generous gift from Walton Stinson W0CP, ARRL now has a corporate membership in BoardSource. BoardSource is recognized as the preeminent source of information on nonprofit governance and leadership development. This is their specialty, and I am very grateful to Walton for providing ARRL with access to this resource.
You will all shortly be receiving an invitation from BoardSource to activate your account. Please do not regard their email as spam. Once you register, you will have access to their extensive resource library.
One of BoardSource's key resources is their Board Self-Assessment Survey. BoardSource will set up a survey for us. This will take about 1-2 weeks. Once the survey is up and running, you will have 2-3 weeks to complete it. BoardSource then needs another 1-2 weeks to analyze the data and provide a report. I hope to have this report to present to the Executive Committee on May 20. I believe that it will be very enlightening.
73, Howard, WB2ITX
-- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 <https://maps.google.com/?q=225+Main+Street,+Newington,+CT+06111&entry=gmail&source=g>-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel@arrl.org <mailto:hmichel@arrl.org>
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-- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 <https://maps.google.com/?q=225+Main+Street,+Newington,+CT+06111&entry=gmail&source=g>-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email:hmichel@arrl.org <mailto:hmichel@arrl.org>
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