The comments generated by my opinions are always interesting; her is one from a friend Past District Governor Rod Eide from Orange County regarding my posting about The Job of the Board of Directors on in the middle of November.
I fully agree with your thoughts about the job of a BOD–so long as the Organization is large, i.e., policy making and Committee/Department work can be separated (relating to a Rotary Club size, I would say over 90 Members is large).
However, in cases of smaller Organizations (Rotary Clubs of less than 90 Members for example), Leadership Communications are significantly better if the BOD includes all of the Club Officers with significant responsibilities—Including Elected Officers and Avenues of Service Chairs, as well as the Membership and TRF Support Chairs.
My own Club (50 – 70 members) has been organized this way ever since the second year of its existence. And it has been the most active and productive Club that I’ve ever seen for most of its years.
I promote this Club Organization and BOD structure at every opportunity, because most Rotary Clubs just aren’t large enough to effectively separate the Club’s BOD Members from the Club’s Functional Leaders.
The 3-Cs of Leadership—Communication, Consensus and Commitment must always be considered –especially when volunteers are involved.
In response to Rod’s comments I reminded him of something I posted back in October of 2012 titled One Person Two Jobs. Being a member of the Board of Directors doesn’t mean a Rotarian can’t do anything else; it does mean that the job of being a member of the BOD requires different skills, talents and responsibilities from being a chair or member of a committee.
I don’t believe my message precludes organizing your Rotary Club any way that works for your club. My message is consistent with that concept, but the job of the BOD is different than the job of a committee chair or member.