Your Passion, Not Mine

Something that not many people know about me is that I was homeschooled for two years during elementary school. It was certainly an interesting experience and one that my siblings, including a sister that homeschooled for her entire high school career, enjoyed more than I did. I will admit that I felt a bit isolated, and my mother seemed to agree that we should interact with other children besides our siblings. And so, my mom would drag us to homeschool group.

It was a weekly “playgroup” that consisted of several homeschool families in the area that was definitely more for the parent’s sanity than the children’s enjoyment. My mom would sit upstairs with the other mothers, drinking coffee and laughing, while the children were sent to the basement to play with a warning to not come back upstairs. I hated it.

I was the oldest child there by a couple years and considered myself too cool to have to play trains with my brother or baby dolls with my sisters and their friends. Every week I would beg my mom to let me stay home and every week I was still forced to go.

At Perspectives, we get calls and emails about boards all the time – how they are difficult to work with or don’t seem to have the same passion for the work as the staff. Sometimes, it seems that there are board members there who are simply warm bodies to fill the seats. And that would be a fair assessment.

There are board members, like young me, that are either being forced to be part of the board by their employers or who simply are there to fill a resume. They are dragging themselves, kicking and screaming, to board meetings for which there is no passion for the work. Or, they find every excuse possible not to show up at all.

Board members will make or break your United Way. They are the ones providing guidance to  you and your staff as you work to create change in your community. That’s why it is so important to get the right people on your board. A board member who is there against their will, will never be effective. At best, they will simply be that warm body, staring into the abyss, with little to say and never engaging in your work. At worst, they will put up resistance to the work being done, always question every decision, and slow down the rest of the board. Your United Way deserves board members who are as passionate about your work as you are.

I never did learn to like that playgroup. My suffering only ended when I stopped being forced to go. Your board members who are there against their will most likely will never learn to enjoy your work either. So, maybe it’s time to consider putting them out of their misery and stop forcing them to come. Let them be free and replace them with the passionate and effective board members you deserve.

If you would like to learn how to create a board filled with passionate members just like you, join our webinar Create the Engaged Board You Deserve on June 16 at 2 p.m. ET.