Picking up on my post of November 2, 2008, Three On A Trotline Is Not Bad, I have two more nice catfish to offer. The first is Marcia Sharp, The Savvy CEO: Advice From Those Who Have Been There published online by the Council on Foundations at their web site www.cof.org The publication tells the coming-of-age stories of Jennifer, Bob, Maria, Rick, Donna, Luke, and Elena, all community foundation CEO’s wounded on the job. Eight wiser, more experienced and sagacious CEO’s show the young ones how they could have managed their boards of directors to have avoided cuts and bruises. I think the emphasis of the writing was misdirected. Instead of encouraging executive directors to think one of their major responsibilities is the management of directors, the wise ones should have stressed that board directors need to recognize that they have an active responsibility that goes well beyond hiring and retaining a good executive director, and seeing that the books are open and honest. Board directors should be asking sharp questions of the executive director. If they do not, the executive director should confront each one with a demand to know why they are silent and compliant. When board directors don’t care enough about the executive director to challenge him, that is down and dirty disrespectful. Board directors should read this publication as a cautionary warning to warm up to their responsibilities.
The second catfish is from WINGS, the Worldwide Initiatives For Grantmaker Support and can be printed from their web site www.wingsweb.org It is the 2008 Community Foundation Global Status Report. Don’t stop at the 2008 Executive Summary but go for the whole thing because it is helpful to read how political and cultural history affects our approach to handling global community foundation issues. It is gratifying to know that as a community foundation supporter you are part of a world wide fraternity of activists. Charles Marlin
Leave a Reply