Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Board of directors setting boundaries

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Your email title says it all. If you want boundaries to your
responsibilities then you need to set them and communicate them clearly and
consistently. This means, if you say, you don't want issues brought up
during the day which can wait for the board meeting, then all your board
members need to ask the question, why can't this wait until the board
meeting?  If you are united and consistent then you will achieve setting
recognized boundaries which will be respected.

So its up to you to figure out what the boundaries should be and implement
them. I have spent 5 years on the board of my community over a 13 year time
span and when on the board I was approachable about issues at any time, but
it was always very manageable, and I am good at delegating things to the
right people. After awhile, folks sort of figured out that I would delegate
their issue to someone and so they were able to find that person themselves
usually without my help.

The board can be a big community responsibility and being available to help
troubleshoot is well within the boundaries we have set for our board, but
people here also seem to be pretty reasonable about when they bring stuff to
board members, and often dinner is a good venue for many types of issues.


Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Fred H Olson
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 11:27 AM
To: -cohousing-L mailing list
Subject: [C-L]_Board of directors setting boundaries



Sue Stigleman <tangosue [at] earthlink.net>
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
because the message included HTML ;      PLEASE do not post HTML, see
   http://csf.colorado.edu/cohousing/2001/msg01672.html  and
   http://www.harley.com/turn-off-html/
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Hello.

This is my first time posting.  I moved into cohousing last September.  I
am currently on the board of directors -- 5 people who are elected to
staggered terms.  (and yes, the fact that I was asked to run for and was
elected to the board so quickly after moving in is indicative of some
problems with our community.)

I am seeing a pattern that disturbs me, and I would like to get some input
from others as the board prepares to discuss this issue.

---Individual members ot the board are called at home and expected to
immediately step in and handle situations that arise over the course of
the day.

---Issues that fall within the pervue of our teams are being sent directly
to the board, rather than first to the relevant team, with a carbon copy
to the board so that the board is aware of the issue but not immediately
responsible for responding to it.  What's the point of having teams at all
if everything goes straight to the board for action?

As I think about this, I have realized that there seems to be an
underlying assumption that members of the board are also 24/7 on-site
property managers.

If anyone else has experience or insight into this issue, I'd love to hear
from you.

--sue

Sue Stigleman
tangosue [at] earthlink.net

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