Q: What would you do in this situation? The volunteers (board members) of a three-year old organization founded through a county-funded service are community socialites who have extensive contacts locally, many of whom serve on the boards of various foundations. They are making all decisions about where to go for funding and insist that fundraising through grants and otherwise be done their way. This includes not writing proper grants, looking at short/long-term funding, determining the budget, which fundraisers to hold, and giving inadequate assistance where it would be useful otherwise. In fact, their board meetings do not include the director of the organization. The board of this agency has run off three development people in the last year.

The agency meets an absolute necessity, but all costs must come from contributions as the county does not fund the program. Furthermore, the overseer of all county agencies is a state political appointee who is also one of the socialites. Any advice?

Ann in Texas

A: Thanks for your question, Ann, in response to the Featured Resource in our last issue called "Are You Willing To Have Volunteers Get Really Involved?"

Sounds like this board is committed to being highly hands-on and needs some training in board vs. staff roles. Have you thought about bringing in a board development person to help you work through the situation? We see this problem often in grass-roots organizations with well-meaning, hard-working board members who may not know how to work with capable staff. Often an outside expert can guide everyone through the process and share current best practices. I'd recommend that. Anything you try to do to fix it from inside will be more of the same.

Good luck. You've got quite a challenge on your hands.

Terry