Board of Dictators

I've been doing a lot more volunteering the last few years. About two years ago I joined the Board of Directors of a community based non-profit group. This means it is fairly small and we all volunteer our time. No stock options for us, or flying on the corporate jet for special meetings. In fact, I usually just wear jeans to the meetings. Of the 12 executive members, most are lawyers or accountants, there is one old lady (let's call her Sarah), and me. I am not a lawyer, an accountant, old or a lady.

I'm having an issue with the group in general that I'm not quite sure how to resolve. I thought by explaining this here I might see the light, as it were, and find an answer. The others are very picky about how we allot funds to certain projects. They analyze how to get the biggest bang for the buck, and often fund a project which ends up being cost neutral anyways. This way they look good but it doesn't cost anything. The fact is we build up a surplus every year and it isn't ours anyways.

Recently, we hinted strongly that if a small daycare were to make major improvements on their property (it was a big eyesore) that we would help by developing a playground on some of the unused portion of the land. The deal was that they would fix-up the building and we would create a mini park that they could use during school hours all week, and the public could make use of after school and on weekends. It was a great deal for them and a big improvement for the local community. The project would be considered a major financial investment for us.

After the school did their building work (and some major grounds work) a few of our executive had found a different location for a small park. It was in a more densely populated area and much more high profile. A bigger, louder bang for the buck. Funny enough, it was the old lady (Sarah) who was most adamant about the new location. She reminds me of Sarah Palin, or the other way around since I knew her before the world heard of Palin.

It made me feel sick to my stomach to even consider a change. I pled with the group trying to convince them that we should stay with the original plan. I considered borrowing a line from the ACDC song Hell's Bells, at the beginning when Brian Johnson quietly says "good good sense" but I thought that would sound too much like a Sarah Palin quote. Nothing against the lady. She's bright, spunky and kinda cute. We just didn't want the bitch in the white house.

Bingo!!! One thing about BOD's is keeping notes. Sarah, god bless her stone cold heart, was meticulous about note keeping at meetings. She did it all on her MacBook pro at lightning speed. She was also speedy about disseminating the minutes to the rest of the group. A quick perusal on my part, and I found notes containing our commitment to the daycare.

Tomorrow we meet with the Daycare again. I'm just trying to decide wether to give them a copy of the notes now, or use it as leverage against the group. If think a small number of them are already feeling uneasy about what has started to happen!