On 8/9/11 3:47 PM, Birgitte SB wrote:
It seems to me that these changes are about making
chapters more into
franchises. Which I find to be exactly backwards.
It would be, if that's what it were about. But I can say with
confidence that at the board meeting, no one spoke about any ideas even
remotely similar to this, and I can't think of a single board member who
disagrees one bit with the idea that chapters should be directed or
controlled in a top-down fashion as "franchises" or anything similar.
No one wants that, and these changes should have no impact on that at all.
It is important not to confuse the very narrow (and yet very critically
risky if not done well) of "acting as a payment processor" with the much
more important and interesting and difficult questions about how much
funding chapters should get, under what conditions, etc.
Chapters in my
mind should be diverse entities. Embracing whatever is most effective
in their little slice of the world. I think they should be ambitious
in seeking out what inspires local population to embrace our
movement. The way to encourage innovation is to push self-direction
and refrain from being too judgmental so long as there is trending
improvement. I believe that franchises will not be well received and
will by and large fail. Maybe I am wrong about the direction people
are pushing, maybe I am right about the direction but wrong about the
poor outcome. I certainly can't have much of an effect on things.
I'm happy to report that you are mistaken about the direction in which
people are pushing. :-) No one on the board or staff has talked about a
"franchise" model to my knowledge, and no one on the board or staff to
my knowledge would disagree with your very perceptive remarks that
diverse entities acting with local knowledge is the right answer for us.
The key thing to understand here: there is no desire or agenda to take
away power and autonomy from chapters. But there is a strong moral duty
to note that financial controls, reporting requirements, transparency,
and evaluation of effectiveness are always at the top of our agenda.
--Jimbo
--Jimbo