Rant: Volunteer org drama

[pioneer98]

I'm a board member of a volunteer org that has a ton of infighting. It's so frustrating. Internally, things really suck. Externally, we are still getting a lot of good things done. In some ways, we are doing better than we ever have. I was going to write a much longer rant with details about a dispute that I'm involved in, but it's too infuriating, and too long. I'll just say probably 80% of our club's problems revolve around 1 person. Things are going to come to a head soon. The crap hit the fan with this same person 2 years ago, too. Back then, 3 people quit over the dispute, including 2 board members.

When all your help comes from volunteers, you need to be flexible. You can't punish people if they don't do things just right. You should absolutely not have someone getting in someone else's face over petty crap like a Facebook post.

I'm afraid our prez will decide to kick the can down the road regarding this person (like the last prez did). We elect new board members in a few months. If we can't reign in this person, we will lose people again and I don't know if the group will survive.

[slide_into_first]

It is easier said than done, but why can't you or someone just open a discussion about the problems? It could even come from the starting point of "I have been so frustrated I feel like quitting," although if the board is divided into factions don't say that or they might hand you a resignation letter to sign.

If the problem is one person is it possible to get a core of the rest of the board to just tell that person to stop being a jerk? You seem too nice for real backstabbing but it could come to that if nothing else works.

[Freed Roger]

In this world of small volunteer boards etc - I've noticed you'll have a combo of these people:

The Martyr: Person who unwisely does too much, fosters a real or imagined dependency and apathy from the others, and harbors a powderkeg of bitterness to the rest of the group.

The Honorary figurehead: the person who thinks they are deemed a purely honorary position -and rarely reads group correspondence, or attends meetings. But when that something of importance rarely occurs, they grandstand and whip out the corporate speak BS.

The Treasurer responsible for the money, probably the only thing that matters in these gigs. Since this person is aware of needs and demands because of having the checkbook- this person, can easily morph into the Martyr.

The Protestor Single issue person. Joined because they were mad about something. This one is rather uncomfortable on the other side of the curtain and can either change tunes and work with the group, or continue to be useless and mad.

The idea person Probably the worst of the lot in this setting. sometimes this is same as honorary figurehead. All talk, no action. really [expletive] up the meeting with impractical tangents that they have no intention of seeing thru themselves.

Not sure if you have any of the above^ going on. Probably too late for this with your group's rule, but for volunteer orgs, it's better to have prospective board members that fit your requirements recruited/begged to join, rather than an open election where any whacko can get on the board.

[pioneer98]

This person most closely fits the martyr description. They are semi-retired and have way more time than most of us and they get involved in everything. This person is a committee chair. They are assigning all kind of importance and responsibility to this committee that it wasn't really intended for. They also try bossing people around whenever they cross the line of what they think are their responsibilities. They are acting almost as if they are a board member.

I've been telling the prez that this person either needs to become a real board member or we just need to eliminate their committee. It really is more trouble than it's worth. We don't really need this committee any more. We just need a volunteer or two that can take over a couple things. That's it. According to our bylaws, the prez can simply abolish this committee - we don't even need to vote on it. If he doesn't feel comfortable doing that, my plan B is to revise the description of the committee to make it clear the responsibilities are smaller than perceived right now.

We also have a vacuum because our secretary just quit (not related to this - for personal reasons). This person is doing some things that overlap with what our secretary should be doing. This person gets asked to be a board member every year but they always turn it down because then they'd lose some freedom to do other things....you know, the stuff that makes them a pain in the neck.

I've known this person for years and I do respect them in a lot of ways. But man are they hard to work with.