SCOUG-General Mailing List Archives

Date:	Mon, 5 Feb 2001 18:54:54 PST
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-general@scoug.com
To:	scoug-general@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-General: [Editorial] Manage And Lead

Content Type: text/plain

Editorial

Manage And Lead

There is a great difference between management and
leadership. Management makes sure that things which were
done before are done again. Leadership, however, brings
a vision to things which never have been done.

To its credit, the SCOUG Board does a good job of managing
day to day operations; things run smoothly without major
problems. Particularly impressive is the dedication of
Treasurer Steven Levine, whose presentation at the January
SCOUG General Meeting, replete with pie charts, percent of
budget variances and exacting financial detail, should give
every SCOUG member a secure feeling concerning the group's
bank account.

But a Board isn't just for management. A Board should
have knowledge of the needs of those it serves, a vision
of the future, and an evolving plan for creating more and
better benefits for members. Thus, not so warm and fuzzy is
the feeling one might get for the Board's ability to lead
SCOUG into the future. As Treasurer Levine clearly pointed
out, last year the Board allocated project funds for the
good of the membership, then often dropped the ball. The
result? Less OS/2 for members.

Further, there's very little on the Board table for the
coming year. Yes, there's a Warp Expo West 2001 committee
hard at work and the three committee members -- Terry
Warren, Dallas Legan, John Hlavac -- are putting together
a June show we'll all be proud of. And separate from the
Board, Program Chair Mark Abramowitz continues to bring
quality speakers to our meetings. But in neither of these
cases is SCOUG's Board planning for the future needs of
members.

Perhaps there is a problem when Board members gather to
pose new ideas. The nine Board members meet once a month,
and SCOUG's Bylaws are clear about those meetings (and are
online for anyone's review at
http://www.scoug.com/business/bylaws.html). Section 15
states who is in charge, who calls the shots, who makes
sure all viewpoints are heard. Notably absent from that
Section is any assignment of the power to judge and shout
down new or opposing views. For a Board to plan for the
future, all members must be allowed to have their say.

To manage and to lead. That is the purpose of the Board.
More time must be spent considering the future. And no
single Board member should stop the Board from doing so.

Editorial writer: Peter Skye

=====================================================

To unsubscribe to this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-general".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 05 | February | 2001 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.