I have a very effective approach to this, although admittedly, our staff
are county employees and the Board governs the private corporation.
 Nevertheless, it is clearly stated in the Board manual and at Board
orientations (yearly) that if a Board member approaches a staff person with
a directive or to meddle in any way, the staff person is to immediately
redirect the Board member to me.  If that is not done, and the staff person
follows through on the directive or discusses internal staff or budget or
whatever issues and  I find out, the staff person is warned once. The
second time it happens he/she is summarily terminated.

Guess what.  It has only happened once and the Board member now knows that
she jeopardized this persons livlihood.  I doubt very much it will ever
happen again.  The staff now knows that I am serious, as does the Board.

Granted, the Board cannot fire me.  Only the County can.  I do have an
advantage.  Nevertheless, every Director should as a condition for taking
the job, let the Board know clearly that this will be his/her policy.  If
the Board cannot live with that, don't take the job.


------
Robert Handy
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas  77515
(409) 864-1208
museum_bob
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

----------
From:   Herve Gagnon[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Monday, February 01, 1999 12:58 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        volunteer horror stories

> The worst that can happen to a museum professional working in a
small-town museum is when board members and
> volunteers are one and the same. Take a board of about 10 directors who
also make up most of the volunteer staff and
> you have an explosive situation: most of the times, a board member will
neither accept nor be remotely aware of the
> fact that once he/she works as a volunteer on a specific project, he/she
does so under the authority of the very
> employees he/she's responsible for as a board member. The most immediate
results of this are loss of control over
> project budgets and board interference in staff-level activities - not to
mention very unpleasant tension.

Herve Gagnon