Dear Ms. Haegele:

I just had to write a quick note to let you know about one of the pretty
good boards out there.  We have 19 members, which unfortunately includes
one member who made herself inactive and therefore will be leaving soon.
However, the other 18 are, to me, remarkably active.  Each one is on 2-3
committees, some of which meet at monthly and the others at least
quarterly.  Every month at the well attended 7:30 am meetings, the
committee chairs have to give a report, which seems to encourage activity.
As you can tell, I am very impressed by our board's commitment.

I also don't see some of the reasons for joining the board that you have
had the misfortune to experience.  This group seems to be pretty dedicated
to our mission, which is good as we are comtemplating a large capital
campaign!  While our nominating committee has to work to find the suitable
interested candidates needed for the board, so far they have been pretty
successful.

Also, as far as general membership goes, our numbers say we have 948
households, but if you take out the ones that are 6 months in arrears, the
number is closer to 900, but we're pretty happy about that, even as we aim
to keep growing.

As for volunteers, yes, most of our volunteers are retirement age, but we
do have many younger ones, and have even started a Junior Docent Apprentice
Program for school children to learn docenting skills at our house museum.
We have a new nifty volunteer brochure which we are disseminating in
various methods to the community.  Our volunteer count is around 260 and
last year they donated close to 10,000 hours!  We don't rely just on them,
we have a staff of 20, with 4 at 40 hours, 6 at 24-30 hours, and the rest
at fewer.

Anyway, I'm saying more than I meant at first.  I just had to respond to
your comments and let you know of a pretty good little museum in Holland,
Michigan.

Sincerely,

Laurie Van Ark
The Holland Museum