Keeping Up with the Waterfall

My association's Board of Directors has eighteen people on it. Whenever I'm comparing notes with other association executives about how big our boards are, I usually joke that I like having eighteen people on my Board because it guarantees that I can get at least twelve to show up at my Board meetings.

I'm only half joking. It's not unusual for three or four Board members to be unable to attend any particular Board meeting. Thankfully, these are not the same three or four Board members every time. It's just reflective of how busy everyone's schedules are and, increasingly, how little control we have over them.

But now a new dynamic has begun to creep into this environment. It's not just busy schedules keeping Board members away from Board meetings. It's job transitions keeping Board members from being Board members.

In the past month, for example, I had two such issues occur. One Board member got a new job at a company outside of our industry. That makes him ineligible (and frankly, uninterested) to continuing serving on our Board. Another Board member got a new job at a company inside our industry -- but that company already had a representative on our Board, and it's a violation of our bylaws to have two people from the same company on our Board of Directors.

I have an Excel document that I've been maintaining for years. It reflects an on-going record of every position on my Board of Directors, who has held each seat, how long each term is, and which positions are currently vacant. Because, like many associations, we stagger the terms on our Board, and because I've color-coded each block of staggered terms to better illustrate how long they last and when they become vacant, one past Board chair once referred to the document as my "waterfall" document, the color-coded blocks cascading down the page in something that appears something like a waterfall.

Keeping up with this waterfall has become a central function of my position. Development of future leaders is not something I can afford to ignore in my association, because there is almost always a Board vacancy that needs filling. And with these latest vacancies, two important things occurred to me as I was manipulating and updating this document.

First, I'm so glad I started this document. Keeping up with all these changes, and communicating clearly with the people that the Excel cells represent -- everyone knowing what position they represent on the Board, when their term starts and when their term ends -- would nigh well be impossible without it. In a very substantial way, it's amazing that there's never been a case when someone came to a Board meeting they shouldn't have or didn't think to call and provide a legitimate reason when they couldn't make one they were supposed to attend.

And second, it's time for a new joke. I like having eighteen people on my Board, not because it means I'll have at least twelve at my Board meetings, but because it means I'll have at least twelve of those positions filled.

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This post first appeared on Eric Lanke's blog, an association executive and author. You can follow him on Twitter @ericlanke or contact him at eric.lanke@gmail.com.

Image Source
https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-does-water-appear-white-while-going-over-a-waterfall.html