|
|
|
|
|
04 October 2002
uwRyan.com This website is meant to provide value to UW student by delivering information. It will also supplement the column that I write for Imprint by providing extra information on some of the topics about which I will write in addition to the text of each column. Please provide feedback on what I write as well as give me suggestions of topics to cover. You can send e-mail to me to ryan[at]uwryan[dot]com. |
I have no timeThe problem with volunteer directors and students in governance
Often student organizations encounter problems when student directors also hold officer positions like president or treasurer. This means that in addition to having a governance role they also play an operational role. Students by their nature have a higher priority for their work hours, school. While they have to be boss and supervisor to their employees they are often less experienced. This can cause conflict in the organization. It is difficult for the students because they have limited time and usually limited experience. For employees it is difficult when your supevisor is not around, may change even more often than every year and doesn't have a strong basis to evaluate performance. The outgoing board of Radio Waterloo Inc., which runs CKMS, was criticized by a few volunteers for its relationship with staff. Winsor Ryan who was elected to the Waterloo Radio Inc. board last week. Before voting he said, "I am deeply concerned with the relations between the board and staff and if elected that would be my chief concern." At Imprint Publications, Waterloo, tasks often fall to the editor-in-chief or other employees, who don't have sufficient authority to perform. Over the years boards vary in the extent they wish to be involved in minor decisions. Because of boards' nature as volunteers, there has essentially not been an effective executive. Over the years editor-in-chiefs, being in charge, of editorial operations have difficulty bearing the extra burden of organizational tasks. This then hurts the product that the organizations produces, the newspaper. The solution to this general problem is for boards to hire an employee to act as an executive or a manager, or for at least one elected officer to work full time. The student governments at both UW and WLU have shown they know importance of having full time executive officers. Though the formal organization of Federation of Student, University of Waterloo incorporated in 1967 it existed as Students' Council since 1960 and as such is a very old group. Early in its history council decided to start paying the president a salary instead of having him work part-time as a volunteer. The Feds have four paid and elected officers as the executive who all sit on the Board of Directors with five elected volunteer councillors. The Wilfrid Laurier Students' Union has three full time paid officers. CKMS has moved to overcome the challenges that volunteer officers face. While they may not have done it in the best way — by proposing a 10 per cent pay cut for other employees — the Waterloo Radio Inc. board moved to hire someone to implement changes for them. They hired a full-time station manager. It is difficult for a volunteer director to join a board wanting to make a difference on the part time hours allowed of a full time student. Any volunteer to come in and try to fight entropy and the status quo will often burn himself out trying to overcome resistance. One solution is to affect the organization through general governance and have a fulltime executive to take care of the details, just as many successful organizations, like the Feds, have done. |