We're roughly halfway through a year of these notes, so let me offer one to sit with rather than act on immediately.
Whatever your role — director, Chair, CEO — you don't own your association. You're a steward of it, holding it in trust for a while before handing it on, hopefully in better shape than you found it. That framing changes things. An owner asks "what do I want?" A steward asks "what does this organisation, and its members, need from me while I'm here — and what will I leave behind?"
The best people I've worked with in this sector carried that lightly but seriously. They made the hard calls that served the long-term mission even when an easier short-term choice was available. They invested in things — governance, succession, sustainability — that they personally might never see the full benefit of, because the organisation would. They governed for the people who come after them, not just the term they were in.
So, at the halfway point: if you stepped down tomorrow, would the organisation be stronger for your having served? It's not a question to answer perfectly. It's one to keep asking.
Thank you for reading these. The work you do — often unpaid, often unseen — holds up the organisations that hold up our communities. I don't take it lightly that you give it your time.
The long view of stewardship runs through everything in What Every Board Director Needs to Know and What Every Association CEO Needs to Know.
Free first step: the Governance Self-Assessment.
With respect for the work you do,
Annie
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