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Community Views
Editor's Notebook
Whistle Blowing
On Agency Boards
Breakthrough Meeting
Happened Right Here
LAURENCE !MERMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
Serving on the
board of a nonprof-
it agency, accord-
ing to my friend
Mel, is an honor.
Since Mel is phil-
anthropically in-
clined and a willing
volunteer, many
charities wish to
confer the distinction upon him.
He, in fact, sits on three boards
and serves on the advisory com-
mittees of two others.
Mel, aside from his charitable
endeavors, is an astute and often
brilliant businessman. He built
his multimillion-dollar compa-
ny from the ground up. One
might say that in the economic
order, my friend is on the top of
the "food chain."
Yet having served on boards
with Mel, I am repeatedly dis-
mayed at the abandonment of his
managerial skills and analytic
mind when he attends a board
meeting.
The first
charity in
which Mel is
involved is a lo-
cal social-ser-
vices agency.
Its chief execu-
tive officer is
well-estab-
lished and con-
trols the organ-
ization with an
iron hand. The
executive pro-
vides the board
only that infor-
mation favor-
able to him and
the organiza-
tion. None of
the material
ever places him
in a bad light
or raises ques-
tions concerning his running of
the agency.
Rather than being the normal
watchful and assertive business-
man, Mel is transformed by the
administrator into a passive "yes-
man" who rubber-stamps the ex-
ecutive's decisions. Mel dutifully
donates to the agency, but nev-
er challenges how the agency is
managed.
Mel commits an even worse
sin, in my opinion, as a board
member of another social-services
agency. That organization has a
weak administrator who permits
micromanagement by board
members. A board member might
make a casual comment and the
remark is deemed sufficient for
the board to decide on an impor-
tant question of agency manage-
ment.
Mel never voices the need for
Laurence !merman is a
Birmingham attorney.
a full and dispassionate evalua-
tion of different options, the kind
of report he demands in his own
business. It is as if service on the
board causes Mel to metamor-
phose, resulting in his leaving log-
ic and reason behind.
Mel's worst transgression oc-
curs at a third agency. Mel and
other board members failed to in-
vestigate reports of mismanage-
ment and improper financial
dealings. They instead accepted
the executive director's declara-
tions rejecting the allegations.
Only recently did Mel and fellow
board members discover the truth
of the rumors. Mel, Wit had been
his own company, would have
resolutely and assiduously in-
vestigated the stories until satis-
fied of their falsehood.
It is unclear why Mel, a grad-
uate of one of the finest business
schools and a successful execu-
tive, becomes passive or leaves
reason aside when serving on an
agency board. One cause may be
the lack of financial interest in
the agency. It does not matter
whether the organization is op-
erating efficiently since my friend
receives the same economic ben-
efit — a charitable deduction and
a resultant lessening of his tax li-
ability.
What Mel gains by board ser-
vice is the elusive psychological
reward of doing good works and
vicariously helping others. The
quality of time devoted is less sig-
nificant for Mel than the quan-
tity of time spent.
My friend also achieves a cer-
tain community status by his
name appearing on an agency's
letterhead. However, most boards
on which Mel serves consist of 30
to 50 members. In actuality, he
becomes an anonymous board
member with little or no public
accountability for his actions.
Seldom will a board member of
a charity confront legal action for
not seriously or properly assum-
ing his or her responsibility as a
board member. No one sanctions
a board member for failing to dis-
cover that his or her agency was
poorly managed or financially un-
sound. The public does not force
board members to resign in dis-
grace, en masse, for their malfea-
sance or misfeasance.
As long as Mel continues to
give to the charity, he will remain
on its board regardless of the job
being done.
It is difficult to change Mel's
role as a board member. One so-
lution is to make board member-
ship dependent, in part, on the
quality of board participation.
Other solutions rest with the
board itself.
Aboard should not totally trust
the agency's management and
should periodically retain per-
sonnel to audit agency perfor-
mance. A board also should
require a yearly financial audit,
with the auditors reporting to the
board itself. A board, further,
should have an internal man-
agement committee responsible
for "policing" the agency and
should yearly set goals for the
next 12 months.
To remove the insulation that
commonly covers agency direc-
tors, an executive's salary, in part,
should be dependent on the or-
ganization's performance as mea-
sured by the board.
But more important than any
structural or administrative
change is the education of board
members. They must be in-
structed that each holds a public
trust and each is responsible for
the management of the commu-
nity's resources. It is the assign-
ment of that trust to someone like
Mel which is the honor. It is not,
in my opinion, the decision that
Mel or other board members have
the capacity to raise or give mon-
ey to any agency. ❑
The leadership of
North American
Jewry was meet-
ing this week in
Boston at the
Council of Jewish
Federations' an-
nual General As-
sembly.
4 But some of
the finest leadership work in this
Jewish community happened
right here in our own back yard.
Still, there was something awk-
ward, something that needs to
be changed. It was if some sort
of clandestine meeting took
place. It was an underground of
its own. Hopefully, it won't be
that way for long.
Dr. Mark Smiley, Hillel Day
School's headmaster, was so
moved by the divisions among
our people that surfaced so dra-
matically after Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin's murder, he
called around the community for
a meeting of key educators. The
sensitivity of the meeting was
critical, and it would probably
do a disservice to the group's
goals of understanding and love
of fellow Jews to even print the
participants' names at this point.
Isn't it a shame, though, that
we have to worry about printing
educators' names because they
were in an important meeting
among other Jews, some of
whom were from differing de-
nominations of Judaism. Isn't
this part of the challenge we're
facing?
To better understand the goal
of Dr. Smiley's meeting, it's im-
portant to read a portion of the
memo he sent out to members
of what he is calling the Con-
sortium on Jewish Education.
"We resolve to better under-
stand and study how we can ed-
ucate our students with a sense
of love in dealing with differ-
ences between Jews. It is clear
that we need to reflect on how
we teach our students to be lov-
ing toward other Jews so that
hatred is not the byproduct of
differing viewpoints."
The response, according to Dr.
Smiley, was overwhelming. Ed-
ucators from all parts of the
community met this week at the
Federation building. They
agreed to the premise of denun-
ciation of hatred. They sat across
and next to one another. They
were from the most diverse
parts of our community.
For but a short period in time,
these educators were our com-
munity. And, the real plus is
they've agreed to meet again.
I'll touch a nerve here. What
is happening in this process
could and should take some time
with plenty of debate. But we in
this community need to let this
happen, if not for our own good
then for our children. There is
no room for intolerance. No
room.
"I believe in this mission so
deeply that I had to stop and
make sure that everyone else
was with me," said Dr. Smiley.
"Everyone in the room under-
stood how important it is do
something together, how im-
portant it is for the entire com-
munity."
There were no statements is-
sued for the public, yet. There
are no curriculums established
or classes scheduled or anything
like that. This was about getting
together, establishing a pres-
ence. That action alone was an
admirable, important step.
"The issue is that everyone
was prepared to come togeth-
er, and they now are prepared
to take something important
back to their schools," said Dr.
Smiley.
That message, at least at the
beginning, is that hate will not
be tolerated, no matter what the
political or religious position
maybe.
'We resolve to better under-
stand and study how we can ed-
ucate our students with a sense
of civility and mutual respect in
dealing with differences between
Jews," read the committee's joint
resolution. "It is clear that we
need to reflect on how we teach
our students to be tolerant so
that hatred is not the byproduct
of differing viewpoints."
It's now time to get to work.
But as we've suggested before
in this space, it's not up to these
educators alone. We, as com-
munity members, cannot allow
the hate to enter our own homes.
We can take a lead from these
educators and do our children
and ourselves an even bigger fa-
vor. How much time do we
spend with our children, as part
of their homework, helping them
figure out a complicated math
problem or the conjugation of a
foreign-language verb tense?
We don't have to strain over
an algebra book at the dining-
room table for this one. Don't lQt
intolerance toward anyone leave
your lips. This will be the best
language of all.
Remember that Avhavat Is-
rael (love of Israel) doesn't just
mean love of the land of Israel.
It's the people. And we're not
just talking about those who live
in Israel, but Jews in this com-
munity and throughout the Di-
aspora. We don't have to like
particular political parties or
governments, be they in the
United States or in Israel, but
we need to learn to love one an-
other as Jews.
Let the Educational Consor-
tium find its purpose and help
lead our children ... and us. ❑
.