Dateline: Boston Marriott Copley Place
Today was real fanny-buster. The day began with a meeting of the Southeastern region members which lasted for two-hours. Part of the business conducted was making a decision not to have a meeting in January. We then discussed, to a degree, the need and function of a regional committee as it was pointed out that the region was successful long before it existed as a region. It is true that we have produced a disproportionate number of NSPE Presidents.
Then, after a short break, I went to the leadership training for the House of Delegates. It was long but had some interesting aspects. I anticipated much of it would be actual training on how to be leaders, similar to what we did many years ago in a city I can’t remember, but it wasn’t. We spent much of our time talking about the structure of NSPE and the changes the organizations is undergoing. While it was important, is does not always make for exciting days.
My main complaint about the meeting is that we are spending much of our time talking about how governance works. Governance is important but it is not the purpose of any organization, it is merely the process by which an organization does its work. We must move on from how to do work to actually doing work. However, given the membership made this same observation at a consensus congress some five or six years ago and we are still talking about “how” rather than “what”, I have some concerns about where we will end up. The incoming President holds some promise but he also ahs some challenges. Taking over any organization with this much change going on is a huge challenge.
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