"In the long run I know that it isn’t possible to keeping doing all the jobs I have to do in this organization but until we get past this financial crisis, I have no choice but to juggle the legislative activities and the trade show and the bill paying and the chapter meetings, and the newsletter…(exhausted yet?) And we can’t really afford to hire additional staff or contract out any of our services and we can’t cut back any programs or the members will not feel compelled to renew their membership dues. Our tradeshow funds haven’t begin to flow in yet and we don’t have enough to cover the payroll. We just finished paying off a lot of debt and it really drained the reserves!"
This
experience of a talented and driven association executive with a staff of two
raises several questions:
1. If you are totally committed to the organization and can’t take time for yourself, how do you regenerate your energy supply so that you don’t burn yourself out?
2. If the executive burns him or herself out in wearing all these hats in the association, does that really serve the organization? What impact does it have on volunteer leadership and what impact does it have on member program delivery?
3. What is the role of the executive in dealing with the concept of sustainability of the organization? Does the sustainability of financial resources have more importance than the sustainability of the human resources in the eyes of the board?
4. And lastly, if you are so busy dealing with things of great immediacy, how can you balance the longer term concerns, such as sustainability, with the shorter term concerns?
Tell me what you think and share your ideas about how to manage this situation!
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