Executive Boards

[scoutldr]

I just took a gander at our Council website and we have 53 Executive Board members!  PLUS "advisory" members and "honorary" members.  Is this the norm for a 500 level Council?  I have some experience with Board Governance and was a Board member of a national professional board.  Everything I know says this is far too many to be effective and unnecessary.  Or, is this just a "resume entry" for large donors?  

[skeptic]

Far too many, from my observations and "hearsay" over the past couple decades is that the majority of boards are just political place holders and rubber stamp voters for an under overseen  executive.  The board includes all the COR's, but few even know they are actually p;art of the board and never vote except by proxy, controlled of course by the few.  This is in my experience, or view, the biggest reason so many councils have issues.  Our camp is in moth balls based on a very questionable decision that shows many inaccurate info, especially in regard to the actual p;program and reports from "a majority" of actual leaders and scouts, not just the few that complained that were in the minority by far.  There is no doubt there are budget issues, but again that falls on the way the board has worked for decades, kicking cans down the road and ignoring experienced leaders.  The inevitable loss of old time and viable Scouters and the National fiasco has contributed, but we now have no go to camp though we still hope to see a cooperative agreement come out of it all.  Just the old guy griping?  

[Tron]

In my council the BOD is massive as well; but that is by design as it's a "giving to get" situation. Our BOD is all mid level corporate leaders and local government leaders who want a BOD line item for their resume so they can move up to a bigger position or bigger corporation; in return the council presumably gets a direct line to potential FOS dollars. What I find the most lacking in my councils BOD is that there is a total lack of BOD members from other non-profits. I have a lot of non-profit experience and when I speak with senior leaders in my council about non-profit concepts of growth and sustainment they go 100% into deer-in-the-headlights they just don't get it because they are all business people and they don't really have non-profit experience.