Monday, October 21, 2013

What does your board of directors do?

I haven't written anything in a while.  I've been very busy with our Niagara College Men's and Women's Soccer programs, but I've been doing a LOT of listening lately.

Just about every Non-profit Organization has a board of directors.  This includes most sports based clubs.

(Moving forward I will refer to Board of Directors as BOD and Non-profit Organization as NPO.)

Why am I writing about BODs?  It's not to criticize, but to offer suggestions for directors and club members.

In Welland, there have always been grumblings at one time or another about boards and they all take their turn being accused of bad decisions.  Soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball or lacrosse.  Somebody, somewhere did something wrong to somebody else.

Even at a district, regional, provincial or national level , decisions on sports are analyzed and criticized.

Over the last few years:
  • Canadian Soccer implementing LTPD
  • Canadian Hockey moving the age for body contact
  • Quebec Soccer implementing, then rescinding, a ban on religious head-wear on the field
  • The way Ontario Basketball tiers teams for provincial championships
  • The most recent controversy is Ontario Soccer's selection of clubs to start the new Ontario Player Development League.
We aim our criticism at emotional targets like "nobody cares about the kids" or "in it for their own