by Beber's Ghost | Dec 8, 2006 | Members
Trust. It’s something we hardly ever talk about in BBYO. Yet it impacts every aspect and level of the organization. Think for a moment about all of the places where trust comes into play:
- Chapters trust their board members to do their jobs
- Members trust other members to be kind and friendly (fraternal)
- Chapter leaders trust members to meet their commitments (planning events, doing jobs they commit to)
- Parents, members and staff trust advisors to keep members safe and to interpret policy wisely (a lot of trust that, when you think about it)
- Advisors trust the chapter (more on this in a moment), and trust regional staff/international to support them in their work.
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by Beber's Ghost | Dec 5, 2006 | Members
Great Ceasars Ghost! Yet another blog has appeared relating to BBYO. The ripples of the Vegas advisors conference continue to spread. Their first post “I’m all right Jack, keep your hands off my stack” addresses the question of chapter bank accounts.
by Beber's Ghost | Dec 4, 2006 | General, Members
Sit down and get comfortable. This is going to take a while. But trust me – it’s going to be worth it.
GM, or General Motors, was the largest car company in the world. They have one car in the top 11 in terms of quality (JD Powers). They lost 10.5 billion dollars last year.
Toyota is the largest car company in the world. They have 7 of the top 11 cars in terms of quality (including Lexus). They made 11.8 billion dollars last year.
Why is this?
- Are Japanese smarter than Americans? No.
- Do they work harder? No (many of those Toyotas are made by American workers in Toyota plans here in the U.S.).
So what is it?
One of the major reasons is simple: Management and Corporate culture.
What does this have to do with BBYO? After all, you’re not exactly in the car business, right?
Your chapter, your region and BBYO Inc. are organizations – groups of people who come together in an organized manner for a purpose.
Like any organization, its ability to accomplish that purpose depends on its internal management, organization and culture. The better your management and culture, the more likely your organization will succeed in its goals.
Today I’m going to show you where GM went wrong and where Toyota went right – and exactly how you can apply those lessons to BBYO. Some of what you read here will probably surprise you.
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by Beber's Ghost | Dec 1, 2006 | Members
There’s a tension that occurs often in chapters and regions (in fact, in any organization, but we’ll focus on chapters and regions for now). It goes like this:
- The members elect their leaders (board officers, regional board, etc.)
- The leaders expect to be respected and trusted to do their jobs and make wise decisions
- Something happens where the members find themselves in disagreement with their leaders or at least want to be involved in the decisions.
- This results in conflict between the members and leaders
I’ve seen this happen many, many times. Occasionally the leaders have been real jerks – even corrupt. But far more often they honestly mean well and intend the best for the group. In fact, they are often upset, even offended that they are not trusted to make the right choices. They feel like the doubt expressed by members of the group is a personal attack – even unfraternal.
At those times, one of the things I try to do is educate both the members and the leaders as to their situation and the nature of their own democratic institutions.
Here are some of the basic principles that are fundamental to a fraternal democratic organization:
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by Beber's Ghost | Dec 1, 2006 | Members
Truth is a funny thing.
In the recent letter from BBYO, Lane Schlessel stated the following (which was also virtually identical to a release by the youth leadership on B-Linked):
Some of you have may have misunderstood what you heard about the proposed policies or we may have not have properly clarified. Rumors have been circulating on b-linked and elsewhere, but much of the information being shared is inaccurate.
Let us consider one of these proposed policies. In the same message the following is stated:
MYTH: The BBYO logo must be included on every piece of clothing created.
FACT: The BBYO logo must be included on all high-quantity items used for external community purposes. AZA/BBG spirit items, Chapter t-shirts and other internal BBYO memorabilia do not need to feature the BBYO logo.
So it’s all one big misunderstanding, right?
Consider the following included in the material handed out to the advisors:
Any time a local entity wishes to produce merchandise or apparel as a fundraiser project or for self-promotion, the producing entity must adhere to the guidelines hereby established:
- The BBYO logo must be on the piece;
- (many other requirements follow)
And it was explicitly stated to the advisors that “local entity” included the chapters.
So, was this whole ruckus a misunderstanding?
Or is it possible that BBYO staff listened to the comments of the advisors and youth and have backtracked?
Perhaps the staff is just confused about what was stated in the Vegas conference? It seems that the “facts” from Vegas have magically become myths. And that’s good, because it’s increasingly clear that somebody has to put some serious work and thought into these new policies before they become facts.
It’s a good thing that I’m a nice ghost, and think the best of people. I’m sure this is all a result of poor and ineffective communication. I’m sure the authors of the release did adjust the policy based on input from the advisors, and just neglected to mention that. I’m sure they are looking at some of the other proposed policies (that I’ll discuss later, having now received a copy of some of the material handed out in Vegas) and are putting some serious thought into what impact they will have.
I’m sure of these things because the alternative would be that the international staff was lying about what was presented at the advisors conference, both to the youth leadership and to the advisors who were not there. And if that were the case, then the problems facing BBYO are far greater than a selection of misguided policies.
by Beber's Ghost | Nov 30, 2006 | Members
Earlier today I was forwarded a statement by the Grand Aleph Godol and International N’siah regarding some of the policy changes. I wanted to reflect on one of them:
2. MYTH: Upon arrival at the house for an overnight, the owner of the house will confiscate all keys for the duration of the evening.
FACT: The adult supervisors at a Chapter overnight will collect and hold the car keys of all participants who drive to the event. This makes sense, since our policy has always stated that leaving an event and returning is prohibited, so there is no reason to have your keys.
This sounds so innocent and reasonable. Yet it is problematic on a number of levels. It’s like the argument that might be made by a truly right-wing prosecutor: if you are not a criminal, surely you would have no problem with the police searching your house without cause, right?
BBYO does have a longstanding policy about leaving an event and returning, and it is a very good policy for numerous reasons that I won’t go into now. So why would it matter if the adult supervisors take your keys?
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