How Volunteers are Like Managers

In many New England towns, the work of government is done largely by volunteers who serve on school boards, planning commissions and the like. Uniquely in New England, we also have elected representative Town Meetings, which serve approximately as towns’ legislatures, while boards of selectmen provide towns’ executive function.

      For the past several years, I have been a member of my town’s Historical Commission, and have also served as its chairman for some three years (so far). This role is new to me in some ways. But in others, it’s very familiar.

      It is new in the sense that I am learning how local government works, as well as the powers and limits on power of my commission, as well as that of other boards and commissions, and where our roles and functions complement one another.

      On the other hand, the experience is familiar in the exercise of management skills and techniques. The parallels with business are not surprising.

      Just as a company’s department or division manager has general, specific and defined responsibilities, the volunteer town commission chairman must be sure that the necessary actions are taken and promises kept, and that the commission and its many meetings operate smoothly and orderly, according to law. Of course, like business, there are bumps in the road and, sometimes, clashes with peers.

Working in Partnership

Often, we work in informal partnership with one or more complementary boards and commissions, such as the planning board in our case, to achieve objectives of mutual interest.

      Conversely, we must sometimes butt heads with other boards that are working at cross-purposes with my commission. As in business, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, and other times we compromise and reach accommodation.

      Naturally, personalities can be a significant factor. There are – excuse the term – some pig-headed people who have their ways of doing things and their peculiar views of how the town’s business ought to be managed, approaches and views that may clash with my own and/or the views of several other of my peers. Again, sometimes we win and other times we lose.

      In at least one respect, town government can be a bit tougher than a business environment in that we are all volunteers with full-time jobs elsewhere. To get things done, we work and meet in our spare time, mostly on weekday evenings. Attendance at meetings of my seven-member commission is rarely 100 percent. Some of us have to travel on business or stay late at the office.

      Along those lines, too, is the difficulty of getting volunteer members to find the time that is often necessary to do the due diligence required of the commission doing its job according to state statutes and town bylaws. Additionally, as chairman, I’m often the one who attends the several other commissions’ and boards’ meetings that require the participation and perspective of a Historical Commission representative. Again, just like a business manager.

      The primary role of the Historical Commission is to preserve and protect the town’s historical structures. That means convincing and working with developers to renovate and refresh older buildings, rather than demolish them to make way for larger, newer buildings (that usually carry higher price tags) that damage the town’s cultural heritage.

Case in Point

A current case shows parallels between town government and managing in a business context.

      We are locked in an extended struggle with the school board over the disposition of one of the town’s older, more noteworthy town-owned buildings, a 1904 Art Deco carriage house that, because of its proximity to an elementary school, was ceded to the school department years ago for its own purposes. But it has been empty and unused for some time now, and consequently is suffering disrepair.

      Like all towns and cities these days, ours is strapped for cash and since this carriage house was not deemed critical to the town's infrastructure, it has not received the necessary attention and funding necessary to maintain it properly. Flash forward to now. The schools are eager to be rid of it to make room for an expanded school parking lot.

      So we are at loggerheads over the need to preserve a historical structure versus a desire to create more parking spaces. I trust we will reach a suitable compromise and save this irreplaceable piece of our town’s history.

      This kind of challenge is not unfamiliar to those of us in who have management roles.

      The core similarity here is that in the two positions, both as a volunteer commission chairman and as a manager with P&L responsibilities, you have discretion to take appropriate actions to effect necessary changes. You also have the power of your personality and good will to persuade people to your way of thinking. And, you have responsibility both to compromise and reach accommodation, as well as to understand and appreciate conflicting points of view.

      It’s how the world goes round, whether for businesspeople or for volunteer government officials.