Position of trust
Emails have been flying for the past week from Riding Unlimited, although I have yet to see anything official from the board of directors. All we know in the Wolfe house is that two people who have been a part of Sam’s extended family for more than a decade are suddenly gone. And just two weeks before RU is to host regional Special Olympics, we hear rumors of a “new direction.”
Sam is upset that a place that is as important to him as his home, his school and his church now appears to be in jeopardy. Thank goodness he’s a level-headed bloke and he’s not making any big moves just yet.
I have this much to say for now. Nonprofit boards often go through periods of weakness, and so the staff and volunteers get strong, or the entity folds. It’s when boards try to right themselves that things get truly dangerous.
They forget what sustained them in the down time.
And then they do the one thing they shouldn’t. They bite the hands that kept them alive.
How did they get through a down time? It wasn’t money. Nonprofits never have enough money. Ever. Get used to it.
What sustains them is passion and caring and a sense of community.
What sustains them is people.
The things we value most in life have seemed, to me, to also be incredibly fragile. Few people are wise enough to be responsible for those fragile things.
I hate this kind of suspended-animation-hanging-out-in-purgatory waiting for someone who has been only peripherally involved to make a decision.
Well said, Peggy.