The AFS board asked a number of months ago that I help with a long-overdue revision of AFS bylaws. To most people, bylaws are about as exciting as Luke’s genealogy of Jesus. Since my business was about boards for three decades until my recent retirement, maybe I should love bylaws. But no; I’m as bored as you are. What is stimulating, however, are our ideas about governance which, in turn, will cause bylaws to be written one way versus another. By governance, I’m referring to the job of the board, along with the board’s relationship to the “owners” and to any persons who work for the membership, like paid (were we so lucky!) or unpaid staff. By owners, I’m referring to those who morally or legally own any organization—like shareholders for a company, like the general public for a school board, or like a membership for an outfit like AFS.

In that scenario, the AFS board works for the membership; it has no authority except that passed to it by the membership, and consequently it is accountable to the membership for whatever it does plus whatever is done by anyone to whom the board further delegates. It’s pretty obvious that the board can’t even get off ground zero (actually, it can’t even exist!) until the membership decides what authority to give it. And although the board has the option of addressing these things at quite a broad level (trivia and specifics aren’t necessary), it must give clear marching orders if some later bad stuff is to be avoided. That very few boards do this well is a major source of dysfunction.

It is important that it be clearly specified who (or what group) has authority to make a decisions or take an action. At the membership level, only the group as a whole has authority to do anything. But since groups have a hard time exercising group authority, it is best for—in our case—the membership delegate most decisions, choosing only the very largest ones for itself. Then lesser authority to make further decisions (as long as consistent with the membership’s) can be delegated to a president, a committee, or other specified delegate.

There are a few important principles a membership should fulfill as it sets out what it wants the board to achieve and what authority it’ll grant the board to get that job done. Pretty simple, huh? Well, it can be. But it can become worrisome, weak, and wasteful; there are even ways it can also go terribly awry. I will share some of what I’ve learned with the board and will share as much with the membership as members request. Meanwhile, I will make installments like this available in Atlanta Freethought News for whatever space and recurrence Laura and Steve, in their editorial roles decide is desirable.

—John Carver, Atheism/Humanism blog: johnjustthinking.com