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I have been following with interest the student protests at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. This situation has come in to the national spotlight after the Board of Directors of this world renowned institution of higher learning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing promoted its current Provost, Jane K. Fernandes, to President effective January 2007. For anyone who has followed the story, you know that ever since this announcement of Dr. Fernandes’ promotion, students and faculty have protested, shutting down (or nearly so) the campus for quite some time because they felt that the selection process was biased, unfair, and non-inclusive.

As I watched this situation unfold in the news, I could not help but wonder how many of us have totally inclusive, transparent decision-making processes within our organizations? How many organizations among us could see our Boards’ major decisions completely overturned by a majority or even minority of the membership because the process followed, if any, was not perceived as fair -- or worse, was fair but was not communicated well?

I think as association leaders that we have a greater obligation than others to model the way toward inclusivity and transparency in the decision-making processes of our organizations. We also have an obligation greater than most to ensure that we develop and implement effective communications plans that reach all impacted stakeholder groups in the organizations that we serve to talk about the decisions that our leaders make and why.

Fail to be inclusive, transparent, and communicate effectively – and you run the risk of your membership staging a coup similar to that which the faculty and students at Gallaudet University just did.

Something to think about.

For a link to more information, please click on the following URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000374.html