The CAAA appears to have decided to adopt the Carver model of board governance. The ad for executive director states the organization is moving from an operational board to a governance board! Leadership at the operational level will be lead by the new ED!

Excuse me?.?? An organization with 600 to 700 members and 3.5 full time staff equivalents is moving to a non- operational board! Especially when you consider that the organization effectively has one ED, 1.5 staff and the editorial assistant for the two journals. Yep, that’s it – 3.5 staff that is really 2.5 staff for the organization! Now tell me how such a staffing leads to a CARVER style board governance model?

While those of us who teach governance know Carver claims his model of separating operations from governance works in ALL not for profit organizations, successful examples are few and far between in organizations of this size. However, the CAAA has had a series of Presidents and a subset of board members that did not accept that their role was operational and hence the organization has suffered greatly!