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Volunteer and Small Institutions

Fire districts, service clubs, granges, and boards run by unpaid people: recruitment, the quorum problem, and the particular fragility of volunteer governance.

  1. 01

    Volunteers Doing Serious Work

    Unpaid people perform work with real consequences across this state. Holding a standard without the instruments an employer has requires different methods, and most institutions use none.

  2. 02

    Running a Board Meeting That Matters

    Volunteer boards spend most of their meeting time on reports and almost none on decisions. The agenda is the instrument, and almost nobody treats it as one.

  3. 03

    The Quorum Problem

    Volunteer bodies fail from recruitment rather than from performance. The people who would serve well are the ones with the least available time, and nothing about the usual approach accounts for that.