We all know the basic meaning behind the domino effect: touching one part of the design impacts the rest of it and, depending on your perspective, that impact can be good or bad. The AFA Executive Board is experiencing a domino effect, and its impact is most certainly positive.

As volunteers you are aware of AFA’s volunteer management plan and its implementation over the past 18 months. With Amanda Bureau and Anne Arseneau leading the charge, we are systematically improving our volunteers’ experience and effectiveness. Volunteer satisfaction, output and performance steadily increase with each phase of implementation and we’re reaping the rewards of purposeful attention being paid to our most cherished resource – our volunteer members!

The gains made from the volunteer management plan did not seem, at least until very recently, to directly impact the Executive Board. In fact, board members and staff might go so far as to state that structures and processes aimed at streamlining volunteer work had led to the board “overfunctioning”. That is to say, the board had become in part a “committee of committee chairs,” responding to reports and directing activities that could be more effectively managed at the committee/workgroup level.

Last week, during its spring meeting in Indianapolis, purposeful attention was paid to the Executive Board and the tremendous possibilities ahead if we could make the shift from being a “working board” to a “thinking board.” The premise is simple and widely accepted: boards exist to establish the organization’s strategic direction and to set policy. Staff and volunteers work together to implement the board’s vision and accomplish strategic goals. AFA’s Executive Board has struggled with this approach across the years – we seem to “only know how to work.” Isn’t that what each of us does in our paying jobs; don’t we “overfunction” in our professional lives? It isn’t hard to understand how this can manifest itself in a group of overachieving leaders. The question becomes, “How do we move past this so AFA can achieve its potential?

To answer that question we enlisted the brain power of Karyn Nishimura Sneath and crafted a board development session focused on the fundamentals of being a successful, “thinking” board. Of critical importance were conversations about how we can better empower volunteers with whom we work so everyone is achieving at their optimal level. Much like the Volunteer Development Program and Jump Start Training provide “boot camp” for Association volunteers, our recent conversations allowed us to explore the basic tenets of exceptional boards and what it would take for us to adopt a new paradigm of “thinking” versus “working.”

By looking at examples of how thinking boards operate, the Executive Board realized that we need to be more focused on strategic conversations and less involved in managing timelines, deadlines, and calendars. We should engage in scenario planning (the “what if” thinking essential to being ahead of the curve), be more aware of trends in higher education and across the association landscape, and less driven by the processes and outcomes of project management. 

While the board is now experiencing the domino effect of AFA’s enhanced volunteer management program, its transformation will undoubtedly impact the broader volunteer corps in return. The cycle of continuous improvement is never-ending, isn’t it? One change we anticipate in the next twelve months is a shift to more staff supported and/or supervised committees and workgroups. Our hope is that the expansion of the Central Office staff will allow for centralized project management and ultimately a greater return on volunteers’ investments in the Association.

Last week’s conversations are the launching point for the Executive Board’s paradigm shift. We are looking forward to learning more about being an exceptional board, shifting our focus to thinking and visioning, and empowering volunteers to achieve at higher levels. The domino effect will undoubtedly continue as will its positive impact on the Association at all levels. We certainly hope it touches you along the way.