How many times have you heard of people feeling burnt out from running environmental organisations? There is often plenty of interest when an organisation focuses on a hot topic or when a big event is being planned, but after the dust has settled all the enthusiasm seems to vanish. Members of the group who seemed to be so involved and enthusiastic move into the background, leaving a few dedicated people to take care of the organisation’s business. In the light of such a situation, here are a few pieces of advice that may help committees to function more efficiently.
Fig.1: An outline of the six steps
1) Inspire Involvement
The first step is to prevent a lack of interest by involving members in the initial stage of planning. Before organising the AGM (Annual General Meeting), ask members to submit ideas about issues they would like to see the organisation deal with over the next year. Often there are a few dedicated members who organising the agenda as if they will be running the group next year. Such people often get re-elected onto the committee out of a sense of duty rather than willingness.
2) Review Ideas
Before the AGM, the outgoing committee could review the submitted ideas to assess the size of the committee needed to deal with them. As a result you could go into the AGM in a position to tell people not only about the past year’s successes, but also to plug new ideas for the next year. Perhaps some of the members who made suggestions to the outgoing committee might present their ideas to the floor and even put themselves forward to the committee in order to see their ideas implemented.
3) Set up a Floating Committee
In order to assist committee members who are pressurized into positions that they cannot honour, set up a floating committee. Comprised of certain fixed positions such as the membership secretary and treasurer, the chair and other positions could be rotated each year. The committee can alter members if necessary, in order to deal with the implementation of ideas when circumstances change. For example, if a committee member who put forth an idea then vacates their position, you’ll be able to ask the committee for a new idea, call an EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) to look for new ideas – or implement old ones.
4) Implement Ideas
A list of available committee members could be drafted and a set of tasks assigned to each. Consider the strengths of individual committee members and play to these. Once the tasks are delegated, a time frame must be agreed for completion. It’s important to nominate a committee member to act as a facilitator for reviewing the time frame and helping the committee members cope with their tasks. Allow for flexibility and adjust the time frame if committee members are having difficulty with their tasks.
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Being able to lighten the atmosphere, with coffee breaks in the middle of meetings or a few drinks at the pub afterwards, is great for the group dynamic and overall morale.
5) Review Progress
It is essential to schedule regular review meetings outside of regular meeting times, in order to ensure tasks are being completed and that people understand their responsibilities. This prevents tasks falling through the cracks, and last-minute finger pointing. On the day of an event, you’ll avoid hearing, ‘I thought so and so was doing this task’ when everyone is clear about their tasks. Communication is paramount between committee members. So it is absolutely crucial to have the structure for an event in place at least one or two weeks beforehand, ironing out potential problems as far in advance as possible.
6) Inspire a Sense of Community
Even when the event or campaign has been a success, it is not uncommon for committee members to feel burnt out. So, it is vital to have someone on the committee gather feedback about the whole experience and find out how members would feel about doing such tasks in future. If the experience was negative, is there something they would like to do instead next time round or do they want a complete break altogether? It is not beneficial for members to feel hopelessly obligated to a cause or organisation if the method of achieving tasks is too stressful or there is poor social interaction within the group.
In this regard it is good to have people on the committee who can spot signs of stress or fatigue, or conflict among members. In addition, being able to lighten the atmosphere, with coffee breaks in the middle of meetings or a few drinks at the pub afterwards is great for the group dynamic and overall morale. If the group feels too formal and business-like night after night, meeting attendance will decrease and you will be at risk of losing valuable members altogether. At the end of the day, regardless of how many people we help, issues we highlight, or environmental catastrophes we avert, it is essential to realise that the true beneficiaries of our successes are ourselves.
Edited version published in The Local Planet 12 Spring 2008
