ACTIVE PARTICIPATION KEY TO COUNCIL AND CHAPTER SUCCESS

In late September 2008 CDR Allan Thompson, USN (RET), President, Golden West Chapter, issued a desperate plea for members to serve on the chapter’s nominating committee.

There were no takers.

“Unfortunately all requests for members to serve on the nominating committee have been declined by the members we contacted,” he said. “I will be out of town until October 1 so I am requesting that interested members contact Tim Richards or any board member with positions you will desire to hold.”

He explained that, “We are a volunteer organization run by volunteers; so, without volunteers for board positions it will be necessary to either fold or merge. This is your choice. By failing to volunteer for a board position, you are voting to terminate our chapter of MOAA. I hope that the choice to volunteer is made by enough members to fill vacant board positions.”

This same situation currently exists with any number of California chapters. In many cases, leaders are trying to lead but followers won’t follow. And the consequences are now being seen across the state–in 2007 San Gabriel Chapter failed and in 2008 more than a dozen chapters are in serious trouble.

Uniformed services officers generally have extensive training in leadership, how to be effective leaders and how to fulfill their leadership roles.

But few get much basic survival training on how to behave as a follower, how to make that role dynamic, synergistic, and satisfying.

Chances are MOAA leaders need to start giving some attention to the development of the concept and role of followership, because leadership is but one strand in the complex web of human relationships that holds our organizations together.

Officers traditionally have accepted the assumption that it’s primarily the leader’s job and responsibility to cause the group to function well, and to take care of the people needs of followers so that the group is turned on and productive. Officers have borne the chief responsibility in the past for the vitality of their relationships with their followers, and for the quantiity and quality of their work.

But to have a successful MOAA council or chapter today, the leader/follower relationship demands some things of followers as well. Therefore council and chapter members can and should be more than passive robots. They have the opportunity, indeed a responsibility, for making the situation a good one, a win-win for the chapter, the group’s leaders, and for themselves.

There are pragmatic reasons for wishing to achieve excellence in followership: we very often get rewarded or punished as a result of “followership” effectiveness. Those who recently worked very hard to put on the MOAA DAY ON THE HORNET event came away with tremendous self-satisfaction. It seems clear that the members of the San Gabriel Chapter were punished for failing to participate fully and the same thing might well happen to Golden West Chapter soon.

It is the follower, the council or chapter member, who often has the most at stake. Would you want to lose the council? Lose your chapter? See it all come to an end? No longer see each other at state meetings at San Luis Obispo or Lake Tahoe? Miss out on those wonderful social luncheon or dinner chapter meetings?

There are at least three ways for looking at the followership role and for mapping strategies for making the role more fulfilling as well as effective.

First is the role itself. A good steward is dynamic and risk-taking when confronting work that needs to be done. This includes how well we understand the council or chapter’s opportunities, mission, accountabilities, and the skills and attitudes required of followers. Members need to know what the role is, how to become proficient, and then get with the program, take the initiative, and try to make a difference.

The next way of looking at the followership role is in terms of relationships and especially relationships with the leaders. There is an implied mutual responsibility to develop and nourish this relationship. Volunteer for assignments and do quality work; inform leaders about what is going on, the current issues, needs, and wants; work in full partnership with the leaders; and provide the information and other feedback needed for success. It’s important to build trust through unselfish stewardship and positive behavior.

To be good followers, council and chapter members need to take charge, exploit opportunities, volunteer for assignments, go on the initiative, and try to make a difference rather than passively accepting what comes along.

Many council and chapter leaders are trying hard to grant members freedom despite all the demands the cultural, economic and social forces put upon them. Leaders want members to participate fully. That’s why every effort is made to create a motivating environment.

The challenge for members is to develop an enhanced self-image, a sense of potency, and a feeling of significance. It is only by responding to the leadership and taking action that members can start to become more dynamic in their followership.

Edgar Friedenberg has said, “All weakness corrupts, and impotence corrupts absolutely.” The current state of followership seems to be powerlessness and dependency. If ever our councils and chapters needed dynamic followers it’s right now.

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