Short form:
The trustees are the principal planners and
administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of
the separately incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this
through their ability to elect all the directors of these entities.
Long form:
The Trustees of the General Service
Board act in two primary capacities: (a) With respect to the larger matters of
over-all policy and finance, they are the principal placers and administrators.
They and their primary committees directly manage these affairs. (b) But with
respect to our separately incorporated and constantly active services, the
relation of the Trustees is mainly that of full stock ownership and of
custodial oversight which they exercise throughout their ability to elect all
directors of these entities.
Questions in service and life
·
Do I spend too much time concerned with
long-term vision and strategy and too little time managing day-to-day detail?
·
Do I spend too much time absorbed in detail and
responding to immediate problems, and too little time on long-term vision and
strategy?
·
When I have an overseeing role, do I exercise
sufficient oversight?
·
When I have an overseeing role, do I interfere
too much in the actual work?
·
Do I delegate enough—what happens when I do not?
·
Do I delegate too much—what happens when I do?
·
Do I take on too much because I do not trust others
will do the job properly or at all?
Ideas
·
Activities of different natures need to be
separately incorporated to avoid concentration of executive power and because of
the difficulty of finding directors who are capable in diverse domains.
·
Such activities also need to be run like corporations,
with a chief executive and other directors and staffs, with clarity of
responsibility and authority.
·
Board members cannot act as directors, since directors,
to be effective, need to be fully available for close and continuous
supervision; board members are volunteers who are available only intermittently.
·
The Board therefore act like a supervisory board
or holding company—they appoint executive directors to run the daily affairs
and supervise these directors over time.
·
This frees up their time and attention for matters
of overall policy, finance, group relations, public relations, and leadership—in
these matters, the Board is expected skilfully to plan, manage, and execute.
·
Reserve funds remain under the control of the
trustees; working capital remains under the control of the executive
corporations.
Quotations
'Long experience has now proved that our Board as a whole
must devote itself almost exclusively to the larger and more serious questions
of policy, finance, group relations, public relations and leadership that constantly
confront it. In these more critical matters, the Board must of course function
with great care and deliberation. Here the Board is expected skilfully to plan,
manage, and execute.
It follows, therefore, that the close attention of the Board to such large problems must not be subject to constant distraction and interference. Our Trustees, as a body, cannot be burdened with a mass of lesser matters; they must not concern themselves with the endless questions and difficulties which arise daily, weekly, and monthly in the routine conduct of the World Service Office and of our publishing enterprises. In these areas the Board cannot possibly manage and conduct in detail; it must delegate its executive function.' (Bill W.'s essays on the Twelve Concepts)