the politics of not-for-profit organizations
I'm on a building committee, a fundraising committee, a volunteer committee, and a general users group committee. All require my attendance to get my job done and to 'stay in the loop', as I've been told, but frankly, I'd much rather just get a copy of the notes and carry on my work from home.
See, the difficulties with being involved within so many committees is that it generally just seems that for any decision that is to be made, we need at least 2 meetings to achive this result. The general users group meeting is the worst for this; it seems like if I attend one of these, I invariably end up attending at least 2 other meetings that were spontaneously suggested.
Unfortunately, I generally just take the notes, or sit around looking pretty. As per contract, I am there simply to assess the numbers needed for any particular project, and make arrangements based on the figures. Of course, it helps for me to know details about specific projects, which is why my presence seems necessary, but on the whole, since my vote is not typically included in certain motions, I sometimes feel that a paper or internet contact is more applicable.
The sad thing about my job is, the more committees that I'm invited to be a part of, the more instrumental I seem. The reality is that I'm just background music, baby. I don't need the spotlight to get my job done.