Stuck in the Middle
I'm a student of history, and I especially love Russian history. It's a fascinating study in human relations, much like association management.
For hundreds of years, the Russian Empire was ruled by ONE person, the ultimate autocrat. According to the laws and tradition of the Empire, everything -- and everyone -- belonged to the Tsar. He had the power of life and death over everything his eye could see, and everything he couldn't.
From time to time over the centuries, trouble would arise for the Tsar and his hold on power would be threatened by the unrest of the people. At these times, the Tsar would be forced to acknowledge that some sort of representation of the people was necessary in order to safeguard the throne, and a Duma would be formed. The Tsar held the Duma in contempt; after all, his authority was handed down from God. The only authority the Duma had was what he allowed it.
Although the Duma was supposed to be similar to the British Parliament, it never really had any power or influence. The Tsar would dissolve the Duma when things calmed down and he thought they became too much of a pain. Unlike other monarchies, the Russian Empire never became a constitutional monarchy where the ruler had to answer at some level to the people.
Now what, you may ask, does this have to do with chapter relations?
I'm going to walk very gingerly into an area that many of us in chapter relations do not readily speak of without many glances over our shoulders and the use of hushed tones.
In my experience as a chapter relations professional, at three very different organizations, my experience was always the same: much like the Tsar with the Duma, the Executive Director (or whatever title the top staff person had) held the chapters in contempt, and considered them the biggest pain since the gadfly chased Europa out of Greece. At every place I worked, if the top staff person had their way, the chapters would have been eliminated. (I know this because they told me.)
There, I said it. There is tension between the top staff person and the chapters.
We all know it; we all walk among it; and many times, we get caught in the middle. We also become the target of the boss' frustration with the chapters, since we are there in the office and they are not. Also, the boss can't yell at the chapters because, no matter how big a pain he may think they are, in the end they are ultimately HIS boss since they are the members. The chapter relations professional bears the brunt of the boss' ire; I've had many a bad day at the office, not because I was overworked or not performing, but because of what I represented. It can be very disheartening.
Where does that leave us, the chapter professionals?
We are stuck between a rock and a hard place because in the situation where the top staff person doesn't like the chapters, it always follows that the chapters don't like the top staff person -- or at least the top staff person's attitude. This isn't surprising as it follows the laws of human nature, but then chapter relations professionals are the ones who always lose: the top staff person is the one you see everyday, whereas the chapters are the reason you have a job. Both expect loyalty, both expect you to be on "their" side, and both think YOU should do something about the situation.
Add to this mix the usual milieu of your fellow staff members having no clue as to what you do as a chapter relations professional, and you have a recipe for a doozy of a headache. So why do we do it?
That's easy: because we love a challenge.
