Acknowledgments
From Robert J Ballantyne
Over the years, I discovered the contents of this book from the time I spent with many people. When I (Robert Ballantyne) joined the Montreal Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (in 1963), I learned more than just astronomy. One of the organizers was Isabel K. Williamson. From the position of Editor of the newsletter, Skyward, Miss Williamson (none of us young folks would have thought of calling her, Isabel) developed that little club into a dynamic organization that was accomplishing some real astronomy and successfully nurturing many young people. She understood what she was doing, and took the time to teach me many of the concepts that are now expressed in this book. I am very grateful for all that I learned from Miss Williamson—although it would be years before I found practical applications for the information. This, then, is my belated thanks. While associated with the Montreal Centre, and when some trouble was brewing, I recall spending lots of time with Constantine Papacosmas and David Levy pouring over the Bylaws. This was when I first realized their importance to an organization.
In 1966, the director of Montreal’s Dow Planetarium, Donald D. Davis, accepted me as part of his stable of astronomical lecturers, and later encouraged me to write and produce public shows. In Toronto, Beatrice Fisher, a publicist at the Royal Ontario Museum, decided to coach me to perform in media interviews and to become a spokesperson for the McLaughlin Planetarium. While I appeared on all the local and national programs, I remember that it was during many hours with broadcaster Doug Hall, on both his radio and television programs, that I learned how dance in a media interview. In Winnipeg, I recall enjoyable hours on the air with Peter Warren and Bill Guest. Bill and I hosted the syndicated live television coverage of the 1979 Total Eclipse of the Sun. My years as a show producer, planetarium director, and museum director, gave me the opportunity to work with and for some extraordinary people. They include Henry C. King, Bill and Celeste Peters, Ian C. McLennan, H. David Hemphill, Donna Phillips, and Max Tapper. I recall discovering (for myself) how much I knew when I was mentoring our intern, Ron Waldren. Nancy Vincent was the volunteer coordinator at the Museum in Winnipeg, and she taught me how a large volunteer program should work. It wasn’t until I met Winnipeg’s amazing and dynamic Dorothy Dobbie, that I discovered that I could have a personal role as a volunteer and as a leader in community affairs.
Working with leaders in the environmental movement put me in close contact with people who have made a real difference to our world. They include Julie Gelfand, Ric and Dona Careless, Tony Barrett, Linda Coady, Andrew Bryant, Stan Coleman, Wayne Soper, Stuart Prescott, Bill Tieleman, and Harvey McKinnon.
More recently, my quest to find ways to better govern social profit organizations brought me to learn Policy Governance from the authors, John and Miriam Carver, and to work with my amazing partners at the Xylem Group: Sherry Jennings, Caroline Oliver, Vijay Mistry, John Bruce, Susan Mogensen, Linda Stier, and Stacy Sjogren.
From Sherry S. Jennings
I echo Robert’s sentiments about John and Miriam Carver’s work and our brilliant colleagues in the Xylem Group.
Two phases of my life also shaped my commentary and stories in this book. The first phase was during the early 1990’s working with the U.S. National Honey Board (NHB). Chairman Dwight Stoller and CEO Bob Smith discovered John Carver’s book, Boards That Make a Difference. Both were dissatisfied with the efficiency of the board’s work. Both agreed that the board spent a lot of time “rubber stamping” items on the agenda and not a lot of time creating meaningful direction. Board members Binford Weaver, John Miller, Neil Miller, and Doug McGinnis were key to supporting the effort. Because the book was released in 1990, not much was available on how to implement and practice Carver’s Policy Governance® (PG) model of governing. The board’s leadership and I learned together through strategic successes facilitated by Kerry Tucker of Nuffer, Smith, Tucker. There were a few missteps, too. Binford Weaver’s lovely wife Bennie Lou pulled me aside after a disappointing board session. In her lovely Texas drawl she admonished, “Sherry, you’ve got to let people dabble their toes in the water before you ask them to dive into the deep end.” That message characterizes what Robert and I have come to understand about teaching PG — board members need to visualize the shared and compelling end — before taking the plunge into the work of crafting policies. As Robert says, “Boards need to envision what can be, rather than what is.”
The second phase of my life centers around my community work. Rotarian Nanci Garnand introduced me to the Four Way Test https://www.rotary.org/en/guiding-principles and the profound way Rotary affects communities locally and around the world. Past District Governor Harold (Alex) Alexander showed me how to recruit, engage, and reward volunteers. Past District Governor David Stocks modeled Ken Blanchard’s vision of leadership, “Leadership is something you do with people and not to them. I know Robert’s ideas and principles laid out in this compendium of essays work. How? Because I’ve seen them applied effectively by Rotarian Tom Carroll. Tom saw a need in our community for a different sort of Rotary club. As a Rotarian with a bit more experience, I helped Tom navigate the process of getting a new club started. Tom set records in Rotary for the efficiency, competence, and speed in which he got the new club chartered and running. In 2011, the club chartered with 35 members. In 2014, the club is 85 members strong and growing. The club’s very first fundraiser netted enough money to enable generous grants to several community assistance programs. Follow Robert’s advice and you can experience how this works firsthand!