Glenn Tecker, billed as “an expert in nonprofit organizations,” gave a full-day lesson to the new 17-member board of the PR Society at its first meeting Jan. 25-26 in New York.
Tecker is co-author of "Will to Govern Well: Knowledge, Trust & Nimbleness," and has received the Academy of Leaders Award of the American Society of Assn. Executives.
Glenn Tecker |
PRS CEO Jeff Julin, in an e-mail to PRS leaders last week, said that the board, after its meeting at h.q. in New York, “participated in a full-day workshop focusing on building a knowledge-based board.”
The session, he said, “covered practical and theoretical aspects of creating a ‘strategic’ board that focuses on outcomes and puts data, research and information at the core of the board’s work and deliberations.”
Tecker heads Tecker Consultants, Yardley, Pa.
Its website says it “disseminates insight to leaders across the globe—and our goal is to lead the knowledge curve. We strive to better understand the continuous economic and social changes affecting leadership so we can develop effective strategies. Through Tecker, you can tap into vast experience, knowledge and gained insight to improve organization challenges.”
Tecker is a co-author of ASAE’s New Model of Decision; Critical Shifts in ASAE’s Strategic Direction; 10 1/2 Big Myths of the Moment, and Building a Knowledge-Based Culture: Using 21st Century Work and Decision-Making Systems in Associations.
Tecker, says the website tecker.com, is the co-designer of a curriculum for training the boards of organizations and is the editor of an education handbook for executives of non-profit organizations.
He has served as an executive with business, public agencies and non-profit organizations and also as a board member for non-profit and profit-corporations.
Reed Byrum Employed Consultant in 2003
Reed Byrum, 2003 president of PRS, employed consultant Janet Rechtman of Atlanta for a two-hour presentation. She was described as an expert in “conflict management” and a “certified mediator.”
Rechtman was informed of complaints by directors that the board was being run too tightly by Byrum and that this was the cause of “leaks” about board behavior, decisions and communications. Byrum, among other things, had made the directors sit in assigned seats.
Tecker co-authored 'The Will to Govern Well.'
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There had also been a revolt on the board that year after Byrum, apparently without board approval, had backed Nike in the Nike/Kasky case in California that involved Nike’s right to make certain claims in advertisements.
Dissident directors, without providing their names, gave a statement to the press saying that Byrum had used the name of PRS in the Nike decision without the approval of the board.
Byrum, after four years of keeping a low profile, this month was announced as president of the South Carolina chapter of PRS, becoming the first ex-national head of the Society to subsequently become head of a chapter. SCPRS has 236 members.
Another controversy in 2003 was the claim by the Ethics Board that there was the appearance of impropriety in the nomination process. All but one of the Ethics Board members called for an investigation. No such investigation ever took place.
Chuck Wood, EB chair, was replaced in January 2004 by Dave Rickey, who had never served on the EB. Wood had only served two years of a scheduled three-year term.
Some Rebelled in 2003
Some 2003 PRS directors rebelled at the concept of an outsider lecturing them on how to behave.
“We are a sovereign group and don’t need advice from anyone on how to behave,” said one of the 2003 directors. “We could fire anyone or everyone on the staff and no one could contradict us,” said another 2003 director.
PRS directors said the PRS board rarely makes a decision or takes a vote and mostly listens to slide presentations by the staff and executive committee members.
One said that New Yorkers would never put up with lectures from a “board expert,” pointing out that there have been no New Yorkers on the PRS board for years.
“Out-of-towners are very impressed at being on the PRS board and being in the big city and take this all very seriously,” said a former director.
Directors Lose I.Q. Points, Nerve
Nell Minow |
Nell Minow, editor of thecorporatelibrary.com, which tracks 20,000 directors at 1,700 companies and rates their performance, told the NIRI “credibility” seminar in Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2002 that when “intelligent, capable, honorable people” sit around a boardroom table, “their I.Q. points drop by 50% and their courage disappears entirely.”
Jerry Dalton, 1990 president of PRS, said the PRS board became less effective when it grew to more than eight members.
The 2008 board not only had 17 members but two “senior counsel” members whose pictures are on the PRS website along with the 17.
They are Rickey, who was on the 2007 board as an appointee to fill the seat of Gary McCormick, who had resigned in mid-term in 2006, and Mary Beth West, who was on the 2003 board and who ran unsuccessfully for secretary of the 2008 board. |