[Lnc-business] Peter Drucker's Book - Part One

[Joshua Katz]

I agree with almost all of what Dr. Lieberman said, particularly the 1/12
of a building, but I do not understand the good doctor's focus on
teleconferences.  I, for one, did not join the teleconference committee
because I want to make a small but vocal minority of members happy - I
joined the teleconference committee because I believe, particularly on
timely matters we don't wish to delegate to the EC and on especially
contentious matters, a teleconference is a far better tool for
decision-making than an email ballot (which I would like to see eliminated
- I think Henry Robert was correct in demanding that a deliberative
assembly be constituted of people able to see and hear each other, and I
think it is absurd that a motion that would be out of order at a meeting
can simply be introduced by email ballot and becomes unchallengable on
points of order, unamendable, etc.)  In short, some things are not directly
electoral but contribute to doing business better, which is something a
board should care about.

We've already debated the other point of disagreement (sending this list to
the DNC and RNC) at length, and I have no desire to reenter that, except to
repeat that sharing our conversations with them (if they're listening)
would be very dangerous - to them.  Excessive laughter may interfere with
breathing.  (I'm sure the other doctor will correct me on that.)

Also, moral causes should be pursued in ways that have results - and that
are also moral.  I see no contradiction to that in anything Peter Drucker
(an Austrian, by the way) said.  I don't think he counseled GM to behave
immorally - that would be the efficiency experts.

Highlighting two points of disagreement in a long message should, of
course, indicate many points of agreement.

Joshua Katz

Joshua A. Katz

Region 8 (Region of Badassdom) Alternate
Libertarian National Committee

Chair, Libertarian Party of Connecticut

On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 1:26 PM, Scott L. <scott73 at earthlink.net> wrote:

>
>
> At our New Orleans LNC Session last December, the Chair kindly gave every
> LNC member a copy of Peter Drucker’s book  “Managing the Nonprofit
> Corporation.”  I finished the book around Christmas time, and while I was
> reading it I made a list of interesting citations.
>
>
>
> Here is Part One of those citations:
>
>
>
>
>
> Page 5   “One of our most common mistakes is to make the mission statement
> into a kind of hero sandwich of good intentions.  It has to be simple and
> clear.  As you add new tasks, you deemphasize and get rid of old ones.  You
> can only do so many things.  Look at what we are trying to do in our
> colleges.  The mission statement is confused – we are trying to do 50
> different things.  It won’t work, and that’s why the fundamentalist
> colleges attract so many young people.  Their mission is very narrow.  You
> and I may quarrel with it and say it’s too narrow, but it’s clear.  It
> enables the students to understand.  And it also enables the faculty to
> know.  And it enables that administration to say, we aren’t going to teach
> accounting.”
>
>
>
>
>
>              Contrast that with the 6 different “missions” in the Purposes
> section of our Bylaws.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Page 71 “You can see some great achievements where people labored in the
> wilderness for 25 years.  But they are very rare.  Most of the people who
> persist in the wilderness leave nothing behind but bleached bones.  There
> are also true believers who are dedicated to a cause where success,
> failure, and results are irrelevant, and we need such people.  They are our
> conscience.  But very few of them achieve.  Maybe their rewards are in
> Heaven.  But that’s not sure, either.  “There is no joy in Heaven over
> empty churches”, St. Augustine wrote 1600 years ago to one of his monks
> who busily built churches all over the desert.  So, if you have no results,
> try a 2nd time.  Then look at it carefully and move on to something else.”
>
>
>
>         That directly corresponds with what Nathaniel Branden said about
> Libertarians who want the Libertarian Party to fail so that they can
> continue to be big fish in a small pond.
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> Page 84  “Marketing in a non-profit organization becomes effective when
> the organization is very clear about what it wants to accomplish, has
> motivated everyone in the organization to agree to that goal and to see the
> worthwhileness of that goal, and when the organization has taken the steps
> to implement this vision in a way which is cost-effective, in a way which
> brings about that result.”
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> Page 92 “I would say that organizations running annual campaigns without
> asking for specific gifts could, with the same effort, probably increase
> their income by as much as 25% by asking for a specific gift.”
>
>
>
> In other words – don’t just give donors a laundry list of amounts – use
> their giving history to ask for one specific amount.
>
>
>
>
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> Page 100  “Traditionally, businesses have researched their own customers
> and know, or try to know, as much as possible about them.  But even if you
> have market leadership, non-customers always outnumber customers.  The most
> important knowledge is the* potential* *customer*.  The customer who
> really needs the service, wants the service, but not in the way it is
> currently available today.”
>
>
>
>
>
>      I am sure you will all agree that LP projects are almost always
> designed to keep our current members happy.  Millions of libertarians in
> this country  desperately want and need a *successful* third political
> party, but we refuse to give it to them because we are too concerned with
> keeping tiny, but vocal segments of our membership happy (video conference
> special meetings, sending this e-mail list to the RNC and the DNC, etc).
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Page 108  “Equally dangerous is the opposite – to go for the easy results
> rather than for results that further the mission.  Avoid overemphasis on
> the things the institution can easily get money for, the popular issues,
> the easy things.  Universities, for instance, often are under great
> pressure to accept money for a chair that administration and faculty feel
> actually detracts from the school’s mission (we call them “Mickey Mouse
> chairs).”
>
>
>
>
>
> A great example of this is the 1/12 of a building that the previous LNC
> authorized for the Immediate-Past-Chair to purchase.  Because of poor
> financial management on the part of the Immediate-Past-Chair, the down
> payment cannibalized the general fund by such a large amount that the ED
> was forced to fire our receptionist.  Think of that – the supposed “third
> largest political party” in the United States was so recklessly managed
> that it could not even afford to retain a dedicated live person to answer
> the phone and welcome visitors.  I don’t blame the current ED for this – he
> has to follow the orders of the Chair.
>
>
>
> If you think I am being too harsh, look at the reserve fund charts over
> the past 5 years.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> Page 110  “The first – but also the toughest – task for the non-profit
> executive is to get all of these constituencies to agree on what the
> long-term goals of the institution are.  Building around the long term is
> the only way to integrate all these interests.”
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> Page 112   “To believe that whatever we do is a moral cause, and should be
> pursued whether there are results or not, is a perennial temptation for
>
> non-profit executives – and even more for their boards.  But even if the
> cause itself is a moral cause, the specific way it is pursued better have
> results.  There are always so many more moral causes to be served than we
> have resources for that the non-profit institution has a duty – towards its
> donors, toward its customers, and toward its own staff – to allocate its
> scarce resources for results rather than to squander them on being
> righteous.”
>
>
>
>
>
> If this board continues to spend huge amounts of time and effort debating
> peripheral issues like videoconferences and purchasing monuments, we will
> continue to lose members and donors to organizations that actually get
> results in the real world.
>
>
>
>
>
>     Scott Lieberman
>
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>
>
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