December 2005 President's Message
Sheila Stanford
Dear Colleagues:
 As the calendar winds down to the final days of 2005, so does my term as President of AFP’s Greater New York Chapter. I’m not sure who has benefited more—me or the chapter—these past two years! It’s certainly been an adventure, a challenge, a time to deepen relationships with colleagues and an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
Working with the chapter’s Board of Directors on issues ranging from the financial health of the organization to best practices in the profession has made me a better fundraiser and a better manager. I cannot thank my 34 colleagues enough for their wisdom, their camaraderie and their endless hours of hard work on behalf of our almost 1,000 members.
The Greater New York Chapter is AFP’s founding chapter, an honor and responsibility both. Our members can be proud of the mindfulness of the chapter’s leaders, as well as of their determination to honor our distinguished past while leading the chapter into a complex and sometimes confusing future. I am certainly grateful to my colleagues for their support and enthusiasm throughout my tenure.
We will all soon have an opportunity to exercise our professional responsibility and leadership in response to AFP International’s proposed change in governance. If passed, the proposal would eliminate the current Delegates Assembly, through which chapters exercise proportional representation of their members. Instead, a far smaller number of equally sized regions would each elect a representative to the International Board of Directors. This contingent of the Board would likely make up 10 members of a 34-person Board, the balance of which would be chosen by IAFP’s Committee on Directorship.
The current proposal, in my opinion, would centralize decision-making in a body whose majority does not represent the organization’s chapters. Nor does it allow for proportional representation of chapters which range from a few like New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Toronto, which represent upwards of 1,000 members each, to the more typical chapter of fewer than 100 members. In my experience, the issues of concern are vastly different for a large chapter in a city like New York. Losing our own voice via this proposal, I am convinced, would be a huge mistake for New York members. Greater centralized decision-making will not, of itself, improve an organization that already is too centralized.
All of this is not to say that the current Delegates Assembly should continue as currently constructed. Instead of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, IAFP’s Governance Task Force could propose revisions that maintain proportional representation, give as much voice as possible to chapters, and recognize that “forcing” uniformity of region size cannot address the needs of the largest chapters.
All AFP members have the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes in IAFP’s governance structure, and you should look for more information about this issue in future newsletters. The Governance Task Force can be reached through the IAFP website. The Greater New York Chapter’s administrative office can provide you with a copy of the draft recommendations if you’ve misplaced the one IAFP emailed in October. Whatever your opinion on the merits of the reorganization, please take this opportunity to voice your position. This is important.
With thanks to all, especially Sharon Epstein, Chapter Administrator, and her partner, Fran Morris, for all your support and hard work,
Sheila Stanford
The Stanford Group, Inc.
This message is part of this month’s newsletter, which is available online. Please click here to read Fundraising News.
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