The local environmental non-profit group I’m involved with had a significant event happen in its history today. Due to a variety of factors (primarily budget shortfall issues), the board today voted to become an all-volunteer organization effective at the end of June 2009. This is a huge change: the original founder had been a full-time, paid contractor prior to this point. No longer will this be the case, and the process of creating this change is a major one that has big consequences for the founder. No one likes to change jobs, even if their paycheck was sporadic at best. No one likes to release the reins of their own creation.

Our board has bitten off a huge responsibility to ensure that the organization continues to fulfill its mission, and to properly honor the contributions, vision, and work of our founder.

Let’s just say that it all made for a pretty heavy board meeting.