I’m increasingly convinced that the single most problematic vestige of the Theosophical Society’s outdated organizational structure is its reliance upon a President to serve as both spiritual and administrative leader, or in other words, to provide both content and form.
In nonprofit organizations of any significant size, these functions are typically divided. A President focuses on the message, while a General Manager ensures that message is deliverable.
A President does lectures, writes articles, does fundraising, provides vision; a General Manager runs the administration, leads the staff, executes the vision.
A President has to be deeply attuned to the purpose of the organization, a GM has to understand its structure and the wider context it is operating in.
In terms of T.S. governance, it makes sense for the President to be elected from and by the membership and to lead the Board of Directors. The General Manager should be hired by the Board of Directors, who ideally would be most familiar with operations (budget, staffing, etc.), and be answerable to them. The President is elected based on their vision; a GM would be hired based upon their ability to enact that vision. The President could be an academic like John, or a devoted member like Betty; the GM could be someone knowledgeable and experienced in nonprofit management.
Furthermore, a President’s ability to embody the purpose of the organization is enabled by a distance from day to day administrative matters; a GM can make hard decisions without diluting the message (a kind of good cop/bad cop structure).
I’ve seen first hand the difficulty the President of the TSA has. The hours that John worked, the stress that Betty now faces, the near impossibility of both serving the national membership and running an administrative headquarters with a staff of nearly 50 people. My guess is that International Headquarters must face similar issues and that it will only intensify in the future.
Part of what prompted me to write this is the current controversy. If there were a General Manager at Adyar, then neither Radha’s health nor John’s residency would be as significant a issue. [Note: Please see below for a clarification that Adyar does in fact have a General Manager]
I would very much like to hear about your thoughts and experiences with these alternative structures.
[...] 12, 2008 by Chris The starting point for this post was a previous entry suggesting the duties of the Chief Officer of the Theosophical Society in America b…, a General Manager and a President. I continue to maintain that this is a necessary step; however, [...]