Hi,
[yet again I'm a bit behind on my mail :-( ]
I must confess that I don't know all the background to the US
organisations' and why there are quite a few - but:
- if you have one large organisation, and it goes "bad" (whatever you
consider "bad" to be) then you don't have anything. I would say that
the chances of a large non-profit going bad are probably very high
given the experience to date with PD organisations.
- if you have four, then even if one or two go "bad" at least you have
something - maybe not perfection, but at least 2 that work OK for
you.
Perhaps I ought to explain what I mean by "bad":
- at the extreme, simple corruption.
- more likely, political infighting and cronyism
- for example, between welfare Vs research
- particular geographies over others
- approach to government (work with or campaign against?)
- funding priorities
- centralisation to a head office Vs devolution to the regions
I think we'd all have our own definition of "bad" - that's why more than
one organisation is often a nice way of making all of the people mostly
happy most of the time.
Also, if you wanted to start up a "super-group", why not do it at an
International level, and use it to make the different professional
organisations work together? And I don't mean send each other on nice
conferences, I mean share stuff, talk to each other, campaign together, etc.
Personally, I think at every AGM the organisation's board should have to
make a statement along the lines of "what we've achieved by working with
other PD organisations". If there is friction between two organisations,
then they have one year to fix it or the members fire both boards.......
Simon
--------- My opinions are my own, NIP's opinions are theirs ----------
Simon J. Coles Email: [log in to unmask]
New Information Paradigms Work Phone: +44 1344 778783
http://www.nipltd.com/ Work Fax: +44 1344 772510
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