Larry Carson is reporting that the entire executive board of the Domestic Violence Center is stepping down in the face of pressure from the County Executive. This is the best possible outcome for a very bad situation and I think you have to give a heck of lot of credit to Ken Ulman and his staff on this. Convincing a group of volunteer leaders that they need to step down is nothing to dismiss.
As with most things, there are certainly members of this Board that were not at fault and will do well on other boards. However, the oft stated consensus regarding the DVC was "One bad hire, shame on you. Two bad hires, shame on us," and that this Board had to go. This was an interesting case study in the role of nonprofit boards in Howard County and I think the final conclusion has to be that non-profits are quasi-governmental organizations. There is a tremendous amount of independence, but so long as more than 40% of your income is coming from Federal, State, and Local sources, you are not a "private" organization. Frankly, unless you donate more than $1,000 a year to non-profits, you (we) are not in a position to argue that it should be any other way.
