Julian Bond has announced his intention not to stand for re-election as board chair of the NAACP when his current term expires. Bond said "I'm ready to let a new generation of leaders lead".Generational change in leadership at the NAACP board level and in local communities is a long overdue and necessary step, but not sufficient. It must be accompanied by a significant increase in the quality of strategic leadership at national and local levels. At both levels, the simple organizational capability to run effective meetings, analyze problems, then develop and carry out a strategic, relevant response over time has been either lost or surrendered in pursuit of narrow political agendas or the retention of most favored gate keeper status. The Urban League is similarly afflicted. I have scant confidence that the change in leadership at the top will result in a complete rethinking of the NAACP's role, assets, strategy and goals. Visionary and paradigm shaking leadership is what is required. I will be utterly surprised if anything resembling that emerges from the NAACP's long overdue leadership change.
Bond seems to site Obama's election as the catalyst for his decision to make room for new leadership. Far from stirring a paradigm shift though, I suspect Obama's election may only serve to mask the organization's continuing strategic leadership drift.
On this one, I couldn't disagree more Aaron... Not that I don't agree that the skill set you described is vital and necessary for the sustainability of any organization, but to clain that that skill set does not exist within the NAACP is simply not true. For starters, there are approximately 1,800 local branches; so to argue that they are all any one thing is preposterous, let alone to claim that they are all non-strategic, incapable of running an effective meeting, unable to analyze problems, or any other stereotypical depiction...
ReplyDeleteFurther, such a claim discounts the tremendous efforts of branchs such as the Brooklyn Branch whose Back to school/Stay in School program provided more than 2,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to children in need... or the Cincinnati Branch which led a city wide fight to elect their City Council members by Proportional Representation which would break up the entrenched powers and allow for a greater diversity of party and ideas... or the North Carolina NAACP who led a multi-organizational coalition in their HKonJ (Historic thousands on J Street) Economic Development and economic reciprocity campaign... or the Metuchen-Edison Area NAACP who has assembled a panel of Economists and Human Resource specialists to provide an informational forum on employment rights and employment trends... or our very own Wichita Branch NAACP and our continuing efforts to bring legislative reform to the SRS and Child Welfare system, our 4 point plan to eliminate the achievement gap which has been adopted by USD259 and the Kansas Commissioner of Education, or our Quality of Life campaigns such as our Stop the Violence efforts, ou "Broken Windows" campaign, and our sucessful effort to ban the sale of Drug Paraphernalia in our neighborhood stores and gas stations.
These types of efforts are not generally covered by the MSM because they are out of character with the popular caricature of the Association. But they are going on in Branches all across the country.
The shift in leadership has finally come to the National Office, but it has been ongoing at the Branch and State level for quite sometime. And with the shift we've seen a shift in projects and priorities; and I am completly optimistic that the shift at the top will only serve to accelerate this process.
KMyles
President; Wichita Branch NAACP
@Count,
ReplyDeleteI'll moderate my comment to this extent. It would not be accurate to say that the strategic leadership skill set does not exist within the NAACP today. Clearly it does, and some of your examples point to its existence. Further, the Witchita Branch which you represent has been out front and more visible from a leadership stance. I've not been to Witchita or even your state, but I've heard about you. Nonetheless, I would contend (I'm open to evidence otherwise) that of those 1,800 branches you reference, perhaps as much as 60% of them lack strategic direction at the local level and I don't believe they are getting it from the national level certainly. I would even question the strategic imperative for the NAACP in at least one of the examples you cited, that of the backpack drive. If I had more detail, I would be likely to question some of the others to I suspect.
Admittedly, my sample is small of branches I've had direct contact with, but given that there is a crisis of leadership within black organizations broadly, the NAACP is certainly part of that trend.
We have a crisis of leadership within our civic organizations, within our church community, nearly across the board. We are generally not collaborating effectively, and we are not managing our organizations effectively and with accountability. Further, we are operating out of old paradigms or from political viewpoints that are unthinkingly reactionary, repeating the same ineffective approaches and strategies again and again without any more effective result.
Sadly, the NAACP is an example of this trend, rather than an example of bucking it. It's not just the NAACP. We are a mess on this score across the board with our black national organizations. See my post "Our Greatest Fear" for my viewpoint on this (use the search box on the blog).
You have made a major commitment there in Wichita and I applaud you. But I think you're the exception and not the norm. The black community has a strategic leadership gap and our organizations are severely underperforming because of it.
Hmmmm, the degree to which we disagree is narrowing a bit. I would also agree that across the board we are experiencing a crisis and a failure of vision. However, I dont see it as endemic to Black Organizations. Rather, I see it as being indicative of a shift within our culture. We are losing the cohesive aspects of our culture and are drifting further into a state of self-serving individualism. This is a seemingly simple and almost cliche observation, but what it most curious is how it manifests.
ReplyDeleteI've written pretty extensively on this HERE and HERE
In a social environment which is individualistic in nature, Organizations tend towards the sensational in hopes of attracting the interest of constituants. Collectively, we seldom act on purely altruistic notions of community uplift for those who will come after us. Rather, many of us "want" something in return for our attention, service, or partcipation. So in too many cases, organizations have traded their missions for the shocking and sensational. Too many attract members and seek to prove their value through volume; searching first for the train wreck to provide a suitable background.
Certainly the blogosphere is not exempt... Even in this new media, the phenomena of reactionary punditry in lieu of comprehensive analysis is prevelent. Even Bloggers drive their visits and hit rates with the fanciful and inflammatory instead of the thoughtful or comprehensive.
And while I would definetly agree that the NAACP is not immune from this trend, I would still submit that the remaining Organizational structures within our community represent the most effective mechanism for bucking the trend.