Memoirs of a Board Member: Chapter Four
by Craig Lepkowski, PCI #1180/EMSCI #272
Lake Forest (IL) Police Department
IPMBA Secretary
Editor’s Note: Long-time members may recall that back in 2003, then-IPMBA Board Member Monte May began writing an occasional column entitled “Memoirs of a Board Member”, penning the first in the 2002 Conference Registration issue and the second in the Spring 2002 issue. Mike Goetz carried on the tradition in the Winter 2004 issue. Visit http://ipmba.org/membership/newsletter to read these columns and more from IPMBA’s past.
Submitting an article for the “Board Issue” of IPMBA News is one of the more challenging tasks expected of a board member. It is always difficult to figure out what kind of article to submit. Maureen does a great job of reminding board members of their responsibilities, at times resorting to pleading, cajoling and actual begging to get us to submit some sort of an article on time. I always seem to apologize for not being prepared, rack my brain for ideas, procrastinate, discard lots of ideas, miss deadlines, and then try to submit something I pull together at the very last minute and try to sell as a product I’ve spent countless hours researching, developing, guiding, and reworking.
As I worked on this issue’s article, I realized the above paragraph fairly accurately describes the challenges of being a volunteer board member. Although we communicate via email on quite a few topics throughout the year, much of the work is assigned and discussed and brainstormed at the winter board meeting and the much shorter board meeting at the yearly conference. We all are busy at our jobs, in our personal lives, on other boards and with other organizations. And occasionally we like to take time to ride and engage in other leisure-time pursuits. Although IPMBA is a priority for all of the board members, dedicating as much time as we’d all like is difficult at times.
When we do get together for the board meetings, there are times (in between the meeting agenda Maureen attempts to keep us on) when humor surfaces, inside jokes are shared, and funny quotes can be gathered but, of course, never attributed.
Then there are the times when board members are confronted with the cold, hard truth that they had an assignment, article, position paper, project or follow-up research to do that Maureen never forgets about. That leads to the general put-off responses of “It’s not done.......but it’s within reach!” Or the more evasive, “It’s a work in progress........and it’s all up here”, as the person on the hot seat points to his head.
The board brainstorms ways to increase membership so the fees can keep the Association afloat and enable us to continue providing great products, services, and training. The educational information and materials are typically the result of many dedicated hours from volunteers and provided to the membership at very low or no cost. This issue is addressed with much input and discussion from the board members and accurately summed up with the statement, “We are giving them a s**t-pile of information. For free???”
As stated previously, the board meetings are a great place for long discussions and decision-making in person that allow for immediate responses and points of view not easily conveyed via email. Board members will throw out their opinions, brainstorm crazy ideas (remember, there are no crazy ideas in brainstorming!) and offer various points of view based on their knowledge and expertise. Naturally, there are bike references. For example, with an idea we all liked, someone might say, “Let’s get on this and ride it out,” or “climb on that idea and take it for a ride.”
Many times board members will be pointedly asked for their opinions, and one such time, when reviewing members’ answers, the following exchange was heard.
“What was (insert board member name here) position on this?”
“He was non-committal.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t say ‘no’. But he didn’t say ‘yes’, either.”
“Oh. So he was non-committal. Got it.”
Other times during the board meeting, as with all gatherings, people will get giddy and goofy and provide some pretty funny labels or quotes. Most end up being inside jokes, or you-had-to-be-there funny, but two examples that readers may appreciate are: “She’s Snow White and we’re just the Seven Dwarfs.”, and, “We’ve got a Wear. Now we just need a who, a what, a how, and a why.”
Finally, as with all boards, committees, group meetings, task forces, and special teams, the most common quotes heard through the board meeting were: “Did you just wake up?”, “Let’s table that until 2016.”, and the ever-so-popular, “Under no circumstances should you leave the room during position elections - you’ll end up with all the jobs people don’t want!”
The next IPMBA board meeting will take place in Asheville, North Carolina, in February 2016. Stay tuned for the next installment of “Memoirs of a Board Member”!
Craig has enjoyed riding at his department for many years and was honored to assist with the development of the department’s bike unit. Impressed with the IPMBA Course he attended in 2009, he attended the Instructor Course in 2010 and has enjoyed teaching bike skills ever since. Never one to say "no", Craig was elected to the IPMBA Board in 2013 and is currently serving as Secretary. He looks forward to helping maintain IPMBA’s position as the top-notch provider of public safety bicycling instruction. He can be reached at lepkowsc@cityoflakeforest.com.
(c) IPMBA. This article appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of IPMBA News.