Leadership

Strong, focused leadership is the heart and soul of a new organization. Founding leaders are usually people with the time and resources to devote to setting up meetings, calling people together, and maintaining mailing lists and database of affected individuals. Leaders of new groups often have the condition themselves or have a family member or close friend who is affected.

Administrators

Administrators include directors and officers of your group, if you have formalized those roles. It can also include people who are performing any group function – this could just be one or two people who devote time regularly to responding to information requests or coordinating support-group meetings.

• What are their strengths? How can these be capitalized on?
• What are their weaknesses? How can these be strengthened?
• What areas cannot be managed by the present administrators?

You can download a PDF form to help with this activity.

Boards

Your group may have many types of boards, just one or two, or none at all. Frame your answer for your boards. Later on, we'll consider why the other boards might be helpful.

As you think about their roles, strengths, and weaknesses, consider issues like geographical location, ease of communication, and the access they provide to individuals and organizations that can help your group grow and reach its goals. You probably won't have a senior manager from United Way on your Donor Board, but you might have a senior executive from a large corporation with monies to grant on your governance board.

• Governance board
• Medical advisory board
• Clinical advisory board
• Research advisory board
• Professional advisory board
• Donor/contributor board

For each board, ask:

• What is the board's role?
• Is that role clear?
• How can your group capitalize on the board and the board member's strengths?
• What do you need to do to make them more effective?

You can download a PDF form to help with this activity.

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