Hi Mark,If you're talking about conflicts between individuals...
There was the time I and the Executive Director had to explain to the Chair of our capital campaign that the school for children with severe special needs had no use for and could not maintain an Olympic size swimming pool that he proposed to build. (He had been a swimmer in high school.) If we angered the board chair, he would have immediately withdrawn $750,000 in gifts that were in process of transfer to the school from several members of his family, and he would have certainly blocked an additional $2 million from cousins who were considering separate major gifts. By the way, he guaranteed payment of the entire cost of building the pool. We had to figure out how to tell him "no."
There was the time I negotiated a major Federal grant with the Mayor of a small town. At the time, the Mayor was under indictment for embezzling municipal funds; one city council member was under indictment for shooting a pistol at another city council member; and other "official" indictments were under way. The government program did not want the money, the program wanted the city to use the money for the project. We got the project done and the money delivered to the appropriate municipal coffers.
There was the time my board chair set about "firing" one of the board members for disagreeing with her. We had a few phone calls back and forth about this matter.
My favorite, probably, was the time I had to tell a governing board that they had to fire their executive director for not managing the organization very well. The organization was an AIDS service organization; the ED wasn't paying attention to his job because he was trying to get treatment for AIDS.
In my 30 years, I have seen unparelled feats of generosity, selflessness, hard work, and commitment of will. I have also seen remarkable instances of egotism, arrogance, and downright stupidity.
The soul of drama is putting together any two strong individuals with different opinions of action.
Carl
