New Board Members for New Demographic?

[ZachO]

What are people's experiences with changing demographics and Board representation? 

Does your current Board mostly represent a more traditional Montana demographic? 

Have you addressed the idea of providing representation for the newer residents and changing demographics? 

How about finding the balance of accepting new viewpoints, while maintaining some important traditional values? How do we welcome a diversity of opinions while "educating" newcomers on MT conservation ethics and collaboration?

[BigHole2]

Wow, those are some big and important questions. We have considered some of them in the Big Hole. I don't have all the answers for you (or any of them really), but I am intrigued by this topic ...

[alexocanas]

What are people's experiences with changing demographics and Board representation? 

Does your current Board mostly represent a more traditional Montana demographic? 

Have you addressed the idea of providing representation for the newer residents and changing demographics? 

How about finding the balance of accepting new viewpoints, while maintaining some important traditional values? How do we welcome a diversity of opinions while "educating" newcomers on MT conservation ethics and collaboration?

Hi, Zach, 
Bare with me as I respond to your comment from TWO YEARS ago!! I'm participating in another test of this platform. 

A quick thought on one of your questions: Our board most definitely is not representative but getting there. One thing that we're 'playing with' is the creation of different committees, where a community member can participate without being a member of the Board (i.e. a committee for just one event, like our annual fundraiser dinner). This helps address representation in that it creates an avenue for folks to participate without committing to all of the time/energy/standards of the Board. I think this will be more accessible to a younger generation (we have several retirees on our board) who doesn't want to commit to a full position and also to newcomers - folks who aren't engrained enough in the community to feel/be able to sit on a Board, but are eager to become more involved in the happenings of their community. 

~~~
Alex

[ZachO]

Thanks Alex, I agree. We've thought about this for the MWCC Board too. Work groups and committees are a great way to get people involved who may not have otherwise, and can also be a pipeline for new board members, people just looking to get involved with very little commitment, but who, after a while, may decide to join the board.