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Jedi Knights and Board Governance: Guest Post by Ron Bartlow

21 Oct 2020 8:12 PM | Jen Burch (Administrator)



Before the dark times, before the empire, for over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice. Over 10,000 Jedi – padawans, knights, and masters – roamed the galaxy, from the core to the outer rim, and even to the mysterious reaches beyond.


In their shared mission to defend and protect all sapient life, these thousands of Jedi mutually relied on the expertise and wisdom of just a few masters chosen to sit on the Jedi High Council. Five masters (including Master Yoda) accepted a lifetime commitment to the Council; four masters were chosen as "long-term" members of the Council, to serve until such a time as they felt they should leave; and three masters were chosen to limited-terms; creating a High Council of up to 12 members.


Not every Jedi aspired to sit on the Council, of course. Quinlan Vos and Qui-Gon Jinn were less interested in discussing and discerning diplomacy as they were in being actively involved in missions across the galaxy. While certain diminutive masters might emphasize that a Jedi craves not adventure or excitement, there were definitely those in the Order who preferred such to sitting in council meetings! But the Order found the centralized leadership of the Council necessary, so a group of masters who were wise and/or willing to learn were chosen to serve.


A summation of the Order's core values dating back to texts as ancient as the Rammahgon and the Aionomica, the Jedi Code was a critical guide to the administrations and leadership of the Council. Though it was less than perfect*, the Code provided direction to any Jedi looking for guidance in a galaxy in turmoil...


We may not be in that galaxy far, far away, but I hope you can identify yourself as a Jedi of Camp and Retreat Ministries! Thousands of us roam the nation in our shared mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, particularly through our passion for, and expertise in, camp and retreat ministries. 


A few weeks ago, Russell Davis shared a blog post about the organizational changes to our UMCRM Board. UMCRM Association Structural and Legal Changes Russell shared a great amount of detail therein about the changes and the history leading to them. I wanted to add one particular emphasis to what he has already shared. 


Like the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, there are thousands of us in national Camp and Retreat Ministries who are gifted, talented, and called to minister in a great variety of ways, but we are not all the same. We all have areas of particular interest, passion, and strength. As an organization, our Association wants to best empower our members to be the best CRM Jedi Knights we can be. We want to Resource one another, Advocate for our ministries and their powerful impact upon Christian discipleship, Inspire transformative leadership, and help one another to Network together, for stronger ministry and greater impact. (Capitalized words reference UMCRM’s mission statement.)


Every organization needs leadership. Some models of board leadership, particularly for small organizations, invite people to join the board in order to empower them to volunteer, lead, and manage the organization's efforts while also being responsible for the "fiduciary" responsibility of a board of directors. Being on such a board grants some degree of authority and responsibility, and board members endeavor to fulfill a function equivalent to volunteer staff: coordinating events, managing members, handling finances, tracking resources, etc. I often hear such boards called "management" boards, as they work to manage the work of the organization.


However, as an organization grows – perhaps not as large as 10,000 Jedi! but, still, "larger" – a single board cannot effectively manage and maintain all the activities of an organization while also maintaining accountability for its fiduciary responsibilities. In such situations, roles become more delegated: boards are tasked with governance/leadership, taking responsibility as a board of directors, while staff work to manage activities, often with the direct involvement of a larger number of volunteers. One form of such leadership is "policy governance," such as the model described by John Carver that our board is using as inspiration as we implement a new form of governance.


In the end, in switching to policy-governance we hope for the same result as the Jedi Council. While a smaller number of 8 to 12 will meet to do the work of governance – directing our shared mission, creating strategies to accomplish our hoped-for ends in the world, evaluating the impact of the organization, essentially refining “the Code” of our organization – we hope that far more of you Jedi will be empowered to join together in accomplishing the Association’s mission to strengthen camp and retreat ministries nationwide. 


A core principle of Carver's model of policy-governance is that the small number of board members cannot possibly oversee all the activities of an organization. That's the point! While board members focus upon governance, the organization's staff works with many, many more capable, passionate, and excellent volunteers to accomplish the mission in the world.


As we work to make the shift to implement this policy-governance model, it is our great hope that Jedi like you who may not feel called or passionate about being on a board will find yourself instead excited about and volunteering in ministry with UMCRM in other ways. We hope to empower many more of you to consider getting involved: from national event planning, to creating and providing services to Association members, to creating resources for leadership development, to making testimonial videos about the power of camp, to sharing effective camp resources, to any other number of activities that UMCRM may pursue in our mission to "resource, advocate, inspire and network to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries."



*The code, as written, is clearly too absolute and contributed to the fall of the Jedi: "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge." During the years immediately preceding the Fall of the Order, Jedi younglings learned a variation of the code during their initiation that some Masters, such as Depa Billaba, rightly found more accurate: "Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge." Such an alternation does not try to negate the existence of one thing, but does identify another as preferable. Perhaps, had the Council been more adaptive in its leadership, it might have discovered that elimination of emotion was not the ideal; even the brash Anakin Skywalker laid out that compassion was at the heart of a Jedi's mission! Teaching one another to find peace in the mist of emotion might have helped bring Anakin peace, might have brought greater fulfillment to another Jedi in love with a Duchess, and could have prevented both the fall of the Order and the Republic! But the imperfections of the Code aren't the main topic here.



Rev. (Obi)-Ron Bartlow is Vice Chair of our UMCRM Board and an overly enthusiastic Star Wars fan.


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