Worksheet5 Changes in membership
Changes in membership | 5.3
new organisations
You may want to extend the membership of the cluster, either because there are particular organisations you feel are natural partners or contributors to its work, or because you want to spread the benefits of membership more widely.
In either case you need to think carefully about effect on the dynamics of the group, particularly if the intention is to bring on board organisations that were initially felt to be too small or weak to be able to contribute to the development of the cluster. If the cluster’s success has been based on all of the members pulling their weight and making broadly equal contributions, it can be disruptive to take on organisations that won’t be able to make the same input and, in effect, become consumers.
This sort of two-tier membership can be a recipe for problems in the longer term. It can be particularly divisive if some of the original members are not much larger than the newcomers, have had to struggle to invest the time to make a contribution to the cluster’s development, and now see the benefits being given away.
The cluster will also need to think about how it intends to induct new members. There are two reasons for this:
- the original cluster members will have got to know each other and developed a modus operandi and culture which new organisations and individuals may find it hard to understand and to fit into. In particular, ways of behaving that you have evolved in the course of learning to collaborate with each other may not come naturally to those who have not been through the process; and
- the arrival of new members can change the character and dynamic of a group. If these have played an important part in your success, you will need to think carefully about how you are going to ensure you retain the core features that have made your group work, while at the same time making new members feel welcome.
Being explicit about “how we do things around here” can help enormously with both issues, and the process of producing such a statement can help you identify and reflect on what it is that has really made your group work.
Changes in people
Sooner or later, one of the founder members of the group will move on. If the cluster has been tacitly relying on this person as its leader, there could be problems at this point. These will be easier to manage if the situation is recognised for what it is, but can be avoided if the group has managed to develop a more distributed leadership over the course of its life.
Paying explicit attention to issues of leadership as part of a periodic review of the way the group is working, and arranging the work of the cluster so that leadership is shared out over time, will pay dividends at this point.
Changes in size
Over time, one or more of the cluster’s members may grow to the point where it is no longer a sensible use of the Chief Executive’s time to attend regular Core Group meetings. What is the cluster to do? Should it accept that this means that the organisation can no longer be a member? Should it break the ground rule that says that organisations can only be represented by their Chief Executive?
There are no hard and fast solutions; one possible way of approaching the issue is to distinguish between operational and strategic issues for the cluster. By this stage, a lot of its work may be about the ongoing delivery of shared services and programmes. It might be possible to have a two-tier governance arrangement, with:
- an operations group meeting to oversee this activity (which might include Chief Executives of smaller organisations and Operations Managers of larger ones), and
- a higher level group for Chief Executives only, meeting 3-4 times a year to review how the cluster is going, and to look at issues such as new areas for development, membership, external influencing etc.