And the sooner the better. There are three things that drive me crazy when they come up in board meetings. Things that I have to stop myself from grabbing the person who suggested it and shaking them vigorously. However, I wanted to post it here to see if anybody has a differing opinion, and why.

First off is the whole silent auction thing. These make me want to scream. Somebody donates something that is worth $100 and it gets auctioned off for $15. Yay, the organization made $15!! Does anyone spot the problem with this plan? Do these ever make sense?

Second, the "let's do a scholarship" phenomenon. Do people ever stop and think about the end users here? If they did, they would probably perceive that, for a strapped student, yes $300 is worth jumping through a hoop or two. However, if you're a student, you also think that there are tons of other people applying for the same $300. Yes, the $300 is nice, but in the mind of an applicant, it's kind of like a slot machine.

The third piece of the trifecta has gotta be mentoring programs. Now, do I think mentoring is awesome? Yes, I do. Do I think organizations should facilitate it? Yes I do. But does that ever happen when someone says "let's do a mentoring program"? I have my doubts. In theory they should work but lots of factors have made them basically unimplementable for these groups.

So I don't claim to be the fount of all wisdom, but in general, I wish these things would go away.