Course Description
Foundations of Organizational Ombuds Practice is offered multiple times each year in various locations, and online. The course covers the fundamentals of the organizational ombuds role based on the principles of confidentiality, neutrality, independence, and informality. Learn how to work with visitors to an office as well as how to act as a change agent within your organization. Practice key ombuds skills of listening, asking questions, clarifying, generating options, and moving to actions throughout the ombuds process. In addition, an experienced and highly committed faculty of ombuds will share best practices around setting up an office and evaluating and communicating the effectiveness of the office.
Faculty: TBARegistration rates for this training are $1,795 for IOA members and $2,096 for non-members. (IOA Event Info.)
Related posts: IOA's Ombuds Training Returns to Baltimore in October 2019; IOA's New Virtual Foundations Course is Already Selling Out; COFO to Train New Federal Ombuds in Response to IOA Backlog; IOA Resumes In-Person Foundations Course in October 2021 [canceled]; IOA to Resume In-Person Foundations Training in July 2022.
Wait? Let me get this straight. The IOA board of directors is flying people from all over the world to meet in Geneva, and stay at a 4-star hotel with a "one star Michelin gourmet restaurant" on the membership's dime?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hotelroyalgeneva.com/
"the Hotel Royal invites you to experience a unique atmosphere where marble and gilt come together in peaceful silver-grey tones for the ultimate luxury experience. Designed to preserve a proud neo-classical heritage and tradition, this truly upmarket hotel features geometric shapes and noble materials including wood panelling, opulent draperies and luxurious furnishings. The serene allure of a 19th-century mansion, combined with full 21st-century equipment and an unbeatable location, ensure that your stay at this home from home is as comfortable as it is unforgettable."
Can anyone explain how thos is acceptable fiduciary behavior?
Thos is outrageous and the entire board should resign and reimburse the IOA for.this self-serving luxury junket. The Virginia Attorney General should also be investigating this self-serving abuse of membership funds.
Conducting Foundations across the globe is one thing, and we should all.applaud that. This nonsense? Disgusting!
IOA makes it clear that it is an "international association" with a goal of promoting and supporting ombuds outside the United States. More than 10% of paying members live outside the U.S., yet only a handful of trainings and other international events. Moreover, there has never been a board meeting abroad, despite years of service by international members of the board. I think your question is completely legitimate, but I expect a reasonable response from IOA leaders.
DeleteI doubt the board will resign; however, individual board members can do the ethical thing and decline to take this trip.
DeleteTraining outside of the US is essential. Wasn't there something in Brazil in the past few years? Even so, getting training outside of the Western Hemisphere is a great development. That said, with about 90% of the IOA's paying membership being within the US, flying "leadership" to what sounds like a luxury location in order to hold a meeting that can just as effectively be held on Zoom dies sound like a problem. Iconcur with the original commentator's concerns. IOA leadership needs to be more aware of the optics of this unnecessary vacation/meeting.
ReplyDeleteThere are basic principles of association leadership that argue against the ethics of this meeting being held in Geneva on IOA's dime. If this is such an essential meeting locations, each board member should be able to justify paying out of pocket or persuade each of their bosses to foot the bill.
I OA does not have an objectively strong financial position and I share concerns that this decision to spend association monies this way can reasonably be characterized as profligate and self- serving.
Thank you for sharing your perspectives. Our work internationally is long overdue and intentional, and more information can be found in IOA's July 26 blog post.
DeleteAs always, you are welcome to reach out to me, Ellen Miller (our Executive Director) or our Ombuds. We have also just launched our new Concern and Complaint Policy for members.
What a dismissive and disrespectful response. One can act "intentionally" and still be misguided.
DeleteAs anyone who as prepped to take a bar exam will recall, nonprofit board members have three obligatory duties: the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of obedience. Based on the IOA board’s decision to jet off to Geneva in pursuit of some vague effort to “internationalize” IOA and the president’s response to the post on this blog there seems a real question as to whether the current board understands these legal duties. As such, while the training session in Geneva sounds like a valid effort, the board should give serious consideration to canceling its trip. Likewise, to the extent that there are non-refundable cancellation fees, the board members and staff who were going to benefit from this ill-considered trip should reimburse IOA’s treasury.
DeleteIpso facto the decision to take what was described above, accurately I believe, as a “junket” evidences a lack of care for the financial condition of IOA. Even just a cursory look at the limited financial information that IOA lets leak out reveals an organization with HUGE fixed expenses and limited resources available to weather a financial storm. One might reasonably conclude that the cost for the Geneva trip far outstrips recent years’ budget surpluses. As the saying goes, prove me wrong IOA.
The duty of loyalty has at its core the concept that board members have the obligation to place the interests of the organization ahead of any personal gain. Since the planned Geneva board meeting could just as effectively be conducted via Zoom and the board members who make this planned trip will get to enjoy travel to an elegant city, stay at an elegant and upscale hotel, get to dine out on the membership’s dues money the scales here tilt dramatically towards personal benefit at the expense of the IOA as an organization. IOA could “show the flag,” to borrow the phrase, by having a single board member travel to a handful of conference, meetings, parliaments, etc., while staying in budget accommodations, and achieve far more benefit of internationalizing IOA than this planned self-serving and self-benefiting approach. The IOA’s membership is not a cash cow and it is inappropriate to milk it this way.
The duty of obedience obliges board members to be faithful to the organization’s mission and to obey all laws and regulations affecting the organization. While educating potential ombuds in Europe, and elsewhere, is certainly consistent with the IOA’s mission, internationalizing IOA via unnecessary and self-aggrandizing travel in order to accomplish a task that could just as effectively be handled at essentially no cost and further benefits an association management company and executive director who already earn an outsized percentage of IOA’s yearly revenue calls into question whether this action is consistent with applicable nonprofit law and whether it would be looked at favorably by the Internal Revenue Service.
Referring people to a complaint policy and directing those with concerns to contact IOA leadership privately stinks of an unwillingness—and perhaps inability—to discuss and defend this apparently indefensible travel plan in public before the membership and anyone else who has an interest in understanding the board’s decision to waste membership money in this way.
While I would also welcome the board’s resignation, the least that the board can do is to cancel the board meeting in Geneva and the travel arrangements related to that board meeting, and also openly publish all documents and expenses related to this proposed trip.
Responses like the last one (the five paragraph essay) are what make me want to defend the board even when they do ridiculous things like this.
DeleteOn the positive side, our loquacious colleague anchored their objection in a reasoned argument and didn't stick to "this feels wrong" or "I don't likr it." If only the IOA board saw fit to offer a few paragraphs of details of the spending.
DeleteHaloo from Europe. Please someone provide insight into the number of members who typically attend monthly (?) IOA director's meetings aside from the staff and directors themselves?
ReplyDeleteThis question gets at the heart of my feelings. I fully support more international trainings and the costs associated with them. I would love to hear a cogent explanation for how the physical location of a board meeting supports our efforts to be more inclusive of international members, particularly given the fiscal impact. On the surface, it isn’t a good look.
DeleteI appreciate that others have started this conversation. IOA fees (for things like trainings, the most recent symposium, foundations course, etc.) are the highest I've seen of any professional organization I've been a part of. What I hope IOA remembers is that not all of us can have our employers pay for these things, so the cost out of pocket is out of reach for many of us or presents an incredible burden. This has long been a concern, and a reason why I do not participate in more things that IOA offers, although I would love to. I hope that the board considers cost feasibility in the upcoming year, or a different fee structure.
ReplyDeleteThe percentage of the budget dedicated to management fees and the Executive Director is is off the charts. How does an ordanization this small spend money this way?
DeleteSince this thread began as a comment to a post about a training program, perhaps Tom might consider a specific thread related to your observations.
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