Have you ever been on a nonprofit committee and half way through a very important project someone dismisses them selves from the committee because they have other prior business engagements or they have other time constraints, which do not fit with the committee.

Perhaps they are over extended or perhaps they are a politician running for office and now that they are elected they have to go way to do their job as a bureaucrat paper and podium pusher and become a better liar? Sometimes we find lawyers who join committees in order to get clients and network and if they do not find anybody worthy to network with to sponge money off of with their very exorbitant fees they will quit the committee.

Unfortunately this leaves a gap in the committee leadership. When this occurs often not all the jobs can be done. Sometimes these changes come rapidly and unexpectedly and there is no time to get the new person who will take over the leadership ready in time.

This of course causes conflicts in the nonprofit committee's mission and leads to more meetings unnecessarily. It is for this reason that nonprofit groups should take change management issues seriously in their committees and treat them as if it was the Board of Director change at a major corporation.

Perhaps it is not as serious for shareholders equity and quarterly profits but if your nonprofit work is that important that you spend your time to volunteer for it, then obviously you want to get the job done with the least amount of hassles and the most efficiently. Please consider this in 2006.