When Associations Falter

By David Schneider

Based the Article "When Empires Fall" published in Challenge Magazine

By 1997 the Students Association was in crisis. Perhaps it had been in crisis for a long time. Maybe it had always been in crisis, only needing one event to expose the theory, the sorry fact, that the social contract between the members, and the elected representatives, and the staff, whom they invested with authority, was dying. That one dramatic event, in this instance, was the Organisational Review.

There are some twenty four thousand students in the Students Association, and if twenty four thousand people are to be collected into one group they need a set of values that they all share in order to remain together. Because it is time consuming and inefficient (not to mention impossible) to expect every single person on six widely dispersed campuses, plus the vast number of those based externally, to comprehend and internalise these values, they were, in many ways, abstracted out of the general population and placed in the care of the elected representatives and staff of the Association.

The Branch based representatives, whose job it is to represent the needs and interests of the members on their campus affected by their portfolio, to a representative at the Central level who represents the needs and interests of all of the Association affected by their portfolio to the President. The President's is to make sure that that all of the needs and interests of all these portfolios are represented to Council. Council's job is to make sure that all of the needs and interests of the members of the Association are met by delegating tasks and authority to various sub-committees and members of staff. The Council also being personified in the person of the President, the "Head of State", if you will, of the Association.

The essence of the Association can be distilled into a deceptively simple phrase, "Noblesse oblige", literally from the French, "Nobility Obligates". If we look upon the representatives and staff as the "nobility" of our Association we can see that this phrase calls upon them to repay the fortune of election or appointment to obtain the talents of stewardship. Obligates the "noble" to use those talents of stewardship to take care of the Association as a whole, to take care of the people.

"I must check with the President", "I cannot act without discussing this with the Central Rep", this is not kowtowing, it is social contract. But the Organisational Review seems to have revealed an unpleasant reality, that the Students Association has entered an era of "Noblesse n'oblige plus", or "Nobility no longer Obligates". When enough representatives and staff no longer take the long view, and begin thinking in terms of short term or local gain, the Association is in trouble. When enough staff and reps forget that their positions are not guaranteed by invisible forces, but last only so long as the Association as a whole is vital and healthy, then the Association is doomed.

When branch representatives become more interested in furthering the needs of their branch over those of the other branches, forgetting the members of the entire Association, noblesse n'oblige plus.

When elected representatives join political factions, try to recruit our best and brightest into those factions, never stopping to think that other representatives will join other factions and try to recruit the best and brightest, noblesse n'oblige plus.

When staff members, who as much as anyone owe their position and authority to the ordinary members through the Council, act to safeguard their positions above all, act without consultation or usurp the powers of Council, noblesse n'oblige plus.

Why should these representatives and staff be expected to think so far ahead? Because that is their job. The honorarium provided to the representatives, the access to resources and funds, mobile phones, the privilege to sit on University Committees on behalf of their fellow students, to be quoted in the paper, to be treated with respect and to have their opinion matter. These privileges do not come from nowhere; they are not the product of Divine Right as conferred by mere election. Election to these positions, merely standing for these positions demanded that the representatives be smart, temperate and foresighted.

Staff even more than representatives need to be aware of this truth. For staff, unlike representatives, have no innate powers of their own. It could be said that if the values of the ordinary members were abstracted out of the general population and placed in the care of the representatives, then the representatives had placed the duty on the staff to make sure that Council never forgets its duty. For staff have no authority of their own, their powers and acts derive their legitimacy from delegation of power from the Council, and as staff often remain longer than their representative counter parts, they too need to be smart, temperate and foresighted.

For the representatives and the staff, together, are the keepers of the social contract. The Association Council is both the symbolic and literal recognition of this fact. Many may see the Council as more of a rubber stamp, approving work done by sub committees and branches, approving appointments of staff and so on. This role is also symbolic recognition of the fact that the Association only functions, only succeeds so long as all representatives affirm the greater Association and its policies as a whole.

Even privilege must be paid for. Must be paid for to the people beneath, whose willingness to accept the authority and leadership of the "noble" legitimates their authority, privileges and importance. Must be paid for to the level of representation above whose recognition of service also legitimises their authority.

When staff thought that they could maintain their positions by usurping the powers of Council to create their own CEO they forgot their job. When representatives fought the creation of a new branch to build up their own positions of power and authority they forgot theirs. Why do representatives look at the Association as a way of building a political career? Why do staff feel that they can snatch the reins of power from duly elected representatives? Why is this Association is crisis? Because noblesse n'oblige plus.

Yet all hope has not yet passed. There are still many within the Association who hold true to the Associations vision and values. Those who do not allow themselves to be drawn into the howling maelstrom, who by carrying on with their jobs and refusing to be split, help to prevent the destructive forces of chaos to take the life of the Association. These people manifest noblesse oblige and may yet prove to be the salvation of our Association, and its ability to protect the membership from which its power and authority are derived.

Return to Essay Index 2