jar546
Forum Coordinator
There comes a time when likeminded individuals within a particular community get together to form an organization. The main purpose is for the benefit of the members of the organization to help facilitate their goals. Sometimes wanting to help a specific group of people is the driving force. These organizations are set up as non-profits and not for profit businesses. Sometimes, however, they take on a mind of their own. Please,….. allow me to explain.
Let's look at the ICC, for example. The ICC states that
You see, at some point the organization that was started to serve the members takes on a life of its own and starts to resemble a for-profit business focused on generating revenue in order to sustain itself. Rather than controlling expenses and keeping within a strict budget, organizations find ways to generate revenue in order to keep what they have. There are people with full time and part time jobs that have benefits, there are buildings, leases, legal fees, insurance payments, event planning expenses along with the event cost itself, printing and copyright expenses, plus much, much more. As I wrote about earlier, this is a member driven organization, here to serve the members who serve the communities of many nations. If you are here to serve the members, why would you offer services that are the responsibility of the members?
As a member of the ICC I do have an expectation that we, as an organization (notice I said "we") will keep up with changing times, technology and past experience to change the codes as necessary. In addition, there is an expectation that we receive educational support for changing codes and those just entering our fields. The ability to have technical support for code questions and situations is also key. Knowing what products have been evaluated and approved is something that we all need. What I don't need is a non-profit organization providing the same services that the members should be performing themselves such as plan review. I own a for-profit company and should not have to compete with a non-profit organization that is providing the same service just like a "business". It is difficult to write a check to your "competitor" for membership.
If a municipality is overwhelmed with plan review, they can always hire someone to work within their local economy. If that is not an option, there are plenty of private companies that provide plan review services to supplement them. Why is a non-profit organization like the ICC infringing on it's member's jobs? How is this serving the members? At what point do you realize that this is strictly a revenue generator to keep the machine running? That is, of course if it does generate revenue and the expenses of providing that service are more than what is brought in. That just may be a really good question to ask. My point is that organizations get off kilter from their original intention and the focus becomes more about maintaining the organization and less about why it exists.
Let's look at the ICC, for example. The ICC states that
. To me, the key word is development. We, as members, expect the ICC to develop codes for the building trades. Why, you ask? Again, I will quote the ICC as to why.
Sounds pretty simple, yet it is a major undertaking by this organization. Back to my original thought, organizations are started for their members. As expected, the ICC addresses that too.
Now, in order to do that, the ICC must educate their members, therefore, education is a key component of the success of the organization. So, who are the members of the ICC? Members include municipal officials, code officials, inspectors, architects, engineers, contractors, etc. Creation and maintenance of model codes and education are by far the two most important reasons the ICC exists. I want to break down those two main components as they are key to the existence of the organization.Starting with code development, there are quite a few things involved that are expensive. Code hearings, committee meetings, publication of proposed code changes, printing of code books, and more. Then there is the educational side which requires much of the same, plus the development of educational and certification programs, training materials both printed, video and web based. In order to accomplish these two main objectives requires a full time staff, a board of directors, committee volunteers and a lot of money. Now I know the ICC does a lot more as far as product evaluation, maintaining an informative website which includes databases of certified individuals, ICC ES and Legacy reports, etc. but there at some point things start to change.
You see, at some point the organization that was started to serve the members takes on a life of its own and starts to resemble a for-profit business focused on generating revenue in order to sustain itself. Rather than controlling expenses and keeping within a strict budget, organizations find ways to generate revenue in order to keep what they have. There are people with full time and part time jobs that have benefits, there are buildings, leases, legal fees, insurance payments, event planning expenses along with the event cost itself, printing and copyright expenses, plus much, much more. As I wrote about earlier, this is a member driven organization, here to serve the members who serve the communities of many nations. If you are here to serve the members, why would you offer services that are the responsibility of the members?
As a member of the ICC I do have an expectation that we, as an organization (notice I said "we") will keep up with changing times, technology and past experience to change the codes as necessary. In addition, there is an expectation that we receive educational support for changing codes and those just entering our fields. The ability to have technical support for code questions and situations is also key. Knowing what products have been evaluated and approved is something that we all need. What I don't need is a non-profit organization providing the same services that the members should be performing themselves such as plan review. I own a for-profit company and should not have to compete with a non-profit organization that is providing the same service just like a "business". It is difficult to write a check to your "competitor" for membership.
If a municipality is overwhelmed with plan review, they can always hire someone to work within their local economy. If that is not an option, there are plenty of private companies that provide plan review services to supplement them. Why is a non-profit organization like the ICC infringing on it's member's jobs? How is this serving the members? At what point do you realize that this is strictly a revenue generator to keep the machine running? That is, of course if it does generate revenue and the expenses of providing that service are more than what is brought in. That just may be a really good question to ask. My point is that organizations get off kilter from their original intention and the focus becomes more about maintaining the organization and less about why it exists.
