Thoughts on Governance, Customer Service and Ownership
The Suzuki Association of the Americas is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Board has two essential responsibilities: (1) Crafting policies and ends statements (mission statements) that ensure an efficient, effective and visionary organization, one that is reflective of its ownership and that operates in a legal and ethical manner, and (2) evaluating the performance of the Chief Executive Officer against those policies and ends statements.
The Board of Directors organizes its activities around a mechanism known as Carver Policy Governance, which outlines the manner in which a board can be successful in its servant-leadership role and in its relationship with the management of an organization.
While the Board does not manage day-to-day operations, or even the means by which policies are executed, it does have a responsibility to ensure that sufficient progress toward the ends statements is made. It does this by closely monitoring reports submitted to the Board by the Chief Executive Officer.
The Board is also responsible for connecting and communicating with the ownership—anyone in the Americas who subscribes to the philosophy of Shinichi Suzuki. The method of linking with ownership is something that the present board thinks should be strengthened considerably.
Communication between the Board and the ownership should not be confused with customer service. Customer service is an activity that occurs between the ownership and management. Member services such as course development, teacher training registration, American Suzuki Journal publication, dues collection, et. al., are all clearly within the purview of the staff and management. Owners should expect management to be responsive to all reasonable requests and concerns. Owners should not expect management to vary from the policy goals set by the Board.
Owners themselves have special responsibilities within and outside of the organization. It is the responsibility of every owner to communicate their best hopes and vision for Suzuki education in the Americas. It is the policies decisions and collective resources of the SAA that have the best chance to transform mere hope into glorious reality.
Owners are also responsible for advocating, at all levels, for Suzuki education and the organization that represents it, the Suzuki Association of the Americas. There is an amazing story that must be told about Suzuki education. It can be told by the SAA through press releases and email newsletters, but it is much more powerful when it is told by thousands of advocates from every walk of life.
The world must know that Suzuki education makes a difference in the lives of children and has the power to transform entire families into engines of learning and nobility. The world must know that Suzuki education can provide an important scaffold for children struggling to overcome environments of poverty and violence. The world must know that excellent Suzuki teachers are not teachers who use the Suzuki books but not the Suzuki philosophy.
Excellent Suzuki teachers are teachers who fully subscribe to Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy and have dedicated their lives to teaching music and nurturing human potential. Excellent Suzuki teachers participate in a continuously improving learning community. Excellent Suzuki teachers register with pride their official record of teacher training with the SAA for the entire world to see.
Owners are also responsible for innovation in teaching. We are a community with a powerful and unprecedented collection of expertise in early childhood education, best practices in parenting, and excellent instrumental pedagogies. Innovations in both the content of teaching and in how that content is delivered must be shared within the Suzuki community. The SAA is a natural nexus for information sharing and dialogue.
The Board of Directors, the management, and owners each have unique and indispensable roles to play in our organization. Together we will progress toward our goal of making excellent Suzuki education highly sought after, widely available, and universally recognized by the peoples of the Americas as a very effective means to develop human potential.
