PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
R E A DY TO L E A D ow can nonprofit board members make the best contributions to their organizations? Judy Millesen, a faculty member with Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and director of the master of public administration program, proposed developing an instructional DVD on board governance to better prepare regional board members with critical skills for fundraising, time management, and strategy. Millesen recruited public administration graduate student Renee Steffen, students from the Scripps College of Communication, regional nonprofit board members, and a local musician for the effort. “It turned into the biggest project I’ve ever been involved with,” Steffen says. With funding from the Sugar Bush Foundation, the team created a DVD that consists of five 12-minute sections: fundraising, planning and strategy, roles and responsibilities, making meetings count, and financial management. “Board members should be able to articulate how they will contribute to the mission and vision of the organization, as well as how they will play a vital role in helping to raise funds,” Steffen explains. As project manager, Steffen coordinated schedules, scouted film locations, and guided the film students who taped interviews and edited footage. The team filmed interviews at the Kennedy Museum of Art and the Voinovich School, and local musician Bruce Dalzell provided a soundtrack. Steffen called the final product “easily understandable, engaging, and fast-paced.” The team released 500 free copies of the DVD in August—following 10 listening sessions, 21 board member interviews, and hundreds of hours of editing. Local and national nonprofit boards for the arts, animal welfare, human services, environment, and youth have received the DVD, and board members have given very positive feedback so far. “The great thing about the DVD is that it has a broad-based appeal,” says Steffen, noting that the project helped her land a job with the Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Akron, Ohio. “The information is applicable to any type of nonprofit seeking to strengthen its board despite its particular mission.” Katie Brandt
Hounded by one empire after another for centuries, the people of Eritrea— about 50 percent Sunni Muslim, 50 percent Orthodox Tewahado Christian— have developed a unique national identity.
below North Korea,” Venosa says. “But even today, there really are no religious or sectarian problems.” Hounded by one empire after another for centuries, the people of Eritrea—about 50 percent Sunni
Muslim, 50 percent Orthodox Tewahado Christian—have developed a unique national identity. Religion played a major role in that development, as well as in Venosa’s research. His work centers on the country’s Muslim intellectual class and how their contributions from 1941 to 1961 inside and outside Eritrea created a nationalist identity. To fight the European colonial powers and Ethiopian government, Muslims in Eritrea partnered with Christian activists to resist Ethiopian influence. Ethiopia took over Eritrea during this period, outlawing
ethnic languages and independent media. Many Eritreans fled to neighboring Sudan, where they built opposition groups that fueled a nationalist movement to rally Eritrea’s two million citizens. An independent country since 1993, today the highly militarized Eritrean government consists of both Muslims and Christians. Despite its many challenges and authoritarian policies, Venosa says, the country itself maintains relative religious harmony. It controls virtually every facet of life, however, which has driven away many Eritreans. Now
instead of creating a national identity, opposition groups in the United States, Canada, Northern Europe, and the Middle East are building a government in exile. Still, Venosa has hope for future generations. “If the people of Eritrea have shown anything in recent decades, it has been an ability to persevere against a seemingly hopeless political climate,” he says. “You cannot look at the current situation and simply say that it’s somehow a lost cause.” Katie Brandt
PHOTO: KEVIN RIDDELL
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