DON’T:

• Neglect to involve or advise key people in the community about the organization.
• Spend six months or more trying to define the organization’s purpose.
• Begin with a study or survey that takes a year and that precludes other decisions or actions    until its completion.
• Become preoccupied with organizational structure, including by-laws.
• Develop beautiful plans, but fail to carry them out.
• Neglect to assign deadlines or, at least, be proactive by developing “target” dates.
• Avoid dealing with hard issues, such as group leadership and ‘turf’ claims or local conservative or liberal attitudes.
• Turn into a discussion group rather than an action group.
• Fail to plan for self-evaluation.
• Lose sight of the young people the organization is supposed to serve.
• Allow a vocal minority to dictate policies or actions.
• Take on highly controversial strategies before developing the organization’s credibility in the state.
• Allow one agency or individual to dominate or control the organization.
• Assume everyone knows about the issues.
• Designate seats on the board of directors for specific groups or agencies.
• Fail to rotate members onto and off of the board of directors.
• Fail to establish rules for meetings and for finalizing decisions (such as Roberts’ Rules of Order).
• Fail to use democratic processes, especially when disagreement arises.
• Try to achieve 100 percent agreement on every decision or issue.
• Forget to have fun or to celebrate successes!