You’re right, I should rephrase. Instead of: “You can’t quit.”
Let me instead say: "You are legally allowed to quit, but it creates so much work for the rest of the board members and distracts so much from MakeICT’s mission that I would really, really prefer than you do not quit. Seriously. Please. As your president, throw me a solid and try not to quit 
"
The rest of my statement, that your term goes until June and we’d prefer that you run for 2-3 years because getting a new board member up to speed is a lot of work - I still think that’s all true.
On the topic if our issues. I don’t really see anything new from last year. We had area leads quit. This year JB, Tom Bloom and James Seymour all resigned area lead positions but you’re here replying to threads in support of the mission, and that means a lot to me, especially hearing comments about how leading is a worthwhile learning experience. We have revoked keys recently but this is not the first time for that either. When we have an issue come up, security deals with it. I will be totally open to anyone who asks me for more details (seriously!) but when I polled the members about it (Key revocation notifications) most of them said that we should notify board/area/committee leads so that’s what we’ve been doing.
Sure we have bad weeks. I am open to hearing what we could change to keep board members, area leads, and active volunteers happy. But I ask that it come in the form of constructive criticism, not just that the system is doomed.
I do stress to new members in orientation that a membership here costs $25/mo + volunteer time. If all you do is pay $25, use the tools, and go home, you are not putting in enough. But when we compare ourselves to other makerspaces and non-profit organizations, they all struggle with volunteer burnout and imbalance. A few people do a lot of work, most people do not - that is a fact of non-profit world. I go back to my ladder that I showed at the annual meeting -there are levels to increasing engagement:
- Broadcast the heck out of volunteer opportunities. Ask, ask, ask
- Build relationships
- Design a system that draws people in
- Coach people to know what to do without a leader telling them it needs done - try to replace yourself
- Actually replace yourself
That is my plan. So this asking for a board member is just a level 1 task but I am also reaching out to people and asking the membership to support their board members so they’re drawn in instead of pushed out.
Still open to advice,
Kim