In his hilarious call for corporate creativity and sanity Orbiting The Giant Hairball, Gordon MacKenzie observes that organizations tend to choke on their success. Independent schools typically have the added challenge of operating with a hierarchic trustee/administration/faculty/student system that places great responsibility in the hands of wonderful people who may know little about educating young people. After stewarding the financial well being of the institution, what really is the role of the trustee? Gordon MacKenzie suggests that--ideally--all management simply feeds opportunity and permission to those who do the work at the periphery of the model, which--at schools--means students and teachers. What trustees need to do, then, is to dream of future potentials and enjoy real relationships with students and teachers. The way John Fitzpatrick knows Tony, Jerome, and so many other students at Proctor.

It is said that the role of grandparents is simply to love and support. That what we're talking about. Here are two of many great trustees: former Chair Weezie Johnson and Jane Stetson (with daughter Kat and friend Olivia).

Interface with students is hugely rewarding and emotional for trustees. Here, with students, they listen to Steve Wilkins's remarks at Friday's dinner.

Instead of a pyramid-shaped corporate hierarchy, Gordon MacKenzie calls for an organic model: a tree, sustained (from the bottom's roots and trunk,) by trustees and administrators who call up to the leaves and fruits, "What do you need?" The response: "We've got what we need: sunshine and air!"