As the Association Turns: An Ethics Awareness Month Soap Opera!

by Cecilia Sepp, CAE, ACNP, LPEC

Author’s note: I serve on the ASAE Ethics Committee and as part of our work for Ethics Awareness Month in March, I created a five-part soap opera series for promotion of the Committee’s work. You can find the series in the ASAE Ethics Collaborate community. 

Episode 1: The Friendly Board Member 😊

Douglas “Dougie” Fitzsimmons is a long-time member of the Societal Organization Advancing Pants (SOAP). The association represents makers and sellers of pants of all kinds. Their membership includes individuals who make men’s pants, women’s pants, and pants for pets. Within the membership, there are special interest groups (SIGs) representing all the varieties of pants from blue jeans to dress pants to ski pants and everything in between. 

While there are no local chapters, SOAP encourages its members to organize informal networking events in their area. SOAP does not support or help organize these events but they will promote the local events online and in their e-newsletter. 

Dougie has not served on the Board of Directors before, but he is a well-known and well-liked local influencer within the membership. He is known for his easy-going nature, commitment to building networks within the association and profession, and his willingness to mentor others and share knowledge. 

An informal local networking event was organized for a Thursday evening; Dougie planned to attend but arrived about an hour after the event started. It was held at a popular pub with Happy Hour pricing for drinks and food. 

As Dougie entered the pub, he was greeted by many friendly faces and stopped repeatedly to chat and shake hands. It took him 10 minutes to get to the bar area. What he saw there shocked and disappointed him: a member of the SOAP Board of Directors was in attendance and appeared to be quite intoxicated. 

It turns out the Board member, Max Mayhem, had arrived 30 minutes before the event and started drinking early. As he became increasingly intoxicated, he became increasingly friendly – putting his hands on people in a way that made them uncomfortable, attempting to sloppily kiss women on the cheek, and insisting that attendees drink more. “Let’s all have a good time!” he kept yelling loudly. 

As a trusted influencer in the organization, several attendees approached Dougie and asked him to do something about Max’s behavior. 

Dougie is in an ethical dilemma. He is not an organizer of the event or an elected leader of SOAP. In this situation, he sees the dangers to the individuals and the organization. He agrees that something should be done but he is not sure how to handle it. 

Will Dougie intervene? Will Max sober up? How many people will file complaints about the event? Did Max give anyone a cold or the flu with his sloppy kisses??

What would you do in Dougie’s place? 

Tune in next week for Episode 2: The Angry Board Member!