How I recently used these skills.
Over two years ago a friend of mine asked me to join the board of a non-profit and help clean it up. We had a group of older members who were intent on driving it into the ground. They were doing some stupid shit on outings, like serving alcohol in non-permitted ways, requiring folks to "take a shot" before getting on a bus, etc. The were also handing out cash payments to themselves from what they claimed were "excess funds" from group trips. This was opening up the club, and now me as an elected officer, to huge potential liabilities.
Being "children of the 60's", these folks were used to calling the shots and ignoring the concerns of the younger members. Two of us spoke up in dissent. Then we became three, then four. The board is made up of nine so were a minority.
First they tried to remove one of "our" board members by a member vote. By stacking the meeting, they "won" the vote by a large margin. Then our attorney pointed out the state statute that they ignored, requiring advertising of the motion at least 30 days prior to the meeting. Our board member was promptly reinstated to loud cries of complaint. I researched the statute further and drove the issue hard, over several months, beating the complaintants until submission.
One of "their" board members in particular insisted that the laws "don't apply to us", citing his extensive resume sitting on non-profit boards; company presidents, CEOs, blah, blah, blah. I got him so angry by pointing out the fallacies of his arguments that he actually climbed up on the table to get in my face. When I didn't flinch and responded with a grin he blew his top and resigned right there.
Another spent several hours with our attorney, racking up large invoices, with a long list of arguments, each of which he and I quickly dismissed due to logical fallacies.
Still another wasted board time over and over with long discussions not leading anywhere. The effect was to stifle new business that I wanted to get to, such as obtaining liability insurance, enforcing rules, and censuring members for ethical violations. I pointed out Roberts Rules to quash her musings. She fought for months by insisting Robert didn't apply, until our attorney dropped the bomb on her with written notice. At the subsequent meeting she tried the same tactic so I called "point of order" and stopped her dead. She quit a week later.
Finally about 6 weeks ago all this bullshit came to a head when we held annual elections. We developed a good slate of fresh candidates and collected 50 proxies to their 25. Each candidate was given 5 minutes to speak then answer questions. The old members peppered them with difficult questions. When it came my turn I anticipated all their questions to me, made my speech addressing each, then waited. After two years with me as one of their chief antagonists they finally had their opportunity to try and embarrass me in public, with the accusations made by many of them in emails and side comments. I stood there for nearly a minute staring them all down, grinning. None had the balls to face me. We swept the election.
