WWYD re voluntary position resignation

[MaryBethMayfair]

For about 3+ years, I've been a voluntary director of an organisation.
prior to commencing the role I had to complete a training programme and now the role consists of monthly board meetings (the meeting is scheduled for evenings, after working hours however it takes me several hours through through week to review the papers), an annual training day and also at least one annual weekend conference. All of this I do voluntarily and use my annual leave to cover my time off work, as needed.

A life change occurred a year ago which has made doing this voluntary position tricky. I simply don't have the capacity any more. I emailed four of the relevant people from the organisation/board with a very polite message about how much I enjoy the voluntary role, that I'd like to do it again in the future but that the role is currently very difficult for me. I explained that despite it being so difficult, I wanted to fulfil my commitment of the 4 year term I signed up to and as such, I'd make the necessary sacrifices to ensure I gave 100% to the position until the end of the year. (I gave a lot of notice as we have problems with succession planning and maintaining the right board numbers)

Anyway, the best part of a month has gone by and not a single one of them has responded to my email with so much as a placeholder response. My instinct is to reply back with a "clearly you don't give a monkeys so I'll bow out now rather than give you seven more months of my time"

Should I maintain quiet dignity, fulfil my term and then have nothing more to do with them, or, send another email to highlight the bad manners & unprofessionalism displayed by them not sending me even the most basic of responses?

If I were to email, how can I be direct that I'm disappointed without lowering myself to their unprofessional standards. OR, am I just being overly sensitive and I shouldn't have expected an email back at all?!

I would just remind them you will be leaving in x months who do they want you to hand over any files/meetings too..

Firstly, I’d check that your email has reached them and hasn’t gone into their junk folders (you never know…!)

Then, if they have received your email I’d reply saying unfortunately you’re going to have to tender your resignation earlier than planned owing to a <vague> change in circumstances and will be leaving in 3 months on X date. As such, who do you hand everything over to?

Fuck ‘em.

I had something similar, in a smaller way, some years ago. I was the Treasurer of a club that my children belonged to previously. They'd long since got too old and moved on and I wanted to too. I tried to resign several times but nothing ever happened about finding a replacement so I kept getting guilt tripped into carrying on. Eventually I had had enough so I wrote to the Chair firmly but dispassionately stating "I will be stepping down on X date and will inform the bank to remove my details from the account and send future correspondence to you from that date if no replacement has been found." I think I gave them about 6 weeks. A new Treasurer was identified within a fortnight.
I'd suggest you take a similar stance. In my experience people will let you carry on and emotionally blackmail you to do so until you put your foot down. I got the "oh but we'll have to close if we don't have a Treasurer" line repeatedly, but nobody made any effort to take over, and eventually I started to think "So close then, not my problem". Except of course they didn't. Once it was clear I wasn't going to be a doormat it was sorted.
You've done your bit, walk calmly away if you've had enough.

Just to clarify - what was the purpose of your email? Were you resigning or were you telling them that you weren’t resigning but would not be standing for a further 4 year term when your term ends in 7 months? Would you have been normally expected to carry on for another four years after the initial four years were up?

What you wrote above sounds a little like you wanted someone to make the decision for you, but I could be wrong.

It feels like you should either have been giving them notice to stand down in 6 weeks (or whatever) or waited til 6 or 8 weeks before the end of your term & confirmed that you’d be stepping down on x date.

They might not know what answer you expect and have then let it (quite rudely, I agree!) drift.

It was a long notice that I wouldn't be continuing with the role beyond end of this year. So yes, resigning but giving them plenty of time to replace me. They have issues with succession planning and getting new directors through the door, so only giving 6-8 weeks of notice could have been problematic for the quorum. Not necessarily my problem but again, I was trying to be as courteous as possible.

I suppose I would have liked a "thanks for everything you've done and we hope to see you back". I'd have settled for "We have received your email and note your leaving date".

Although actually, I did ask in my email for it to be confirmed what date my 4 year term would complete (did the clock start when I completed my training or from the first meeting I attended, for instance) So, they should really have come back to me with at least a confirmation of the date.

It is probably that given it is 7 months away they don't see it as urgent, and are all waiting for one of the others to reply.

I'd follow up and ask for clarification on the date, by the end of this week. Depending on how courteous the response, I'd consider bringing my resignation forward.

You have monthly board meetings, so can’t be that far away from the next one yes? I’d send a follow up email “hello, just following up on my results below to check the date my 4 year term ends, as this will be my last day”. Then if still no response, just mention it at your next meeting. No need to take it personally/get cross about it - many emails go unanswered!