Introduction

The Lint Center for National Security Studies (Lint Center) is a new organization incorporated June 2007 and received IRS 501(c) (3) approval to operate as a public charity in August 2007. The mission of Lint Center is to create and award scholarships for counterintelligence (CI) and national security (NS) workers, their children and scholars of CI and NS, to further the study national security, cross-culture studies and global understanding. Additionally, coordinate creation and dissemination of national security studies and forum. The forums will build out to different national security subjects and international relations.  The initial goal for implementation in the education field is to conduct online English training for speakers of other languages in approximately two years. The pilot education program will be to instruct Asians proper business, resume and correspondence writing.  Upon successful start up of the English training academy, future and entry-level national security workers will have an opportunity to assist in training foreigners in English language skills.  This will improve cross-cultural knowledge and give our national security workers experience working with foreigners in a safe and learning environment.

This organization was started by the Lint family which has a multi-generational history of working in national security organizations both military and intelligence.  The reason I selected this organization is that I am one of the founders of the organization and have a profound knowledge of the organization’s intention. I too envision how this organization successfully operates according to the corporate vision. My husband and I established this organization with a vision of supporting people financially and educationally. We both saw the need to assist in the training of national security workers who may have never worked with, nor even met foreign nationals. They must have the knowledge of cross-cultural environments to represent USA overseas. In the meantime, English has become the international language in both the academic and business areas in the global society. The demand of learning English worldwide is increasing every year.

The intent is to conduct all actions with unpaid volunteer staff including a Chairman and myself, Vice Chairman. I will be creating the English training program, assist in fund raising and look for projects in alliance building.  My husband, the Chairman, runs an email list server with Army counterintelligence special agents worldwide.  As these people retire, they will be resources for teaching English. As the online English writing school grows, some professional paid instructors will be required. One leadership challenge of Lint Center is that the volunteers are not motivated by a salary or compensation. This requires a mutually supporting vision of gain and sustaining the vision by motivating the volunteers. We need to convey the vision that this education gives benefit to both the foreign students and the national security workers.

 I have utilized strategic leadership during my time as a Managing Director for a large land development company in Seoul Korea.  I had three sections of personnel working different elements of the business model.  My job was to ensure all sections worked in harmony to create a profitable environment for the company.  I did this with a collaborative decision-making model to achieve the goal because the real estate market in Korea was so competitive. I set up the short-term goal of visible achievement and long-term goals for building mutual vision between management staff.

My Vision

When we established the Lint Center, we set the mission of the organization to present our vision for the organization along with how it supports the community that we are involved.  With the mission statement, I have planned how we develop this nonprofit organization to relate to the educational field. My vision for the Lint Center is initially to create the nonprofit scholarship organization that is run by our family funds, and later, during expansion, adding public donations from supporters who agree with our mission. As the Lint Center has evolved to educational institute, the organization will be more actively involved with the global community’s needs and issues that we are planning to open online English writing school. 

 The initial goal/purpose for implementation in the education field is to conduct online English training for speakers of other languages in approximately two years. People may question how English teaching to foreigners is related to the mission of the organization. Another question will be whether the educational institute is profitable to maintain. Because the school does not generate the cost of managing it, the existence of the school is in jeopardy. Transformational leaders envision the organization's future, articulate that vision to organizational members, and inspire and facilitate a higher level of motivation than those members have thought possible (Newman, 2000). Visioning is the leader's ability to see the organization's future clearly and completely.  For the first question, we saw the need to assist in the training of national security workers who may have never worked with, nor even met foreign nationals. Many of these national security workers will travel to areas and be the first Americans foreign people have met.  They must have the knowledge of cross-cultural environments to represent USA overseas. On the contrary, English has become the international language in both the academic and business areas in many countries. The demand of learning English in Asia is not just mere learning foreign language; it is a critical need and requirement for every individual to thrive in the global society. Because of mutual necessity, Lint Center has a vision to be a bridge to lead the two groups to be involved, to interact, and support each other. To answer the second question, Lint Center originates funding by founders, but it commences fund raising public donations to fund additional school cost.  By the emerging success of financial donations, numbers of volunteers being English conveyers/instructors and practical tuition from willing learners, the institute will generate sufficient funds to manage the cost.

To accomplish my vision for Lint Center, I plan some steps to achieve the goal of organization. Our goal for fund raising for next year is 100% match with our family donation and following year is to reach up to 80% of total donation including Lint Center initial fund. It means that 80% public donation and 20% of Lint family donation fund. To raise public donation, I set up small section at my bank for donations and publicize the mission of Lint Center on donation website www.LintCenter.org and to Combined Federal Campaign, which is a federal employee donation program.  With the successful fund raising, the next step is to recruit volunteers to teach English, create curriculum, and teaching guides for the consistent instruction.

The pilot education program will be to instruct Asians in proper business, resume and correspondence writing.  Upon successful start up of the English training academy, future and entry-level national security workers will have an opportunity to assist in training foreigners in English language skills.  This will improve cross-cultural knowledge and give our national security workers experience working with foreigners in a safe and learning environment. My husband, the Chairman, runs an email list server with over 360 Army counterintelligence special agents worldwide. They will be resources for teaching English after they retire. They also will help mentor younger counterintelligence agents. Based on my experience, I will be creating the English training program with professional assistance, assist in fund raising and look for projects in alliance building.  As the online English writing school is built and grows, some professional paid instructors will be required.  These will be supplemented with national security workers who can act similar to Teachers Aids.  Therefore, this will give better professional development for both the students and the volunteers. The hiring of the instructors is envisioned for approximately three years from now. One leadership challenge of Lint Center is that the volunteers are not motivated by a salary or compensation. This requires a mutually supporting vision of gain. This requires the volunteers to have buy-in on the corporate vision and the vision for the school.  By building a better English language capability in the world, we assist in keeping America a dominate country. This gives benefit to both the foreign student and the national security worker. In addition, for the consistent education quality all volunteers will be educated via online from professional team leaders and will have threaded discussion to upgrade the quality of education. It is an open space for all volunteering instructors to communicate in conjunction of their challenges as teachers. The team leaders will give specific advice for the specific matters that teachers would meet in practical situation. Finally, team leaders will have their weekly cluster meeting with their team members. Team leaders will have another weekly meeting with administrators and colleague to convey the issue of their cluster meeting. The persistent and consistent communication between supporters, educators, and administrators will reinforce and lead to achieve the vision of the organization. 

The Organizational Structure and Personnel

From the date of establishment to present, I have focused on the process of setting up the nonprofit organization. As soon as Lint Center was established, it started having some public donations and selected the first group of students as a pilot practice of issuing the scholarship award. At this moment, Lint Center has only two initial departments with eight volunteers to manage the organization (Figure 1). The current organization has principally two simple structures: Committees and Board of Directors. The team of Board of Directors collaborates with a vice chairperson in terms of finance, IT support, and administration. The Board of Directors team meeting occurs on an as needed basis and by email exchanges as authorized by Delaware Corporate law. Another structure is the Committees, such as the scholarship committee. Their meetings are also held via emails or instant messaging services by need basis. All volunteers are currently professional employees of the US federal Government or private companies, thus communicating through online is the best way to enable all members to participate and contribute ideas.

It is a simple but very effective structure for the organization in the beginning, but now it is time to change the organizational structure in order to evolve to achieve the vision that I strive to pursue. As I indicated before, I have a vision of educating people so all in the world can communicate in same language. I believe English can be an alternative language due to the current position of English as a global language in academic and financial field. The principle reason for the restructure of the organization is that Lint Center needs to go forward from the scholarship organization to an educational institute including expansion of scholarship committee. The organization will add two more departments until the school actually opens. Therefore, this is another transition structure. My goal for the next two years is that Lint Center is able to finish the preparation for the opening an online English writing school for foreigners. This structure is temporary for next two years. Upon the successful preparation of launching the school, the structure will be changed in conjunction with an as needed basis or a change of an objective of the organization in the future (Figure 2).

The two existing departments, Board of Directors and Scholarship Committee, will be maintained as separate departments. I will make a new school initiative department, which consists of two other divisions. One division is for administration and the other division is for human resources. The class and course review committee will manage or provide oversight for the Administration Department. The role of Administration Department is to create curriculums, develop courses, design the class materials, and teachers’ manuals. The Administration Department also deals with administrational support and makes a marketing plan to advertise the organization. The staff of the Administration Department will be supported by the volunteer coordination section. The volunteer coordination section will recruit retired or current teachers or instructors who are willing to aid teaching foreigners. 

The human resources department is divided into two sections.  One section is the Volunteer Coordinator team. The other is the Professional Management team. The Volunteer Coordinator section will recruit, train, manage and mentor volunteer workers for Lint Center. The goal is to have many more volunteers than professional or paid staff. A focus will be recruiting retired teachers, military and business professionals. This would be similar to the Senior Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), which assisted Lint Center during start up, and gaining IRS approval to operate as a charity.   Their website describes them as, “SCORE, Counselors to America's Small Business, is America's premier source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs.”  Obviously, leadership of volunteers who lack the motivation of a paycheck is different and maybe more difficult than paid employees. Therefore, the volunteers have to have a consensus with the vision of the organization. The Volunteer Coordination section will create the treaded discussion site to share ideas of the agenda and the publicizing site to inspire volunteers. The leader of the Volunteer Coordination Section will hire one full time coordinator for managing volunteers and assisting the administration department.   

The Professional Management Section will require human resource experienced personnel, with other strong leaders to recruit, and manage a professional staff of educators. These professionals will assist in managing, developing course and curriculum, and researching programs. The professionals will provide the checks and balances for the development of the Institute.  They will also provide instruction for the more difficult to teach classes and assist in managing and training volunteer instructors. This section will be the last section that I am planning to build because of the cost effect.

I believe this restructuring of the organization is helpful for Lint Center. Because it will facilitate preparation for the next step of the vision, providing English writing classes to the foreigners. The Volunteer Coordination Section has a critical role for this restructuring of the organization. The reason is that the section will assist all other departments by supplying volunteers to proper positions and by utilizing their capabilities and experiences. By changing the organization, I am able to step forward to the vision for the organization and it helps inspire and motivate supporters of the organization actively involved with an agreed, consensus dream. The change also helps the organization to more effective to accomplish the vision.

Support Resources

Since the Lint Center is newly established, most funds are from Lint family donations. The funds are set aside and ready for planned donations, it has not been a critical problem yet. The vision I have been discussing for Lint Center is a move into the education business. Education is a big business. It will be valued by the end product; a well educated, competent and adaptable student (Geiger, 1994).  As I have planned with a new vision for Lint Center to expand including the educational institute, I am required to prepare how I can generate extra resources and allocate resources adequately to accomplish my vision for Lint Center.  I believe that performance-based funding promotes vertical differentiation and functional specialization (Sorlin, 2007).  The main components for Lint Center are (1) Scholarship funds and (2) school initiative department support. The sub component is (1) creating curriculum and developing courses, (2) volunteer training, (3) volunteer coordination, (4) professional managing and (5) information technology (IT) support and marketing. A total of 50% of the funds goes to main components. 30% of the resources are allocated to scholarship committee to award scholarships. For the school initiative department, 20% of the funds will be adjusted. The rest of 50% of the funds will assign to sub components by differentiating the need. Each sub component will have 10% of the funds.

Because two existing areas, Board of Directors and Scholarship Committee, will be maintained as separate areas, there will be no extra funding for these sections. All members of two existing departments will continue to participate as volunteers. The volunteer nature of the organization is the reason we can maintain the same amount of the funds for these areas, but it will be 30% of the total resources due to increasing funding for Lint Center.  The administrative support person will be a full time employee.  The 20% of the funds will be allocated to the new school initiative department. The new school initiative department consists of two other divisions. One division is for administration and the other division is for human resources. The assigned funds will be used for general office expenses and management. The rest 50% of the funds will be divided into five sub components with each receiving 10% of the funding. Consolidation of resources will allow for comprehensive implementation of components and sub-components critical to the success of instructional delivery systems (Borba, 2003). 

The first sub component is to create curriculums, develop courses, design the class materials, and teachers’ manuals. This is the essential for educating students. I set 10% of the funds for volunteer training. Lint Center will use many volunteers to teach English writing, we pay attention to training teachers to provide a consistent quality of education. In addition, another 10% of the funding goes to the volunteer coordination section. The reason is that the volunteer coordination section will recruit retired or current teachers or instructors who are willing to aid teaching foreigners.  Additionally, the staff of the Administration Department will be supported by the volunteer coordination section. Therefore, the volunteers have to have a consensus with the vision of the organization. The Volunteer Coordination section will create a treaded discussion site to share ideas of the agenda and the publicizing site to inspire volunteers. The leader of the Volunteer Coordination Section will hire one full time coordinator for managing volunteers and assisting the administration department.  The Professional Management Section will require human resource experienced personnel, with other strong leaders to recruit, and manage a professional staff of educators. This section will be the last section that I am planning to build because of the cost effect. Before we reach the point of hiring professional staff, we will allocate 10% of the funds for the professional management section to help build it.  Lastly, IT support and marketing team will have 10% to make a marketing plan. The school provides online distance education; IT is the critical factor to make the school successful. The phenomenon raising the bar for the profession is the boom in information technologies (Taylor, 1997).  The team will work with all other sections. Especially the administration department will assist the administrational support and marketing plan by collaborating with IT team.

As a final point, I address how the resources are affordable, attainable and maintainable. This organization is operated by a charity budget, which is already funded and continues to accept public donations. It is publicized with Army, DOD and Marine education offices and magazines for scholarships and soliciting donation at the same time. The funds we can use are sufficient to operate the organization. We also have motivated and dedicated volunteers to participate in teaching writing to foreigners. We continue sending out progress letters to potential volunteers to prepare for the time we are ready to launch the school. Once the school opens, we expect to start generating tuition from desired students that should fund the school portion of the organization.   

Sustaining Initiatives

The initial vision needs to be maintained consistently to accomplish the long-term objective of the organization. The passion toward the initial vision fades away as time goes by. It is natural to any organization to lose the focus of the vision if a leader does not try hard to sustain the vision. A modern CEO must be sensitive to issues and willing to learn from all sources (Beaver, 2002). Lint Center has an anticipated challenge that is the volunteers are not motivated by a salary or compensation leadership. This requires a mutually supporting vision of gain.  Therefore, I apply two strategies to sustain the vision for Lint Center.

First, I will sustain the initial vision by sharing and promoting an ideal vision constantly and communicate to convey the value of the vision. Leaders must begin by defining and then communicating a clear, integrated vision of the organization - its direction and goals (Giodan, 1995).  This will lead to people’s constant attention on the vision. The information leaders share with people should be coherent to be realistic. With the realistic suggestion, volunteer staff and faculty will understand how the vision can be down-to-earth and how it benefits them and others. By building a better English language capability in the world, we assist in keeping America a dominate country. This gives benefit to both the foreign student and the national security worker. 

Second, I will support, develop and nurture staff to engage in the activity to sustain the vision. Since the majority of the instructors are volunteers, all volunteers need to be educated to ensure the consistent quality education. I will set the program for them via online training by professional team leaders. There will be an open space/forum for all volunteering instructors to communicate in conjunction of their challenges as teachers. The team leaders will give specific advice for the specific matters that teachers would meet in practical situations. Team leaders will have their weekly cluster meeting with their team members. Team leaders will have another weekly meeting with administrators and colleague to convey the issue of their cluster meeting. The article ‘Growing Tomorrow’s leaders today (2003)’ stated nine essential skills for the leadership. I could apply two skills from the article for my practical leadership for Lint Center.  My two strategies to sustain the vision is focus on leading and training volunteering instructors because of the particular circumstance of the organization.  The success of the organization is dependent on the cooperative and reliable teachers. The teachers could be considered as students because of consistent training to involve the voluntary teaching organization. The most successful student groups from e-learning are normally cognitive, self-motivated or have a willing learning style. This theory applies to the volunteer instructors of Lint Center. They need to be motivated to collaborate and be willing to learn to teach students. The persistent and consistent communication between supporters, educators, and administrators will reinforce and lead to achieve the vision of the organization.

Conclusion

My vision for the Lint Center is for the small personal scholarship organization to evolve to an international English writing education institute for humanity. To sustain and achieve the vision of the Lint Center, I believe that I need to keep focus on the vision even if the resistances arose. I also need to share the vision with people to support the Lint Center and educate, nurture, and develop them to be good tools for the organization.

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 Published December 2007