The vagarious notion that volunteer directors, and the organizations they serve, generally underperform has no more credibility than the contention that greater financial rewards for individual directors is the driving force and significant difference between healthy, thriving corporations and failed corporations.

Director compensation, or lack of it, neither imposes nor cancels regulatory performance requirements for individual directors. Whether a director serves voluntarily or receives some compensation, the exercise of wisdom and ethical conduct in all his and her fiduciary duties, responsibilities and regulatory obligations to stakeholders is paramount.

Too many organizations have been victimized by both volunteer and paid directors who are either asleep at the helm, rubber-stamping management reports and proposals, or otherwise engaging in matters of self-interest. Examples might be the golf and country club where directors with the lowest handicaps and largest egos run the enterprise into bankruptcy. Or the church choir that appropriates limited church funds to finance gowns, expensive musical instruments and dominate church services.