I'M SPENDING SOME TIME THIS MORNING DRAFTING COMMITTEE JOB DESCRIPTIONS, or charges, for a nonprofit organization whose committees have been working without the benefit of this important tool. You might be saying to yourself, if committees are functioning, why gum up the works with wonky job descriptions? Isn't that just one more layer of red tape that few people pay attention to, much less care about? I could respond by saying that committee job descriptions, just like employee job descriptions and board of trustee job descriptions, have the potential for strangling enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing until it sloshes over unrequested into the work of others, or when it distorts organizational focus to the point where no one is sure where they're headed or why. I see this very simple tool as a means of harnessing enthusiasm, not curbing it. At their best, committee job descriptions provide parameters (broad or specific) that help organizational lea...