At the meeting, after the board has dispensed with a number of routine matters, Jim Elliot turns his attention to the temporary plant. In short order, he advised the 11-member board (himself, 3 additional inside members, and 7 outside members) of his proposal to obtain an refit the existing plant to ameliorate demand problems in the short run, authorizes the construction of the new plant (the completion of which is estimated to take some three years), and plans to switch capacity from the temporary plant to the new one when it is operational. He also briefly reviews additional details concerning the costs involved, advantages of this proposal versus domestic or foreign licensing, and so on.
All the board members except on are in favor of the proposal. In fact, they are most enthusiastic; the overwhelming majority agrees that the temporary plant is an excellent-even inspired-stopgap measure. Ten of the eleven board members seem relieved because the board was most reluctant to endorse any of the other alternatives that had been mentioned.
The single dissenter-T. Kevin Williams, an outside director-is, however, steadfast in his objections. He will not, under any circumstances, endorse the notion of the temporary plant and states rather strongly that “I will not be party to this nonsense, not now, not ever.”
T. Kevin Williams, the senior executive of a major nonprofit organization, is normally a reserved and really quite agreeable person. This sudden, uncharacteristic burst of emotion clearly startles the remaining board members into silence. The following excerpt captures the ensuing, essentially one-on-one conversation between Williams and Elliott: