Borrowed from Your Grandchildren

CHAPTER 11The Family Council: Conducting the Work of the Family

The family council is the “executive” branch, representing all family members and carrying out the work of family governance. When there are family activities beyond the business, who will make them happen? Where will the funding come from? Who decides, and who is in charge? The assembly has too many people and not enough time. If the assembly has a vision of what they want to be, they empower a group of family leaders to make that happen. The council contains the “worker bees” of the family who want to build the family's future.

During the first two generations, the whole family is small enough to assemble around a dining room table, and family meetings are often informal and unstructured. But as the number of family members increases, the family needs more coordination. Organizing family meetings and events and preparing the rising generation lead to the designation of a small group of family members as coordinators.

A family council is one of the most unusual and unique features of generative families. If we think of a family as simply a collection of loosely linked households, it is hard to see why a family council would be needed. Does a family really need a social committee to organize family activities? But a generative family is larger—many households and many functions. Family governance can best be understood as the government, or executive council, of a growing tribe with many goals, ventures, and shared ...