This study investigated the problems associated with the training of voluntary board members for non profit, public service organizations. In this chapter, the problem investigated is explained, the research methodology is described, and the structure of the remainder of the study is presented.
The problem investigated in this study is explained in a two step process. First, the development of the general problem is traced, and, second, the nature of the specific problem is described. The description of the specific problem ends with a statement of the research questions addressed in this study.
The concepts involving the provision of social services were expanded and changed significantly in the United States between the end of World War I and the mid 1970s. At one time in the United States, the provision of social services was exclusively the province of private individuals and organizations. During that era, social services, when they were available, were most often provided through religious organizations. As a result of significant shocks to American society between World War I and World War II most significantly the "Great Depression" of the 1930s, the concept of a government responsibility for the provision and delivery of social services gained credence. As important as these beginnings were, however, the social service activities of Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" were limited in both breadth and depth, in comparison with the post 1950s public sector presence in the development, provision, and delivery of social services.
Between the end of World War II and the effective end of the American participation in the Viet Nam War in the mid 1970s, the pendulum of responsibility for the provision and delivery of social services swung far to the governmental side and away from the private sector side (Gummer, 1984). The swing toward governmental responsibility did not mean an end to private sect...