In one of my volunteer organizations our communications chair went through a spell where meeting minutes failed to be distributed timely, and in some cases, failed to be distributed at all. As a result, there was frustration by several members who didn't get news of the dues increase, or of other key pieces of news. The chair was always very friendly, and in an unrelated matter, had a medical seizure that put him in the hospital for weeks which caused him to miss a meeting. Ironically, it was at that meeting when the subject of communication was planned for discussion.
The stand-in secretary noted in the minutes that the chair was doing a FINE job, and then summarized ideas for improvement. I wasn't sure that "fine" would satisfy people. Might it come across as defensive, or minimizing the issue? Was there another way to show kindness to the chair, yet present the issue squarely?
We went with something like "the work of the chair has been much appreciated." Hopefully we felt good about balancing the feelings of all parties that way.
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