Actually, I have heard the same thing too! Or rather, I have argued with a Board member about this. The gist of the problem stems from a Board member's limited time to indulge in the nitty-gritty, thus preventing it from forming its opinions as a helicopter view. In that Board member's view, Board members should act like "members of a Board", that is, not mingle half as much with the communities, to "waste less time".
Any chance you can tell us who this deeply misguided board member is? He's right, the board wastes a lot of time, but I attribute that almost entirely to their failure to make the staff do proper staff work. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly