I'm in a volunteer group serving kids' activities. There's a bunch of different sub groups, each with their own leader and volunteers, all overseen by a board comprised of those leaders and volunteers.

One of these leaders is particularly difficult to get along with and two important volunteers have withdrawn due largely to crazy-making behaviour. As a result this program is about to be shut down for the year. There are other administrative and logistical issues but they could be dealt with in a well-functioning set of relationships.

This leader is, in many ways, a genuinely sweet person but has been through some nasty knocks in life. There's a huge chip on this person's shoulder. So we have some compassion for them and don't really want to see them hurt. The leader clearly wants to be in charge next year when it gets going again which may not bode well for recruiting new volunteers.

The board is going to want to rescue this program because it feeds junior members into the older programs. If they hear about the various admin/logistical issues, and not the relationship ones, they are going to simply try to solve those to rescue the program. That's the kind of people they are -- they'll just dig and solve the problem.

But they won't be solving the core problem. I think they have to be told about the whole story otherwise this difficult situation is going to get more difficult as people dance around this leader's feelings.

So... What does everyone think?
Tell the truth and terribly hurt this person but maybe rescue the program?
Would it be good to have a private conversation with some of the senior board members?

Any thoughts on how to proceed?