A certain peace organization has a governing board and paid staff (each of which nominally operates by consensus), and a lot of very active volunteers with considerable responsibiltiies.

One volunteer, we shall call him Fred, has done a heck of a lot of work, for example organizing a major protest event, but has a huge ego, a prickly temper and an aggressive manner. He has driven away at least one other long-term and 'high-level' volunteer, and some of the staff have found it increasingly difficult to work with. Now, his conflict with one female staff member - highly effective, very nice and easy to work with, and very popular with the volunteers - has reached the point where she feels she can no longer come into the office while she is around, and has gone on sick leave.

The matter has gone to the governing board, who are reluctant, however, to take firm action, preferring to seek dialogue and compromise.

(The solution we applied was that a whole bunch of the volunteers went to the GB and made it very clear that we wanted this guy out and that if the GB didn't take firm action then there would be serious problems. The GB came round and Fred was, effectively, purged.)

I could go on and on with this particular organization, whose identity you will not find it hard to deduce.

I think a willingness to purge is extremely necessary in general (though obviously it should not be a first resort).