I used to volunteer for a not-for-profit organization that ran a convention. Concom did the front-line boots-on-the-ground work of liaising with guests, scheduling panels and events, dealing with the hotel and vendors, making the program book, all the stuff that would be visible to attendees. The board of directors took care of financial and legal aspects and were largely invisible. Since it was a not-for-profit these people were not paid, and many of them were concom or had been in the past. Members of a board of directors can also be financially and criminally liable, personally, if anything goes seriously wrong with the organization.

I'm surprised to see as much of a disconnect between Readercon's concom and board as is being described. Yeah, a board can make decisions without concom, and concom has to live with them. But this goes into the realm of whether to allow criminal activity at the convention. It's the sort of thing that boards are supposed to be careful about and avoid, if I understand correctly.