Annual Meeting/BOD List

["Kathy Mayeda" <Kathy_Mayeda@atce.com>]

Title: Annual Meeting/BOD List

I was the one who posted that I was working a booth.  It was my choice – I could have attended  the Annual Meeting if I wanted to.  I’m sure that’s true of a lot of people who were at the venue that weekend.  Meetings are not that interesting for everyone. 

My point is that the members should have more than one option than the Annual Meeting to make their wishes known to the BOD.  Sometimes the issues are complex, and the individuals involved in presenting the issues at the meeting may color people’s perception quite a bit.  Sometimes it just takes a little time, thought and collective information gathering before a solid decision can be made.  From what I’ve heard, decisions are often made and then overturned later.  I’m not saying that the fact that there is a meeting is a bad thing at all.  It’s just that  I am imagining (and this is just my imagination based on tidbits that I’ve heard from working the booth) that everyone’s pet personal agenda and pet grudge is what’s on the menu at this meeting, and the politics muddy the real issues at stake.

For instance – I am seeing quite a bit of accusations going on with regards to certain finance issues. I have no personal agenda here, it’s just that I am a little worried that certain Board members are not being cooperative in their communications with the office.  This is just a perception that spilled out somewhere, and if there is a problem with the communication, I think it is important for the general membership to know where the roadblocks are so we can just plain vote individual(s) out of office so that AERC can function properly.  Meanwhile, we are all mushrooms in the dark, not knowing what the whole picture is and feeling quite helpless because of this.  Or worse still, developing a preconcieved notion that the Board is full of **** because we don’t have any other information to work from.

And it is true that these meetings probably don’t have the majority of the membership attending.  Doesn’t mean that the membership does not want to be heard.  Just that they choose not to be, or can’t be physically there.  I personally think issues through better while sitting by my computer rather than spouting in person at a meeting.  I would like to know if I DID have an issue, that the Board will at least address it, instead of going into the black hole of the BOD list.  At least they could say that it was “taken to committee” in a closed “meeting” and shelved there, but at least it was addressed and not just blown off.

 
That is why I think it would be valuable to have the BOD list open to membership for read only.  Maybe the Board Members would think things through more carefully and be more accountable to the membership rather than promoting only their own personal agendas. 

K.