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[RC] The Thankless Job - Joe LongSome of us who have criticized the recent Board of Directors actions in raising ride fees have been taken to task for doing so, and reminded what a "thankless job" being a Director is, and how much we owe them for their dedication and sacrifice. It's implied that criticism of them or an action taken by them is unappreciative of this, and unseemly. Well, yes, it is often a "thankless job," and there is a lot of sacrifice involved. I served on the Board from 1980 through 1993, which cost me thousands of dollars out of my pocket, many vacation days from my job, and countless hours of work. It isn't exactly fun sitting in a meeting room while others are out riding their horses or going to shows. Let know one think that I do not appreciate the dedication and sacrifices of our Directors, or the great job they do (most of the time!). I will praise and thank the Directors when they do good, which is most of the time. But I will speak out when they do wrong, as they did -- BIG TIME -- in rushing through the fee increases. Especially when it was all so unnecessary; I can't count how many times during my tenure on the Board we passed something without member input only to rescind it at the next meeting after an ensuing bruhauhau. In the matter of rules changes, we wisely decided to not vote on any rule change until AFTER the proposed change had been published in Endurance News. I would have thought the Board would have anticipated the reaction that would follow their "Midnight vote" on unnanounced fee increases, but I guess some lessons don't seem to get learned. I've seen it suggested that they had to act quickly so that the changes could be announced in EN in the November issue before taking effect Dec. 1st. Of course, unlike rules changes, there is no need for a ride fees increase (or even a dues increase) to coincide with the start of a ride season. Dues and fees changes can take effect at any time. So they had the time to publish proposed dues and fee increases in EN prior to voting on them, to allow for responses from the members before voting. IMO the best procedure, by far, would have been to announce the proposals in EN, have them on the agenda at the Membership Meeting at the Convention, then vote on them at the Sunday open Board meeting. The AERC cash reserves are more than sufficient to allow for this timeline. My saying this publicly does not mean that I do not appreciate the hard work of the Board!!! I left the Board in 1994 largely out of fatigue, I figured it was someone else's turn to do the work. In recent years I've considered running again, but so far I haven't gotten up the gumption to do it. It IS a difficult job, to do it right takes a lot of time and effort, as well as cost, and let no one doubt: I apprecate and THANK all of those who are doing it! -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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