On 27 June 2013 22:07, Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com> wrote:
I would like to reply here. At an AGM, this email list is informed of the
outcome of elections and motions, before the membership is informed.
I believe the reason is that CiviCRM is not always available. Can I ask
that members are informed first, and then an announcement is sent out to
this list etc?
In other words, membership should bring benefits not afforded to
non-members. It is the lack of distinction that may put off potential
members. And retain the current members....
This sort of courtesy is necessary, but not sufficient.
"You just come to visit me 'round election time" is a Stevie Wonder lyric,
but expresses the point that communication to the membership in the past
has been seen as essential to having an AGM that is quorate, and otherwise
a luxury for the Board, who are typically busy with other pet projects.
Taking messages to this list to be a surrogate for communicating properly
with members is an old and bad habit. It is not improved by trustees who
either don't read this mail (which is indeed not just about the chapter),
or who don't engage in serious discussion here, when some measure of
accountability would be welcome.
What I have told Kat is that I think matters will not improve much until
there is an identifiable trustee who has the responsibility to advocate for
the members' interests on the Board. This has singularly failed to happen
in the past. The wiki pages dealing with membership matters were apparently
everyone's responsibiliy, and so no one's in particular. The content was
allowed to go stale: the promises made to members there were not kept, and
trustees were lackadaisical about the whole business.
I'm delighted that the matter of membership has climbed back on the agenda.
It is an example (if one were needed) of why there should be trustees
performing the non-executive function of saying "hoy!".
Charles