Der Gasser- Letter to Editor

[Mike Andrews]

emayer wrote:

larrybard wrote:

Don't know if any of you have read the most recently distributed (today) President's Report, but as I read it, the newly adopted written policy now includes something on discounts received by DE instructors (as well as by the "Executive team") -- though it's not clear to me, from the report, whether these discounts were in place already ("historical practices") that are for the first time being documented in a policy, or if they're new changes.

I just received the document and there is plenty within it to digest- (how's that for putting it delicately!) .

Reading the section referred to above, I gather that existing practices have now been formalized and documented. I didn't get the sense that new changes were made, but pending publication of the policy, perhaps some of the Exec committee members can speak to it here.

Eric,



You're always the diplomat.



The original practice was, elected Exec members run at the discounted instructor rate... that had morphed into all Exec's (elected and appointed) receiving the discount as well as the discount being passed on to spouses. The exec voted on the morphed version.







Now a word on a "certain" other part of Graham's message.



[indent]
With full knowledge that I intended to run for another term, the nominating committee met (without me) to create their recommended “slate�? of nominees. Albeit within the letter of the Bylaws, this quorum of three decided on their own to[/b] exclude several willing incumbents from their slate. The current Board had NO say in the selection process and I was not asked if I approved.



This may be the first time in the history of the Club that a current President who intended to run for re-election was not recommended by the nominating committee. I was quite taken back, and I am concerned that the financial investigation that I undertook may have been a factor[/b]. Some members of our Club have expressed the view that these unfortunate matters would have better been addressed without publicity to the membership in general.
[/indent]



The first part of this message that I'd like to talk about is the "exclude several willing incumbents from their slate". I have been for months saying (since Graham, months earlier, said in passing that he was not having fun and didn't want to do this anymore) I was interested in running for President and Tom knew of my intentions and confirmed my intentions at the Glen event. I can only surmise that as a past president he understood the rules in place and was getting a feel for the upcoming task of putting a slate together. At the following Exec meeting Graham submitted his slate to be printed in Der Gasser and at that time was informed that the other members of the nominating committee would be putting my name on the slate instead of his (yeah, he may have been taken aback, but just earlier that day there were rumors that Graham was not running). I believe that was the only change the committee wanted to make to the slate. The autocross chair (Steve) questioned my credentials and said he would not serve if I were elected, the treasurer and secretary both said they would not run as did Ian Curtis (running for autocross). The decision to hold Der Gasser for a few days was made to allow time to create the slate. I talked with Allison at the end of the Exec meeting and asked her to reconsider running. She said she’d think about and get back to Tom. I talked with Ian as well and left messages for Chris (who was running for Vice President). Both Ian and Allison elected not to run and notified Tom the following day. I played phone tag with Chris for a few days and after he talked with Tom and stated he would stay on board if Allison was staying and we could change the duties of Vice President. When we finally did talk I informed him that Allison would not be running, although I think we have an incredible candidate for treasurer, and I couldn’t change the definition of Vice President and he suggested that perhaps it wasn’t a good fit for him. So, while Graham would have you believe the nominating committee excluded incumbents from the slate, the fact is the incumbents said they would not serve.



Another word on one of your statements.... "This slate included several incumbent Board members (including your current President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and AutoX Chair)". I know it's splitting hairs but Joe (vice president) was not on your slate as he wanted to run for another position on the board. Chris (secretary) was not running in his old position and as such he was not an incumbent and neither was Steve (autocross). Allison was the only, other than you, incumbent on the slate. I'm not discounting their efforts as I know they (and you) have busted their tails this year. I'm just stating the facts as I know them.





Graham, and I’m assuming you are reading this thread, would you be so kind as to explain your “I was concerned….. been a factor “ comment.