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| John Y
May 20, 2013
11:19:08 PM
Entry #: 4059044
| Please understand that I am NOT writing about the actual recent league decisions. Nor, am I in any way disparaging the efforts of those who volunteer their time in service of the league. Everyone's contributions are of value. That is my disclaimer. I may have to refer to it later.
Instead, what I want to address are my hopes, no more than that, my constructive suggestions towards how we can be an organization in which everyone can take pride. Clearly, based on the posts and other comments heard, there are many who are raising concerns that cannot be dismissed as mere meanness or off the cuff complaints. Rather, it is important to get pass their rhetoric and tackle the underlying problems they raise. Issues we've seen brought up recently related to unknown schedules, division organization, decision making, funding, etc. all have one thing in common. That is the need for organizational transparency.
We can reach back not far in our history to see a league that was run through a president and that relied upon the team captains for decisions on our direction. That was successful for over twenty years. It was casual, but then decisions were in the open and conveyed from captains to teams. Then one year we awoke to find out there was a board. It was simply created by those who sought to volunteer. Great that people want to help, but there was no open election, there was not a call for volunteers to be a part of this group. It was just formed and at the next annual meeting the captains were told the board would be deciding things and informing the captains.
We were told the board held positions for a year, but we have not had any new elections or told of any opportunities to be on the board (with the exception of seeing emails where some issue objectors were told they could volunteer if they didn't like what they objected to). When are these opportunities and when is there turnover (if that is what those voting choose)?
There are meetings of the board and of the competition committee. We do not know who participates at any particular meeting, what position each individual takes, the role of the league president, and only become aware of the outcome after the fact. The scheduler inappropriately takes heat for delayed schedules, but only because no one but a select group knows what is behind the time lag.
Again, see paragraph one. I am not alleging wrongdoing. But, in the absence of information, people will question or make up their own reasoning for what is going on. Our organization has moved past the casual methodology we enjoyed, so it needs to have transparency. There should be posted minutes of each meeting (initial captains meeting, board meetings, competition committee meetings). There should be an open accounting of the money (that was a new issue raised in a post). There should be opportunities for elections each year as proclaimed in the website (under Board). Taking these steps to be transparent to all the league via the website will reduce the trust issues being raised, at least let everyone in the league be aware of what is going on, perhaps allow for understanding on why changes are made, and let everyone learn the rationale of those participating in these actions (which might assist when making future election decisions for such positions). That is how a quality organization should operate. We all have a stake in it being at that level. Why would we be satisfied with less?
I hope this is viewed as seeking a positive direction for our league. That is how it is intended (paragraph one again). If others have positive ideas towards that goal, please share.
John
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