Hello everyone,
I'm currently on the AOBA Board of Directors. This is NOT an official Board communication.
After a Board meeting last night, I spent most of the rest of the night (literally) reading through e-mails from alpacasite, alpacatalk and alpacapolitics and finishing some work from last night's meeting. I realize that what I say may fall on deaf ears but I'm going to try anyway. (Never claimed I was the brightest bulb on the block!)
There are facts, feelings and innuendoes on both sides of this situation. Rights and no doubt, wrongs. While I appreciate people defending "the Board," or defending "our Nominating Committee," I think it has reached a point that it is no longer helpful or informative. It is turning just plain mean. Innuendoes abound and some feel that they cannot respond. If they do respond, it simply escalates... and so on. No one is going to exit this situation uneffected. If you think you are "winning," you probably aren't. Been there...done that.
I have NOT been involved with the election...well, until it imploded. I found out about the mass resignation after the fact with the rest of alpacasite. I'm truly, honestly saddened that good people who worked their hearts out for all of us felt they had to resign in mass. I'm saddened that they felt things were done wrong. There are NO perfect Boards and there are NO perfect committees.
I honestly don't know all that happened behind the scenes. I do know the outcome and I have asked questions. I've personally learned a lot about Bylaws and Colorado Law. I do know what I was told in response to my questions but who knows if that is all correct or if I listened properly? It is, after all, perception and two people can see the same thing and it looks completely different to each of them.
I don't know why Linda resigned (I've heard two very different versions) but I CAN tell you with certainty that there will certainly be TWO versions. I don't know for certain why two candidates resigned...I can tell you what I've been told by Board members...I have been told that one candidate pulled from the election because of a very sick family member...clearly a personal reason. Another candidate pulled from the election, I've been told by other Board members, because he/she didn't like the disclosure form and didn't want to fill some parts of it out. Certainly not a secret anymore. I offer no opinion about this situation. In the end, YOU (if you are a member) will be able to look at the disclosure forms, read the questions and answers and decide for yourself if the questions were reasonable and if the answers given are satisfactory. You will decide which individuals you think will best serve AOBA. You will, I hope, VOTE accordingly.
Hopefully, we will ALL learn from this experience and will be stronger and perhaps a tad bit smarter. Hopefully, what the Board did after the mass resignation is good enough. The feedback from the former Nominating Committee has been mixed but mostly very supportive of what we did and I have to admit, I feel better about that. I certainly saw an extremely positive post from Jim Patrick. These past Nominating Committee volunteers are OUR volunteers.. .YOUR volunteers. Whether you agree with Jim Patrick or not, surely you cannot be happy about his departure from an industry he loves and a membership he has served so well. No one can quarrel that the membership loved the 2009 election with Jim as chair of the nominating committee as they voted in incredible, record numbers.
I DO BELIEVE with all my heart that the Nominating Committee did the best they could, that the candidates are doing the very best that they can do in difficult times, that everyone not involved is trying to understand what happened, people feel passionate about their support of the Board or the Association as well as their support of the Committee... arguments have been made on both sides....so perhaps we can now all back off, stop the back-and-forth and just let the election take it's course. We will soon have a new Nominating committee and they deserve the chance to finish the job started by the previous Nominating Committee. Please, let's give them the chance to peacefully gather the information about our good candidates, present it to you and give you the chance to make an informed decision about who best matches your image of AOBA's future direction. Then...there will be campaigning with members selecting their candidates and promoting them. It is an exciting time in AOBA...always has been. It is certainly never boring!
One more thing...speaking for myself, as a Board we'd done some great things. We've done some not-so-great things too like doing a poor job communicating with our members. AOBA may not always deserve your support but we need your support. This industry needs your support. Our marketing programs need your support. Our show systems need your suport. Our fiber industry needs your support. The support is needed because AOBA is all of us...we need each other. "AOBA" is not good nor bad. It is we "imperfect individuals" on the Board and on committees who do brilliant or stupid things, kind or mean things...not the "Association." We will sink or swim together. It is my job to listen to you and my job to try to move this organization in the direction most want. We've been trying to do just that...we just haven't done a good job of telling you what we've been doing. We can, and must, do better.
Many good points have been made; everyone did their best to set the record straight from their perspective. Some will have wounds that will last forever. For some this will bounce off their backs. Regardless, it's time to let it go, don't ya think?
Call me or e-mail me anytime...I' m here and I'll do my best to answer. If I don't respond, try again...e-mails don't always go through...spam filters can run amuck!
Regardless, thanks for "listening."
Libby
Libby Forstner
Magical Farms, Inc.
3018 SW 26th Court
Cape Coral, FL 33914
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home