[NSRCA-discussion] Executive Board voting

[John Gayer]

[quote]ORIGINAL: jonlowe
Transparency. I think the spilled milk has been discussed enough, from 
the AMA rules change proposal process by the board, to the bylaws, to 
the aborted officer election.
[/quote]


I certainly agree that there were processes that could have been 
improved relative to the bylaw changes and officer election. However to 
call them aborted and imply in various other posts that the board has a 
hidden agenda is over the top. Clearly the board could have and should 
have done a better job on the elections and, for that matter, the 
treasurer's audit but there was no intent to hoodwink or put one over on 
the membership. We are nothing but a bunch of volunteers with a love of 
pattern. When the call went out two years ago, noone else stood up and 
said "I want to run for office". Various coercions were applied to get 
Ed Alt to run for President and Scott McHarg to run for Secretary.I will 
admit to calling Derek and asking if they had found a Treasurer in 
mid-December. When he said yes, I thanked him and was about to hang up 
when he said "you". Later that year Ed Alt resigned due to the press of 
work and Jim Quinn who was then VP reluctantly assumed the reins of 
president. Good choice or not, there was noone else champing at the bit 
to take the job and the board gratefully accepted Jim as president. I 
didn't see anyone jumping up and down to get on the board at that time 
or, for that matter, now. Kind of wonder where all the current 
contrarians were then. Jon, I guess you were still recovering from your 
retirement so that excuses you but there are plenty of others making 
derogatory comments about the actions of the current board. Where are 
you when we need help? Apparently looking the other way. Right now John 
Bruml has been trying to get out of being the Advertising Manager almost 
as long as I've been on the board. Where are those clamoring to help 
out? Apparently using their energies to bash those who did throw their 
hat in.

LOWE>>Oh, and about the Contest Board.  Their process is well documented 
by the AMA and follows a strict time table.  We all had the opportunity 
to provide inputs and cross proposals after the initial vote.  We also 
had the opportunity to talk to the CB members, and I did talk to a 
couple of them.  The CB members are mostly active members of the pattern 
community, are well known, and are charted by the AMA, not the NSRCA, to 
look at rules proposals to benefit all AMA participants, not just NSRCA 
members. Problems with the NSRCA proposals were hashed out here, and the 
submitters had the opportunity to fix issues during the cross proposal 
process.  How much follow-up contact did the NSRCA board initiate with 
the CB during the process?  Were any cross proposals submitted?<<LOWE

Jon, this seems to have provided the impetus for your presidential 
campaign. I can only say that the NSRCA Rules committee operated openly, 
if with a late start, and solicited input from the membership on RCU and 
this list(and outside the membership as well), ran a survey, modified 
proposals to meet objections and finally submitted proposals to the 
contest board. More open you cannot get. I find it fascinating that to 
you, the NSRCA board must be open and direct with its membership(as it 
should) but when dealing with the contest board we are expected to dig, 
pry and canvas the board members in an effort to find out how our 
proposals are doing and what objections might have been raised. Why is 
the same openness not required in both cases in your mind?? While it is 
clear in the published process that cross-proposals could be submitted 
within a window, we had no way of knowing which or what part of our 
proposals were causing difficulty. There was no contact initiated by the 
contest board. Adding insult to injury, there was no "report out" 
published, listing the pro and con votes by district and any  discussed 
objections. As I have said before, I have no more idea what it takes to 
get a proposal passed through the CB then I did a year ago before the 
NSRCA rules committee formed. How do you explain the dichotomy between 
your views of the contest board and the NSRCA board?

Relative to the Nats, it is clear to everyone on the board that the Nats 
are in the control of the AMA which has been true ever since NPAC went 
away. We, the board, present a candidate to the AMA, who has always been 
accepted. After that we lose any control. Although since I've been on 
the board, there have been various problems at the Nats which many blame 
on the NSRCA not the AMA. Arch has been good about keeping us in the 
loop but he makes it clear who he reports to. He and previous EDs and 
the AMA staff have been great about providing logistic support for the 
banquet, ice cream social, etc. However there is no question about the 
ED having two bosses, AMA is it. The NSRCA is responsible for using the 
funds collected by the AMA on our behalf to purchase the necessary 
scoring equipment and paying the volunteer staff what we can. This is 
never enough to even cover their expenses at the Nats much less travel.

John Gayer

NSRCA Treasurer

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