From my first year in Kin, my wife and I attended the “Kinsmen Rehabilitation Foundation” (Kinsmen Foundation) AGM. I have attended all the AGM’s and chaired all the Mothers March’s. I became a Board member in 1998 for a 10 year period. As you can see, I am a Foundation booster, I believe that the Foundation is an excellent cause for the District to undertake and support. With the above information at hand about my personal history with the Foundation, I would like to share some of the recent actions of our Foundation Board and the CEO.
The Foundation Board had a meeting in Aug. 2010; at this meeting they reviewed a clause in the By-Laws;
“Each Organizational Member shall participate in the fund raising activities of the Society annually”
The Board and CEO discussed this clause and decided to interpret this as;
“All Clubs must pay an annual fee per year to remain a member of the Foundation. This fee will be retroactive to the past year.”
Later, at the AGM, the CEO decided that the fee would be $20. No Club had an indication of an amount prior to the AGM.
How they made that interpretation is beyond my comprehension. My interpretation would be that all Clubs must be active members in the Foundation. Clubs that did not donate or attend any meetings would receive a letter from the Foundation, warning of the need for them to assist the Foundation “before removing their status”.
The “Call to the AGM” was sent out to the Clubs on Aug.16th, with some information about this change. The Board stated the clause that I have above. They also gave their view on it;
“If your club has not made a contribution to the Kinsmen Foundation of British Columbia and the Yukon for the 2009/2010 Kin Year you will not receive voting privileges at the Annual General Meeting”
- · A “Call” is for the purpose of providing the time, date, and place for a meeting. It is not intended for the distribution of information.
- · What is considered a “contribution”?
- · What does the “2009/2010 Kin year” mean? From when to when?
- · Also this could not be done retroactively. You must tell members, prior to the installation of this order.
An additional letter was sent to the Clubs on September 24th, by the boards Chair. This letter made no mention of such a radical policy change. This letter was also very late for Clubs to have it on their agenda prior to FLC.
This change, in and of itself, is not a major impact to the Clubs. Really $20 per year to belong to such a great Foundation is a small price to pay. The purpose behind this action was an honourable one; they wanted more solid participation within the Foundation. The issue with this policy is the process that it was instated.
The following are errors in the Boards procedure with implementing this new policy;
- · To enact the policy retroactively to the previous year.
- · Minimum advance warning, and no warning at the FLC as to what was about to happen.
- · The interpretation of the clause in the by-laws is not in any way related to the actual wording.
- · The Board seemed to have a goal of embarrassing Clubs to extort money.
- · To arbitrarily change the policy as the AGM progressed. None of these policies were known to anyone, even the board. - Minimum $20 - Club must hand over money personally.
- · To not allow the membership any input to such a major change.
- · For a board member to tell the membership to “suck it up” is very disrespectable.
- · To have Clubs win awards for their service to the Foundation but not allow them a vote at the AGM.
- · They should have had a list of Clubs in good standing. One Club was disallowed to vote, and then received an apology letter because they were in error.
All the trouble that was caused could have been avoided. The Board made a major faux pas and did not think what the effect of their decisions would be. All Boards are “think tanks” this action was not thought out, the Board was trying to be a dictator and force us to contribute and participate in the Foundation. It did not need to be as it was; here are some moves that would have made this change accepted by the Clubs.
- · They could have brought this policy forward at this AGM, to be enacted next year.
- · They should have made sure that all Clubs fully understood the actions of the Board, prior to the meeting.
- · They could have excused Clubs this first year.
- · After the AGM they should have realized the impact their decisions made, and apologized to all the Clubs.
- · Allowed a lower membership fee, since no fee was told to Clubs prior to AGM.
We now need to be aware of the actions of the Foundation Board; we can no longer be complacent to their business. I find it very sad that the Board just wants a $20 donation from the Clubs. I hope that any Club not wanting to donate; will continue to support our Foundation. But, we must hold the Board accountable until they apologizes for being so arrogant.
So the Bull waits for the Board to “man up” and apologize.
I agree totally. This should have been brought before the members prior to it being implemented. To have certain clubs in our district donate thousands of dollars to the foundation and then get told that they aren't in good standing at the AGM is ridiculous. In my eyes the board has just shot themselves in the foot with this move. All it will do is reduce the amount of money that is coming into the Foundation due to clubs being upset about this.
ReplyDeleteWell said. As someone who was at this meeting, I have to say how embarrassed I was about 'not being in good standing' and was seriously upset about being extorted for a $20 'donation'. I understand also their reasoning for trying to get more active participation and support from clubs, but it was completely done the wrong way. I believe in the foundation and what it stands for, but at the same time, my first reaction was this...if all they want is an extorted $20 donation, than that's all they will damn well get. They alienated clubs rather than getting them to be more active participants. And then the mix up when we got our 'apology letter', oops, guess you did make a donation, our bad....well you kinda already did you damage, and a mailed apology after all that, sorry, just ain't good enough. The board needs to give their heads a shake, and exactly as it was already stated, man up and apologize. To EVERYONE.
ReplyDeleteWell said all, but one thing I think people are overlooking is also, now clubs HAVE to try and run a project to make up this $20 fee, no use in calling it a donation when it's extortion, which doesn't sound all that hard, however, what happens if the clubs looses money on that project they were trying to hold? Since the project was specifically designed to make some money so that the club of District 5, the founders of the Foundation, would be allowed to vote, should the club then send a bill to the foundation asking for recompense since it is mandatory to pay. Now I understand just how ridiculous that sounds, but how is that any more ridiculous then what the foundation did. And I'd like to just reiterate what Anonymous said "if all they want is an extorted $20 donation, then that's all they will damn well get." Good luck to our Foundation in coming years.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with this posting and the comments thus far more, and think every Club should donate $20 to the Foundation and NOTHING more until it's rectified and done properly. Also curious what the Board would say to those Clubs who hold an event to fundraise for the Foundation that may not be successful that they might lose money on. It's not like they didn't TRY - just sometimes projects flop for one reason or another. Will the Board look past that and give them an "A" for effort? Sure, $20 is a small amount, and I believe the Foundation does great things, but it's the way they're going about it that's wrong. It's the principle behind the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteApproximately 50 Kinsmen, Kinette and Kin Clubs in D5...times $20 a Club only garners $1,000 for the Foundation for the year. I hope that's all they're expecting to get this year based on what they've done. I wonder how far they'll be able to stretch that grand.
I was angry as anyone at the meeting, but the one thing to learn from it all, is that policies crafted out of frustration rarely have positive outcomes... by the Board, or by the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteAs a District, we will now choose to support our 58 year old Foundation, or bankrupt it to prove a point to 11 people.
I agree with the above statement, about "rarely have positive outcomes". However, we have a tendency of covering up the bad behavior from some of our leaders. We should not support a board that will not stand up to admit such a big error. This will not "bankrupt" the Foundation, it would just make it difficult for the Board to carry out their mandate. We need to be more proactive and stop to make our leaders accountable. We must learn from our mistakes, and this means keeping the issue in the forefront. This is how we learn from our errors....to remember them.
ReplyDelete