By-law Amendment -- Sabine Dohrn's View

I served with Sabine Dohrn on the IFA Board for five years.  During this time the community benefitted from her hard work and wise council.  After reading my blog post on the proposed by-laws amendment and then James Ulrich's blog post, Sabine asked me if she could express her views too.  Here is her take on the proposed By-laws Amendment:

Harvey, I do very much appreciate what you are doing with your blog and keeping the lines of communication open.  This whole discussion would not take place without your initiative.  So a full-hearted Thank you !!  Below is my blog comment.

As a former Board member, I am aware of how difficult it is to recruit new Board members. Participation from the community has been disappointingly low for a couple of years.  So I fully understand  James Ulrich´s arguments for reducing the number of Directors.  And yet, weighing them against the drawbacks, I still come out on the side of No to reduction.

I find Harvey´s argument very convincing that reducing the number of Board directors carries the danger of concentrating the power in the hands of a few with less diversity of opinions and little opposition.  Narrowing choices or voices never seems a good idea in a democracy on any level.

Concerning James´argument of changing demographics, I am not sure if anyone can predict their effect on community participation.   And to all those parents, one evening a month is all it takes.  There is no unreasonable workload associated with being on the Board.  So fear not!

What  I really miss seeing, though, is some kind of a ¨campaign¨ by the Board to bring this problem to the fore  in the community, some communication that draws attention to the issue.  I did not see  any flyer or any direct communication weeks ago to alert us.

Before trying to cast this change to Article IV Section 1 of the By-laws in stone, I would have liked to see the Board work a little harder on whipping up a campaign to recruit new members.  A good dose of DIRECT communication on important issues once in a while wouldn´t hurt and would create a closer connection to the community.  Maybe there was mention in the minutes but sorry, they are not the right vehicle.  For my taste, the Board sits too much in an ivory tower.  Maybe that is one reason people don´t engage more.

And to the practical side - concerning the argument that Board decisions sometimes cannot be made in a timely fashion because one member is ill or out of town, would it not be permissible to use technology - emails in particular, or Skype videoconferencing - to get that person´s vote?

Thank you, Harvey, for creating this forum for discussion.

                       Sabine Dohrn

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Harvey

Harvey Levine

iftblog@gmail.com