I have to admire that you still have faith in that and I do mean that.

I would have to say, NO, I don’t think any general member has had a voice on what goes on in this organization for a very long time. That went away years ago when the duties and responsibilities of the HOD POP book got rewritten to remove that pesky sentence telling them they had an obligation to listen to and vote the way the majority of their electorate wanted them to. My local chapter is certainly one of the more functional ones, the more financially secure ones, but does any of that common sense carry over to the national level? If you were asking me I would say flatly no, and I really can’t see folks there being really eager to turn that money they are so good at raising and using productively in this state to the national organization, to have to petition them for permission to use the money they raised in the way they feel is needed here locally. And, even if this whole plan goes hooey, and the organization “fails” as keeps being threatened … nothing can really stop those local volunteers and members from meeting, doing their projects, making friends if that is what their hearts really feel needs to be done. So, speaking just for me, I don’t think that is the important question right now.

I fully understand this concept of the BOD/HOD voting for what they think is best for that nebulous thing called the “organization.” It is a really dandy concept if the BOD/HOD are the only ones footing the bill to operate that organization. But they are not are they? When all is said and done, they are expecting the folks who collectively pay a lot of the bills with their membership checks to be happy about being bypassed while these few make that huge decision to change the entire organization … not to be tacky, but if they really felt that is what the members wanted/needed to survive why are they so darn reluctant to tell them exactly what is going on instead of dressing it up in airy fantasies about what “might be?”

Where is the properly thought out, structured, fiscally responsible plan for doing this that members can see? Discuss? By our own admission there is not one, and will not be one in even a minimally effective amount of time to take it to the general membership for thought and consideration, so just how much do we really care about what those members think? I would have to say not a whole lot. We are told we will have only a cobbled up version that is “subject to massive changes” once voted on, that delegates will get when? A day, a week, before they have to vote on it? If this is the first example of how those “few” are so much more qualified to run the organization, of their planning abilities, I would have to say that it is falling really, really short of the hype about their abilities. I would have to say that those who really are being allowed to vote better start looking at that utter lack of planning with cold hard realism not pink wishes and puppy dog tails.

Nae
Nae

Staying involved in a local component and a growing regional association is a key piece of the “magic” for me – perhaps it is the danger of losing that connection, and seeing our next generation of MTs have to manage without it and knowing what a void that may be for them, that fuels my passion for wanting to be sure changes we make are done the right way and with members, and their needs, always our central focus.

I didn’t join MTIA when it was first formed years ago because for a $1,000/year membership, I wouldn’t have been allowed to vote. If I don’t feel I have an adequate voice, I don’t feel my money is well spent.

So what do you feel you’re getting for your money?

If my delegate, or my at-large BOD member, is NOT there to vote according to my interests, opinions, or values, then how are they going to be represented? Do I have a voice in this association, or don’t I?

The decisions at this point will come down to how the delegates vote in the House of Delegates next month. What I hoped here was to get people started thinking and talking about it because it didn’t seem there was much of that other than the webinars that AHDI offered. Once an actual resolution is published, it may answer some of the questions people have about what it looks like going forward.

After reading Kathy’s blog and the various responses, here are my thoughts on a few points…

1) Crystal said something interesting that the association might want to think about. She suggested having paid professionals manage the association instead of volunteers. I think having paid folks running the show instead of volunteers has the potential to improve things. Many homeowners associations have stopped letting residents run their associations and they’ve hired (paid) management groups to run them. Having lived in a neighborhood where this transition took place, it was a HUGE improvement. In this scenario, the residents still had a role in many things and had a major voice in how things were run, but the paid professionals did the bookkeeping and managed other tasks.
2) How the association is structured is really of no concern to me….whether we have districts, no districts, whatever. What IS important to me is that we have an association that is run efficiently and addresses the needs of its members. The structure that will best achieve that goal is the one we should have.
3) Like Kathy, I am not a fan of “local only” memberships. I feel that members need to be part of the “big picture” as well as the local picture in the association.
4) Kathy wrote that, “the notion of an actual organization in our local areas will soon be seen as redundant and disappear.” Wow. I REALLY hope that this does NOT happen! There is SO MUCH benefit that members get from their local chapters….IF, of course, they take advantage of joining them and being involved in them. For me personally, people from my local chapter and other local chapters have played a *huge* part in my professional development and networking. The key here is that I met these people THROUGH the local associations.

Well, that’s it for now. I could probably write more, but these were the things that immediately stood out for me in the discussion. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!