behind closed doors

One of my directors invited me to attend this board meeting and I'd
planned to, in addition to the Barnaby Lecture and dinner. However, a
wedding here tomorrow got in the way of that plan. Members are
excluded during executive sessions only. Hopefully a few of the local
soaring community are attending both.

Frank Whiteley


MickiMinner wrote:
To Burt, Tony and those that sign their names to their postings .....I
appreciate you being able to stand behind your posts and be reasonable.
If we require the SSA board to be open and honest, then we should at
the very least expect the same of ourselves.

Anyway, I only have 2 points to make :

EVERYONE who is a member of SSA can attend ANY board meeting. The only
proviso to that is that you don't have a vote unless you are a board
member. There are NO CLOSED doors. If you want, you can go to ANY
board meeting as a member of the SSA. I am on several boards of
registered non-profit associations, and I have NEVER seen any
indiciation that board meetings have ever been closed to the
association membership, and the SSA is no exception. I myself wanted
and planned on going to the board meeting in ALB this weekend, and was
only kept at home by a family need. I am not a board member, and know
that I was welcome to listen and know everything as an SSA member.

Also, I have (as most of the other members of the SSA) worked for many
Fortune 500 (for profit) organizations, and when you have a "accounting
Fraud" situation arise, you must IMMEDIATELY bring in someone to find
out what the true situation is (usually forensic accountants) which the
SSA did...and the next step you perform as a matter of standard
business practice is hire someone IMMEDIATELY to act on the
recommendations of the forensic accountant, the CPA on record, and to
establish the amount of the loss (whether you file or insurance or
not). Seems to me that all other questions aside, that the SSA board
has performed rather well in this emergency. There is NO REQUIREMENT
that the board had to tell anyone about what they found out or
suspected. NO REQUIREMENT, yet, like all other members of the SSA, I
read the message to members on the website, read my e-news, and read
the RAS postings. As to the fallout, that remains to be seen only
after the new Accountants determine what the true situation is. All of
us know thast within our own financial dealings, that by the time you
get statements of the actual cash that made the bank, there are a
myriad of different things that could have happened to the money on the
way to the bank, and you wouldn't be aware of the situation until a
month or two afterwards. Yes, I knew over two years ago that the 990's
weren't filed. (I found out by accident by doing some research on
writing grants), and found out that not filing the 990's is a common
practice among MANY non-profits. The Federal government already states
in the on-line database, that there is a 7 month delay in even getting
them filed, from the time that the IRS gets the reports in their own
door. The filing of the reports are the LEAST of the issues facing the
SSA board, and the easiest remedied.

Anyway, I guess I just broke my record of being a lurker, but I am
really tired of people complaining about closed doors and not being
correct in their assumptions that they can't get off their collective
duffs, and DO something, like do their research, and read the minutes,
and review the financial statements for yourself....or at the very
least contact your regional director and merely ASK the qustions. That
is exactly what they are there for, and YOU/WE elected them. There is
a forum for communication set up within the SSA, only some people
choose not to use it, and prefer to remain nameless as they
"yammer"....thanks for letting me vent. Micki