Andy, I am not advocating that we sit back and wait for the normal democratic process to take effect. It won’t of its own accord. It has to be driven.
Any management group that has been around for a long time develops cliques and power cells centered around the executive. Beneficial if they are good managers, poisonous if not. You only need one or two alpha characters to set the style of management in the executive, and then the executive maintains the same style of management with the board. If you wade in abusing all and sundry, they will all feel hurt, wrongly accused, and under attack. This will make it even easier for the few alpha characters to circle the wagons even tighter.
The few alpha characters have to be identified and exposed, then not elected. The good people we have in there are hopefully not thrown out with the bathwater, and we have a good basis to carry forward.
Unfortunately the membership is too widely spread, and poorly informed as to what is going on. Even when I do hear about something and have suspicions, it is very hard to find out anything. I just carry on in ignorance, and when it comes time for voting I’ll read the half page blurb in the magazine and maybe cast a vote if I feel like it. And this situation is compounded by the secrecy. So, when I write “we should only bring about this change by better communication with the members and board members”, I mean we have to do something actively to improve communication so that the board knows we don’t like what is going on, and the members have the information necessary to cast their vote in an intelligent manner.
So, how do we go about this better communication? Well, I’m not sure. I’m starting to tread water here. But it is the direction that I think that we should be going in. This forum is a start, but how many people read it?
An email newsletter to all clubs? An email list for interested parties? Forming an adversary group made up of previously ejected board members?