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The undemocratic nature of Olympia Film Society

Sat, 09/01/2007 - 2:09pm — emmettoconnell

Here is what has really been bothering me about the recent blowup at OFS (here and here at the Olympian). The board of directors actually isn't elected from the membership. Rather, it is self appointing.

The current members of the board choose all new incoming members. From the OFS bylaws, posted up at OFSvolunteers:

Any member of the Society wishing to serve as a Director must submit to the Board prior to a regularly scheduled meeting a letter of application summarizing their experience with the Society and their interest in serving on the Board, outlining any particular skills they would bring to the Board, and indicating whether they are applying for a one or two year term. Letters of application to the Board shall be posted in the lobby for not less than two weeks before the meeting at which the applicant is to be considered by the Board. The Board shall also solicit and consider member input on the applications in whatever method (letter, email, verbal testimony to the Board) is deemed appropriate by the Board. The Board shall retain the power to determine the appropriate method. Following an interview by the Board at a regularly scheduled meeting, a member may be appointed to the Board.

Now, here's my question: Would you trust a board that is put together in such a manner?

Also, there's a new explainer over at OFSvolunteers called: How did the board fudge the bylaws?

‹ The Letter from Andras Jones about OFS (Olympia Film Society)up

Comments

Sat, 09/01/2007 - 2:12pm — blagoblag

Excellent question

In addition to question of how new board members get approved, I wonder how many people self-select out of the process because of perceived cronyism or personality conflicts?

A few years ago I was interested in joining the board, but I heard from an insider how difficult a particular board member was to work with, so I never followed through.

Sat, 09/01/2007 - 3:02pm — blagoblag

Ugh!!!

Thanks for the new link!

"If the board had not added a fifth member, they would not have been able to take the vote. The board achieved quorum by adding a fifth member who was committed to stand aside before knowing the subject of the vote."

That's really, really icky! Sounds like they all need to learn what consensus means.

Sat, 09/01/2007 - 2:40pm — Guglielmo

This sounds like an organization

that needs to be more accountable to its memebers. Does someone have a link to the OFS by-laws. Perhaps it's time for a popular revolution.
Sat, 09/01/2007 - 2:52pm — blagoblag

Bylaws

http://www.ofsvolunteers.com/mediawiki/index.php/Ofs_bylaws
Sat, 09/01/2007 - 2:43pm — Mary Baker Eddy

This committee of one,

This committee of one, self-appointed, has voted to flip the bird at OFS's current Board of Directors.

I'm debating whether or not I'll bother with the Film Festival. It's always been fun, but not as fun as before. Crispin Glover, Russ Meyer, those were film festivals.

Sat, 09/01/2007 - 3:11pm — Guglielmo

Do I understand correctly

that at the time of the vote there were only 5 board members serving on the board instead of the required 8? The bylaws clearly state the the remining member of the board have an obligation to keep a minimum of 8 members on the board. How can they talk about a quorum with a staight face? They didn't have a quorum, they had a board with fewer members than the bylaws require. A quorum of 5 presupposes a board membership of 8. Ridiculous!
Sat, 09/01/2007 - 3:24pm — blagoblag

Fuzzy math

I believe there were 5 established board members, 4 of whom were in attendance at that meeting. There were also 3 prospective new board members in attendance, for a total of 7 board members present (8 total).

However, the established board members asked the 3 new members to stand aside on the vote, without telling them the subject of the vote. In other words, they wanted to count them for the purpose of having a quorum of at least 5, but they dictated that the new members must not vote to block. This is a complete distortion of consensus-based decision making.

When the subject of the vote was revealed, two of the 3 new board members expressed their discomfort and were "removed from the board for the remainder of the meeting." This left one new board member who had agreed to stand aside before even knowing the subject of the vote, plus the four established board members, meeting the quorum of 5.

Somebody please correct me if I've got this wrong, but I'm afraid I haven't.

Sat, 09/01/2007 - 3:28pm — Guglielmo

If your story is right

that vote doesn't pass the smell test. Not one bit. I'm surprized they fired an employee based on such a tenuous and bad-faith interpretation of their bylaws. If Mr. Bartone is litigious, I think he'd get his job back. Those directors should resign for "working" the rules the way they did. It's a film soiciety for God's sake, not Chicago politics!
Sat, 09/01/2007 - 3:38pm — emmettoconnell

That's my understanding as well

Unfortunately, the Olympian story didn't touch on the apparent abuse of process aspect of this story, just on Jeff personally. Anyway, that's the center of my feelings towards this.
Sat, 09/01/2007 - 5:59pm — concerned

Meeting Sunday

FYI There is a meeting planned for interested volunteers, OFS members and community members scheduled for Sunday @ 7pm @ Heritage Park at the picnic tables near the Public Restrooms. Please come and familiarize yourself as much as possible with this issue before hand: www.ofsvolunteers.com Check out the newest updates (boards response to volunteers demands).
Sun, 09/02/2007 - 11:01pm — Zero_One

Please Join!

I would like to encourage anyone out there who has an interest in film to become a member and participate in this unique Olympia resource. It's not enough to just come and watch movies there but we need to work to keep it alive and well. If you are already a member please get connected and contribute however you can.

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