thanks for the news, Boba. I will be taking advantage of both offers.

Part of my concern lies at the heart of the statement "I think we where waiting to tell you but im not sure why" and part lies in the statement "If there is anything else you would like to know about the meetings just ask."

The Board needs to establish internally who is going to be responsible for communicating to the SN golfers and, likewise, ensure that it happens. Disseminating in some manner the complete minutes of board meetings should not be an option and should not be left to chance.

Chris, I agree!!! I accept my share of the blame for not informing you sooner but, we where working on fielding the best offers from the various vendors. I think this is a great step for the SN and, for the TD's of this year and, future events. There is no hidden agenda for the BOD so, I am not sure why things have not been posted sooner. I will ask the rest of the bod if someone needs to assit in posting what was discussed in the meetings to prevent any other problems.
Once again if there is anything that i can help with feel free to ask. Harold is ready and awaiting your call. Best of luck and let us know how we can help you or any sn player!!! Regards Boba

I, for one, have been at every single meeting since becoming a board member. I have placed my votes after going over all the options of any given issue.

We do have a quroum, four members must be present to conduct business, which, at times, has been a problem. If enough members do not show, then nothing is done except wasting the time of those who are there.

As far as I know, there is no "charter" or written procedures defining the duties of Board. John is the chairman, and has been, I think, since the board was frist appointed by Jim.

The feeling I get is that most members want to get off the board as soon as their time is up, mostly due the the frustration of it being so difficult to accomplish anything and the fact that the board is expected to solve every problem yesterday. Some of the issues just do not have a cut and dried simple solution, and must be discussed at length. Here again, there must be the vote from those present, and it seems, that even that vote is subject to change if all the members are not there to participate. There has been talk of proxy votes, which just delay things even more and gives those at the meeting a sense of, "why should I waste my time if we have to go over it all again!" Then everything is gone over yet again to get these members thoughts and, finally their vote. A snails pace would be quicker, it seems at times.

I agree that we need to have a written document detailing the duties and responsibilities of the members of the board. We need to publish the changes that were voted on to determine the bidding procedure for the Championship events. Possibly even a TD guide to help those new people stepping up to run events, a better support structure for those existing TD's and, of course, the Hosts of the championship events.

All of these things take time. We meet for a grand total, in the best case, 26 hours a YEAR! Just a little over half of what those of you with full time jobs spend at work in a week. And IF it were a perfect world, and IF every member could be present at each and every meeting, and IF each meeting went a smooth as silk, it would still be hard to address each and every issue before us.

Any time you get four people in a room, or an online meeting, which is even more difficult, you have four opinions as to what the best solution could be. This is a good thing, but, here again, takes time. All discussion takes you off on many tangents and "what ifs" that also must be discussed at length. Even following Parlamentry Proceedure become difficult at times, when it is followed at all. After all, every board member is not the CEO of a major corporation, most of us are just Disc Golfers who thought we would like to help make the Southern Nationals Pro Am Tourament Series just a little bit better place for the players than it was. We appreciate the feedback of every player out there, but not the BS.

We like to get out to the course and fling a few, just like the rest of you, we want the sport to grow and the purses to get bigger, just like the rest of you. We want to see all the problems corrected, just like the rest of you, the only difference is that we ran, and were elected to the board, hoping that we could have a positive effect on this sport, the Southern Nationals, and the players. I guess that makes us the enemy! We are sure treated that way!

Come September it could be your turn in the barrel, check it out and then you will see just what it is like. Then, and I am afraid, ONLY then, you will know EXACTLY what is is like to be a member or the board and how truly difficult it is to accomplish anything.

Dg Guy - Disc GOlf Plaques & Awards
662-660-0339

Know what you throw. . .
. . . throw what you know!

DG Guy,

For once I can say that was a good post. I didn't feel like (and it might just be the way I read the rest of your posts) you were talking down to another person that asked a question.

Terry Zeringue

you have just described the challenges facing every board ever assembled comprised of unpaid volunteers. I have served on more than my share, so while I have not yet dealt directly with the individuals comprising the SN Board, I cannot imagine that SN's challenges are so unique as to make forward progress impossible.

Remarkably, some organizations and boards meet the challenges they confront.

For starters, you need an organizational document. I would recommend that at a minimum, before the next vote for board members, you have a document in place that outlines:

a) the voting procedure;
b) the structure of the board (how many members, what is a quorum, how is voting conducted, are proxies allowed, what are the positions);
c) an outine of divisions of duties; i.e. the role of the chair, the pecking order for who chairs meetings in the chair's absence.

As to positions, I would recommend the board be structured along time honored lines; i.e. Chairperson, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary at the very least. The rest of the board could have assigned additional duties such as sergeant at arms or parlimentarian to assist in running the meetings; historian; statistician; communications director; competition director; membership; etc.

This would not mean that these individuals were solely responsible for making sure their area of responsibility was a success but at least then you could reasonably divide the duties. If, for instance, there was unresolved debate at a meeting about proposed changes to the rules that govern play during a tournament, the issue could be tabled and the competition director charged with doing research, sumarizing the tenable positions and forwarding the summary to each board member before the next meeting for review.

At this point in the board's evolution I cannot believe we are even having this discussion. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS AT THE VERY FIRST BOARD MEETING. It is hard to have any organization with actually taking the time to organize.

The last post sounds a little long on complaint about the system and a little short of resolve to contribute to the solution. Get past the us/them mentality. If you think the criticism I have voiced this morning constitutes a personal attack on the enemy, I can assure you nothing could be further from the truth ... believe me, you'll know when I attack.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2006 10:54AM by chris lasonde.

DG GUY

COMMUNICATION is all that "THE REST OF US " want.
Just like you want "THE REST OF US" off your @#$%&.

2 months in between communications from the BOD is just unacceptable. Im sorry.

JABBA

Closing due to the fact that the discussion has left the original topic. Please start a new thread for all this discussion.

Brian Moon
SNDG Webmaster