Dear Sir,

In last week’s Letters to the Editor there were well expressed concerns for the Lake Chapala Society (LCS) board.

The board, not the LCS.  Those petitioning to recall three board members (“LCS Three”) were called whiners and rabble-rousing know-it-alls!

In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. The 100 plus members who signed the three recall petitions care very much for the LCS. They are actively doing their best to help the LCS survive its near bankruptcy. The membership will recall the shocking “News Release” in early October in which a panicked board suddenly announced the LCS was nearly bankrupt and that key paid employees had been fired without any notice.

Then why these strongly held different opinions? The probable answer is that those who signed the petitions actually attended the October 15 “Informational Meeting” and the others perhaps did not. The members attending the board-called meeting had no axe to grind.  They just wanted to learn the problems and, perhaps, find out how they could help.

The Informational Meeting quickly became a noninformational meeting.  The finance director could not answer the most basic questions like: “How many members does the LCS have?” and “How much does it cost to run the LCS each month?”  He was frequently heard to say he was a volunteer and did not have enough time to do his many tasks!  And there was much, much more.

The main impression many of the attendees gained, at the meeting, was that the board had lost control of the LCS. One letter writer suggested “... it is naive to think it would not take some time to make the transition from the old to the new (board) ...”   Yet the current president was the previous board’s vice president and two key board members were hold-overs.  Being a board member is time consuming and a responsible position.  The organization of the LCS is not complicated, yet it took the board until October to realize they were in serious trouble.  How much time should a new board be reasonably expected to need to learn their job?

The new “Answers to Members Question” on the LCS web site now has many answers to the questions they could not handle at the October meeting. The answers to the question, “Why did the board let the employees go without any advance notice,” are an insult to these loyal employees who were fired.

One rumor circulating among the membership is that the reporter for the “Guadalajara Reporter” did not accurately or fairly report the October 15 meeting. All those who were at the meeting can attest to the accuracy of the published article, and as to its fairness, what was printed was what happened!

Another letter opined “...if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.”  The point is well taken. Is keeping in place a board which has led the LCS to near bankruptcy, fired key employees and cancelled two recent fund raising events part of the solution or part of the problem?  There is something very special about the LCS, its gardens and its services. I, for one, would not want to see the gates padlocked one day.

A considerable part of the LCS income comes from membership fees.  Apparently the board has no plans to increase membership because they have made it quite clear that membership will decline in 2009.  Their plan to raise more funds was simple – fewer members means the ones who renew must pay more - 25 percent more.  This was an unfortunate decision in these times of personal financial turmoil.  But what is perhaps more unfortunate was the boards abject failure to discuss the fee increase with the membership.

“Let the board carry on as they were democratically elected to do ...” was in a Letter to the Editor. It sounds like a good phrase if one believes a board should not be accountable to its members.  The 100 plus members who signed the three recall petitions are looking for the same things all the members want – A well functioning LCS that is affordable to all; financially sound, tuned to the needs of its members and with plans for growth.

At this moment the “LCS Three” have circled their wagon and are surrounded on all sides by recall votes.

A member asked, “Can we trust the future of the LCS in the hands of its key board members – the LCS Three?” The board, especially the LCS Three, need to hear from the membership on December 11 at 10 a.m. Your vote is important.

David Moss