Club Business

In the 2022 Member Feedback Survey, the membership was specifically asked whether it was helpful to have a "straight ticket" on the board nomination process. In those results, the membership overwhelmingly stated its dissatisfaction with the process, with nearly 51% of the club owners showing either moderate or strong opposition to the practice of limiting leadership choice.

Those results are below:

Why does the Board and the nominating committee ignore actionable member feedback regarding a fixed election? Because they know the membership is nearly powerless to do anything about it.

The nominating committee is solely responsible for stacking the board with candidates who have enabled irresponsible spending and gross mismanagement for the past several years. It borders on negligence. 60% of the members surveyed have little to no confidence in the Board's ability to manage finances and the nominating committee is responsible for placing those Board members with their "straight tickets".

For the two open Board seats the committee has put forth only two candidates, Tom Donahoe and Julie Gorman. The committee held back two applicants because... well, they don't want people's feelings to get hurt. All this while the current Board has managed the club to the brink of insolvency.

Tom Donahoe, one of the committee's two shoe-in nominees, is also conveniently the board liaison for the committee. While Tom is great at tough talk, he presided on the Board while Doug Elgy, Jeff Smith and Adam Martin ran the club's credit and reputation into the ground and have crippled us with $2m in past due payables. Tom was at the helm when the Board failed to track a $500k ferry overage despite boasting about "cost controls". Tom was at the helm when the Board decided to pay $50k+ to Reese Jones and vanity marketing brochures instead of investing in basic infrastructure such as ADA compliant elevators and leaky roofs.

I don't know much about Mrs. Gorman but per her application she has only been on the island for approximately 15 months over the past 3 years. She has a background in medical billing and has never sat on a board in any shape or form - ever. She has, however, been on the transportation committee who is partially responsible for the marine and roads fiasco and is proposing a reduction of services in the cart repair department.

These are our only choices. We can do better. This community has many potential Board candidates who are sitting on the sidelines. I hope you step up. We need nuts & bolts operations experts who have no reservations about "retiring" ineffective management as it becomes clear change is needed. I am praying for additional nominees.

I'm not arguing that Tom and Julie don't deserve to run for the board because they certainly do. I'm arguing that they should not run uncontested. I am arguing that the membership deserves a choice- in fact, we are owed it based on the above surveys in which a majority of the membership disagree with a straight ticket and the direction of leadership overall.