RCSC Needs A Turnaround Specialist—Proposal To Call For A Governance Review

Our RCSC governance practices are broken and pose a threat to the future integrity of our community.


Our governance documents ( RCSC By-Laws and RCSC Board Policies) do not, in some key respects, align.


In addition, where Roberts Rules would normally prevail in a given situation, unclear and reactive decisions made possible by our governing documents can override what most of us have come to expect when using Roberts Rules, especially at committees levels.


As a result, and as it stands, a very small group of people are able to make decisions for our membership in a way that obfuscates transparency and accountability, resulting in loss of trust which leaves a trail of fractured relationships in its wake.


These issues form a perfect constellation of factors that lead to the confusion, drama, and turnover that we have experienced over the last year because of the way that our corporation is being managed.


If there is no intervention at this juncture, all we can expect is more of same as time goes on, with continued threat to the integrity of our community.


Right now, our business model is dysfunctional and broken. It is my opinion that it cannot "fix" itself.


We all understand the difficult job that our new GM is tasked with in his efforts to stabilize our corporation. And, we certainly all do understand and are grateful for the selfless and thankless hours that each board member contributes, working tirelessly on the membership's behalf.


So, to our RCSC Board and GM, I want to say thank you.


But, at this moment, I would sincerely request that the Board and GM hit the "pause" button, take a deep breath and spend some time reflecting on my request.


I request that the Board move to hire an outside professional entity to conduct a "Governance Review".


A Governance Review can be conducted by an outside professional, who evaluates existing practices and makes recommendations to re-work the "white board" structure of a corporation, so that the corporation can become a healthy and functional business entity.


Once accomplished, this outside professional will have created something that we can now more effectively manage.


And, something in which we can now place our trust.


In other words, RCSC needs to hire a Turn Around specialist to help us help ourselves, so that we create a 'new normal'.


A “new normal” that is governable and functional and will allow us to move forward in to the future with hopeful air under our wings.


Respectfully,


Cynthia Malkowski

 

Hey Cynthia, solid comments and hard to argue some of your points. I know you have been following for a while now, was it the library issue/debacle that spurred the letter? Or was there other things as well?

 

HI Bill,

The brushfires, dust-ups, turnover and confusion are all just symptoms of a broken system.

It is the poor governance policies that are the root issue.

Nothing will change unless the governance policies change.

And, nothing can change until we have someone at the helm who is a visionary and who has the appropriate leadership style to support the type of transition that our corporation is attempting to accomplish.

Ultimately, the RCSC Board is at the helm, but the buck stops soundly at the doorstep of the Board President.

In my 50’s, and after having run several complex businesses, I went back to grad school and earned an MBA in Organizational Management ( I did not want to pay for the degree audit, because I did not need the degree so never got my diploma—lol—!-) But, I do retain the information. (And, I know that I can keep up with 20-somethings and still do math! ha ha …..)

In general, the HR/Marketplace Interface which is defined by the way that a business is organized, is one of the most vexing areas for any owner, CEO, president, manager to understand.

I wrote my thesis based on a Harvard Study of Leadership Styles and the associated performance metrics attached to each style. According to this Harvard study, which seems to be a benchmark study, there are 5 types of leadership styles. And, it is possible to predict how effective (or not) an organization will be, based on who is in charge. Quite fascinating. Once you see an organization through this lens, dynamics become obvious.

This happens to be one of my favorite passions, but will put a pin it for now, just so that I don’t go on and on.

But, will end with this…..we need a strong visionary with the most effective leadership style at the helm as soon as possible.

Hope this answers your question.

Best-Cynthia

 

Just curious Cynthia but why do you say that "the buck stops soundly at the doorstep of the Board President? The Articles of Incorporation clearly states that, "The affairs of the Corporation shall be conducted by a Board of Directors"?

It doesn't say that the president of the board gets to make any final decisions, and I would respectfully expect that it would be the entire board who should receive any blame or repercussions, and not a single individual? If, in fact, all things were the blame of one individual, then what's the purpose of a board? The presidents primary function is simply to preside over meetings?

Respectively can you please explain? Perhaps I'm missing something.

 

Thanks Cynthia, it answers most of my questions. Leadership has always been a favorite topic of mine, but on a slightly different level. I've been involved in and with it for nearly 50 years. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly up close and personal. The first 30 inside organized labor, the next 20 here in Sun City. In fact, what attracted me to Sun City was the unique characteristics that came from being self-governed.

Shortly after moving here i read a comment that defined us this way: "Virtually everything is our lives exists on a vertical organizational structure. Sun City is different, having a horizontal one with the varying organizations each with their own tasks to be accomplished. It was brilliantly simple, as long as each organization fulfilled their role. Of course those first 50 years were overseen by the greatest generation who refused to let it fail.

Then the boomers hit retirement age and life as we know it changed. The powers that be realized change was coming and over-responded (my opinion) and hired a "visionary," at least she saw herself that way. She was smart enough to know that non-profit organizations are slow moving for a reason. To combat that she needed to rewrite our documents, predominantly our bylaws as our Articles need a membership vote. Over time she weened the board and ultimately she eliminated the safeguards built into our documents.

Effectively we moved from a bottom up run org to a top down. It would have taken one of two things to have made it work. She would have needed to be infallible (like the pope), or the board would have had to have held management (her) accountable for her decisions and direction. Neither happened and by the time she left, Sun City was facing a myriad of problems. I don't even fault her, she did what she thought was in our best interests, she was just wrong.

That's yesterday's news and why you are pretty spot on in your comments. Almost all of our internal processes have bee destroyed or distorted Rebuilding them or replacing them has been a nightmare. The problem with visionaries is again rife with challenges: Their vision better be right (or at least close). They need to be able to articulate it clearly and in a manner that creates buy-in, and finally the real question; can they execute it? Finding that type of leader rarely is doable with a non-profits budgetary limitations.

Since 2006 we strayed down the wrong path (again my opinion). About two years (2021/2022) ago we started to acknowledge the challenges in front of us, but as i have written often, fixing things will be neither cheap nor fast. Sadly, most look at each of those (expensive and slow) as problematic. I see them simply as our reality. In any event, these aren't the kind of discussions we normally have here, so thanks for opening the door with your comments.

 

Thanks, Bill…..your historical purview is invaluable and I agree with your points of view. However, we don’t want to keep living in the current status quo, which is I why I am strongly advocating that we engage a Turnaround Specialist to initiate an intervention as soon as possible. Let’s fix our score on the Misery Index as soon as we can by having a neutral, skilled professional reorganize our corporation from the top down, starting with our governing documents.

 

Perhaps money better spent than 1.5 million going to the dogs?

 

With all of my experience in non-profits, i have to admit i have never seen a "turnaround specialist" or even heard of one being hired by an NP? I would expect that would more likely found in for profit corporations with budgets that can easily adapt a big ticket fixer. Nope, not trying to diminish or even imply it couldn't be done. In fact C, if you know of any instances one has been used in the non-profit world i would love to read about it.

The tragedy of our evolution after 2006 was we lost sight of the fact Sun City was filled with well qualified people who could, would and did accept positions (usually on committees where their input was invaluable). It was less of a time commitment than being on the board and was one of those fabled win/win arrangements. When the gm recognized committees got in the way of her goals, they were terminated or neutered to the point that what they suggested simply didn't matter.

History has taught us to look inward for solutions. Lord knows that's not the only way to fix the mess we are in, i suspect it is the least expensive.

 

There are quite a few for non-profits. Just Google. The foundation I worked for hired people to come in many times for various reasons. 2006 was a long time ago.

 

Cynthia,

I fundamentally agree with your insights. "Fixing" broken governance is truly a monumental multidisciplinary undertaking. Starting on a path of continually improving governance is, in my view, more attainable. This is what the long-range planning committee did when it drafted the new mission, vision and values statement. Prior to that I felt RCSC was truly a rudderless ship being "steered" by the newest Board majority's agenda. In my view there is now a rudder, but the "captains" do not want to put it in the water because it may prove too restrictive. I say pause and drop rudder. I am all in.

John Fast

 

I estimate that Sun City, with its current assets, revenue and employee base, qualifies as a mid-size corporation. Its IRS non-profit tax status is irrelevant.
Sun City is a distressed mid-size corporation. Here is a professional association for turnaround specialists turnaround.org

This professional association has a great website to peruse

Here is a statement taken from their “Business Assistance” page:

Advantages of a Turnaround Professional

A turnaround specialist enters a company with a fresh eye and complete objectivity. This professional can spot problems that may not be visible to company insiders and implement solutions.

Turnaround managers have no political agenda or other obligations to bias the decision-making process, allowing them to take sometimes unpopular, yet necessary, steps required for a company’s survival.

A turnaround manager’s experience within a particular industry is less important than experience in crisis situations when a company is facing bankruptcy or the loss of millions of dollars in revenue. Like an emergency room doctor, a turnaround professional must make critical decisions quickly to staunch the financial bleeding and give a patient the best chance for recovery.

Operating in the eye of the storm, a turnaround specialist must deal equitably with angry creditors, frightened employees, wary customers, and a nervous board of directors. Clearly this is no assignment for the faint-hearted.

 

Hello John,

Thank you for your kind insights. While I agree with you, I sadly do not share your optimism re the current captains, which is the root issue.

This slow fester is a trust-buster and I do feel that the current board has lost the trust of many, many volunteers and members.

Just based on this alone, I do not think that it is possible to re-build that trust, as it stands.

If you happen to still be online, I just posted above an excerpt from turnaround.org, a professional association, which is worth reading.

 

Indeed

 

Turnaround specialist is just another term for an overpaid consultant and in my lengthy corporate career I learned to hate consultants. This is why I enjoyed the movie Office Space so much.

 

HI Geoffrey,

Agreed…..me too…..why should I buy some other guy’s boat for him on my dime, and I have done that too many times to count………however, the board as it stands cannot or will not fix itself, so I cannot think of any other alternative productive intervention at this moment. Too many big egos standing in the way. So, either we do something or just continue to suffer the slow bleed. I do think that if a turnaround guy/gal could provide the membership with a diagnosis, status report and a road map, then our membership would have a way to hold the board accountable in its adherence to good governance policies. It would go a long way toward community education re good governance policies.

 

PS, I love Office Space also…..lol

 

Cynthia, while I understand your position, having served on the Board, do not mistake egos from skills. During my time not only was the Board populated with golfers(!), some did not have rudimentary knowledge of critical areas such financial statements, construction, investments, insurance, etc. At times it seemed I was doing battle with an unarmed enemy. While everything seems chaotic now, there are Board members that have different skills which is great but integrating them seems to be the problem. Also the turnover of a minimum of three every year with five! openings this election. We just don’t know what we are going to end up with.

As for a turnaround specialist, my experience with them was during my career in Bankruptcy court where the company had sizable trustee bonds file with the court.

Don’t get me started on MBAs as I had terrible relations with those people who usually consultants also. Made me say consultants are people who don’t understand what your company does and then writes reports in business school BS telling you how to operate. Arrrggggghhhhhh! Last consultant the company brought in was for increasing sales. Average experience of the participants, twenty five years and the consultant never really grasped a company that wrote surety bonds. We just stared at each other and laughed.

 

When there is as much turnover on the board as we’ve experienced, plus throw in a rookie GM, we’re lucky to have had anything accomplished. I can’t foresee any miraculous improvement in the coming months with summer shutdown just around the corner and, as mentioned, five vacancies to fill this fall.

 

Hello Larry,

Couldn’t agree more. I think that we should start beating the drums to recruit board candidates who will pledge to perform a governance review as a primary campaign issue.

 

Not only do we need to beat the drums to find qualified candidates, we need to beat the drums to get informed members to get out and vote.

It's a sad state of affairs when you consider the community has about 35,000 Members and just barely 2,000 vote...and then everybody bitches about who serves on the board!