After a board member released her statement yesterday about why Karen got fired (kind of), i went back and reread a lot of information from both of them (Karen and Barbara). I won't go into details, but will give you a layman's explanation and adding my thoughts/take from what i have read and what my experiences were on the board. Let me start with this: I have written of my own failures (getting anything meaningful accomplished) while serving on the board. I felt strongly i needed to go in and break the corporate fealty structure or i too would just become another bobbling dog-head in the back window of the car. I'm not built that way, and neither were Barbara or Karen. All of us came from a background of understanding the role boards should play and how non-profit corporations should work. Barbara had a further advantage of knowing property management inside and out. The other problem was, we all are fairly strong minded personality types. We refused to sit meekly in the room and become subservient to the structure. There-in was why i felt i needed to break that ugly dynamic that starts the day we are sworn in. The oath of office is intended to put the fear of God into you. Absolute and total loyalty to the corporation. Unquestionable and unfathomable to say anything other board members would see as being disloyal. That of unto itself is bad enough, but it gets worse. This inbred culture has morphed into not just protecting the corporation, but also protecting the general manager. In fact, i would argue board officers see it as their unbridled duty to stave off anything that appears to question or challenge the gm's position. All of which flies in the face of why boards are elected to start with. Boards should be the buffer along with setting the strategy for the organization moving forward. The gm should run/oversee the day to day operations, not be the deciding factor in every decision. Let me be clear, the gm is very good at what she does. Personally, i dislike working with passive aggressive personality types. I've always been of the mind if i told you exactly what i think, we could find resolutions. Unfortunately, that style most often clashes with people who nod their head, say thanks for your thoughts and then work to undermine what you are trying to do. I can tell you emphatically both Karen and Barbara were much like me. If there was a problem, let's deal with it. Over the years, the boards culture from any type of progressive or forward thinking vanished...unless of course it came from the gm. Then it was all hands on deck and do not variate from her position or there would be hell to pay. Most board members are and have been more than happy to assume the position and just do what is presented to them. Again, not my style. The funny thing is, i tried to quit a year and a half in. I had my fill of the bullshit and walked into the gm's office with my resignation in hand. I had done ton's of things in the community over the years including some kind of plaque as Sun City Man of the Year presented by the Northwest Chamber of Commerce. Frankly it would have been a bad look for the RCSC and she knew as i walked away i would have no qualms about telling the world why. I suspect now in retrospect she wishes she had accepted it. I digress, because as i read more and more of the emails from both Barbara and Karen i saw a pattern, that both of these women weren't about to go quietly into the night. They had been elected to serve the community and by God, they were going to do just that. They knew they weren't elected to serve the corporation and even more so they knew they weren't elected to be subservient to the gm. Over all of these years, we have ended up exactly where we should be; a misguided sense of loyalty to the corporation when in reality we should be building an absolute sense of community within. Historically that was how we were built and why we were successful. Both these women were trying to do the right thing as board members; question, challenge and try to improve on easily the most unique age restricted community in the country. Sadly, both paid a price far too high.
Sadly, and from the little that I know, I believe there may be another on the Board who has a target on their back and their only saving grace is the community response you've seen regarding Karen's dismissal. It's turning into the same upside down world of reporting as the rest of the country. When Antifa and BLM burnt down Seattle is was reported as a "peaceful protest," but January 6th in D.C. was labeled a "violent insurrection"! The RCSC is only telling us the things that THEY want to tell us, and are only abiding by the rules that THEY want to adhere too, and will work to THEIR advantage. THEY refuse to even consider hearing about the rules and bylaws that THEY are ignoring. They can't, and we shouldn't allow them to, just follow the rules that THEY like and that's why they want to eliminate their mandate to follow Robert's Rules of Order, which by the way, is the gold standard on how to run a meeting! I have sent many e-mails to the Board only to receive crickets as a response, never asking to explain! THEY don't care! THEY know best! Just shut-up and pay your damn assessment!
FYI keep the political BS off this board. We don't need to hear your bullshit views on anything one way or the other. Take it to a political board this is about Sun City bucko
Well, I knew sooner or later I would run into somebody like you. I have been following the site long before I finally decided to sign-up and join because I've seen how people with your mindset have run other people off the site because they don't think the same way you do. You can't deny that the way the main stream media has reported those incidence I referred to aren't true, and my comments mentioned nothing about politics. I was merely commenting how reporting can be, and is being used to try to influence perception. It's only people like you, bucko, that wants to turn everything into politics. The next time you think you know what you really don't, I would prefer you just keep your comments to yourself. Let's not turn this into another Left vs Right blog and just keep it on point!
You don't know what or how I think. This isn't a political board. I'm a proud Republican and you can keep the political BS off this board
I never said it was and made no reference to it in my comments! Good for you, but once again, YOU keep bringing up political parties, not me! You can continue to try to defend yourself but I will not engage. As a wise person once said, "In life, it's important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong" Apology accepted!
Are we done? Good, and now back to our regularly scheduled programing. In another thread, someone asked who is the RCSC? Good question and one i have attempted to answer over the years. Previous board members and i have clashed and frankly, it's a little like asking who is God. Lots of different answers and dependent on who you ask. I refuse to lose sleep over it and almost always answer with the primary reason for the RCSC's existence: to serve the membership. I started this thread because lots of folks have been struggling over the why regarding Karen? You can't answer that without asking why Barbara? Both are within silly little millimeters of each other. Both questioned the actions of the general manager, both talked to other board members about their concerns, both got fired. Both were extremely well qualified and competent. Both so much so they made other board members uneasy. All of which leads me to tell you who is NOT the RCSC..the general manager. He/she (doesn't matter who it is) they work for the board. The very notion any board would consider in their duties protecting the gm is just unabashedly wrong. That's not why they were elected. If swearing allegiance to the organization is so important, than they have to be able to differentiate between the duties of the gm and what the organization is there for and more importantly what they are there for. That's why the articles of incorporation are so significant. They spell it all out. Sadly along the way, the board began believing the gm and the organization were synonymous. In fact, i could argue the gm became more important. Think not? In Barbara's case they fired her for questioning an audit report she was given. I don't know what it said and i don't know if it was a legitimate concern. I do know when she turned to other board members, they turned on her. I do know one board member told me point blank, when he found out she was asking questions, he called the gm and she was gone in a matter of days. To be clear, the board let her go, not the gm. I also know there has been a steady and repeated effort to get rid of Karen. I know she talked with the gm several times about concerns. I know the board president wrote her up for things she that others have done at the same time and those actions were ignored. Rather than speaking in tongues, lets use a for-instance. Let's say Karen was at a meeting and while speaking her mask slipped below her nose. Let's say several board members complained about it and the president gave her a written warning. Okay, shit happens. The problem was if this were to happen and let's say we went back and reviewed the meeting video and other board members had that same problem, the mask slipping below the nose, and they did nothing to them...would it tell you anything? Over the years i dealt with hundreds of grievance letters. The first rule before the the arbitrator is were the warnings done to all parties or was one person singled out? Then lets say there were 3 or 4 or 5 other instances where this kind of selective administration of the rules became the norm, for at least one board member. Would you begin to question what was going on? Would you think someone might be out to get that person? That is why i started this thread with a discussion of personality types and interpersonal interactions. You don't have to be a human resource manager to know when someone is being set up. It comes down to the basic principles of fairness. Equal treatment for all, not differentiating because you like them or dislike the. Worse yet, targeting them because they are questioning the boss.
Sounds like the Board of RSCS puts the Corporation above the Community. This is not a good thing at all. I suspect that the vast majority of the residents did not care a whit about what the RSCS board did before the 2020 pandemic because the clubs met all the time and everyone had a good time doing their favorite activities. Then everything shut down and people wanted advocates for the community over the corporation. And the board dismissed Karen McAdam which resulted in OUR meeting on 13-Sep-21. I want the community to come out so I can stand up there and recommend the entire board needs to be recalled. My home owners recreation dues should not be going in to support this irresponsible behavior to the board.
The real very, VERY sad part is the way the board has responded. They could have attempted to have a civil, informal sit-down with some of the more outspoken Members and explained where they were coming from and calm down some of the outrage and show that they really do respect the opinions of the Members. I for one am not interested in knowing the violations that Karen committed but would rather like to understand what type of questions or information did they submit to the, so-called, legal council that makes them believe they received the correct answers and did everything above board, because I can assure you that I can provide documentation (rules) that says otherwise. They violated their own bylaws and I think they know it, especially if they are monitoring this blog because I have explained it many times. If I'm wrong I will happily admit so, apologize, and go on my happy way, but I fear the board provided the legal council with only the information they thought would be necessary to receive the type of response they were looking for. And because their dislike of director McAdam was so strong they allowed their emotions to cloud their judgments. So....rather than the board attempting to tamp down the outrage by meeting with some of the Members, they have decided to double-down. Not only did they shut-down the Sept. 13th meeting, (in a manner that violated the Bylaws and Robert's Rules) but now they want to eliminate Robert's Rules all together. They only use Robert's Rules when it works to their advantage, (secrets of the actions taken in executive session) but when we attempt to show them the bylaws and Robert's Rule that they violated they want no part of it! We are in a very bad place right now and the Board isn't trying to make things better! It appears they're just waiting us out until we lose interest!
Not to change the subject but when exactly did Seattle burn down? Looking out my window it is still there.
