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Message from VP

Tuesday September 28, 2021

Dear Lakers,

This note is to inform JLA members and the community that after two years on the JLA Board, I am stepping down effective today.  Since I am advocating dissolution of the Board, I feel it is important to immediately remove myself.

I fully support the members’ petition to dissolve the current board -  a petition that was supported by a healthy percentage of JLA membership. Yet, in the face of this, a JLA meeting still went ahead on Sunday, September 26 to appoint new directors and officers. I attempted to join the meeting by Zoom to express my concerns, but my participation was prevented, apparently as a result of technical problems.  Since then, I have learned that a new "President” and new officers were chosen from among the unelected directors who were appointed only last week. In my view, moves like this demonstrate a disrespect for current members and elected board members. It is the tipping point for me. 

A successful dissolution of the board will ease the way for new nominees who are better equipped to take on current challenges and who more closely reflect our changing lake demographic.  I am hopeful that a new board made up of diverse and engaged individuals will bring new expertise, transparency and vision to the JLA. Our members deserve nothing less.  

I am proud of my two years as Director of Governance & Government Relations, VP and Acting President and feel that as a group we made progress on certain files.  But there is so much more to accomplish. Among my goals was to update our governance & bylaws to reflect a modern organization and to better define and make transparent our role on environmental issues.  Regrettably, these critical improvements were not achieved due to the fractious nature of the board. 
 
As a lawyer, I believe it is imperative that we have rules and ethical guidelines that ensure fairness to other directors and to members. As a JLA member, I want to be confident that directors abide by those rules and act in a collegial and transparent way.  Unfortunately, this is not the experience that we have had on the board.  In my view, recent behaviour has made a mockery of our bylaws (both in letter and spirit), any alleged Board unity and any sense of good will and good faith. Were it not for the move to dissolve the Board, I could not in good conscience continue as Director of Governance and watch such disregard for our guiding constitution and resistance to any type of change.

There can be no neutrality on these important points. Either you stand for something or you stand for nothing.

Finally, I would like to tip my hat to the 9 directors who, in the last 2 years, resigned on principle over similar issues, and also to the 3 members-petitioners who have committed to organizing the upcoming October 5th meeting in an attempt to give the JLA a true fresh start.