[K3CAL] Open letter to the board

[Eric Christensen]

On 03/04/2016 06:33 PM, David Olenjack wrote:

> 1. People who have made accusations against one or more members of the
> board (i.e. conflicts of interest, abuse of or overstepping authority,
> etc..)

Unfounded accusations, mind you.  At no time has anyone provided any
proof of any wrong doing of anyone on the Board.  There have been many
claims but none, that I'm aware of, hold up to any kind of scrutiny.
There seem to be a couple of people who seem to really dislike the
current Board's attempts at including people that were otherwise run off
by the previous President or previous ex-President.

> 2. People (like me) who are trying (and miserably failing, I might add)
> to mediate the two sides and help to bring the conflict to some kind of
> resolution, and

And I wish there were more people that expect that something that
doesn't sound correct is likely a misunderstanding rather than malice.

> 3. People who are so tired of the drama and just want to sell the
> equipment, throw in the towel, and call it a day.

And, honestly, I'm in this camp.  I've never been a part of an
organization where this much drama exists.

> You keep talking about what "you" know, or what "you" are
> trying to do.  "You" aren't important in this issue.  What is important
> is the fact that under (in part) your leadership, this organization is
> having serious issues.

Well, we have two problems that seem to want to tear the community apart
no matter how much work the leadership puts into trying to move forward.
 No one on the current Board has ever threatened anyone or yelled at
anyone in a meeting or excluded people because they were felt they
weren't smart enough or it wasn't their place.  That cannot be said of
the previous President and previous ex-President.

Look back at who has been spreading the accusations and negativity and
you'll find it centers around two people that seem to want to throw crap
from the sidelines without actually participating in any of the
meetings.  All of today's discussions was started by hearsay and a
misunderstanding of what happened.  Did he write to try to get clarity
about the topic?  No, he started throwing out accusations and falsely
claiming things as fact.  I guarantee that if more people would not
assume malice and try to gain clarity we would avoid much of this bad
faith belief in each other.

> It's not what you do or do
> not know about repeaters or what you were doing behind legions of armed
> Marines during 9/11.  

As it shouldn't.  I was simply replying to the apparent question of my
technical ability.  I now see that it's my leadership that was in
question and I can honestly say that I'm new to all this.  I didn't get
to do anything under the previous President and was told more than once
that I was hanging out with "other" crowd (which I was unaware there was
an "other" crowd in our club) too much.

> It matters that everything is falling apart, and
> what is supposed to be a fun hobby is turning into something that people
> are ready to just walk away from.

Well, I'm trying to move forward.  Perhaps I should let my actions speak
for me instead of replying to all the bait.

Next month we'll have a talk given by the ARRL Section Manager for MDC.
 I think Jim, K3UGA, is also going to give a brief presentation of his
go-box with a longer presentation later in the year.  I want to get Bob
(from Charles County) to come demonstrate his BPQ digital messaging
station, and try to get W3YVV to come do his talk on station grounding.
 I've had requests for demonstrations/talks on ATV, more on what we can
do with our Yaesu equipment, and have Keith come back to talk more about
mesh networking.  That's what I'm working on as Vice President.  I'm
trying to get people doing things.  There are others in the club that
are working on getting folks together to build project radios and
antennas and our public service liaison is already stacking the calendar
full of public service events for the year.  That's what we're doing.
Who wants to talk about that stuff instead of bickering and fighting on
email?

I was elected by the membership to the position of Vice President so
there are ways (Article 1, Section 8 of the By-laws) to unseat me if the
membership doesn't think I'm doing a good job.  Honestly, I'd have no
problem with it as I'm really tired of dealing with the crap that has
been thrown at the Board.

I was asked to be the ARES EC and I was appointed to the Repeater
Committee.  If someone would like either one of these positions please
let me know.  The latter has to go through the President but being ARES
EC just has to go through the SEC and I'll happily make the
recommendation.  It is a lot of work, though.  Bob alluded to the number
of hours I submitted for the January blizzard.  I have logs to show
exactly how much time I spent planning for the event and working with
Section leadership before the first flake fell.  There's a lot of work
that goes into these events.

I have two small children and lots of other aspects to this hobby that
I'd rather focus on when compared to the training, planning, and work
that goes into these other positions.  I'm trying very hard to stay
focused on the positives and get people in the club involved in things
because I, and others, saw this as an area that was lacking.  But at
this point it's getting very difficult to stay focused with all the
negatives that seem to be dragging us back.  I'd much rather being
playing fort, coloring, and reading books than going out for a long
evening where the work I've put in won't be appreciated and will end up
being misrepresented by someone with an agenda.

--Eric