08/10: Another Board Member Gone
Category: Hermitage Board Resignations
Posted by: admin
If you look at the "Who's Who" page of the Hermitage website, you'll see yet another board member is gone. Lori Lundberg's name has disappeared from the masthead. That's the third departure since April, following Dick Blanchard and Judy Showers. For a board that only has 5 members, that's a pretty heady turnover. If you've been following this for any length of time, you'll know that what has been happening is that there is an ugly triumvirate of board members (Taylor, Tulowitzski, Zack), who together with the prized Executive Director have ridden the organization into the ground. On a board of five, three is a majority. So the board has cycled through member after member after member in the other positions, each lasting a relatively short time until the true situation became clear, and then exiting stage right.
This resignation is interesting, because it takes board below the minimum required by their by-laws; at least, that's the minimum number required in the last set of by-laws the general public laid their eyes on. And since the board now meets privately at an unpublished time and location, doesn't make available to the public their meeting minutes, and doesn't publish their by-laws, who knows what new rules they've created for themselves.
When this all started, the coalition consulted several lawyers about how to get the board out. Due to the odd legal structure of the Hermitage Board (the old board selects the new board, and all seats are by board approval, without participation by volunteers, staff, donors or sponsors), the only two ways to remove board members are to demonstrate out-and-out legal fraud, or force them out through public humiliation. Gross incompetence and hideous management, no matter how appalling, are not enough to force a legal coup. So we have had to go the other route of making public the Hermitage's dirty laundry, hence this blog, letters, interviews, etc.
And then, at the beginning of August, something fell into my lap which I think will demonstrate to even the most staunch Hermitage supporter that it's time for the three old boys to go. Because of certain legal restrictions, I've had to wait until the wheels of justice finish turning before I can make this public. And those wheels turn excruciatingly slowly. But turn they do and my hope is that VERY shortly, that will change.
If Ms. Parker-Hotchkiss or Ms. Lundberg would be interested in talking, please contact the webmaster.
This resignation is interesting, because it takes board below the minimum required by their by-laws; at least, that's the minimum number required in the last set of by-laws the general public laid their eyes on. And since the board now meets privately at an unpublished time and location, doesn't make available to the public their meeting minutes, and doesn't publish their by-laws, who knows what new rules they've created for themselves.
When this all started, the coalition consulted several lawyers about how to get the board out. Due to the odd legal structure of the Hermitage Board (the old board selects the new board, and all seats are by board approval, without participation by volunteers, staff, donors or sponsors), the only two ways to remove board members are to demonstrate out-and-out legal fraud, or force them out through public humiliation. Gross incompetence and hideous management, no matter how appalling, are not enough to force a legal coup. So we have had to go the other route of making public the Hermitage's dirty laundry, hence this blog, letters, interviews, etc.
And then, at the beginning of August, something fell into my lap which I think will demonstrate to even the most staunch Hermitage supporter that it's time for the three old boys to go. Because of certain legal restrictions, I've had to wait until the wheels of justice finish turning before I can make this public. And those wheels turn excruciatingly slowly. But turn they do and my hope is that VERY shortly, that will change.
If Ms. Parker-Hotchkiss or Ms. Lundberg would be interested in talking, please contact the webmaster.
