Theos-Talk Archives (March 1998 Message tl00014)

At 12:17 AM 3/29/1998 -0500, you wrote:
>    I got a bit of news today which has soured me somewhat on ACT. I was
>sufficiently concerned about the proposed bylaw changes that I wrote to
>Wheaton adding my voice to what I assumed were the dozens of other
>voices protesting the changes. Much to my surprise, I was the ONLY
>person who bothered to complain to Wheaton.

I thank you for taking the trouble to follow up with Wheaton. As I have
stated a number of time, effort of a single individual can move mountains
and all the good Karma goes to you.

>    Well, the information I received was that it was an error on the
>part of the lawyers who wrote up the new wording, and there probably is
>still time to fix it before the ballots go out.

It is amazing to find the lawyers being blamed for the error. Since it is
used in plural, how many lawyers? A dozen or more? Too many cooks spoiling
the broth? Are these paid specialists in non profit tax exempt law or
unpaid volunteers with no non profit exempt law expertise? If paid lawyers,
Chicago lawyers are not cheap, how many thousands of dollars have been
spent on them?

However, a more fundamental question is what were the members of the Board
of Directors doing when the changes were drafted? What about all the
management staff at Wheaton? Did anyone read and comment and catch the
error? Were they sleeping at the wheel? Or are the Directors and staff who
may have noticed the error are too scared of being *marginalized* kept
silent. (The staff may lose their jobs, members of Board may be afraid of
losing the previleges they enjoy.)

More than any one, I would fault the members of the Board of Directors
since they *are* the ones who are supposed to take care of the interests of
centers/lodges/branches and should have gone thru the changes with a tooth
comb and see if there are any issues that need to be resolved. What depth
of discussions that ever took place in the Board before finalizing the
changes?

All these are legitimate questions. Any answers anyone knows?

mkr

If the Concerned
>Theosophists had informed Wheaton earlier, then there would have been
>more time to fix the problem. And what harm would have been done in
>simply asking about the change?
>
>    And, by the way, did those of you who claim that you cannot get a
>copy of the National bylaws bother to call the numbers listed on page 10
>of the March, 1998 Quest? (I am not posting the numbers here, since they
>are clearly only for use by TSA members, and this list goes to a lot of
>non-TSA members).
>
>    If you don't like what the leadership of the TSA is doing, it is not
>enough to try to change the leadership. Let the current leadership know
>of your problems. Who knows? They may just decide to agree with you.
>
>    Bart Lidofsky
>
>