My name is Barry Gershon and I am running for the Lombard Swim Club Board.
I am writing this because the Lombard Swim Club election process allows only a 100 word introduction and a short speech at the Meet the Candidates Meeting and I think that you deserve more information. I also think that you deserve the opportunity to add comments to what I write and to respond to the comments of other LSC members.
I joined Lombard Swim Club in 1995 and like everybody else who is or has run for the Board, I think that it is a remarkable institution, full of memories, and one that I want to support and possibly improve.
This is not my first rodeo. I have been on the LSC board before and initiated the first audit of LSC activities. Without assuming a problem, I thought that we deserved a measure of oversight over swim club governance and operations to preserve our rare resource.
I have degrees in Social Work, Public Administration, and Business Administration (both Finance and Marketing) I have worked in all three sectors - all in Health Care.
In running for the Board I am advocating for less secrecy and more accountability.
All votes of the LSC Board should be public and easily known by membership.
Congress does it, the Commonwealth Legislature does it, the Philadelphia City Council does it. Why don't we? There are no state secrets. If Board members are embarrassed by their votes, make different votes. If they are concerned that they will feel pressured by membership to vote a certain way, good. They should be representing us and we should know what we are voting for.
The scheduling of Board and Committee meetings should be clearly and prominently noted on our website and posted at the front desk.
Theoretically we can attend all Board meetings. Right now, there is a general statement noting the regular schedule of Board meetings hidden away on our website. Why not make it easy for everybody to find?
The agenda for each Board and Committee meeting should be publicly posted at least one week before each meeting.
A publicly posted agenda allows the membership to know what the Board is working on and allows us to choose which meetings and issues that deserve membership attention.
Meeting minutes should be posted within two weeks of each meeting. The minutes should be detailed and not a sparse summary.
Right now, minutes are posted late, sometime months late and are difficult to find on our website. We deserve more information. No secrets.
We should make it easy for all members to voice concerns and questions and allow these comments and response to comments to be read by all members.
This makes it easier for members to see how our club is doing and what is raising concerns for other members. We can add our voices in support or disagreement to help determine appropriate resolutions. We can redact the names of individuals if confidentiality is warranted, but issues should be clear. Right now, we can submit concerns on our website, but there is no transparency to other members of the concerns or the Board response.
LSC Finances should be transparent and fully available to members upon request.
Right now, each year, we are given a summary annual budget shortly before our annual meeting for us to approve. The basis for the budget summary is cursory and there is not enough time or information to decide whether we support the budget. There is limited opportunity for questions. This is our money and we deserve full disclosure and the opportunity to effectively question how we are spending our money.
We can and should do much better. At the very least we should have a fully functional helpful website.
I hope that you are comfortable posting comments below, either in agreement or disagreement. This is your swim club, not the Board's, and I think it important that you have an unfettered ability to participate in the club's operation and governance.
Thank you for reading this and I hope that you vote for me.
Barry Gershon
