Dan,
I have a question for you. I don’t live where I could vote for you though I do agree with what you’re trying to accomplish.
Is it possible that you could give us a clue as to who in the other regions will be more on line to your way of thinking? I live in Atlanta and would like to vote for someone who has similar views as you.
“Is it possible that you could give us a clue as to who in the other regions will be more on line to your way of thinking?”
i haven’t studied the east, so i don’t know. maybe i’ll have a view after i’ve spent a bit of time with these candidates.
central, i could do business with either jack weiss or lew kidder. in fact, i could do business with bill burke as well. that person whose view most closely parallels my own is ew kidder. he and i have already gone 12 rounds with each other, rounding off each other’s rough edges, as we rewrote about a third of USAT’s bylaws in a petition on which you’ll vote in a couple of weeks. he’s pragmatic, he plays well with the other kids, and he understands the limits and the proper role of USAT.
jack weiss turns out to be one of my favorite board members, and maybe the current guy on the board i’d most like to drink beers with. i love his sense of honor. he’s also probably got more experience than any other single member now on the board. i’ve got no problem with jack.
at-large, i’ve got to go with steve locke. i say this because steve is a treasure of knowledge, and if he ends up not being the executive director again it would be an immeasurable asset to have his knowledge on the board. but i must say that he’ll find it hard working with me, because i believe USAT is less invested in its proper role, and more invested in roles it ought not to participate in. too many times USAT competes with private industry, or takes sides with one contractor or sponsor over others. that’s not USAT’s job, and so if i was steve locke i’d recommend that you all not vote for me, even though i’m recommending you all vote for him.
Dan,
The one thing that J Squared posted that I did find disturbing was the thread of e-mails where it seems like there is already a plan to get Steve Locke elected to the at-large slot, reappoint him to ED, then appoint someone else to that slot. To put it bluntly I’ve got a problem with that.
If Locke has no intention of serving the term I don’t think he should be using his name to make sure someone he likes can get appointed to the BOD when they couldn’t get elected on their own merits.
If this isn’t the case I’d certainly like to be set straight. I thought I knew who were the good guys from my perspective in this but this string of e-mails has me questioning that now.
“To put it bluntly I’ve got a problem with that.”
steve called me a couple of weeks ago. he didn’t ask, but i told him anyway that i would certainly recommend him for the at large slot, however i couldn’t be any part of a plan that would have as its aim the tactic you just described (i’d heard that rumor as well). he told me that, first off, he wouldn’t be part of that plan either, and second, he’s unsure whether he even wants the job back.
i know that to be true, because i know he’s already interviewing for other jobs, better ones than the one he left.
so i don’t know that this is a valid concern.