Hooray for the New CDS Board

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Hooray for the New CDS Board

Postby ken hill » Nov 17, 2005 8:10 pm

On Saturday the CDS held its fall board meeting in Florida. Four newly elected Directors have gotten off to a good start. Some of the business the
Board tackled was to address the cash shortfall of the section after last year's withdrawal of major benefactors, distributors and advertisers.

Former CDS Treasurer Steve Ormeroid left the Board last May without having the books up-to-date and without having filed financial reports as By-Laws dictate. You may recall that four members resigned the Board and/or withdrew their candidacy's in protest warning of a $25,000 to $30,000 annual shortfall of revenues. Unfortunately, they were chided as irresponsible but now it seems they were proved right. The newly elected Treasurer, a CPA, has diligently put the sections financial house in order. Information at the Board meeting reveals that operating losses are at about $3,000 a month.

We as members need to support the CDS now that a responsible professional has control over its finances. It is encouraging to hear that the new CDS Board members righted a wrong by rescinding the resolution censuring former CDS BoD member and Treasurer John Jones at the March 12, 2005 meeting. For those unfamiliar with this action, it was reported that then Treasurer Ormeroid introduced a motion condemning his predecessor, John Jones for signing a bank draft in order to transfer the funds necessary to close on the Cow Springs purchase later that day. The written resolution admonished Jones and attempts were made to remove his name from the coming election's ballot. Jones, now retired was a seasoned municipal executive and had negotiated the loan as member of the land acquisition committee. In short, he was acting under the authority of a motion that the BOD approved for the purchase of the property and got condemned for doing it.

The condemnation was made public after a closed session meeting where it was well-known in advance that two Board members, including the then section Chair, who was with John at the property closing and who would oppose such a measure would not be present. Of course, no prior notice of the action was given the Board, as is directed in the By-Laws.

So hooray for the new board. It seems that they are willing to put the needs of the CDS above personal politics. Perhaps the former benefactors that represented perhaps $40,000 in sales, ads and donations to the CDS will come back now that the CDS is willing to be financial responsible.

/Ken Hill
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Postby JPJones » Nov 17, 2005 8:40 pm

Thanks for the good word Ken. I still have a copy of the e-mail where Forrest called the new property we bought swamp land without checking that 5 of the 7 acres are out of the 100 year flood plane and $3000 an acre was a steal. The property is worth 5 times what we paid for it now and I would like to thank you, Lamar, Mike and Jerry for working together on this with me.
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Postby DeWayne » Nov 18, 2005 12:46 pm

Thanks for reporting this Ken. I too was very happy when I heard that the resolution had been rescinded. I still think that the board owes John a public apology, but that's just my opinion based upon the facts as I know them. I hope that we can put all of this begind us now and start moving forward once again. We have a great workshop in the planning stages for 2006 and I am looking forward to it being one of the best ever. I do hope that all of our members will make plans to come together in Live Oak next Memorial Day weekend. The theme will be the history of cave diving and we have a great list of speakers already, with more being added.

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