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More Choices? REAL Choices!
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Why the DCU Board Election Needs More Candidates
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Last November's Special Meeting result was a clear mandate for
change in the DCU. The Board agreed to abide by the vote demanding
new elections for all Board positions, and that's good for the DCU.
The majority of the current Board members chose not to run again. We
feel that that is also good for the DCU, given the many unanswered
questions about their actions during the Mangone fraud, and especially
given their actions since the fraud was discovered.
But does this mean that there will really be changes in the way
the DCU is run? The results of the nomination process suggest
otherwise. Out of 43 candidates, the Board-appointed Nominating
Committee selected just 9 for 7 open positions -- and that's including
2 incumbents! So if you don't wish to vote for an incumbent, the
Nominating Committee has given you *NO* choice of whom to vote for.
That's why we're here. We want to see more candidates on the
ballot -- so that the members have a real choice about the future of
the DCU. Please sign the nomination petition for any candidate that
you feel deserves a chance to be on the ballot.
Our Vision for the DCU
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We would like the DCU to be run as a cooperative, which is owned
by the membership, managed by paid professionals, and overseen by a
Board of Directors who hold themselves accountable to the entire
membership for the quality and integrity of their stewardship.
To achieve this end, the Board needs to be representative of the
membership as a whole. Some board members should have financial
backgrounds, but most need not. The Board does not run the credit
union -- they exist to keep asking the question: "is current policy
the best thing for ALL the members, and if not, how can we change it?"
What Went Wrong with the Nominating Process?
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What would you think of an election where the current office
holders select the people who decide who can run as their challengers
or replacements?
That's the situation at the DCU. And the result this year is
just 9 officially approved candidates who for the most part seem to
come from the same organizations and background as the current Board.
Page 2
When asked why so few candidates were placed on the ballot, the
Nominating Committee chair stated that they "chose the most qualified
individuals" according to their criteria. One of the 25 candidates
they passed over has worked as a bank examiner and another was put on
the ballot by 2 previous nominating committees. We feel that the job
of that committee is to weed out unqualified candidates, not to decide
who is "most qualified" to be on the Board. That's the voters' job.
The following is a brief summary of the problems in the process
and results of this year's official nominations process.
o Only 9 candidates were nominated for 7 open positions. This is
especially ludicrous since two are incumbents. Only those willing
to consider voting for an incumbent have any choice at all.
o Many of the 9 approved candidates have very similar backgrounds --
7 of them work at just two sites. The Board should be
representative of the membership as a whole, but the nominated
candidates clearly are not.
o President Cockburn was on the Nominating Committee. The DCU
Election Guidelines prohibit any DCU employee from any involvement
in the election, except for voting. Should he be involved in
selecting the group that oversees his own actions? Didn't
ex-president Mangone's fraud teach us anything?
o None of the non-incumbent nominees have ever run for the Board
before, although at least one of the 25 rejected candidates has
run and come close to unseating an incumbent. Why wasn't that
candidate good enough this year?
o The Nominating Committee members are themselves exclusively from
financial and personnel backgrounds, which may explain their bias
toward nominees with management and financial backgrounds.
Was this Nominating Committee committed to selecting potential
BoD members who will represent a cross-section of the DCU membership
and who will be committed to improving the relationship between DCU
and its membership? The answer is no -- these areas were not even on
their list of criteria. You can make a difference by signing petition
forms and voting your conscience in the upcoming election.
Petition Candidates for the Board of Directors
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The following are the petition candidates whom we know about:
Charles J. Boutcher Phil Gransewicz Paul Kinzelman
Tanya Dawkins Abhijit Gupta Rich Luciano
Chris Gillett Gim Hom Alfred Thompson
[Permission is granted to distribute this statement to any Digital
employee or DCU member. For further information about the petition
candidates, contact Bill Kilgore, wldbil::kilgore, dtn 227-4319.]
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