Lack of common sense in Leisure World
For some things, all that is needed is common sense. Except in Leisure World, where common sense is absent.
Several years ago, a Golden Rain Foundation Board member tried to get the Board to adopt three-year staggered terms so that in any one year there would only be a maximum of six new members, not nine. This change would benefit everyone by ensuring a majority of experienced members on the board. Why was this voted down? What is not clear about the benefit? This is common practice for governing Boards across all industries to assure that most members on a board are experienced. Common sense tells you that experience counts. Except in Leisure World. No common sense here.
What do shareholders know about the committees that make so many of the decisions that affect their lives? In years past, it was expected that a board member serve on a committee for one year before becoming a committee chairperson. Common sense, right? Except in Leisure World.
Now it is common for committee chairpersons, who are appointed by the president of the GRF Board, to be new members of the board. No previous experience. Think about Sisyphus pushing that ball up the hill.
Almost to the top, that ball comes tumbling down and Sisyphus must start all over again. That is how Committees function in Leisure World.
There is very little or no continuity from one year to the next. Each new committee starts over, leaving the work done by the previous committee unfinished and often ignored. Many hours spent have been wasted. Why is no one on the Board concerned about this?
What happened to suppress honest discussion of issues in Leisure World? Why have shareholders given up their right to free speech?
There was a time when the LW News would publish letters representing both sides of an issue. Now a shareholder’s only vehicle for dissenting opinions is the Sun newspaper of Seal Beach.
Furthermore, if shareholders want to know what their Directors are discussing, they must attend many long meetings of the GRF board and the committees.
Why can’t issues be published in the LW News? Why can’t there be forums for exchange of ideas?
Carol Franz has suggested that the governing bodies in Leisure World are comparable to “Big Brother’ in George Orwell’s “1984.” It appears that the GRF Board members are not honestly seeking the opinions of all shareholders, just those who agree with them. If the GRF Board members are not the dictators they appear to be, they need to create venues for open discussion of the issues.
Three or four minutes for shareholders to talk at them, not with them is not open discussion.
Back to common sense, which explains why the GRF Board members do not want open discussion. They are not experienced leaders.
They have no background in property management where they would have learned the fundamentals of managing a large community.
They would have learned how to handle people with divergent backgrounds and opinions.
They would have learned how to conduct open discussions so that all sides could be heard.
Most importantly, they would have learned to rely on professionals to help them.
Volunteers cannot be expected to manage effectively.
Don’t Leisure World shareholders deserve professional management of their community?
Let’s begin the new year with a professional evaluation of Leisure World management practices.
Anne Walshe
Leisure World
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