“What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate”

[Rana Goodman]

“What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate”... For those of you that saw the film Cool Hand Luke, you might recall Struther Martin’s wonderful rendition of the southern bad guy as he delivered that line…., I certainly do. I guess that is why the president’s report caught my eye as I flipped through the new copy of The September Spirit. I’m not quite sure if president Rex was kidding or not with this tome as he went on to talk about how, and I quote “the email addresses and phone numbers of directors are in the Spirit magazine. Directors will always respond to members questions or concerns if the matter is not confidential”

REALLY? I can count on one hand the replies I have received, how about all of you? I do ALWAYS get a reply from one or two of the administration staff who are absolute treasures, but when it comes to the top of the totem pole, well, I have learned not to hold my breath waiting for a reply.

Personally, I long for the days when some of the board members were “resident friendly” enough to hold Town Hall meetings once a month. At those meetings residents were able to ask questions on any topic and get ANSWERS. We were not restricted to 2 minutes, there was no lawyer sitting there with the “proverbial clock” ticking away dollars of our money while he refused to respond to simple questions. It was just two board members and the residents who cared to attend. No security guards either…… We had the ability to communicate back then!

Let us talk about this recall issue; what would you do were you a member of the board and you were a director who this was happening to? I know what I would have done….. While the signatures were first being collected, right at the very beginning, I would have held a town hall, invited all of the people listed as getting signatures and asked them to bring any and all with grievances. The topic of the TOWN HALL would be LET US SEE IF WE CAN FIX THIS TOGETHER. No one can fix Humpty Dumpty by ignoring the issue as the board has done, problems never go away by pretending they are not there.

Did you ever hear the words, “CAN WE TALK”  other from Joan Rivers, NO, neither did I….. Would it have helped? maybe not, but if I were on the board I certainly would have at least tried!.

[Author]

Posts