Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00443)

Your comments are timely and welcome. To the best of my recollection, this 
is the first time *an* elected national officer had chosen to post a 
message on this or any other un-moderated (uncensored) maillist. You should 
be commended for it.

In addition to the comments I already made, some additional issues come to 
my mind. I want to share them with everyone.

Every member appreciates the sacrifices made by the board members and there 
is never any question of any conspiratory intentions. But transparency in 
all matters are good for membership organizations so that there are no 
rumors due to lack of information.

Couple of instances where members were unaware of some "financial" issues. 
Several years ago, there was a talk in the theosophical grapevine about the 
National President drawing a salary from TSA due to poor personal financial 
situation. Any member would understand anybody's financial plight. No 
information about how much salary was paid was published. At that time 
there was *legally* there was no requirement that any salary information of 
the President or members of the board to be made public.

Couple of years ago, I accidentally found out from other public information 
(not from American Theosophist or any official publication of TSA) that 
compensation was indeed paid to the then National President, which was a 
surprise to me. Every member feels that for all the sacrifice made by the 
President, he/she should not be financially strapped because that would 
affect the work. But this happened at a time when the membership were under 
the assumption that the President was working as a volunteer and was not 
being compensated.

Another issue that comes up is the issue of compensation of directors and 
other highly paid employees/officials of TSA. In the official publications 
there is no information on this. (However there is some info available in 
other public disclosure documents). While this can be treated as "personal" 
issue, transparency is good for the organization. This is important from a 
member perspective. Consider a member living on social security income of 
say $800 finds out that one or more of the officials are drawing a salary 
which is *large* in his/her opinion, may decide not to send any donation. 
When one starts holding top positions in membership organizations, such 
information should not be just considered "personal" and it is a good 
policy to be transparent. This is done in many large public organizations.

It is in the area of financial issues that many organizations run into 
questions and problems. For example, none of the members know of any 
conflict of interest policy that apply to directors, officials and 
employees. Are financial dealings between them allowed and if so are all 
such deals (present or past) fully disclosed to the board of directors and 
placed on record? Such a policy will avoid even inadvertent dealings to get 
misinterpreted when rumors get started. Once rumors go around, the damage 
is done to the organization but not necessarily to the individuals 
concerned. Such damage can have long standing effect on the organization's 
reputation.

I am confident that you and other leadership would look into the matter and 
see what can be done for the good of the organization to bring greater 
transparency.

mkr



At 09:28 PM 02/13/05 +0000, Chris Richardson wrote:
> There is undoubtedly a certain gap in the information the general 
> membership has
> and what goes on 'behind the scenes', but that gap is due to the nature of 
> institutions
> and does not stem from any conspiratorial intentions (I do recognize and 
> appreciate
> that Jerry says the same in the end of this message).
>
> What I would like to clarify is that most of what goes on at the level of 
> the board is
> financial, and what is 'secret' is generally limited to personnel 
> issues. I can assure
> you that the board's primary concern is the vitality of theosophy and the 
> needs of our
> membership. Those in leadership positions often sacrifice a great deal in 
> order to
> dedicate their time and energy to the T.S.A., and all because they believe 
> in the
> mission of keeping theosophy alive in the world.


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 02/14/05