Theos-Talk Archives (August 2010 Message tt00200)

Recently, some concerned member s of the New Zealand Section have developed
a proposal to re-structure the National Organization to make it operate more
efficiently and effectively.

The proposal dissolves National Council which comprises of the Presidents of
all lodges/branches and to dissolve the Trust Board which manages the
properties.

The replacement is a Board of Trustees elected by members. Governing bodies
in USA and Australia are cited as examples.

The proposal is now circulated to the members in NZ for their feedback. We
will have to wait and see the general reaction to the proposal.

In the setup in the USA, the members are provided with extremely scant
information and background on the decisions made by the Board. Also the
Board meetings are not open to members and hence no one other than the board
members know the details of the discussions and hence there is very little
transparency.

With the current NZ setup, the lodge presidents participate in the
discussions and decisions at the national level. Thus there is full
transparency in its operation, which is very desirable based on the membersâ
experience with the TS-USA.

The current NZ setup is in line with what was the case in the early days of
HSO when there were 150 members of General Council and there was excellent
communication between the GC and lodges. There was full transparency.

Once the setup is changed in line with that of USA, it would be practically
impossible to make any changes in the future and any future candidate for
the top positions will have to jump through many hoops which would
effectively prevent talented young leadership to come up. In the USA setup,
the position of the financial officer is the highest paid employee in the
entire national organization. Such an evolution is likely to take place in
NZ as well, in due course of time.

I hope the above information is of some interest to members in NZ and
elsewhere.

MKR

There is no religion higher than Truth


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