I think this member of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority should be gracious and leave the board so that someone with more time and/or interest can be appointed:
Sports agent Eugene Parker has attended less than a third of the meetings of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority, on which he serves, in the last year. Even so, he continues to have the support of Mayor Graham Richard, who appointed the Roanoke-based lawyer to the board in July 2004.
During the last two years, Parker has a better attendance record, getting to more than half of the 26 meetings. But he has missed 10 of the last 14 and seven of the last eight.
I've been on enough boards to know that the adage is true: 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. One of the reasons it is true is that there are too many people join boards just to have the membership on their resume, and too many are asked to join because of who they are, not how committed they are to the organization or how hard they might work. And the people who make the appointments seem to never learn. Mayor Richard should be embarrassed to have said this, he really should:
“I think Eugene has the community's interest at heart and has the business background and community background that I look for when I make appointments to the board,” Richard said. “I think everybody sets their own particular standard as to what is important, and how they are going to conduct themselves as far as attendance at meetings.”
Richard said Parker's background, business connections, frequent travel and local upbringing make him a valuable part of the board. As an African-American, Parker brings “an added sense of diversity” to the board, Richard said.
There it is -- diversity, which apparently trumps everything. Sorry, mayor, if Parker doesn't show up, he isn't valuable. On the boards I've served, some of us (yeah, the 20 percent) would not have cared if every single new member had been one-eyed lesbian vegetarians or tobacco-spitting Republican truck drivers, as long as they came ready to work.
Comments
Sounds JUST like Kweku Akan (formerly known as Carl Johnson) who can be seen on less than HALF of the FWCS televised board meetings.
If you have too many "pokers in the fire", you CANNOT in all good conscience be able to devote EQUAL time and effort to ALL of them...and to attempt to do so does a diservice to everyone.
Either show up...or leave....can't get more direct than that. Wonder how safe our streets would be *if* officers were in absentia as often? Oh wait, THEY would be fired from their post. The same goes for most very other occupation.
I've been on various boards myself in years past, and I KNOW this is all too true.
Maybe this whole "diversity for the sake of diversity" thing needs to be rethought. How about supplanting DIVERSITY with...RESPONSIBILITY?
Doesn't matter what a person "has at heart", because we KNOW which road is "paved with GOOD INTENTIONS".
B.G.
I read that yesterday and was pretty upset. I felt like calling the Mayor and asking how this guy fits in with his Six-Sigma initiative? The mayor is big about getting rid of waste and in efficiency. Six-Sigma is supposed to be the way to statistically identify problem areas. Well Mayor Richards, this guy does not belong.
Maybe this guy represents diversity in a different way "those who do not care." The more you have of these kind the less that gets done.
I agree that he should not be on the board if he doesn't attend the meetings and contribute in an meaningful way. However, to suggest that diversity is the reason he's on the board is a stretch. There were many other reasons listed but you chose to focus on the one that helped make your point - namely that "forcing" diversity is not a good strategy/policy.