Please work with me

The PDGA Board recently amended the Bylaws to remove the right of the membership to elect all of the Board members, and instead allowing it (the Board) to appoint some of its own members.

I need volunteers who would be willing to circulate petitions among local PDGA members. The petition requests that the membership be allowed to vote on the amendment.

The membership should be consulted because:
1) The administration made no effective case that the amendment is necessary, and there are very good reasons to believe that it is ill-founded. You can review this discussion on the "Picking and Packing the Board" thread on the "Other PDGA Topics" Forum of the PDGA Discussion Board.
2) The Board should not remove such important and fundamental membership rights without the full "advice and consent" of the membership.
3) The Board acted with deliberate haste and stealth in forcing the amendment. It was all over in five days, and few PDGA members were even aware that it was being done.
4) If the Board can get away with this, they could easily remove other important membership rights. Next year, for example, they could vote to appoint all Board members.

At this point a petition is our only recourse. We need about 2000 signatures. If I could get about 100 volunteers from different parts of the country, each one would need only 20-30 signatures. If you would be willing to do this, please contact me ([e-mail]).

Thanks,
Peter

[Peter Shive]

Chuck,

So fear of the future is automatically wrong?  History is full of examples of people who should have feared the future, and suffered because they were talked out of it by folks who said, like you are saying, "Let us have the power over you.  We won't abuse it.  And just think of all those wonderful expanding possibilities".

 

[Chuck Kennedy]

It's a matter of weighing the potential downside versus the upside and how it might impact you. I have much more at stake with PDGA missteps than you do since most of my income is now derived from various work projects I do for the PDGA. If the PDGA missteps, you can still go right on playing and TDs will still be running events whether sanctioned or not. So your downside would seem negligible versus any potential upside.

[Peter Shive]

By the same token, if the PDGA administration hires and pays you, it behooves you not to criticize its actions.  History is also full of examples of people who just went along with the program because they had so much at stake.

 

You're on the inside, Chuck.  You don't want to rock the boat.  It's natural that you would tell us about the wonderful expanding possibilities and deride us for fearing the future.   

 

[Chuck Kennedy]

The reason I'm on the inside has always been about the possibilities and advancement for the sport I bring to the table. Personally, I don't care either way whether the PDGA has a few appointed Board members or not as long as they are a minority which the Board wisely proposed. From my standpoint, the future might be slightly different with appointments versus without appointments. But those different futures will be more about the efforts made by whoever joins the Board and actively participates regardless whether they are appointed or not. More than some of our elected Board members over the years have provided little value even if they had the most votes among those elected and I've seen more Board members in action (or inaction) than most of our members.

[Justin]

Prof. Shive,

 

Weren't you a board member who resigned your position halfway through your term? That is how JK became a board member. Also, she was an appointed member as a direct result of your quitting. Is it reasonable to assume that her appointment set the precedent for appointing board members? It seems to me like you're against something for which you planted the first seed. Just saying.

[Peter Shive]

Justin,

Very good questions, and certainly appropriate.  My resignation in 2008 is the "elephant in my living room".  I need to address that issue openly and fully.  I will do this within the next few days, first on the PDGA Discussion Board.  Probably I will post those comments here as well. 

 

[Peter Shive]

Justin,

 

I addressed your question on the PDGA website, (see the "Ask Board candidate Peter Shive" thread).  Here is what I said:

 

I resigned from the Board in 2008, a year before my term was up.  The Board appointed my replacement. 

 

I had absurdly high ethical standards.  I believed that Board members should not be sponsored, made a campaign promise to resign my Innova sponsorship, and did so.  Later I saw how silly that was, and wanted to resume it.  Since that would mean reneging on the campaign promise, I felt that the proper course was to explain my position to the membership and poll them for agreement.  The Board refused to allow me to do this.  I had to choose between hypocrisy and resignation.  I chose resignation.

 

I was also naive.  I gave about six months notice, giving the Board plenty of time to allow the membership to vote for my replacement during the normal election period.  I was shocked when I realized that they would rather appoint Board members, and fought as hard as I could to prevent it.  I lost.

 

I am no longer so high-minded.  The membership elected Board members with multiple sponsorships and other potential conflicts of interest, and few members protested when they voted to keep their COI information under wraps.  I won't resign my sponsorship to run, or to serve, but I do believe that full disclosure is important, and I will fully disclose my potential COI's.

 

I am also no longer so naive.

 

 

[Justin]

Thanks for the explanation. I think that will definitely help people to better understand your position.

[Larry Mann I am]

Hate to say it, but didn't I warn you about the pdga some time ago.

I stayed in other sports for 15 yrs. When I had reason to put in a course and play again I thought maybe they had a real tour now. When I took a good look I saw the same old same old. Those dogs don't change. Glad I live far away from the influence of the pdga.

[Larry Mann I am]

http://npctour.com/     Here it is. The players speak. If the pdga won't do it,  someone else will.

[James Burton]

Like I said before try out the Southern National Series. All money goes into the championships at the end of each season. The pro championship has been a pdga santioned event too for several years and is always one of the top ten pay outs of all tournaments every year.

[Larry Mann I am]

Here's another example of players doing what the pdga isn't:  The Bluebird Championship Tour started in 2010, being a regional tournament that included local tournaments in Columbia, Jefferson City, Mexico, Moberly, and Fulton, with a local championship held in Marshall, MO.

The 2011 Missouri Bluebird Championship Tour is a state-wide disc golf tournament. Players compete in one of four regions, vying for a spot in their Local Championship. Top finishers in the Local Championship will play in the State Tournament of Champions.