Board Resignations

[shinblind]

Any one have any knowledge as to why 3 members of the Mason County Historical Society resigned at the same time about a month ago? As usual the local snooze couldn't find the time to ask the the resigning members why they thought it necessary to cut their ties to the MCHS but did manage to quote a pr release from executive director Plummer.

Anyone have any info as to why 1/3 of the board resigned? Any speculation? Rumors? Hearsay?

[XLFD]

Shinblind, can you offer up some more information to aid the rest of us in clearing up this mystery?  Please provide if you will the names of those who resigned, the COLDNews article (link it, or date it was published) you reference, and any other scintilla of data you have available.

The MCHS is a private organization and as such is immune to FOIA requests, however, being that it was actively involved with the City of Ludington in two high profile public improvements in progress (the Maritime Museum and the Mason Co. Sports Hall of Fame) some information may be publicly available if properly asked for from that public body. 

Those involvements also make this a potentially interesting story.  Multiple resignations from such public/private groups often occur when a minority of the group is consistently overruled, or when a group's leadership has alienated many of the members (noting that Plummer has been director for less than a year), or when several members have conspired to use the group's resources unwisely, unethically, or even unlawfully. 

With all the money filtering through the MCHS for the Museum and Hall, and the lack of a clear reason for the mass exodus, it makes one suspicious of the latter.  Thanks for the news, shinblind.

[shinblind]

In the October 21 readers forum of the daily snooze there was a letter from Barry & Evelyn Matthews that pertained to the issue of the resignations. 

It was in regard to increasing the dues for members of the Mason County Historical Society from $40 to $75 for individual memberships and from $60 to $125 for family memberships with reduced benefits thus cutting out the middle class and fixed income members and turning the MCHS into and elitist organization. 

They speculated that this might be a cause for the mass resignation from the Board of Directors of the MCHS  

The original  article was front page in the September 11 issue of the daily snooze. The members whom resigned were Larry Scherer, Dean Smith and Jayne Budzynski. It would have been nice if the Daily Snooze had interviewed any of the resigning members and asked why and how they decided to part ways instead of just printing the self serving statement from the MCHS.

[XLFD]

Instead of furtherly speculating, I sent off a direct letter to the organization asking about the resignations and for any relevant documents.  Who knows, maybe they will choose to tell me something.

[shinblind]

The MCHS if they answer at all will just reissue the boilerplate that was printed in the Daily Snooze. Instead I wish to hear from the members who resigned. The news media should have at least had the common courtesy  to ask them to comment. 

[XLFD]

The fact that they didn't is significant, as any good news organization would look for some sort of reason, because curious people would like to know what's going on, particularly when there is millions of dollars of their money (freely donated or tax dollars) at stake. 

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks for the heads-up shinblind. As for the LDN, reporting anything that bespeaks of a cover-up or corruption by the COL, or any of it's affiliated agents or agencies, is non-existent in their agenda. The MCHS would appear to be on the wrong track to gain more contributions and membership. The first knee-jerk reaction by any liberal running anything that requires more funding, is to either raise dues, or taxes, simple as that. It can too often back-fire though, as it usually pushes more people away, duh!