BOARDS & COMMITTEES

 Quoting an old friend (Clausi) the purpose of a committee is for those in power and authority to be able to pretend that they are addressing a problem as well as to share the blame when the problem doesn't get fixed. All the better if you can have some well known but co-opted individuals on the committee that the public have confidence in.

Kudos to Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira for playing the long game. They've never stopped lying and they've never stopped playing the game. They have professionally lied and manipulated facts, untruths, honest and dishonest persons for over thirty years since even before they destroyed Elmira's drinking water aquifers. This has most certainly included UPAC, CPAC, RAC & TAG, the so called "citizens'" committee. What a joke.

 Boards are yet another manmade manipulation. Talking to another friend yesterday (Schmidt) I was advised as to his opinion of Boards in general. I was surprised as his career involved considerable discussion and debate with various Boards of governance in the corporate sector. I guess that I had wrongly assumed that corporations were less likely to appoint figureheads and "name" Board members than say charities, hospitals, clubs, school boards etc. My bad. It turns out that sometimes the organization demands say eight Board members despite really only having supervisory work if you will for three or four. So what happens especially if the organization  isn't attracting quality candidates to the Board? Well the three or four people running the organization hand pick four or five easy to handle individuals to run for the Board generally against little opposition. Then they pat them on the back, puff up their ego and basically advise them to sit back and support the President of the Board.

Dictatorships in countries often start with apathetic citizens and perverted democracies. The same thing in organizations of all kinds. Did Conrad Black have good governance from his Board of Directors prior to his criminal conviction for fraud (?). Obviously not. He was accused of using that company as his personal bank account. My, my. Has the Board of Trustees for the Waterloo Region District School Board covered themselves in glory and pride. Obviously not despite having a few excellent trustees but not a majority. Is a local sporting club being well run? Hell even Hockey Canada has recently had a house cleaning of their Board due to malfeasance/misfeasance (?) regarding mistreatment of both male and female players. 

Why is it so many very poor choices end up leading organizations from small to huge?