Leaked emails article prompts broader concerns

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To the editor: 

I was born and raised at Amalgamated Houses, and have lived here most of my life. I am a long-time board member, former president, currently treasurer. I have worked with great co-op leaders from Park Reservoir, and know people there for almost sixty years now. What is happening at Park Reservoir is important to me. 

However, that is not why I write. Over the years I have become a student of co-op governance. Though no clearly stated, there are issues within the article worth considering by board members and cooperators at any co-op, by members of other organizations, as well citizens in a democracy. (“Leaked emails reveal plots at co-op,” Riverdale Press, Oct. 6, 2016)

Everyone, if you don’t already realize it, [should know that] in today’s world your emails may become public. Write them accordingly. Next is the question of how much board business should be done by email, particularly as it relates to individual shareholders. Sometime email can expedite boards business, but sometimes it may short-circuit better ways of handling co-op matters, such as committee or board meetings. 

Then there is a request from a director for information from management. Generally, directors work within the structure of a board meeting and the president represents the board with management between meetings. It is obvious that a manager cannot function effectively if getting direction from any number of board members. In practice, at least in my experience, managers sometimes get calls from other board members and usually it is not a problem. If information is readily available, a manager will provide it, and if not, will explain when or why not. In a very few instances in my time as president, a manager and I concurred that a request was too disruptive to the other business of the co-op and said no. A board member always has the recourse to appeal to the board as its next meeting, and if the board wishes, it has the last word. Without knowing the importance or the burden upon the staff in compiling it, the “one-said, other-said” of the article offers readers confusion rather than enlightenment. 

Co-op boards face the question of when and on what issues to consult with shareholders. The members are the owners of the cooperative and the consumers of the co-op’s product. Each director determines how much weight to give the words and wishes of the members. Directors have a responsibility to consider all of the information available to them and to act in the best interests of the cooperative as a whole.

My fundamental belief of governance is a balancing act, such as balancing the interests of the individual with the interest of the group. In a housing co-op, the major balance is between keeping costs down while maintaining the property and providing the level of services desired by the members. It is not an easy task.

The people of Park Reservoir are considering substantive questions that will have a major impact on their future. I prefer transparency to secrecy, but I am struggling to understand how the coverage, focused more bickering than on substance, is helping to people of Park Reservoir, the broader co-op community, or the readership of the Riverdale Press in general. The Press can do better.

Cooperatively,

Ed Yaker

Amalgamated, Park Reservoir, co-ops, Ed Yaker

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