It is our understanding (as of 11:30 EDT) that the Board is gathering input for its decision as to whether they feel they can release either of the documents provided to them by the committee.
Our feeling is that these documents now "belong" to the board and are theirs to do with as they believe best benefits the interests of the Corporation.
At this time, we have not been informed that they plan to distribute any document.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Transmitting our work to the Board
On October 12th, we sent the following e-mail to the Star Island Corporation Board transmitting our work to them:
By this e-mail, we are sending you two documents. The first represents the final submission of the IOL committee to the Star Island Board of Directors. We believe we have thoroughly complied with our charge “to review the elements which led to the delayed opening of the 2007 season and recommend any changes to board policy and process or the staff and its process.”
In an informal conversation before the start of this process, Brad noted the conflicting tensions inherent in this process: “Take as long as you need, but complete your task as quickly as possible.” His statement was prescient. We have no doubt that this report could be improved in various details if there were more time to work on it. Nonetheless, we have researched all of the “fact” issues included in this report to the best of our ability and believe they are all supported by the evidence we have gathered.
We also appreciate that delivery at this time significantly improves the ability of the corporation to move on with the immediate practical work needed to ensure a successful 2008 season. Certainly the deadline has been useful, (if inconvenient!) for us; to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, “nothing concentrates the mind so wonderfully as the imminent prospect of a deadline.”
While we have been unstinting in our candid criticism of all parts of the Star Island community as regards their role as “elements which led to the delayed opening of the 2007 season,” we have striven to make our recommendations constructive and of a type that allows them to be acted upon. It has been our intention to provide the Board with the signposts it needs to chart our course where “board policy and process … [and] staff and its process” do not result in similar events in the future.
As we state in the introduction, “This report will not solve any of the problems confronting our island and its community. This report can only serve to begin a process, or a number of processes, by which we redefine ourselves, re-invent the way we run our island, change our expectations (including financial expectations), and change our personal relationships to one another and to our island community.”
We hope the Board will use this document to begin that process.
The second document is an edition of the final report that has been edited to remove any material that may be problematical if released in a public setting. This document was created with a strong eye to the concerns of the SIC Counsel. It is the opinion of the attorneys on the committee that this document does not represent a risk to the corporation beyond the normal course of doing business. It is the opinion of the expert in regulatory matters on the committee that this document does not create any exposure vis a vis our regulators.
It is our hope that the board will see the value in releasing this version of the report to the corporation membership. One of our significant recommendations is that we “establish transparency as a community value” in the confidence that “the entire Star Island community will respond positively to factual information. We should trust one another not only to handle the truth, but to want the truth in a clear and complete picture. Stating that the Island has shortcomings, what those shortcomings are, and encouraging input as to ways to overcome them reflects a trust that should be a cornerstone of Star Island.”
It is in this spirit that we offer the edited edition of our final report.
On my own part, it has been a privilege working with this extraordinary group of people, and I commend Brad and the Board for assembling such an eminent group. The dedication and love for the island in the room was palpable; the accumulated life wisdom and professional expertise that each of the members brought to bear was extremely impressive.
Respectfully submitted,
Jordan Young
For the Island Opened Late committee:
Martha Copithorne
Nick Dembsey
Doug Hatfield
Jack Lightfoot
Russ Peterson
Kristi Vazifdar
Jordan Young
Full disclosure: At the request of the board, there was a minor edit between the version we sent to them and the version published here. We do not believe the change is material.
By this e-mail, we are sending you two documents. The first represents the final submission of the IOL committee to the Star Island Board of Directors. We believe we have thoroughly complied with our charge “to review the elements which led to the delayed opening of the 2007 season and recommend any changes to board policy and process or the staff and its process.”
In an informal conversation before the start of this process, Brad noted the conflicting tensions inherent in this process: “Take as long as you need, but complete your task as quickly as possible.” His statement was prescient. We have no doubt that this report could be improved in various details if there were more time to work on it. Nonetheless, we have researched all of the “fact” issues included in this report to the best of our ability and believe they are all supported by the evidence we have gathered.
We also appreciate that delivery at this time significantly improves the ability of the corporation to move on with the immediate practical work needed to ensure a successful 2008 season. Certainly the deadline has been useful, (if inconvenient!) for us; to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, “nothing concentrates the mind so wonderfully as the imminent prospect of a deadline.”
While we have been unstinting in our candid criticism of all parts of the Star Island community as regards their role as “elements which led to the delayed opening of the 2007 season,” we have striven to make our recommendations constructive and of a type that allows them to be acted upon. It has been our intention to provide the Board with the signposts it needs to chart our course where “board policy and process … [and] staff and its process” do not result in similar events in the future.
As we state in the introduction, “This report will not solve any of the problems confronting our island and its community. This report can only serve to begin a process, or a number of processes, by which we redefine ourselves, re-invent the way we run our island, change our expectations (including financial expectations), and change our personal relationships to one another and to our island community.”
We hope the Board will use this document to begin that process.
The second document is an edition of the final report that has been edited to remove any material that may be problematical if released in a public setting. This document was created with a strong eye to the concerns of the SIC Counsel. It is the opinion of the attorneys on the committee that this document does not represent a risk to the corporation beyond the normal course of doing business. It is the opinion of the expert in regulatory matters on the committee that this document does not create any exposure vis a vis our regulators.
It is our hope that the board will see the value in releasing this version of the report to the corporation membership. One of our significant recommendations is that we “establish transparency as a community value” in the confidence that “the entire Star Island community will respond positively to factual information. We should trust one another not only to handle the truth, but to want the truth in a clear and complete picture. Stating that the Island has shortcomings, what those shortcomings are, and encouraging input as to ways to overcome them reflects a trust that should be a cornerstone of Star Island.”
It is in this spirit that we offer the edited edition of our final report.
On my own part, it has been a privilege working with this extraordinary group of people, and I commend Brad and the Board for assembling such an eminent group. The dedication and love for the island in the room was palpable; the accumulated life wisdom and professional expertise that each of the members brought to bear was extremely impressive.
Respectfully submitted,
Jordan Young
For the Island Opened Late committee:
Martha Copithorne
Nick Dembsey
Doug Hatfield
Jack Lightfoot
Russ Peterson
Kristi Vazifdar
Jordan Young
Full disclosure: At the request of the board, there was a minor edit between the version we sent to them and the version published here. We do not believe the change is material.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Finishing Our Report
On Monday, October 8th, the committee completed its report to the Board of Directors, and e-mailed it to them. The Board met on October 9th to review the document. Jordan was present for the portion of the call dealing with "Next Steps" and how and whether the document would be released to the corporation membership.
Directors offered numerous small corrections to the document, which the committee gratefully accepted. They also had some substantive concerns. The committee concluded that these were best dealt with through the anticipated "public comment period." In the end, we reminded ourselves that the Board did not have to agree with our report in order to accept it and take it under advisement.
Some members of the board expressed concerns as to whether the report needed to be vetted by the Corporation's counsel. The committee had considered this issue several times, most recently in August, and (given that there are three attorneys on the committee) concluded that there was no material in the report of concern.
Nonetheless, the draft given to the Board was referred to the Corporation's counsel, who expressed a number of concerns, some specific and some general.
Early in its deliberations, the committee considered having a "public" version of its report and a version to the board, which would be free of the real constraints that exist with regard to a public document. We had abandoned this approach as we did not believe it was necessary, but readopted it in the face of Counsel's concerns.
Counsel was asked to review the document in this light, and, in consultation with the attorneys on the committee, agreed to provide us with areas of concern.
Our next communication was from the Board, indicating that there was no form of the document that they could envision releasing.
Our intent had been to review the document with the corporation membership at the October 13th meeting, and invite comments and corrections via this blog, which will open for moderated comments in the afternoon of October 13th. Our intent was then to issue a final enhanced document as our report to the Board of Directors.
Given that this plan no longer seems feasible in the absence of a document to comment on, we have finalized our report and will be delivering it to the board on Friday, October 12th. We will also deliver to the board a version of the document which we believe addresses all the substantive concerns of Counsel with regard to public distribution.
What happens to these documents is up to the board.
This was not at all the distribution mechanism nor ending we had envisioned for our committee, and it has been a difficult process.
Directors offered numerous small corrections to the document, which the committee gratefully accepted. They also had some substantive concerns. The committee concluded that these were best dealt with through the anticipated "public comment period." In the end, we reminded ourselves that the Board did not have to agree with our report in order to accept it and take it under advisement.
Some members of the board expressed concerns as to whether the report needed to be vetted by the Corporation's counsel. The committee had considered this issue several times, most recently in August, and (given that there are three attorneys on the committee) concluded that there was no material in the report of concern.
Nonetheless, the draft given to the Board was referred to the Corporation's counsel, who expressed a number of concerns, some specific and some general.
Early in its deliberations, the committee considered having a "public" version of its report and a version to the board, which would be free of the real constraints that exist with regard to a public document. We had abandoned this approach as we did not believe it was necessary, but readopted it in the face of Counsel's concerns.
Counsel was asked to review the document in this light, and, in consultation with the attorneys on the committee, agreed to provide us with areas of concern.
Our next communication was from the Board, indicating that there was no form of the document that they could envision releasing.
Our intent had been to review the document with the corporation membership at the October 13th meeting, and invite comments and corrections via this blog, which will open for moderated comments in the afternoon of October 13th. Our intent was then to issue a final enhanced document as our report to the Board of Directors.
Given that this plan no longer seems feasible in the absence of a document to comment on, we have finalized our report and will be delivering it to the board on Friday, October 12th. We will also deliver to the board a version of the document which we believe addresses all the substantive concerns of Counsel with regard to public distribution.
What happens to these documents is up to the board.
This was not at all the distribution mechanism nor ending we had envisioned for our committee, and it has been a difficult process.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Talking to the Star Island Corporation Board of Directors
The board usually meets once a month on Tuesdays. I gather they've been meeting more frequently this summer as they get through all the work they have to do this year. One of their work items is the search for a new Executive Director since Amy Lockwood resigned in July. The board wanted to know if the IOL committee had any input to the search process; in essence, was there anything we had uncovered as part of our inquiry in to the history that got us to the Island closure that should inform the search for a new Executive Director?
We concluded that there was, and prepared a document as input to their process. Jordan reviewed this document with the Board this evening. Although we don't currently intend to make this document public, as it is part of the Board's personnel process, the thinking that went in to it and the substance of the recommendations that it makes will appear in our final report.
We concluded that there was, and prepared a document as input to their process. Jordan reviewed this document with the Board this evening. Although we don't currently intend to make this document public, as it is part of the Board's personnel process, the thinking that went in to it and the substance of the recommendations that it makes will appear in our final report.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Interviews & other input
Our original plan was to create a formal interview protocol - a standard set of questions - from which to start interviewing. After much discussion, including debating the need for interviews, we have decided to go forward in a more "free form" way and let the interviewer and interviewee determine the agenda. In that sense, these are really more "conversations" than they are "interviews." These are the people involved in the process who sought us out, or whom we sought out:
- Irene Bush
- Nicholas Cricenti (our fire safety consultant)
- Bill Clegg
- Ron Cordes
- Dan Fenn
- Paul Jennings
- Amy Lockwood
- Sumar Maji
- Dave Reynolds
- Sarah Wicker
- Grey Wicker
- Joe Watts
- David Yermack
- Officials with responsibility for safety inspections at the island.
- Jill Brody
- Herb Emers
- Will Emmons
- Bob Gray
- Vic Henschel
- Tom Kane
- Betty McKinnell
- George Robbins
- Bob Romero
- Andy Gordon
- Leslie Lowrie
- Molly Mansfield
Monday, September 3, 2007
Dick Howe resignes from the IOL committee
After some consideration as to alternatives, and with much regret, Dick Howe has resigned from the IOL committee. Dick has just taken on a time-sensitive personal commitment that makes it impossible for him to continue working on the committee.
While we're all about openness and transparency, this really is a personal matter and we can't go any further in to it.
We will very much miss Dick and realize that our work will be more difficult without him. We look forward to any concluding thoughts he may have for us as input as we prepare our final report.
Thanks, Dick, for your experience, wisdom, and time on our efforts.
Jordan
While we're all about openness and transparency, this really is a personal matter and we can't go any further in to it.
We will very much miss Dick and realize that our work will be more difficult without him. We look forward to any concluding thoughts he may have for us as input as we prepare our final report.
Thanks, Dick, for your experience, wisdom, and time on our efforts.
Jordan
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Quick update during a "quiet" period...
I put "quiet" in quotes because we have been gathering information from interviews during this time, and at least two of us have even made it out to the island.
Martha attended LOAS II and took the opportunity to do some interviews.
And since I (Jordan) didn't get to go to All Star II, I managed to wangle my way out for a couple of days during LOAS I, and talked to a large number of people.
I'll post the list of people we've interviewed shortly, in another post with it's own title....
Martha attended LOAS II and took the opportunity to do some interviews.
And since I (Jordan) didn't get to go to All Star II, I managed to wangle my way out for a couple of days during LOAS I, and talked to a large number of people.
I'll post the list of people we've interviewed shortly, in another post with it's own title....
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