Sustainability, Equity, Development

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SUSTAINABILITY, EQUITY, DEVELOPMENT

SOMETHING ELSE: Survival Is Not An Option

CHAPTER TEN - Board Games

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SOMETHING ELSE - The Beginning: Introduction
SOMETHING ELSE - Chapter Eleven: 1968

BOARD GAMES

The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.
William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

In the first place God made idiots; that was for practice. Then he made school boards.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

I have met a lot of hard boiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
Thomas Jefferson (1754 - 1826)

When running a small to medium sized non-profit organization, seasoned CEO's know to avoid board members that are retired. In particular, one should steer clear of retired board members eager to create themselves as consultants. In what seemed innocent at the time, over the span of several months four retired individuals joined the SAIAT board: Bob Schwarz, Rich McKinney, Bill Galis, and David Beveridge. The last three had started a consulting business called Solutus Partners. Only one board member, John Rix, voiced opposition to the addition of these individuals, concerned about connections disclosed or not that might exist between them. John had a keen sense of smell, and he smelled rats. I lacked the courage to take John's side. All had been members of SCORE before it conducted a bizarre reinvention of itself that purged most of its "advisers."

Schwarz chose to make SAIAT his mission in life. The man could rack up four voicemails during a single staff meeting. He became most emphatic about our need to offer programs curiously consistent with his area of expertise. My lack of enthusiasm for his ideas reflected a poor understanding of the demand for training in the community.

They seemed like smart guys but appeared far more eager to teach than learn even though they had just arrived. John could not stand them. Schwarz and I very quickly started to spar, and I warned the executive committee that his call for my ouster was inevitable. We discussed the events, and Wayne noted that his company had dealt with Schwarz in the past with experiences consistent with my description. The committee got it, and John noted that if a board member became more of a problem than the value added, we knew what to do.

Schwarz was driving me nuts, driving new board chair Vaughn Croft nuts, and at every board meeting without exception, he would turn to Carol and bitch, "Why didn't you put Matt in the paper when he became director?"

Each time I rose to her defense, "We issued a press release. They didn't print it."

I later learned that the Citizen did in fact print a sentence, confirming my opinion that it would make no difference. The sparring escalated, and I started strategizing. Schwarz spared me the effort by making offhand remarks that would have gone unnoticed in the 1960s. The 2005 work place had no such tolerance. Vaughn and John met with Schwarz and obtained his resignation.

Dr. Vaughn Croft replaced Carol Somers as chair of the board. A fine man with a distinguished career in our education system, a man who had dedicated his life to the education of our children, rose to the occasion. He did not, however, enjoy carnage. Chairmanship of the SAIAT board was turning into a lot more than either of us anticipated. Vaughn found what it took to get the signature, accompanied by John, pure Republican carnivore. John Rix epitomized the aggressive entrepreneur who loved his steak rare, his profits fat, his cigars long, and his Scotch straight.

Vaughn got the signature, but after doing so he declared, "I'm not ever doing that again!! Never again! That was it!!"

Don't ever talk like that.

With Schwarz gone, the Solutus Partners remained. Vaughn and I mockingly referred to them as the three aces since they had so much to teach us. One red flag rose when Beveridge, supposedly an information technology guru, entered my office after a board meeting and told me that SAIAT's wireless Internet service had a security exposure. When I started to explain the configuration, he put his hand up and wouldn't listen, "I'm just telling you resolve the problem."

I again tried to explain, and he again interrupted me, unwilling to listen. Suppressing my anger, I walked to my machine, pulled out the Cat 5, turned on the 802.11, and said, "Will you show me?"

"I don't want to have a technical discussion with you. Just contact your network administrator about your security exposure. People can use your wireless service to access your system."

No they couldn't. Why wouldn't he let me explain? The guru's I knew LIKED to discuss the subjects of their expertise. We had two servers, one for classrooms and the wireless service, and another for administration. The server shared to the public could not even see the administration server, let alone access it.

We again encounter the notion of REALITY. What has people develop the conviction that they know more than they know? Is it the desire to impress and look good? Why fake an act? I have a buddy in the Air Force. He took me up in an F-16 during the Super Bowl. I dropped over the stadium, kicked in the afterburners, and blew that piece off Janet Jackson's boob. Your humble blogger is responsible for the wardrobe malfunction.

Galis handed me strategic planning software befitting a Fortune 500 company. I tried it. Before long the program started into cost of goods sold calculations so inapplicable and cumbersome that it became inoperable. Known for his straight shooting and unwillingness to waste time, John announced that he would not attend a meeting with aces present, "They're idiots."

We knew they had a company, but the implications didn't sink in until too late. In the fall of 2006, the business developer came into my office, looking perturbed, "Do you have a minute?"

"Sure," based on her facial expression, I added, "Catch the door and have a seat."
She shut the door and sat at the table, "Rich just called me."
So I had board members calling staff directly. Terrific, "What did he want?"
"He wanted to know the names of all of our instructors and their contact information."
She was young, but already sharp. I asked, "How'd you handle it?"
"I said that I'd get back to him."
"Perfect. Keep me in the loop. He gets nothing."

Now why would McKinney want to know how to contact all of our subject matter experts? On Thursday, November 2, at 10 a.m. Galis, the smartest of the three, tendered his resignation from the SAIAT board. Something was going on, and dear reader, the time has come to start noting events carefully. Two down, two to go, and I must introduce another distinction: cementhead.

Cementhead | si'ment,hed | noun. A human being distinguished by a level of arrogance resulting in the belief that nothing remains to be learned. The individual cannot and will not consider the input of others. Evil and malice are not included in the definition, but research has found a statistically significant correlation between cementheads and ethical pathology.

The board retreat occurred Friday, November 3. Dave Beveridge, fuming, threw the TREO contract on the table, "I don't know what to do."

The TREO contract was condescending, insulting, offensive, and it infuriated the entire board. Beveridge vented at Vaughn, "This is the most terrible document I have ever read."

The contract inflicted severe operating losses that essentially put us out of business. Beveridge objected to our assertion that the board had authorized Vaughn and me to "get what we could" after being told of the funding cut. Doing this, we groveled the funding up slightly. Beveridge had little respect for Vaughn and none for me. He claimed to despise TREO. Why didn't he resign?

The November 16 board meeting turned into a fiasco. True to his word, Treasurer John Rix did not attend. He understood the business as well as I did, and the two of us had met and prepared a working budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. Beveridge choked on this document, "This budget forecasts less revenue than last year! You can't produce a budget like this!"

"I just did."

"But you have to blah blah price volume and blah blah market segmentation and blah blah blah program margins blah margin analysis blah blah blah realistic demand assessment blah and identified targets and marketing blah sales. . (add three minutes)."

Vice Chair Wayne, CEO of his own firm, had been on SAIAT's board since 2001. While this newbie spewed excruciating textbook banter, Wayne and I exchanged looks. Listening to Beveridge rant was painful for both of us. Finally he stopped talking. Wayne turned to him, "That's what Matt just did."

Beveridge remained adamant, "You never budget less revenue from one year to the next. That is going out of business."
If he only knew. I said, "We had a windfall project last year and TREO slashed our funding by 55 percent."
"Well, you still don't budget less revenue from one year to the next."

"Our treasurer has reviewed our financials every month for the past five years, and he and I prepared this budget together."
"I don't care who you made this budget with."

Vaughn had the board pass the numbers over Beveridge's venomous objection. Then McKinney commented on how SAIAT's becoming ISO certified would enhance our marketing efforts as a training organization. Wayne positively turned color, and I sat in silence. Vaughn had never heard of ISO and turned to me with an inquisitive look. My face answered his inquiry.

ISO Certification made perfect sense if you were Raytheon. If the mechanism associated with the release of a missile from the wing of a fighter aircraft was going to be changed, damned straight there had better be procedures and documentation and control mechanisms. How that missile separated from that wing was a big deal. If the thrust fired, but the mechanism was too slow, now you had a firing missile stuck to the wing. That scenario unfolded quickly and badly. If the missile was dropped too soon, its orientation could disastrously alter before appropriate thrust was obtained. Things had to be perfect, and ISO, Six Sigma, and similar systems addressed this need.

SAIAT had five people. I had explored the ISO idea with expert Frank Bouchard, who understood that I wasn't going to do anything ridiculous. I stand by my assertion that SAIAT's becoming ISO Certified would not generate the slightest increase in business. Not one of our customers, not one, could have cared less. You develop an ISO manual for ordering lunch.

Beveridge demanded, "What is your overhead number?!"
"What would you like it to be?"
"Without that number, how can you price your product?"
"We know the going rates for training programs."
"But how do you know if you are breaking even?"
"I read the financials."
"I don't understand."
"Yes."
"How can you run a business without knowing your overhead?"
"I didn't say I didn't know it. I said I could make it whatever you want."
"That's no way to operate."
"I'll take that under consideration."

Arizona Capacitors had called us needing IPC 610A soldering training for two people. Anne could afford about $500. We did it at barely over our cash cost. If I had us charging $1500 to cover chunks of building, salaries, and last month's marketing mailing, Anne would choke and decline the training. Because of SAIAT, the employees received top of the line officially certified training and learned in a day what would otherwise have taken months.

What was so hard to understand about this?

I had been paying the same rent, utilities, Internet service, janitorial and garbage removal, payroll, postage, marketing, copier lease, telephone, software support,.. for years, and he wanted to tell me about our overhead?

EOST also required soldering training. Their request involved six workers. Here we could make some money. Yeah, I know. Why not combine the AZ Capacitor folks with the EOST folks? Nice idea if one could combine a February request with another in July.

"But you'll go broke!"
"We cleared $22K in FY 06 with six figure cash flow and $56K in FY 05."
"Well, you can't do that anymore!"
"Yes, we are now bleeding profusely."
"Well, you need to find additional revenue or cut costs."
"Thank you."

John Rix and I knew it was over. From here on out it was all a controlled burn. On December 1 he submitted his resignation. Losing this seasoned CEO was a huge loss. No board member understood the business better than John. I met Vaughn for lunch on December 14, 2006. We wrote up a performance review. Doing his duty, he solicited input from some of the board members. Primarily going through the motions, he emailed McKinney for comment. McKinney forwarded the email to Beveridge, dropping a match on gunpowder.

Vaughn already knew what Beveridge thought. I actually got to see the scathing document that all but called for my termination. The man did not have a good thing to say. Would he move for my termination as early as December? I didn't think so, but it was possible. My efforts to cancel the December 21 board meeting on account of Christmas failed, and I would not be in town. Beveridge wanted me fired and had McKinney's support, but December occurred as too early. I feared Wayne saw what John and I saw and would resign. If Wayne tried to resign, I would beg.

Beveridge did not have the necessary ground work to take a real shot in December. The meeting would consist of preparatory jabs for a shot in January, February at the latest. Vaughn prepared for the assault. Without John, he needed Wayne to be there equally prepared. I stopped by Wayne's place, and he agreed to meet with Vaughn and myself the following day to review the financials and strategize. When Beveridge tossed his darts however hard or many, both chair and vice chair would be ready. If he launched, he would meet stiff resistance, and if he bit hard enough, the smack back might get the best of his emotions. I prayed for his resignation. With Beveridge gone only one ace would remain.

Dave Beveridge was operating without awareness of the communication or relationships that existed. He had no idea I would see his remarks about the AMA training. He had no idea that certain emails would be forwarded to me. He had no idea, period.

I caught the flight to Ohio, and they met at 11 AM. While over Missouri I thought about what was happening in the board room at the corner of Valencia and Country Club in Tucson. Of course I had eyes and ears.

In the car with my parents in Ohio, I got a call from staff at 1:30 PM Tucson time, "You asked us to call you if we saw anything."

"Go ahead."
"Well, the meeting's over and Vaughn and Wayne have left, but Carol, Dave, and Rich have stayed behind and are talking together in room 106 with the door closed."
"Anything in particular about their demeanor as the meeting broke up?"
"Uh, not really. They all seemed fine."
"How did Vaughn look?"
"He seemed fine."

That was a good thing.

"Can you see the three now?"
"Yes."
"Well, are they animated and eager to speak with basic smiles and not much pause between talking, or are they talking slowly, not smiling, with pauses and moments of silence?"
"Way more like happy and eager to speak."
"They are discussing Carol's joining us a sales consultant."

They were not strategizing the assassination yet, at least not with Carol. Fifteen minutes later I got a call from Vaughn, who spoke for 30 minutes. As anticipated, they'd had a very chatty meeting with a bunch of "Why don't we (fill in the blank)" brainstorming the vast majority of which was nonsense. The cementheads drove poor Vaughn crazy. He tried to have a board meeting, not a strategic planning session, and these guys kept diving into tactical details. Apparently they'd gotten themselves all excited about video-conferencing. They wanted me to meet with Steve Peters.

We had beaten video-conferencing to death, asking every customer that ever spoke with us if they would be interested in a room with this capability. The hiccup, at least until now, had been the lack of conferencing equipment at the other locations. My analysis continued to show that companies either had the equipment (Raytheon, IBM) everywhere or no where. Either scenario prevented interest in such a room. Of course the technology would work its way into mainstream, but at this time the money was not there. They'd also discussed the SmartBoard. Why wasn't there demand for the SmartBoard? In December 2006, most corporate employees didn't even know what a SmartBoard was. Over two years later, most still haven't. Have you used a SmartBoard?

Mortally wounded and bleeding heavily (explanation coming) every board meeting until I resigned would involve Russian roulette. I had survived the December board meeting, and the January 18 board meeting was a pleasant surprise. Would the next six months pass this easily?

Not a chance.

The inevitable shootout would occur at the Thursday, February 15 meeting, and Vaughn confirmed this on Tuesday by requesting I visit his office on Wednesday, the day before the meeting. Sure enough, he confirmed that Beveridge would make a motion for my termination. I asked what kind of verbiage he was suggesting for the written warning and what metrics were involved. Vaughn looked at me. We were not talking about a written warning. Beveridge wanted my immediate termination on the spot. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Confiscate the computer, hand over the keys, clear out your things NOW.

WHAT?!!

I started to shake and calming down required effort. Dave thought he could make a motion, which Rich would then second. What other vote did they think they had? No way they had Wayne. Vaughn told me he did not have Vaughn. Carol could not vote. It was two against two with tie breaker Tom. Tom worked for the county. No way would he vote for an immediate termination unless they had something damning.

What did they have? I racked my brain. To pop me tomorrow meant they had something. Duane's email with vague assertions didn't even break the skin. Dave and Rich supposedly had high credentials from top companies and would not strike unless they could cut meat. I asked Vaughn for the allegations. He shook his head and stated he did not know, although they had expressed frustration about the timeliness of the publication of the board minutes. They had also alleged I could not stop the bleeding.

Of course I couldn't stop the bleeding! TREO slashed our funding 55 percent, and I had no more building or staff to cut. All official documentation of my performance had been positive. They had no performance concerns over my signature. What did these guys have?

I got to spend Valentine's Day truly wondering if I would be terminated the next day and posted about it the night before. Shots would be fired, and since these guys were pros, I would be hit. Without question, conversations existed beyond the awareness of Vaughn or myself. We would learn about these soon enough. The existing math made no sense.

I had a conversation crafted. It cemented my demise but shifted it to my terms, "Please give the current organization a chance to demonstrate results over the next few months. As the end of the fiscal year approaches, say around the middle of May, if we still don't see signs of real progress, I will tender my resignation and we can manage the transition like professionals."

How could they say no to that?

Vaughn helped me with one component of the conversation to deflect tomorrow's rounds. The man was stellar, having the courtesy to wait until Wednesday to tell me so I only stewed one night instead of two or three, yet still giving me a 24 hour heads up to prepare. What a fabulous person. On his direction, I would present a break even budget for FY 08 not relying on TREO funds.

The night of Wednesday, February 14, 2007 was a dark, dark night.

The next day, Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 11 AM I walked into a board meeting, not knowing whether I still had a job that afternoon. I don't recommend the experience.