Nonprofit Board Crisis

Nonprofit Board Stability, Vitality and Renewal #NonprofitBoards

One nonprofit governance topic often a topic for examination is board term limits.  Governance consultants, including myself, offer their wisdom about what is frequently practiced and what should be considered but almost always recommend that boards impose some sort of limit.  The practical wisdom: too much time on a board is not particularly good for the board or the board member or at minimum, never having available seats is a missed opportunity.  And, yes, the most common recommendation for is two three-year terms with a year off before being able to return for another term.  I will admit though that I have been liking this idea of three three-year terms thinking that the first three years is time for on-boarding (learning and adapting to culture); the middle period is for working; and the final period is for taking a leadership position and in effect, steering the future directionally and culturally. Of course these same outcomes can occur within the two three-year period but obviously on a faster trajectory. 

I read today about the founding of Marriott hotels (actually, the article was about the chain's longest term employee - not family - and did you know that Marriott got its start as a root beer stand that then multiplied and then morphed into a motel?).  Anyway, in the story was mention about a mandatory AGE retirement of directors.  That age is 72 and applies to everyone except I believe, for the founding family member.  To be honest, I had not thought about using age as a rationale for a term limit.  This somehow "feels" discriminatory but in fact, according to Dorsey, a corporate consulting group comprised primarily of lawyers, the practice of "aging out" is quite common among major corporation.  The rationale: stability, vitality and renewal.

Now many, especially the mega nonprofits might certainly object to adding age as a criteria for director term limits.  Many would argue that some of THE best board members have been with the organization a really long time (institutional history) and most important, have all the connections that ensure financial support.  I would argue, as I always do, people who care about a nonprofit don't have to be board members to demonstrate their care but that fact doesn't deter folks from reluctantly accepting no term limits especially for their senior board members.

Anyway, please check-out this article by Dorsey on the subject of board mandatory retirement age and tenure.  What is put forth here may be just the fodder needed to reconsider your board member's term limits.

Nonprofit Fiduciary Systems #NonprofitBoards

The lesson nonprofits can take away from the following Gloucester Times story: checks and balances matter.  

 

As the story outlines, this tax preparation service provider kept the money his clients paid him to pay their taxes.  I am sure he reported that he paid their taxes and they likely did not know that taxes had gone unpaid until receiving notices to the contrary from the government.  Appreciate that the nonprofits remain responsible for their payments and it is on them, to fix the problem. One big question: what steps might have been taken to ensure that taxes were indeed paid and appropriate filings made?  Shouldn't the nonprofit Treasurers or Execs have signed-off for tax submitted tax statements?  Other preventive actions?  Your suggestions welcome here.

Tax preparer pleads guilty to scam 

John Carr Jr. to be sentenced next month

By Sean Horgan Staff Writer

May 23, 2017 Updated 19 hrs ago

 John Carr Jr., the owner of Gloucester-based Boston Business Services, pleaded guilty Tuesday to failing to pay more than $1.38 million in state withholding taxes for clients and is set to be sentenced June 14.

 

Carr, appearing before Judge Beverly Cannone in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, pleaded guilty to the 25 counts contained in his indictment — 23 counts of willful failure by a preparer to pay over tax and two counts of willful delivery of a false tax return.

 

The June 14 hearing also will explore the remaining restitution due Carr's clients, according to the office of state Attorney General Maura Healey.  Carr faces up to three years imprisonment and $100,000 for each count of failure to pay the withholding tax and up to one year in prison and $10,000 in fines for each count of filing a false tax return.

 

Carr, 69, was the principal owner of the Gloucester-based company, a provider of payroll and tax services to small and medium-sized businesses that operated at 91 Pleasant St.

 

State prosecutors alleged that between 2010 and 2014, Carr "impounded tax payments from his clients, but failed to pay the Massachusetts Department of Revenue $1.38 million in state withholding taxes" and then purposely filed tax returns that understated the amount of income the withholding clients owed to the state.

 

The spectrum of bilked clients spanned businesses, nonprofits and municipalities, from the venerable Cape Pond Ice company in the city's historic Fort neighborhood to the town of Essex.

 

Some, such as Cape Pond Ice have been made whole. Others have not been so fortunate, resulting in at least 10 lawsuits and several court-backed liens attached to Carr's property at 5 Thurston Point Road. Essex received its writ from the state Superior Court in August 2015 to recover the $375,654 it is owed.

 

Other local businesses stung by Carr's illegal conduct include Cape Ann's Marina Inc., which had its withholding underpaid by $100,144.38, and Timberline Enterprises, which has attached liens to Carr's property for $32,464.The Attorney General's office began investigating Carr's activities in January 2016, on a referral from the state Department of Revenue, which began its own investigation after four business clients of Boston Business Services filed complaints in early 2015.

 

Carr, according to prosecutors, prepared payroll checks or direct deposits on behalf of his clients and took out federal and state income taxes, Social Security taxes and unemployment insurance taxes.Carr then impounded these tax payments from his clients' accounts, with his client's expectation that he would forward them to the various taxing authorities, along with the applicable tax returns.

 

Contact Sean Horgan at 978-675-2714, or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @SeanGDT

Board Term Limits #NonprofitBoards

The second paragraph of an article featuring a volunteer who has definitely exhibited his commitment to nonprofit board service in his communities states:

On Sunday, May 21, Bickford will be honored by the Philipstown Depot Theatre at its Spring Benefit for his 19 years on its board. The event takes place at Riverfront Park on Garrison’s Landing from 5 to 7 p.m.

As you might notice, I've highlighted this awardee's tenure of 19 years.  So much for term limits!  But while saying this I am led to wonder, noting this is not so uncommon of an occurrence for many smaller nonprofits, is it really so bad when there are not term limits?  After all, this organization has managed to stay on path pursuing mission - even changing its name for no doubt multiple reasons.  And Mr. Bickford has been at the table for the whole time - reliable, dependable, present and active.  What's so bad?

We do know of course that term limits make it more possible to bring-on others in the community to play a governing (ownership) role. We also know that there are multiple roles a former board can play in the organization.  And, finally, while perhaps not applicable to Mr. Bickford, over time, board members can be worn-out and less effective.  So term limits can have a positive impact on the organization, board and its members.  But again, Philipstown Depot Theatre doesn't seem to have this issue - maybe?

 

 

Nonprofit Board and CEO #NonprofitBoards

I saw the following in a "takeaway" from an individual who attended an introduction to nonprofit boards and it caught my eye:

Remember the board is an employer. That’s why it’s critically important to annually evaluate your employee, the CEO or Executive Director. We know EDs who have waited years to be evaluated by their board which is grossly unfair and totally unacceptable. This task should be part of the board’s work on an annual basis. As an employer, we encourage boards to remember the ED at holiday time and on birthdays. Small acts of kindness are an easy, effective way to provide encouragement and support while also making it a priority to evaluate results.

It certainly was not the statement that "the board is an employer" or that it is for this reason there should be an annual employee.  I for sure agree that the board is an employer and that it's one employee is the executive.  I also concur that the board must conduct an annual performance appraisal of its executive.  I believe that such an appraisal ensures both parties are clear about satisfaction and dissatisfaction and have the opportunity to agree on expectations (goals) for the coming year.   

What has me scratching my head a bit is this idea to "remember the executive at holiday time and on birthdays and that such remembering is effectively one of its "small act of kindness" that provides encouragement and support".  I guess?  

For sure there is a relational element to what happens between the exec and the board.  I do believe the most essential relationship to be one with the Board Chair (as the facilitator and liaison with the rest of the board).  And I also concur that acknowledgement of a job well done should at minimum be given during the evaluation and perhaps at board meetings when indeed, the job has been done well.  But birthdays and holiday somethings-not so sure-seems something more personal.  Now recognizing "big" anniversaries - that makes sense to me because what is important is to acknowledge the state of the relationship between the board as employer and executive as employee.

I'd welcome hearing your thoughts.

Nonprofit Board Onboarding of CEO #NonprofitBoards

Check out this article regarding the introduction of your new CEO to your nonprofit.  And yes, it is inevitable that your board will indeed one day have to replace its exec - the board's only employee.  Doing this well is critical.  

Nonprofit Board Officers Matter #NonprofitBoards

In case you sometimes wonder just how important is the board chair or other officers, a recent settlement by the New York State Attorney General provides a modicum of understanding.

In a case where the State of New York called to question racist housing rental and purchase practices by a "nazi" german community, part of the settlement includes "replacing "the League's" president and treasurer".  See, volunteer leadership can matter particularly when the source of "doing harm" is identified.  I would pose that if not behind the racist core values, the remainder of the board must be at minimum, complicit in permitting the practices to continue.

Kudos to the NY AG with wonderment about where was the IRS in not at least joining with NY to address this flagrant abuse of tax exempt status.  

Here's the full Wall Street Journal article:

New York Reaches Settlement With Nazi-Linked Community on Long Island

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office says German American Settlement League practiced racially biased housing practices

 

 

 

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, “The [League’s] discriminatory practices were a remnant of a disgraceful past that has no place in New York or anywhere.” PHOTO: MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By

Corinne Ramey

May 17, 2017 2:14 p.m. ET

0 COMMENTS

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office said Wednesday it had settled with the German American Settlement League in Yaphank, Long Island, over what prosecutors called racially discriminatory housing practices.

The League’s 40-acre community, a former Nazi summer camp called Siegfried Park, had only allowed people of “German extraction” to own homes or be members. The group maintained these practices by leasing land to its members and prohibiting public listings of home sales, according to court documents.

“The [League’s] discriminatory practices were a remnant of a disgraceful past that has no place in New York or anywhere,” said Mr. Schneiderman, a Democrat. The attorney general’s office said the settlement resolves its investigation into the group.

 

An attorney representing the League didn’t respond to requests for comment. The group’s executive director couldn’t be reached for comment but has previously said the League had moved on from its racist past and its rules had been misunderstood.

Under the terms of the settlement, the League didn’t admit fault. It agreed to replace its president and treasurer and regularly report to the attorney general’s office, among other requirements.

In 2015, a married couple and a Long Island housing nonprofit sued the League, claiming its housing policies were against the law. The couple, who are white and of German ancestry, had been unsuccessful in selling their Siegfried Park home for at least six years because of the League’s “racially restrictive policies,” the suit alleged.

The League settled that lawsuit last year under an agreement that required it to make changes to its bylaws, according to court documents.

Mr. Schneiderman’s office said its investigation found these changes weren’t enough. Membership and housing sales in the community were still “unreasonably difficult,” particularly for people who weren’t white or German, prosecutors said.

In the late 1930s, German Americans traveled to Yaphank for Nazi rallies, according to the 2015 federal lawsuit. Siegfried Park was used as a summer camp beginning in 1935 and then transferred to the League in 1937. The camp had Nazi flags, pictures of Adolf Hitler and a swastika-shaped garden, court documents say.

The subdivision had street names like Hindenburg Street, Adolf Hitler Street and German Boulevard, according to the suit. Its constitution, dated 1998, says one of the purposes of the League is to “introduce, cultivate and propagate in every direction true Germanic culture and to cultivate the German language, customs and ideals.”

The 2015 lawsuit said a modified Hitler Youth emblem still sits on top of a flagpole that flies a German flag in the League’s clubhouse. All homeowners in Siegfried Park are and have always been white, according to the suit. It wasn’t clear if the Hitler Youth emblem or race of homeowners had changed since 2015.

Nonprofit Board Cyber Security Partnership #NonprofitBoards

So, in case you doubted the risks inherent in maintaining databases and all the other matters now handled by technology, this past weekend's cyber crisis around the world, including hospitals, is nothing for to let go lightly.  Nonprofit boards should now consider themselves "on alert" for trying to ensure that their organization's technology is in-place and secure.  Yes, this is a policy matter that any prudent owner, aka the nonprofit board, would want executed post-haste.

"Ah but" you say  - how will our little or even medium-sized nonprofit be able to do what the big nonprofits do?  My suggestion: partnerships.  This is an excellent opportunity to join forces with other nonprofits in your sector to pool resources, form a plan and take action.  I pose that this type of partnership can be secure, affordable and may in the long run, lead to other opportunities for shared work and costs and who knows what?  

To start you off on what resources you need to achieve cyber-safety, check-out the following Wall Street Journal article.

For Many Companies, a Good Cyber Chief Is Hard to Find

Wanted: Chief information security officers with board-level management skills, tech knowledge and low blood pressure.

 

 Gail Evans, chief information officer at consulting firm Mercer LLC, has been looking for a cybersecurity chief since March. After interviewing five prospects by phone and meeting with two, she hasn’t found anyone with the right mix of executive experience and technical skills.

“They need to be senior enough, confident enough, able to handle both the strategy and tactical nature of the role so I can get out of their way,” she said. “I want someone who’s been in an attack and won’t freeze.”

Demand for chief information security officers is rising as cybersecurity problems attract the attention of corporate boards. About 65% of large U.S. companies now have a CISO position, up from 50% in 2016, according to the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, a nonprofit professional group.

 

 

Over the weekend, a so-called ransomware cyber attack hit more than 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries. Other recent cyberattacks on leading law firms, international banks and internet companies have compromised the personal data of millions. In December, Yahoo Inc.disclosed the theft of data related to more than one billion accounts

Meanwhile, cybersecurity talent is in short supply. Unfilled jobs are expected to number 1.8 million by 2022, up 20% from 1.5 million in 2015, according to a global survey of 19,000 cybersecurity workers by the nonprofit Center for Cyber Safety and Education.

 

Gail Evans, chief information officer at Mercer LLC, says chief information security officers must be “senior enough, confident enough, able to handle both the strategy and tactical nature of the role.” PHOTO: ALEX SHUKOFF NAZAR/MERCER LLC

New to the top ranks, CISOs must plan strategy with chief executives, collaborate with senior managers during a crisis, direct teams of technical engineers, and flash their own technology skills to hunt attackers in the computer infrastructure.

A seasoned CISO in financial services can earn $1.5 million, said Phil Schneidermeyer, a partner who specializes in CISO placement at search firm at Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. In other industries, $400,000 to $500,000 is typical, he said.

Temperament also matters, said Tim McKnight, CISO of Thomson Reuters Corp. Chief information security officers often work for weeks or months under sometimes crushing stress, including in the aftermath of a breach, he said.

“For some people, being that close to the sun is not the greatest job,” he said. “The top of the house wants someone battle-tested, with a low heart rate and low blood pressure.”

Mr. McKnight joined Thomson Reuters in October after leading information security at General Electric Co. , Fidelity Investments,Northrop Grumman Corp. , and BAE Systems.

Most Important Qualities of a Successful CISOIn your opinion, which of the following are the most importantqualities of a successful CISO?THE WALL STREET JOURNALSource: 2016 survey of 437 security professionals by the Enterprise Strategy Group and theInformation Systems Security Association

LeadershipCommunicationExec. relationshipsIT relationshipsManagementTechnicalCompliance, legalBusiness acumen0%102030405060

Few CISOs can match Mr. McKnight’s 17 years in corporate security, and recruiters know exactly who they are, Mr. Schneidermeyer said. “They are getting multiple calls a week. It’s insane. It’s just insane.”

About 23% of CISOs, and those in a similar executive security positions, say they receive five or more solicitations from recruiters weekly, according to a 2016 survey of 437 cybersecurity professionals by Enterprise Strategy Group consultancy and the Information Systems Security Association professional group.

Varian Medical Systems Inc. is five months into the search for a CISO, a newly created title there. Jessica Denecour, the company’s chief information officer, said she doesn’t lack for applicants. More health-care companies are seeking chief information security officers, she said, in response to challenges posed by the emergence of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, companies shifting more computing outside their own firewalls to the cloud, and even medical devices with embedded sensors that could be accessed to reprogram or to expose patients’ personal information.

“The risk profile in our environment and our customer’s environments is changing and we are focused on this,” she said.

Ideally, says Tim McKnight, chief information security officer of Thomson Reuters Corp., people in his job have “a low heart rate and low blood pressure.

The world-wide shortage of cybersecurity professionals—not just at the CISO rank—can lead to weak succession planning in corporate IT positions, said Brad Maiorino, a former CISO at Target Corp. , General Motors Co.and General Electric Co.

He was Target’s first chief information security officer, hired in 2014, six months after the retailer discovered a data breach that compromised the personal information of up to 40 million customers. The well-publicized attack, which ultimately cost Target more than $202 million, helped awaken corporate boards to cybersecurity issues.

Mr. Maiorino said too few CISOs provide extensive training and personal mentoring, which are important for continuity when a cybersecurity leader leaves. “If you move on, you don’t want the program to be dependent on you and fall apart, nor do you want your company to have to search for outside talent that needs to be ramped up,” he said.

Three months after joining Target, he hired Rich Agostino, a colleague from GE. When Mr. Maiorino left in March to become an executive vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. , Target promoted Mr. Agostino to CISO.

Appeared in the May. 16, 2017, print edition as 'Firms Vie In Hiring Of Cyber Experts.'

Nonprofit Governance Matters #NonprofitBoards

As the three-legged stool paradigm goes: philanthropy is when citizens get engaged in activities or "fill the gap" AND seek to change the status quo where the government has no mandate (or a huge mandate like roads) and there is no profit incentive by business BUT THE NEED REMAINS.  But there are times when government receives a mandate that is best executed by those in the philanthropic sector because that is where the expertise has been developed.  And it is this happy occasion where two interests, philanthropy and government converge and solutions to some challenges are addressed.  But what can also happen: the philanthropy that started out to change the status quo and address a need not otherwise addressed by government or business, may find itself dependent on government and seriously challenged to pursue mission when government interests shift.  Take for instance the case of refugee assistance.

As presented in the Wall Street Journal article on the topic, some US refugee resettlement  agencies have begun to cut their workforce and even close offices as the US State Department has changed its priorities and begun to reduce the number of refugees entering US communities.  This crisis for refugees is now a crisis for the boards of these volunteer organizations who began their lives committed to changing the status quo and filling the gap left by a government that was less interested/committed and business that could not see profit opportunities.  In the process, these philanthropies, their boards, came to rely on the government to pursue their individual missions and now..... 

Could these boards have pursued different sustainability strategies than reliance on the government for their mission?  Or, might these boards have never accepted serving as extensions of the government and instead focused on ensuring that government policy/mandate was always receptive and responsive to those around the globe in crisis.  No, there would be no government income, but the well-being of refugees could still be addressed.  And, yes, there would still be the need for local resettlement resources but perhaps that too can be done without government resources as many local communities do indeed participate.

Here''s the article:

As Refugee Arrivals Slow, Resettlement Agencies Face a Funding Crunch

These organizations are laying off workers or instituting hiring freezes; more volunteers than refugees

 

 

 

A Thanksgiving dinner hosted by HIAS, an agency that resettles refugees and one of many dealing with less government funding. PHOTO: BILL MCCAY/GETTY IMAGES

By

Ian Lovett

May 12, 2017 5:30 a.m. ET

31 COMMENTS

Even though President Donald Trump’s travel ban has been put on hold, his administration is already reshaping the refugee-resettlement industry.

The Trump administration has cut the rate of refugee arrivals in half in the first months of the year, and charity organizations that settle refugees are slashing their budgets in response.

More than half of the nine agencies that are approved by the State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S. have already either laid off staff or frozen hiring. Some agencies have let hundreds of people go. Many are staging fundraising campaigns the help make up for lost federal funding, which is tied to new refugee arrivals but also supports programs for refugees already here.

 

“We’ve been asked by the State Department to cut our budget twice already,” said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that resettles refugees in the U.S. HIAS has instituted a hiring freeze. “You can’t manage a program like this.”

A State Department official said that the refugee ceiling is an upper limit, “not a mandatory target.” The pace of arrivals has been adjusted to levels “consistent with our operational capacity under available funding,” the official said.

In the last fiscal year, the federal government allocated more than $554 million for refugee admissions, and 84,994 refugees were resettled. More than $227 million of that money was distributed to the nine resettlement agencies, most of them religiously affiliated, that help newcomers adjust to the U.S.

Mr. Trump’s executive order, which has been put on hold by a federal judge, not only seeks to pause all refugee arrivals for four months, but also to cap the refugee ceiling at 50,000. It would be the lowest refugee ceiling since the Refugee Act of 1980 was passed, though actual refugee arrivals fell below 50,000 for several years under President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

 

Refugees continue to arrive, but less than half as many make it into the U.S., on average, than under President Barack Obama. Between Jan. 20, when Mr. Trump took office, and May 7, 13,224 have been settled in the U.S., a rate of 122 a day. By contrast, 30,017 refugees entered under Mr. Obama between Oct. 1 and Jan. 19, a rate of 270 refugees a day.

The administration has appealed two federal court orders blocking the executive order from taking effect. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to the Trump administration last week, asking for an explanation for the slowdown in refugee arrivals.

Resettlement agencies had been hoping 2017 would be a banner year. In September, before the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, Mr. Obama announced he would raise the number of refugees allowed into the country to 110,000, the highest total since 1995. Many agencies began staffing up.

World Relief, one of the resettlement agencies, began adding case workers in the fall, expecting a huge influx of refugees. At the organization’s 25 offices, case workers shepherd refugees through all aspects of life in America. They pick them up at the airport; set up housing, complete with furniture and clothes; advise them on searching for jobs; and help enroll children in school.

However, each World Relief office has gone from settling between five and 15 families a week to one or two, said Matthew Soerens, the organization’s U.S. director of church mobilization.

The organization is now in the process of laying off around 150 people and closing five offices.

After a year without work, Rachel Cheng landed a job in December helping settle new refugees in the Atlanta area for World Relief. Three months later, Ms. Cheng was unemployed again.

“Out of 31 employees in our office, 10 of us lost our jobs,” said Ms. Cheng, 29 years old.

Some of those laid off were seasoned refugee case workers who speak multiple African or Asian languages and will be difficult to replace if the refugee ceiling is raised again, Mr. Soerens said.

“We’ve lost incredibly skilled people who have been serving refugees for decades,” Mr. Soerens said.

Some conservatives critical of federal spending on refugees are embracing the cuts.

“Refugee resettlement on a mass scale is simply morally wrong—it’s a misallocation of resources,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration into the U.S.

“The whole way we do refugee resettlement needs to be rethought,” he said. If defunding the resettlement agencies was “a step toward a complete change, then I support it,” he added.

The nine resettlement agencies contract much of the work settling new refugees out to hundreds of local affiliates. These organizations are paid $2,075 for each refugee they resettle, the majority of which goes directly to refugee assistance.

Sister Donna Markham, president of Catholic Charities, which settled more than 22,000 refugees last year on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said her organization would suffer an $8 million budget shortfall if Mr. Trump’s executive order were fully implemented.

Half of their 700 case-worker jobs across the country might be eliminated.

“It’s a moral obligation for us to care for those who are most vulnerable,” Ms. Markham said. “We’re trying to continue to do that in whatever way we can, but it’s become extraordinarily difficult.”

Many resettlement organizations have started fundraising campaigns to try to make up for lost revenue.

World Relief has launched a campaign to raise $3 million. The Episcopal Church already allocated $500,000 in emergency funds to help Episcopal Migration Ministries maintain as much of its staff as possible. A Middle Eastern restaurant has held several fundraisers to raise money for Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh, which partners with HIAS to resettle refugees and expects to lose roughly $300,000 as a result of the lower refugee arrivals.

With few new refugees arriving, resettlement agencies are struggling to find work for volunteers.

“A lot of people want to pick refugees up at the airport and be their friends,” Mr. Soerens said. “We don’t want 50 people for one arriving family.”

Jordan Golin, president of JFCS of Pittsburgh, said more volunteers are aiding established families, often helping them learn English. In some cases, three volunteers are assigned to a single family.

“At the same time we’re getting a big outpouring of support of people wanting to help out, very few refugees are coming in that they can actually help with,” Mr. Golin said.

Write to Ian Lovett at [email protected]

Nonprofit Board in the News #NonprofitBoard

What follows is one of what I believe to be a strange promo of a newly appointed board member.  See if you can see what's so strange.  Just the same, kudos to the Fremont Tribune for promoting nonprofit board service.  Here's the item.

PS, let me know if you can figure out who is Tony Gray.

 

Board of Trustees

• May 12, 2017 Updated 13 hrs ago
• (0)

 

 

 

 

 

• Tony Gray

Joel Jelkin

 

The Dodge County Board of Supervisors recently announced the appointment of Jody Horner to the Fremont Health Board of Trustees, filling the seat held by Joel Jelkin since 2003. Jelkin, who served as chairman since 2006, retired from the board effective Feb. 28, 2017.

As a county-owned, nonprofit healthcare system, Fremont Health is governed by a seven-member Board of Trustees appointed by the Dodge County Board of Supervisors.

 

Horner is president of Midland University, a private liberal arts college in Fremont. Prior to joining Midland University, she served as president of Cargill Meat Solutions, one of Cargill’s largest sectors, comprised of six independent businesses with combined revenues of $22 billion and roughly 35,000 employees. Horner also has extensive human resources experience, having led Cargill’s global human resource function for North America and Asia Pacific.

 

Horner has served on multiple non-profit boards, including board chair of Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters. She currently serves as a regent for St. Olaf College in Minnesota, her alma mater, and has been recognized as one of the “50 Kansans You Should Know” and as an “Outstanding Women in Business” award honoree by various business journals. Horner is a four-time recipient of Cargill’s highest honor, the Cargill Business Excellence Award.

Nonprofit Board Challenged to Meet Expenses #NonprofitBoards

The Board of the Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina has been facing a proportionately huge monthly electric bill and coming up short - so short that the energy company wants to turn off the lights.  

Based on news articles money challenges are not new to the Museum but the electric company debt in particular appears to have led to a crises that threatens the museum's ability to pursue its mission: without energy the museum can't operate and visitors can't come and daily revenue ceases.  

The museum board is employing two strategies to address the situation in the immediate.  One is to go to the Public Utilities Commission and basically get settlement that identifies the energy company of not having played fair.  Another strategy centers around the press where the museum's story might be leveraged to evoke support.  One interesting twist and part of the press strategy (that I'm not fully understanding) has to do with the board's citing that there are "others" who want control of what is currently a majority black-member board and the narrative told by the museum.  As the museum centers its narrative around the Woolworth's sit-in that sparked the civil-disobedience movement against racial injustice and inequality it is not, in my opinion and given the state of current racial disharmony, out of the realm of possibilities that there are indeed others who would have the museum's story be different.  

Understanding the situation (more or less) I do wonder aloud what additional efforts the board has pursued to address its fiscal challenges.  This might be the opportunity to turn to the use of alternative energy sources like solar (in many parts of the country, the public utility helps support such a conversion).  Stepped-up fundraising for an endowment might be another strategy as we know that donors certainly don't like to give to debt.  Alternatively, I suppose though that the press strategy could be just the stimulus for rallying folks to come to the rescue of an institution whose existence is important to preserve.

Here's the story from the News Observer.

Duke Energy may turn out the lights at Greensboro’s Civil Rights Museum

BY JOHN MURAWSKI

[email protected]

A long-running billing dispute between Duke Energy and the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro could cut off electricity to the site of the historic 1960 civil-rights sit-in at a segregated F.W. Woolworth lunch counter.

Museum officials have turned to the N.C. Utilities Commission for help with Duke’s demand that the nonprofit organization pay $3,224 a month toward a $18,244 credit deposit or risk losing power.

DUKE DID TURN OFF THE MUSEUM’S LIGHTS FOR SEVERAL HOURS IN FEBRUARY – DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH, THE MUSEUM’S BUSIEST PERIOD.

The museum is asking the Utilities Commission to block Duke’s attempt to collect the deposit, which amounts to about two months of electricity bills for the organization. Museum officials, in a letter to the commission, also suggest Duke is meddling in Greensboro race relations and colluding with Greensboro officials in a bid to wrest control of the organization from its black-majority board of directors.

Duke did turn off the museum’s lights for several hours in February – during Black History Month, the museum’s busiest period – forcing the museum to issue $765 in refunds to a canceled Union County school tour, $800 to a corporate conference that had to be moved across the street and $253 to a visiting group from Durham.

“I was expecting an apology from Duke and restitution for our lost revenues,” John Swaine, the museum’s CEO, said in an interview Wednesday. “One thing I find difficult to understand is why Duke Energy would have taken actions so hostile to a local corporationthat is serving as such a powerful local economic generator.”

 

Duke is asking the Utilities Commission to dismiss the museum’s complaint. The Charlotte-based electric company told the commission in a Tuesday filing that the museum has been delinquent on its bills numerous times since 2009 – with a history of late bills, insufficient payments and three deferred-payment plans. Duke said it sent the museum 23 disconnect notices between October 2012 and January 2017, before it turned off the power in February. The museum owed Duke about $14,000 and had sent the payments by mail, Swaine said. Duke said in its filing the bill had not been paid when the utility disconnected power.

“Duke Energy Carolinas has had a customer representative work closely with Complainant and its management in an effort to keep power on to the Sit-In Museum,” Duke told the Utilities Commission in its filing. “Duke Energy Carolinas representatives have made every reasonable effort within the Company’s procedures and the Commission’s rules to avoid disconnection for past-due bills.”

Duke had scheduled to disconnect the museum’s power on at least three occasions since last fall, but delayed the decision, according to email updates the company sent to the Utilities Commission. In the past two years, the museum was behind on its power bills every month, and had failed to send a payment in six separate months.

As Duke persisted in its collections, Swaine expressed increasing frustration in his emails to regulatory staff.

“They intend to take all of the money that we have to operate,” he wrote on March 19. “I am assuming that Duke would like to try to shut us down once again.”

The civil-rights museum has experienced financial troubles for years. The Greensboro City Council loaned the museum $1.5 million in 2013 and extended the repayment terms until February 2018 to resolve a disagreement between museum officials and city officials over amounts still owed. The museum still owes Carolina Bank $776,000 on a $4 million loan, and its total outstanding debt is under $1 million, said Swaine, who doubles as the museum’s chief financial officer.

The museum preserves the original stools and lunch counter where four African-American students sat at a segregated Woolworth’s store in 1960 and ordered lunch, helping to spark the civil rights movement across the South. The Woolworth sit-in quickly spread to other stores such as Hudson-Belk, Eckerd’s and Walgreen’s, The N&O reported in February 1960.

The museum runs on a $1.4 million budget that supports four full-time and eight part-time employees, Swaine said. About 70,000 people visit the museum each year, he said, and the electricity bill can exceed $10,000 a month.

Swaine said the museum has raised about $11,500 in charitable donations from Duke; the power company’s foundation turned down the museum’s request several years ago for a $250,000 grant, citing management turnover and delinquent bills.

The museum has owed Duke as much as $40,000 in unpaid bills, Swaine acknowledged, but said its power bills are currently paid up.

On Wednesday, Swaine reiterated that he thinks the museum has not been treated fairly, a point museum officials made in their letter to the Utilities Commission.

“It can only be interpreted that [Duke Energy] intended to help those forces who wished to take over the Museum,” museum officials said. “It appears that Duke Energy ... involved itself in the politics of Greensboro and particularly in the race relations in Greensboro and had injected itself into the situation to help put financial pressure on the Museum, embarrass the Museum, and to hurt fundraising with the end result that the black-run Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro would collapse and allow the City of Greensboro [to seize control] as they had attempted before.”

Swaine’s suspicions are based on Duke notifying two board members of the February power disconnect, but not alerting him directly. He said Duke contacted Greensboro city manager Jim Westmoreland and Mayor Nancy Vaughan, both of whom have positions on the museum’s board until the $1.5 million loan from the city is repaid.

Westmoreland and Vaughan did not return calls seeking comment.

Duke declined to comment about the specifics of the museum’s complaint.

“Disconnecting a customer’s service is the very last step in our collections process and it’s an action we never want to take,” Duke said in a statement. “While it’s unfortunate that our efforts to assist the museum’s leaders with their delinquencies have resulted in a formal complaint to the NCUC, we will cooperate fully within the process to ensure facts about the experience, including the basis for the deposit requirement, are presented.”