From ddinhofer@msn.com Sun Nov 2 22:10:53 2003 Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 02:32:48 -0400 From: david dinhofer To: agachapters@usgo.org Subject: statement Dear friends and members of the AGA, I am very sorry that the board has made this surprise change with the appearance of secrecy. However, I did not think that it would be good for the AGA to have this incident in the limelight. I do not believe it will help the AGA or its members to grow and heal, if we rehash all the details that brought me to the decision to replace Chris Kirshner. Although we are not good friends, I consider Chris my friend. I think Chris is a good person and I believe he has high ideals. Chris and I have discussed many, if not all the issues that I had with him. I am not aware of any substantive issue that we agreed on. This disagreement is not by itself a problem, actually I encourage friends and co-workers to disagree with me. From this I can learn and understand different perspectives. However, the new structure of the AGA is such that the board directs the president. That means that if the president chooses to "follow his or her own calling", he or she is either subjugating the board or asking to be removed. I believe that the new structure of an elected board was to change the power structure of the AGA. In the past, the president effectively could do anything that he or she wanted. With the election of a supervisory board of directors, the president became beholden to the board. If the president chooses not to follow the board^Òs direction then the president should be removed. This is the reason that I voted to replace Chris. Out of respect for Chris and my sense of honor and fairplay, I will not go into any more detail than this. I will just add that Chris and I discussed this possibility at the Congress and, as been noted by Bob O^ÒMalley, this should not have been a surprise to anyone. The history of the board^Òs feelings is already known. There was a ^ÓNo Confidence^Ô vote in April. The fact that anyone would ask at the Congress if there was a goal to remove Chris should have alerted people that there was a problem. In defense of the lack of transparency of the board majority at the Congress, I would like to add that I was thinking about it back then. But, thinking about the action is what I was doing. Although, I was considering voting to replace Chris at the Congress, I had not completely made up my mind until after the congress. Please note, I was not at the no confidence vote because of a conflict but I would probably have voted against it. Needless to say, a no confidence vote, should have alerted everyone that there were concerns by the board . We, if I can speak for all the board members have grown a lot this year. I was at the first meeting of the board where we agreed to keep our conversations private. This was something that I honored as a new and immature member of the board. This particular decision made my life additionally stressful I don't know if I would do it again. This year has been a growing experience for me. I ran for and took the job on the board of directors because I thought that I could make a difference in the AGA. I felt that I could offer a different point of view since I was not part of the old establishment. I still feel that I have a lot to offer the AGA. My goals are to strengthen the volunteer arm of the AGA, put much more emphasis on the youth, and to bring the AGA out of obscurity in the international Go community. At the same time, I think we must be ethical and transparent. I will continue to work for these ideals while I am on the Board. I stand by my decision and I am grateful to Deedee Eckles for being willing to take on the job of president during this very difficult time. She is an outstanding person. I urge everyone to treat her fairly and to give her all their support. I want to thank everyone for allowing me this privilege to be on the board of directors. I will continue to serve the AGA either in this capacity or any other capacity where I can be useful. Thank you all for you attention and patience. David Dinhofer _________________________________________________________________ Add MSN 8 Internet Software to your current Internet access and enjoy patented spam control and more. Get two months FREE! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/byoa