Death by a thousand cuts [1]
an arrogance of power

If the Sun City Anthem Board of Directors has its way, the Business Development Club (BDC) will die from a thousand cuts. The finale to the potential demise of the BDC may be played out this coming Thursday at the conclusion of the Board meeting in a rescheduled hearing on the fate of the Club's charter, to be held in Freedom Hall. Hopefully, the Board will find its way out from this escalating impasse to meet the business-related needs of the Community in a meaningful and productive manner.

While wishing for a glimmer of hope and reason from our Board, we're still faced with the dark reality of the day. But looking at where we are today on this matter, the prospects for a win-win resolution are indeed bleak for the BDC and the Community. The Board could just as well proclaim that the BDC had been disloyal by not adhearing to sound advice about not talking about trumpets and move on. But, no, it seems the Board has now set upon a mission of inflicting death on the BDC by a thousand cuts for numerous supposed infractions of this or that rule or guideline.

That the Board's action in this matter sullies the Community is a sad commentary on the use, or as some believe, on the abuse of power. So, one may ask, why should the Board not just come out an say to the BDC that you screwed up when you ignored the Board's initial admonitions to avoid the subject matter of Trumpets in their summer seminar series? In times past for such disloyal behavior, the penalty was off with your head, being sent into exile, or banishment to the tower. Today, the penalty for such disloyalty comes down to the threat of losing one’s charter for a new club that is looking to get this matter behind them, is anxious to comply, and would like to look forward to meeting the business-related needs of the residents of the Community.

That the BDC Trumpets series was educational, professionally conducted, business-club related, generally found approving by attending Board monitors, and even got the go ahead from the Lifestyle Committee to hold the second Trumpets seminar after an emergency session has made no difference whatsoever. No, the Board decided very early on to interfere with the BDC’s planned summer seminar series on Trumpets and now, having failed in those initial efforts, has taken steps to extract their pound of flesh by denying the Club the very precious right to hold meetings in the same manner as do other charter clubs.

Board intervention in BDC plans was viewed as necessary from the moment certain Board members became aware of the Club's plans to bring the Trumpets lease agreement to the masses. When this proposed event hit-the-fan, certain members of the Board and management conveyed the “wish” or "favor" that the summer seminar series not proceed as planned. Despite those oral admonitions, and without any explanation, no one was willing to put such a request in writing. The subject of the Trumpets lease agreement was sort of off limits to the BDC “as a favor,” but not, mind you, as a request the Board was willing to commit itself to in writing.

Of passing interest, while the Current Events Club may discuss Trumpets at will, their member's generally uninformed or speculative opinions meant little compared to the plans of the BDC to present a detailed business analysis of each of the terms and conditions of the Trumpets lease. Absent any formal request from the Board to the BDC to cancel their program, plans for the Trumpets seminar went forward after a brief delay due to a potential scheduling conflict. So what went wrong?

From the Board’s perspective, there were three events that went wrong insofar as the BDC was concerned. Interestingly, all of these events occurred in advance of the BDC’s second Trumpets seminar meeting on July 24th. Ultimately, these events set the stage for the Board’s more punitive actions directed against the BDC and the subject of this Thursday's hearing before the Board.

First and foremost, there was the failure of the BDC to follow the stated “wishes” of the Board to drop the Trumpets program. I suggest that this “failure” on the part of the BDC, more than any other, set in motion what was to follow. The initial Trumpets seminar was held on the 12th of July. This Board-monitored meeting was uneventful and ostensibly posed no Association problems nor any concerns other than the fact that it exposed a significant number of less informed residents to a well structured reciting of the terms and conditions of the Trumpets lease.

Second, during this period the Board was seemingly divided in their approach to the BDC, sending the Club mixed signals. On the one hand, the Board was telling the BDC of their "wish" that they cancel their Trumpets seminars. On the other hand, Board members Kay Dwyer and Dave Weil were working with the BDC on their seminar series, which was again on track after the initial seminar was rescheduled. Presumably, some members of the Board thought was it was better for the Board to be involved with the BDC for the purpose of providing guidance on how best to handle the Trumpets lease subject matter.  

Third, having failed to kill the first of a two-part program on Trumpets, the Board moved very quickly to involve the Lifestyle Committee in a hurried effort to kill the remaining summer seminars, particularly the second Trumpets seminar then scheduled to take place the following week. For the Board, time was of the essence.

The Board-assigned task to the Lifestyle Committee was clear: hold a hearing that would deny the BDC any further meeting time so that Favil West will have enough time to bring to the Community a welcomed (and presumably unopposed) Trumpets deal. In this matter, the Lifestyle Committee was essentially acting as a surrogate for the Board to execute the Board’s desire to curtail the plans of the BDC to hold their second Trumpets seminar. While this hearing event was supposed to go down as the Board had planned, the Board's plans went terribly wrong—for the Board.

The problem the Board faced was the glaring fact that their strategic maneuver failed when the Committee’s majority found itself unwilling to implement the Board’s directive to kill the remainder of the BDC’s summer seminar series. As everyone has learned since, the Lifestyle Committee voted to ignore the Board’s directive, a directive that was orally presented to the Committee by Chairperson Phyllis Washburn, thereby the Committee allowing the BDC to proceed with their Trumpets seminar plans.   

Having failed in their informal efforts to stop the BDC's Trumpets program, having sent the BDC mixed signals, and having failed to win the support of the Lifestyle Committee, the Board later set upon a campaign to formally shut down the BDC even though by that time the alleged crisis posed by the summer seminar series was long gone.

[1] Língchí (pinyin for Chinese 凌遲/凌迟; also ling che) is a form of execution used in China before the modern era and is usually known in English as "slicing" or "death by a thousand cuts". The literal meaning of língchí is "humiliating and slow"; the method was officially outlawed in 1905.The phrase "death of a thousand cuts" is often used metaphorically to describe the gradual or incremental destruction of something, such as an institution or program, by repeated minor attacks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_death_of_a_thousand_cuts