The Tyrone Area YMCA board of directors met on Wednesday, December 17 for the election of new directors, but instead what happened was the formation of another board of directors.
Since then, both the existing board with Linda Hershey as president, and the board that was formed on Wednesday, December 17 with Staci Watson as pro tem. president, consider themselves the only board for the Tyrone Area YMCA.
Last week, Hershey told The Daily Herald that according to the National YMCA, executive director, Amy Hampton had no authority to hold the meeting after it was adjourned on Wednesday, December 17.
Hershey explained that it is because Hampton is an ex officio member of the board and also a paid employee of the YMCA. Therefore, she has no voting rights.
The existing board had rescheduled its meeting for Tuesday, December 30 to finish the agenda of the board of directors meeting that was cut short December 17. However, this meeting has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.
Last week, Hampton told The Daily Herald that it is the position of herself and the staff at the YMCA to recognize the board of directors that was newly elected on Wednesday, December 17.
This morning, David Shildt, program director of the YMCA, supplied an open letter to the people of the Tyrone area, written by his father and newly elected YMCA board member Dr. Richard Shildt to The Daily Herald.
The letter is reprinted in its entirety in which Dr. Shildt states: “I did challenge the right of Linda Hershey to sit on the board of directors of the YMCA, and had they not walked out of the meeting, I would have challenged each one of the members individually. Not one of those persons is a dues-paying member of the YMCA Association. With possibly one exception, they were not members when they were nominated to the board, nor when they were elected to the board. According to them, they have accepted ‘free memberships’ just for serving on the board. Why would any group who was truly concerned about the critical financial status of the YMCA in Tyrone accept nearly a thousand dollars worth of free memberships is beyond me. The YMCA needs that money to help it survive, not to reward or legitimatize people to take over its government when they are not eligible.
“Question: Would the Tyrone Area Education Association nominate, elect, and permit non-members of the Association to be its officers and fill all the seats on its governing board, and then let that group award itself free membership in the Association and only nominate and elect non-members to fill any vacancies? Would any union in Tyrone allow non-members to sit on its governing board and determine what issues would be negotiated and the amount of dues would be paid by the union members after awarding themselves free union memberships? Would the Elks or Moose or Masons allow non-members to fill their governing boards? Would the Kiwanis or Rotary allow non-members to sit on their board and determine all items governing the paying members of their organization? Then, why should the YMCA allow people who have not contributed one dime to its operation be the group that determines what dues and fees paying members should pay? Oh, yes, I know the argument- ‘We are volunteering our time, and this is our reward.’ But if, a person is volunteering his/her time, why does he/she expect compensation? Should it not be done freely without any recompense?
“Perhaps these people are in far worse financial status that the regular working people of Tyrone who have to scrape and search for jobs after the closing of the mill. After all, some of these people are professionals with ‘free’ memberships; could they not afford to pay their dues? Some of them have households with two incomes; could they not afford a paying membership? How about the retired people on the board? They only have two incomes coming to their homes, and certainly they could not afford the reduced membership dues that senior citizens are given, could they?
“The situation is even worse than people not paying dues like everyone else. With the knowledge and tacit approval of the president of the board, one member even gave his keys to the YMCA to non-members and allowed them to use the facilities after normal hours for free. Facilities that the rest of the community had to pay to use. This is fair and equitable? Moreover, this created a severe liability crisis for the YMCA had there been a fire or other disaster since no insurance company is going to pay under these circumstances.
“As for my interfering with the meeting, it all came down to one issue- Mrs. Hershey could not prove that she was a valid member of the YMCA, and, therefore, she had no right to sit on the board of directors. She is not listed as a member on any roll of membership; she has no membership card; there are no canceled checks showing she ever purchased a membership; the only ‘membership’ she might have is one she awarded to herself as a member of the board after her illegal election to the board in the first place. This is true of the other board members as well. What other organization would permit this?
“Besides which, have any of you been in the facility and seen the bricks that are dissolving and crumbling in the walls? Have you used the electrical outlets that shock a person when something is plugged into it? Have you been in the theater and watched the bat(s) fly over the performers from the colony that now lives inside the building because the roof has so many holes in it, there is no way to keep them out? Have you seen the wooden rafters rotting from the constant exposure to weather and water? Have you noticed the large chunks of plaster falling from the decorative edging around the stage opening? And there is so much more that the YMCA cannot afford to repair that how can these people take free memberships for themselves? What a selfish behavior?
“Sometimes, a person has to take a stand to make things right; I know the members of that board are community leaders; they have political, social and financial status; but, they have become people of privilege and not people of service. In a Christian organization like the YMCA, service, not privilege, is the expectation. No one should award him or herself free memberships- especially to sit on a board and determine the dues and fees that everyone else should pay. It is ‘taxation without representation’ in the truest sense of the word.”
In his letter, Shildt also commented on the meeting he believed the existing board was going to hold on Tuesday, December 30. However, that meeting has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.
Existing board president Linda Hershey was unavailable for comment at press time.
