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Notes from the Washington, DC AESF Delegates Meeting
by Paul Fisher
Southern Metal Finishing - Rutherfordton, NC USA
This article was published in the June 06 issue of Southern Metal Finishing. If you would like register
to receive our free newsletter and review our online archives please
visit www.southernmetalfinishing.com
A very unusual delegates meeting was called to order by our President
Fred Mueller at 2:12 pm, with 25 branches represented by Delegates
and Proxies. President Mueller soon turned the floor over to Jolie
Zak who announced that a delegates meeting such as this one has never
been held in the history of the AESF.
Before beginning her presentation, Mrs. Zak half-heartedly attempted
to assure delegates that in spite of the rumors floating around the
industry, she would be honored to serve as President of the AESF
"even if a Merger of the Associations did not take place".
She began her presentation with a membership report that not even the
membership chairman was privy to. She stated that the AESF currently
had approximately 2,700 existing members. She then explained that
since memberships did not expire on the same date as a whole it was
never the same exact number each day.
Mrs. Zak then went into a power point presentation that began with
the new "AESF Strategy" as follows:
After outlining these strategies she reviewed all of the work
NaVista (our new Association
Management Firm) has accomplished towards these goals. There were
many parallel items in this presentation with the business plan
submitted by the
AESF for the
Future Committee to the Delegates and Board prior to the meeting.
Some brilliant ideas were outlined that basically showed to all
Delegates that the AESF is a very viable organization that could be
re-invigorated in short order. She made a great case for Vista,
showing the very professional work they have done for the AESF to
date.
The floor was then turned over to Peter Gallerani, MSF and Pat
Gleeson for a presentation on all of the consolidation work that has
been done to date. Peter stumbled his way through what was to become
a very lengthy and unexciting explanation of the consolidation
efforts.
Pat Gleeson jumped in and informed the delegates that the current
discussion on the Transition Board is leaning towards asking each
association to "go dormant" rather than dissolving. Most of the
Delegates realized at that point that if this happens (the AESF
"going dormant"), it would no longer technically have any members,
and at that very point in time cease to exist as is has for nearly
100 years.
Pat Gleason then continued with a description of the new NASF board
of 18 members. A very confusing organizational chart showed that AESF
would be responsible for electing 6 of the 18 proposed board members.
Pat then got his groove on as he described the "Former AESF" while
talking about the proposed dues structure, which is seen to be
unfavorable to the common individual AESF member who would rather not
"buy" their vote. To this point Pete and Pat tried to reassure the
delegates that in spite of the weighted voting privileges in favor of
the corporate giant memberships in the proposed consolidation
structure; they believed that average AESF members (who have
approximately 1/10th the voting power) would still be able to rise to
the top and be leaders of the proposed new NASF.
This not so dynamic duo then informed the Delegates that the legal
documents pertaining to their consolidation efforts will be ready by
June 10th, just in time to be published in the Journal for the
required 45 days prior to Sur-Fin. They also hope to have this
consolidation document distributed to all of the boards by June
30.
Duly noted at this point, Mrs. Zak interrupted the discussion to
inform the delegates that she had a plane to catch - and left the
meeting early.
In the last hour of the meeting there was significant discussion
about the recent meeting in Boca Raton, and other board meetings that
excluded average AESF members and leadership from attending. It was
said that owners and others well to do will still create and attend
meetings and gatherings in warm places in the wintertime. It was
suggested by the delegates that if this were so, these
"Boon Doggles" should never take place with AESF
money.
Pat Gleeson informed the Delegates that they should expect to vote on
the Thursday of Sur-Fin on a motion to accept a by-law change
allowing the Board to be Governed by NASF, who's first order of
business will be to dismiss all of AESF membership by sending the
Society into "Dormancy".
All of the delegates were instructed to attempt to put together
special Board meetings between now and Sur-Fin. The meeting should be
held specifically to share relevant information and discuss the
upcoming vote on the bylaws change. Branches must make an informed
decision this September and should review all options.
Throughout the entire Delegates meeting nothing was mentioned about
the new business plan developed by the
"AESF
for the Future" Committee. By the time the CoD meeting was called
to order, bound copies of the plan had been distributed to each of
the board members and downloaded over 300 times by the AESF
membership. Still the Board refused to bring up discussion on any
ideas that contradict consolidation.
Finally, just prior to the conclusion of the meeting, the Delegates
asked Pat Gleeson to take the time to create a pro/con chart that
compares AESF going it alone with a "New Plan" VS the Consolidation
Plan that he has previously spent so much of his time on. Pat agreed
to make this comparison chart available to the delegates within two
weeks which would be around the time you are reading this article.
When and if this comparison chart become available we'll let everyone
know and post it on our website.
In the mean time I encourage everyone to participate in the lively
discussion surrounding the issues of the Future of the AESF with your
branch leaders and members. We've set up a on-line bulletin board at
www.finishingtalk.com
that will allow anyone interested to post comments, criticism, and
suggestions. Later this month we will post a power point presentation
available for download, outlining the path to a new independent,
self-sustaining AESF of the Future.
Paul Fisher
Editor/Publisher
Southern Metal Finishing
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