The First Merger
How an Average American Saves America, Part 5
Week 33: Tuesday
The new executive committee met. Well, it really wasn’t new. We were already familiar with each other.
And we were such an odd group to be working together. Holger was almost elderly. His teacher’s salary puts him in the upper-middle class. I was middle-aged, living a lower-middle class life, without much opportunity for improvement. And Stacey and Thelma were young and have a whole life to plan out. How the four of us got together is nothing but a small wonder.
Thelma comes from an upper-middle class family. She attended college for a year, taking nursing. She didn’t like it. She then worked at an accounting office and got some training for bookkeeping. These days, she free-lances her bookkeeping services to four small companies in Riverbend. She’s taking distance education courses towards an accounting degree. She has her own one-bedroom apartment in Nipawin, which is adjacent to Gull Lake. When Rich was doing his canvassing, he had a little chat with her as she was getting ready for a bicycle ride. She agreed to come to the TDG meeting and brought Stacey with her.
It must have been a strange occurrence: a rather rugged older white man approaching a young African-American woman to discuss a new kind of politics. In these days of American polarization, I wonder how Rich managed to get her interested in the TDG.
To start our meeting, Stacey presented the statistics for our eight neighborhoods and its 66 members.
1. Creighton: 8
2. Davidson: 1
3. Grenfall: 0
4. Gull Lake: 17
5. Loon Lake: 9
6. Nipawin: 7
7. Oxbow: 14
8. Senlac: 10
I mentioned that Rich and Emily have moved to Joosemin, and we should take their names off our list. Sad to let our founder go this way.
Stacey mentioned that there is another member whose notice of the last election was returned by the post office. She recommended one more mail communication be tried before striking that person from our membership list. We decided that the executive committee should make that kind of decision, and we would try one more formal communication before doing so. Keeping the membership list up-to-date is going to be an on-going process.
We discussed the possibility of neighborhood elections, but we felt our TDG still didn’t have the right kind of numbers in some of the neighborhoods to go in this direction just yet.
And we discussed how the voting in the last election went. Most voters had no problem writing four names on one ballot. We decided that our constitution is sound enough for now, and there would be no amendments in the near future.
So what were we supposed to do with our TDG now?
Well, we would continue with our public meetings, holding at least one every couple of months. These were getting easier for us to arrange. Both Stacey and Thelma were becoming better speakers.
I mentioned that I was kind of helping the TDG in Northeast Riverbend write their constitution. Actually, their writer was emailing me copies of their drafts. They were using a lot from what we had written and ratified. But they had some new features as well. I emailed back only my encouragement to continue.
Ed described some of the difficulties the Northeast was having. They’ve held two more meetings in the same hotel since my last visit. About 20 to 25 people attended each meeting and wanted to be part of this process. But the old saying of “too many cooks spoil the broth” was proving to be true. Ed was chairing the meetings and found it challenging to find that right balance for maintaining members’ enthusiasm yet getting things decided. They were going to hold their fourth meeting in a couple days. He asked me to come and observe. Maybe I might have something useful to say.
But for us in the Northwest, our direction was two-fold: get the membership numbers up and keep the current membership informed. This TDG is going to take time to build.
And Section 7 of our constitution allowed us to appoint our advisor. We decided to appoint Rich. When I phoned him with the news, he laughed: “Let me know of your meetings. If I’m in Riverbend, I will drop around.”
If you like this story of Len and his friends building a new democracy, you might want to start at the beginning.
Week 33: Thursday
I attended the constitution meeting for Northeast Riverbend. There were three people at the meeting taking this constitution a little too seriously. While they had some interesting ideas, they weren’t interested in hearing what other people were saying. As chair, Ed ensured each new idea got time for discussion but didn’t dominate the meeting.
These three people brought back my experience with the early days of Camp Battenor when we had our passionate advocates for Plan A and Plan B.
About halfway through the meeting, I asked the chair if I could talk: “First off, I really want to commend you all for coming out tonight and putting in so much effort into writing this document. There’s a lot of people in the USA engaged in pastimes that are not going to improve the country. So be proud of your participation.
“Please understand that whatever you’ve put into your constitution stands a very good chance of being revised in the future. It’s silly to assume our words are going to last for centuries and that we’ve got to get things right this first time.
“As your TDG district goes through its elections, it’s going to find a few things that need improving. For example, my TDG constitution described the ballot to be used in our elections. We tried the ballot out in our first election. It kind of worked, kind of didn’t. We decided to change the constitution to get a more appropriate ballot. It works fine now. I’m pretty sure you will be making similar repairs and improvements to your constitution.
“Eventually your TDG is going to merge with another TDG, most likely mine. A lot of what’s written in your document could be revised as our two TDGs negotiate their new constitution. So all your great words and desire to see things your way just might come to nothing.
“And please understand that no one can actually predict the future with absolute certainty. We may try — and we should use our best guess. But no one has such great powers to be 100% right about the future 100% of the time. No one is that smart.
“By all means, make your points about why certain clauses will or will not work out. And by all means, ensure that your group has heard you speak. But after that, let your points linger through the meeting. They might take hold with other people, they might not. Listen for where the consensus is going. Yielding to the consensus that’s formulating is better than hammering at your points until you get your way.
“And even if your way is the right way, it is better to try the decision made by consensus than to insist on getting your way. If the consensus decision is wrong, it won’t take long for everyone to see that it’s wrong. Then everyone will agree to fix the mistake. Then maybe your way will be tried out.
“Nothing we put into these constitutions is going to be permanent. Nor is anyone 100 years from now going to talk about the geniuses of Northeast Riverbend whose words are still standing.”
I sat down.
Ed said, “Thank you Len.” He proceeded with the meeting.
I would like to say that I followed the rest of the meeting. But my heart was pounding, and all I could think was: Wow, did I just say all that?
An hour later, the meeting was over. Ed got me out of my semi-trance: “We got a lot of work done in this meeting. What you said got a few people thinking.”
Week 33: Saturday
Stacey emailed the executive committee. A trade show was going to be held in a couple of weeks in a Northwest recreation center. It had a few empty booths and wanted them filled. So it was offering a reduced rate of $100 for the weekend. “Lots of exposure for the TDG,” said Stacey.
By email, we all agreed to rent the booth and delegated Stacey and Thelma to get some props prepared appropriate for the trade show and set a spending limit of $500. Thelma said she knew a commercial artist who would work cheap to make some banners and signs.
I emailed Ed and asked him to find a few volunteers from Northeast Riverbend to sit in the booth for the weekend.
Week 35: Wednesday
I got an email from the writer of the Northeast constitution. They are done. They wanted me to look at it and offer comments:
FIFTH DRAFT OF THE CONSTITUTION FOR THE TDG DISTRICT OF NORTHEAST RIVERBEND
SECTION 1: TDG PRINCIPLES
We members of this TDG group believe that American democracy is failing us. We are striving to build a new replacement system of governance based on the TDG principles of (1) no political parties, (2) democratically elected representatives based on good character and capacity for governance, (3) no electioneering, and (4) a culture of consultation. We believe that we can build this system of governance to peacefully assume authority and responsibility of our current elected institutions.
SECTION 2: HUMANISTIC PRINCIPLES
We members of this TDG group believe in:
1. The equality of the male and female gender.
2. The equality of races in America.
3. The freedom of religion.
4. The freedom to retain aspects of one’s culture.
SECTION 3: BOUNDARIES
This TDG district shall encompass the Northeast section of Riverbend. Exact boundaries shall include:
1. Battenor River the south,
2. Interstate I-XX to the west, and
3. Riverbend’s municipal boundaries to the north and east.
This TDG district shall include the Riverbend neighborhoods of: (1) Churchill, (2) Gimli, (3) Rosedale, (4) Sifton, (5) Steinback, and (6) Waskeda. Each neighborhood will elect its own representative.
SECTION 4: MEMBERSHIP
1. All members of this TDG shall have a primary residence in the district.
2. Members shall provide a mailing address to the executive committee for mailing purposes.
3. Members shall be at least 19 years old.
4. Members must be American citizens or legal residents of USA for at least one year.
5. Members must affirm their acceptance of the principles in Sections 1 and 2.
6. Members must pay a $10 membership fee at the time of first becoming a member.
7. Members cannot vote in TDG affairs until they have been members for at least 30 days.
SECTION 5: ELECTORAL RULES
1. The executive committee shall schedule an annual meeting in the month of April. This meeting shall be the election of all neighborhood representatives to serve in the next year.
2. The executive committee shall keep a record of members.
3. The executive committee shall send by US Post official notice of this annual meeting to all members.
4. The executive committee shall set up a Facebook page for this district and post notice of the annual general meeting on the FB page.
5. All members attending this meeting shall be given a blank ballot. Each ballot shall be color-coded to correspond with their neighborhood.
6. The executive committee shall provide a list of all members in each neighborhood. The members can inspect this list.
7. Prior to voting, the current chairperson of the executive committee shall give a short speech about voting for good character and capacity for governance.
8. When voting, each member can write the name of one member in their neighborhood as his or her choice to represent the neighborhood on the executive committee.
9. All ballots shall be placed in a ballot box.
10. When voting is finished, the ballot box shall be opened and votes shall be counted.
11. Any ballot with a name not belonging to the appropriate neighborhood shall be considered spoiled.
12. The person with the highest number of votes in each neighborhood shall be declared the neighborhood representative.
13. If there is a tie vote, another round of balloting shall be conducted with only the two people in the tied position as eligible names. Only members of that neighborhood may revote.
14. If there is another tie vote, the current chair shall toss a coin to determine the representative.
SECTION 6: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
1. The executive committee shall consist of the six members elected as neighborhood representatives as per Section 5.
2. The executive committee shall have authority and responsibility of the all affairs of this TDG except amendments to the constitution and mergers with another TDG.
3. Quorum of the executive committee is four members.
4. The executive committee is encouraged to attain a consensual decision. If consensus cannot be attained, a majority vote shall constitute the decision. If there is a tie vote, the decision shall go to the status quo.
SECTION 7: ADVISOR
The executive committee can appoint an advisor to this TDG district.
SECTION 8: AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION
1. The executive committee has the authority to formulate amendments to the constitution. When the drafting of an amendment is finalized and the executive committee approves the amendment, the executive committee shall set up an amendment meeting and send notice to all members by mail and the Facebook page of Section 5.4.
2. Quorum of this meeting to amend the constitution shall be at least 15% of the membership.
3. Ratification of the amendment must be at least a 60% vote of membership attending the meeting — and a majority vote in five of the six neighborhoods.
Section 9: MERGING TDGs
1. The executive committee has the authority to investigate and negotiate a merger with a neighboring TDG. When the draft of the new constitution for the merged area has been finalized and approved by the executive committee, the executive committee shall set up a merger meeting and shall send notice to all members by mail and the Facebook page of Section 5.4.
2. Quorum of this meeting to merge the TDGs shall be at least 15% of the membership.
3. Ratification of the amendment must be at least a 60% vote of members attending the meeting — and a majority vote in five of the six neighborhoods.
4. If the other TDG also ratifies, the TDGs will be considered as merged and the new constitution shall prevail over this constitution.
Their constitution is a little more complicated than ours, and I’m not sure the extra complications are necessary. But what could I say? I wasn’t there for most of their discussions, so it’s hard for me to understand their reasoning. They can change it later. Or maybe there is something for other TDGs to learn from the Northeast’s experiments.
I recommended that they hold a ratification meeting as soon as possible — before somebody gets big ideas on making big changes. This constitution might need some small amendments, but it should serve until the merger.
Week 35: Saturday
This was the weekend of the trade show. I couldn’t go as it was my weekend to run the dock at Uspe Trucking. Stacey scheduled two volunteers at the booth, one each from Northwest and Northeast for four-hour shifts. Jackie took a couple of shifts.
Many people walked by the booth. Some took a good look at our banner and display. A few asked questions. The Northwest rep handed out a brochure for our next public meeting. We referred interested parties to Dave’s book for more reading.
One woman was quite inquisitive, saying that there has to be a better way to govern. She was from Southwest Riverbend and was wondering if there was any TDG action there. Thelma said we didn’t think so, but she took the woman’s contact info.
We didn’t get any new members. We thought that the trade show is not a good forum for lengthy and thoughtful discussion. If we had to pay the full price, it would not be a good use of our funds and volunteer energy. Anyways, lots of people saw the TDG booth — and that exposure is a part of marketing.
For some reason, all the TDG props ended up in my garage. We’ll likely be using them a few times a year. They’ll look good in our public meetings. Stacy and Thelma did a good job.
Week 36: Thursday
This was the day of constitutional ratification for the Northeast District of Riverbend. Ed invited Jackie and me to come.
The group was a little bigger than the last meeting, maybe about 35 people. Ed was chairing the meeting and giving a little blurb about the importance of ratifying this constitution. Then he got very formal, just like Holger at our ratification meeting. There’s a certain stage presence to convey democratic due process.
He asked the membership, “Are there any changes to this constitution?”
A young fellow spoke up, “I move that we add Twitter as a means of proper notice in Sections 5, 8, and 9.”
Another young fellow spoke up, “I second that motion.”
Ed heaved a sigh but seemed prepared for these two: “We’ve all had an email delivery of this constitution for about a week. If anyone had any suggested changes, there’s been ample opportunity to communicate to the rest of the membership by email. To my knowledge, everyone was satisfied. There was no advance notice that amending the draft constitution was going to be on the table tonight.
He changed gears: “We discussed this Twitter thing in two of our meetings. You made some good points about using Twitter, but the consensus was not to include it.
He added another comment: “If you really want to make this change, you can approach the executive committee after our election. And if you’re elected to that committee, you’ll have even more influence to effect this change.
One more: “If I allow this motion, I have to allow other motions to change the draft constitution. We could be here for another three hours.”
A nice pause to let the tone sink in.
He continued, “So instead, I am going to assume that you are withdrawing your motion. If you insist on keeping it, I will call someone from the floor to make a motion to postpone your motion so we can proceed directly to the vote for ratification.”
There was no response from either of the young men.
Ed went through a few more due process questions. Then he called for a vote to ratify the constitution. Most voted in favor. A few abstained. The TDG District for Northeast Riverbend was now formal.
Ed seemed to have some advanced skills for chairing a meeting. We’ve been friends for years, but I never saw that side of him. In my opinion, he used these skills wisely. He seemed to have nearly all of the people on his side.
At least I didn’t have to say anything official tonight.
Ed asked a fellow named Jerrod to speak.
Jerrod said, “In two weeks, we will be having our first election. Same time. Same place. Just to remind everyone that TDG elections are different. Instead of voting on issues, we’re to vote for someone in our neighborhood who we believe is of good character and competence. So start thinking about those qualities. Remember that no electioneering is allowed.”
Then we went to socializing time. Snacks and beverages. Everyone was talking. Even the two young men were jovial after their humiliation. Hopefully they learned something.
I asked Ed if he needed any help in the elections.
“I don’t think so. As you know we are doing things differently than you guys. And we spent so much time discussing how these elections are going to be conducted, I’m not anticipating any problems. But there might be a few problems depending on who gets elected. We’ll deal with it then. But you can come if you want.”
Week 38: Tuesday
We had our public meeting in a hotel meeting room near Loon Lake. Thelma invited her connection from the trade show: Veronica Sanchez, who is a first-generation Mexican immigrant. She’s a single mother with two school-age kids. She works as a teacher’s assistant in a school in Southwest Riverbend.
She enjoyed the presentation. She liked the TDG concept. But she was concerned about her available time and income. We assured her that one goes at their own pace when starting their TDG. Once we got our constitution ratified and our first election done, our executive committee might spend about 10 hours a month on TDG affairs. TDG members not on the committee will spend a lot less time.
Thelma offered to be Veronica’s liaison if she wanted to set up a public meeting in her part of Riverbend. Thanks to Holger’s donation, our TDG would be able to fund her activities.
And we got another five members from our public meeting.
Week 38: Wednesday
About three months ago, the executive committees from Camp Battenor and The Battenor Ecological Society met to discuss some of their confrontational issues on land use in the Battenor Wilderness Area. While we were civil to each other, we didn’t come to much agreement. It seemed like a wasted meeting to me. But our groups were affected by the meeting, nonetheless.
For us, we had to deal with the eroding stream issues. We had a discussion with the scientists monitoring the ecology of the area. We decided to put some cobblestone around these stream crossings. So Camp Battenor bought a truckload of cobblestone and dumped it at the parking lot. We also bought an ATV dump trailer to haul it to the affected areas. We encouraged all members to spend one day as their part of placing cobblestone. I think we’ll know in a couple of years if this technique prevents erosion at stream crossings. Having that task actually gave us greater purpose for being out there.
And we also realized that we needed to brand ourselves better. We hired a graphic artist to design a Camp Battenor logo. We turned that graphic into stickers to put on our machines, helmets, and trucks. And the graphic found its way to T-shirts, hoodies, and rain jackets. All of this helped distinguish us as stewards of the Battenor Wilderness Area.
The Battenor Ecological Society also changed. They recognized that we were not as bad as they had originally believed. They dropped their focus from abolishing Camp Battenor to having better regulations for ATV use in the Wilderness Area. I’m not sure where they want to go with these regulations, but we’ll watch carefully. And Stacey told me that they have taken on a project to get the governments to clean up an old creosote plant in Riverbend that was shut down in 1963.
Even though a consultative decision hadn’t been reached, both groups were changed by having that face-to-face meeting. Like Rich said, the TDG is already having an effect outside of itself.
Week 38: Friday
I got word from Ed that the election for Northeast Riverbend went well. Six people were elected, and they had a little party after.
Week 40: Tuesday
At our executive meeting, we discussed the possibility of a merger with Northeast Riverbend.
Mergers of local TDGs are an important part of building the TDG. Not only will merging bring all these local TDG’s under one system, it will improve our skills for TDG governance. That includes electing the right people to effect a merger, negotiating with another TDG which has done things differently, writing a new constitution, and going through due process to effect the merger.
I decided to call Ed for his thoughts. I put him on speakerphone for the other executive members to hear.
He said, “I know that merging is a path we should take. But we just had our first election. I don’t know much about two of the people we elected. It may be some time before we are comfortable with each other. I think my group just needs practice putting public meetings together and funding them. Call me in six months.”
So we thought we were ready to merge. But we had no one to merge with. We will continue holding public meetings and getting our membership numbers up.
Thelma and Stacey were helping Veronica set up a public meeting in Southwest Riverbend. Some Northwest Riverbend members might be interested in attending.
Setting up our public meetings was becoming routine. Doing that once every couple of months wasn’t a big workload for any of us.
Once members were signed on to our TDG, they really had no other obligation to it. As long as they stayed in the same residence, they were, essentially, members for life. I believe that members did support whatever the executive committee was doing to further the TDG but had little interest in the mundane tasks to keep it going. Rich had said political parties are kind of the same.
My family spent two weekends a month at Camp Battenor (weather permitting). I spent one weekend at Uspe Trucking, and one weekend relaxing at home but on fire call.
Year 2: Week 1 Monday
It was a year ago that I’d lost my job at Zvolen. I wonder if I hadn’t lost this job, would I be a TDGer today?
Our membership is now at 141. I have chatted with more than a few new people at our public meetings, but I have trouble putting faces to names on the membership list.
Most TDG members are content with being on the sidelines, letting the four of us do most of the work. Some attend our public meetings on a regular basis. Some of those bring friends. Some we probably never see. It would be nice to give a few members tasks to do, but there’s not much to do at this point. Nonetheless, the executive committee needs to keep the communications open and encourage the members come to vote at our annual general meeting. That vote is so important to the functioning of the TDG.
As treasurer, my address is being used as the place to send checks for our TDG. When we put out a formal communication by mail, which includes a donation request, about $500 comes in. And there’s also about $150 coming in at our public meetings. So some members are donating if not fully participating.
Ed says Northeast Riverbend is at 176 members. There is one member on their executive committee giving a little grief, but she is being more consultative with each meeting.
Southwest Riverbend has 27 members. Stacey and Thelma are helping them with their first constitution.
We’re not hearing much about TDG action from Southeast Riverbend or the town center. Maybe Holger and I should do some promoting there. Maybe if we weren’t employed, we could find the energy.
Stacey announced she will be heading for university in three months. She’s decided to take her master’s degree in sociology. She got her student debts paid off with her cooking job and a low-expense lifestyle.
We then discussed her replacement on the executive committee. Under our constitution, the fifth-place finisher in the last election can move into the executive committee. But that was Rich — and he is no longer a member of our TDG. Sixth place was Aiden Boychuk — but the constitution does not say anything about the sixth place.
I remember Rich saying that constitutions can’t anticipate all situations. If they try to, they become unnecessarily complex. I think he was saying to keep constitutions on the simple side, then just work out the problems in a civil way when they come up. The executive committee makes the decisions about all issues outside the constitution.
We decided when Stacey leaves us, we’ll finish out the term with the three of us on the executive commitee rather than approach Aiden. We were attaining consensus by email and phone a lot, not really having a formal meeting. In that sense, our three-person quorum will always be reached.
I hope Stacey brings her TDG experience to students at her university.
Since we’ve had two executive resignations in our short history, we thought we should address this situation for the future. After some discussion, we decided to amend our constitution to have five executive members but keep the quorum at three. If there was a resignation, the executive committee would still have four members and the option to ask the sixth-place finisher into the executive. And we increased the number of votes cast per ballot from four to five.
So our next public meeting will also include a constitutional amendment session. I was again given the job to chair it!
Year 2: Week 5: Tuesday
We had our public meeting at the Gull Lake Hall. Aiden, Jackie, and Stacey were working the membership table, checking members off and handing out voting cards. A couple of members joined less than 30 days ago, so they couldn’t get a voting card. Stacey reassured them that they would have voting rights at the next meeting.
We used the same speaker order as previous public meetings. Holger opened. I chaired the amendment meeting, and the amendment was unanimously approved. Then Holger talked about the TDG; then Thelma; then Stacey. I closed. Part of my closing at this meeting was to formally say good-bye to Stacey and acknowledge her role in building our TDG. I mentioned that her position and the new fifth position would mean at least two new people would be added to executive committee.
We are already seeing people moving in and out of our TDG. Having new blood enter while keeping some of the old guard around is a good balance.
After the formal meeting, we had some informal socializing with some snacks and beverages. It was a friendly atmosphere.
When Jackie and I got home, I started thinking about our next election.
“With the executive committee doing most of the speaking at our public meetings, are the four of us — Holger, Stacey, Thelma, and I — actually electioneering?” I asked Jackie.
“How do you mean?” she asked back.
“Well, we’re the face and voice of our TDG. With the executive committee keeping its own members in the spotlight, wouldn’t that better their chances of winning the next election? And by keeping the spotlight, we’re also keeping other capable people away from being considered as possible members for the executive committee?”
Jackie answered, “Hey, there’ll be two new people coming into the executive committee soon. We’ve already seen lots of changes in our little TDG.
“Remember Len,” she added, “you were elected with only two votes in that first election. It is almost an accident that you got this job. . . . . . And you’ve served the TDG very well. And you’ve gained some great experience. If the members still want to vote for you, that’s their choice.”
I then saw the culture of the TDG as it is supposed to be: “And I have never asked anyone to vote for me, not even you.”
She added, “And I have not heard any electioneering either. And it seems the membership is liking the decisions the executive committee is making. They should be allowed to vote you back in. I don’t see anything wrong with you guys doing most of the speaking. It’s your decision to make.”
Year 2: Week 32: Tuesday
The Northwest Riverbend TDG district had its third election. Sixty-one members attended. Four of these members were registered less than 30 days. They were a little annoyed that they couldn’t vote but accepted the rules. Jackie and Thelma were at the membership table and handled the situation tactfully and wisely.
The results were:
· Holger: 57
· Thelma: 51
· Len: 49
· Aiden: 30
· Jackie: 22
· Lenora: 21
· Marwan (now a citizen): 18
· Jose: 10
· Betty: 7
· Jenny: 4 (from our first meeting at Rich’s place)
· Rich 2 (not a member anymore)
· Mrs. Hodgeson: 2
· Votes not cast: 12
Jackie was quite surprised to be elected. It’ll be nice to share this experience.
Year 2: Week 33: Tuesday
We had our first executive committee meeting with our two new members: Aiden and Jackie.
Aiden is a young civil engineer working for the Town of Riverbend. He’s responsible for repairs to streets, sewers, and water systems. He does the design for small repairs himself. For bigger jobs, he works with the engineering companies hired by the town. He is often seen with construction crews around the city. He is married to Betty and they have two toddlers. Both Aiden and Betty came to one of our constitution-building meetings. After that, only one attended any TDG meeting with the other staying home.
Holger opened the official part of our meeting: “First we need to select officers.”
I said, “You should remain at chair.” There was enough assent for consensus on that position.
Holger said, “Are you still interested in treasurer, Len?”
“I seem to have my routine down now. It’s not that much work.” Again, a silent consensus returned the job to me.
Holger said, “Next: secretary. Stacy was doing those tasks. Jackie and Thelma were keeping the membership list updated after she left.”
Aiden said, “I want to get some more experience with databases. These skills will help me in my work.”
Holger asked, “So do you want to be secretary?”
“No, just the working on the membership database.”
I said, “Can we divide the position into two positions?”
“Why not?” said Holger.
So with a little more discussion, we confirmed that Aiden would run the membership list, guided by Thelma. Thelma would keep minutes and other records and handle correspondence.
That’s how our officers were selected.
Year 2: Week 34: Tuesday
We got word that Northeast Riverbend had their annual election. Four executive members were re-elected. There were two new faces. And this new executive committee wanted to discuss a merger with us.
After some deliberation, we felt that only two of us from the Northwest should be on our negotiating team. This team would report back to the executive committee who would oversee the team’s work.
Thelma said, “I’m still working with Southwest Riverbend. They have their first constitution and executive committee in place but are still learning the ropes of consultation. There’s at least one person on the committee with opinions that are a little too strong. And they’ve invited me to speak at their public meetings.”
Holger said, “I’m talking to a few people in central and southeast Riverbend about starting their TDG”.
Aiden said, “I have to be careful with family life. Betty needs a break from the kids.”
That left Jackie and I. We were the merger team.
I phoned Ed about the idea of just two from each TDG at the negotiating table. He liked that idea and said he would get back to me after their next meeting.
Year 2: Week 36: Thursday
Jackie and I went to Ed’s place for our first merger meeting.
With Ed was Jerrod Jeramiah, an Africa American. He has a family of four grown kids — and two growing grandkids. Jerrod works in a steel recycling plant in the industrial park in Riverbend, turning cars into steel. He usually works the graveyard shift, so evenings are not a problem for him.
Jerrod said, “I’m not sure where this TDG is going, but everything else is going nowhere. I might as well give a little of my time to this project.” Jerrod attended three of the six constitution meetings, and I recall him looking a little bored and not participating much. Anyways, his TDG neighborhood elected him. “Maybe if I screw up real big, they’ll find someone else next time.” Jerrod seemed to have a good sense of humor.
We decided to discuss the differences between our constitutions.
I started, “You guys added the freedom of religion clause in Section 1. Why?”
Jerrod said, “We have about 12 Muslims in our membership right now. The ones who attended our constitutional meetings feel their religion is under pressure in the United States. We felt putting that freedom into our constitution would help allay their fears.”
Ed followed up, “Besides it’s already in the American Constitution.”
Jackie and I looked at each other. We can live with that.
I continued, “What about the next clause, freedom of culture?”
Ed said, “Same line of thinking. Not only do we have Muslims in our membership, there are Latino people as well. And there are a few other ethnic groups in the Northeast we haven’t reached yet. We just felt this clause would be reassuring for them as well.”
“And,” added Jerrod, “We African Americans have our own culture that you white folk don’t seem to understand.”
As we worked through the clauses, I was writing notes down on our two constitutions. I’m not sure how I got this job, but it seemed to be mine. I guess I’m the writer this time — which is scary.
We set our age limit at 17; they set theirs at 19. Ed asked, “Why so young?”
Jackie responded, “In our American culture, we believe 18-year-olds have the capacity to understand the issues.”
“That’s debatable,” said Jerrod, “I just might have to disqualify myself from voting for that reason alone. Maybe we should change the age to 58.” I now see Jerrod isn’t the gloomy fellow I observed in those constitution meetings. Maybe his neighbors did make a good choice.
Jackie said, “You just might be right. I don’t think anyone really understands all the issues to vote wisely. But voting for good character and capacity for government is different. We felt younger people had the capacity to vote in this way. Some of us even wanted to go lower.”
Ed and Jerrod concurred with the membership age set at 17 years old.
Ed moved us to Section 5: “We have two different electoral structures. Northwest elects its executive committee by the membership at large with a plurality vote. Northeast gets its executive members from an election in each of the six neighborhoods.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I added, “Until recently, some of our neighborhoods didn’t have a sufficient number of members to hold a credible election. That’s why we haven’t made the change.”
“I was thinking more into the future,” said Ed, “According to the TDG book, at some time the Riverbend TDG is going to have to mirror our municipal government — and I think each neighborhood needs to send one representative into government.”
After more discussion, the consensus was that Northwest would change its electoral ways to match the ways of the Northeast.
I did a little math: “We have eight neighborhoods in the Northwest and you have six neighborhoods in the Northeast. That’s a total of 14 elected representatives. Do you see what I’m seeing?”
Ed saw my point: “Fourteen might be a few too many members for the executive committee.”
I finished Ed’s assessment: “Yeah, our executive committee has worked well with four or five representatives. If we increase it to 14 members, the nature of our meetings is going to change — and probably not for the better. This merger just might be time to put in a second tier.”
“How would that work?” asked Jerrod.
“I’ll just suggest this possible structure,” said Ed, “The 14 neighborhoods elect their representatives. Then those 14 representatives elect five or six members to their executive committee.”
“That’s in line with my thoughts,” was my response.
“Who gets the power?” asked Jerrod.
“I think most of the decision making will belong to the executive committee,” I said.
“So what’s the job of the neighborhood representatives who aren’t on the executive committee?” asked Jerrod.
“They’ll be the overseers of the executive committee. If this committee is making important decisions, it should be consulting with the representatives.”
“So? ‘Should’ is not ‘must.’ It seems the non-exec representatives really don’t have much power in this structure?” Jerrod was asking some good questions, but I didn’t like the word “power.”
“Yes and no — I think,” was my response. I was searching for some higher-level thinking that I just couldn’t grasp easily.
Eventually I blurted something out: “I believe the executive committee of our merged area will be making similar decisions as our two executive committees are making today. So we don’t need 14 people to be making those decisions. Five or six seems to be enough. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I think we should keep our main decision-making body to five or six. We can always expand it later.
I kept blurting: “The non-execs will be in reasonable contact with the executive committee. If the executive committee needs some extra hands or eyes or speakers, the non-execs should be a good resource to rely on. After all, they’ve shown some good character and capacity by being elected by their neighbors.”
I was amazed at how quickly we came to the understanding of the term “non-execs.”
Ed helped me out, “While the non-execs are working with the executive, they will be getting some exposure to see who best deserves votes for the executive committee positions in the next election.” I thought he was getting a little off track from where Jerrod wanted to go.
Jerrod rephrased: “You two are putting all the power in the hands of the executive committee. There’s no obligation after the election of the executive committee. What’s the use of the representatives not elected to the executive committee? Shouldn’t we give them some mechanism to veto or overthrow the executive committee?”
I paraphrased a comment Holger had used several times: “If our TDG ever gets to the position where the non-execs feel they need to effect this kind of change, then we’ve done something seriously wrong. Either the elections haven’t found quality people or there’s too much ambition for power and control.”
“But we still need a check-and-balance for abuse and misuse of power,” demanded Jerrod.
Then I had the answer I was looking for: “The annual election is the check and balance. Members serving not-so-well in an executive committee won’t be in office for long.”
Ed seemed to be getting my drift: “We could put in some veto or impeachment clause, but chances are that an election will come up before we can settle with such a drastic tool.”
Jerrod was not convinced: “If the executive committee keeps all the power to themselves, they can set things up to win the next election.”
Jackie had been quiet, but she was obviously listening: “We’re really taking this TDG into a big new direction. May I suggest that we stop this meeting for some serious reflection? I also suggest that we take this second tier idea back to the two executive committees and see what they say. There isn’t much sense continuing until we get this feedback.”
And that is what we did.
Year 2: Week 37: Tuesday
The Northwest executive committee was meeting in my living room.
Holger said, “Eventually we’ll have to build another tier. But it’s a question of whether now is the right time and whether this merger is the right forum.”
Jackie summarized Jerrod’s concerns: “Jerrod thinks that the neighborhood representatives outside the executive committee will play no significant role if we build a second tier. The executive committee members will operate the TDG in such a way as to be re-elected.”
Holger was reflective: “I think Jerrod has some valid concerns. But right now, the stakes aren’t very high in the TDG. After all, we have very little status, influence, or power in society. It’s hard to see overly ambitious people coming into the TDG at this point and wanting to take the steering wheel.”
Aiden said, “But what about the future? Maybe we should go the two-tier route to build our culture now before the ambition wants to take over.”
That made sense to me: “Is there something we could put into the constitution to ensure the neighborhood representatives are not just lame ducks?”
“Like?” asked Holger.
“Well Jerrod hinted at a veto. Or an impeachment process.”
Holger was a bit dismissive: “I think that’ll take a lot of constitutional thinking and writing — which might not work if we ever get to that point.”
I had an inspiration: “Why not put in the constitution that the executive is obligated to meet with the other neighborhood representatives several times a year? If some negative stuff is happening, the representatives will have a forum where they can make their concerns known.”
“If we have a couple of ineffective members on the executive committee, this might entice the non-execs to form a faction or two,” said Holger, “I don’t like negatives. I think we should be more positive thinking.”
Thelma had an idea: “Remember Rich talked about special meetings. Couldn’t we give the non-execs the power of special meetings?”
Holger said, “There has to be a better way.”
Aiden stepped in: “Why not look at our example?”
“Can you explain?” asked Holger.
“Look, we sent Len and Jackie to draft a new constitution for the proposed merged area. We more or less gave them a green light to come back with a finished document. Instead, they ran into a little problem, and they returned to the executive committee to get some different perspectives.
He paused.
“Is there anything in our current constitution that told them to do that?”
Of course, there was nothing to that effect.
He continued, “We’ll never be able to legislate common sense and courtesy and respect and consultation. But we sure can vote for people who have these traits. Let’s put our trust in our elections.”
“But what about Jerrod’s concerns? We can still elect good people, but if the executive committee has little use for the other neighborhood representatives, then we have a very weak link in our TDG. I can see that happening,” I said.
Thelma had a eureka: “Committees!”
“Committees? I asked.
“I think you guys are right in that the executive committee of the merged area can probably handle the current tasks and duties of the area without a lot of extra help. But this is a great opportunity to bring extra help — and get more things done. So instead of having the treasurer deal with all the money issues, set up a committee to deal with finance and audits and fundraising. The executive committee will determine who is the treasurer. Then that treasurer will work with two or three of the non-execs on a finance committee to consult on financial issues.”
I saw the light: “And by working together, they’ll all gain a better understanding of who to vote for in the next election. If a head of committee is not that effective, he or she will not be voted for by the non-execs in the same committee and could lose their executive committee job in the next election. There would be little need for a direct challenge. Just let the annual election do its job.”
Thelma put another touch on this solution: “Rather than trying to use the constitution to force these committees into happening, I think the first executive committee after our merger should set up the necessary committees to get all 14 neighborhood representatives involved in the decision-making process of our merged TDG.”
“And,” Holger concluded, “If the first executive committee does that right after the first election, we are establishing a culture that relies on its smaller committees to get things done. It will be hard to change that culture in the future.”
Year 2: Week 38: Thursday
Jackie had written some notes during Northwest’s executive committee meeting. She was reading them at our next merging meeting. Ed and Jerrod agreed with Northwest’s recommendations.
Jerrod said, “Let’s give those committees a try. But let’s make sure we really communicate the necessity of those committees so that whoever is elected knows to form committees, not put everything in the hands of the executive committee.”
We were going to build our second tier!
We had a few more interesting discussions about various parts of the two constitutions.
Up until now, I’d been making hand-written notes on both constitutions with the intent of transforming our deliberations into a new document. I can kind of manage a computer and word processor. With Jackie’s eagle eye, I put together a resume and cover letter for all those jobs I had applied for. But I didn’t think either of us had the skills to put together our constitution. We probably had enough computer and writing skills that we could learn whatever we needed to learn. But because we both are working, it might take a long time to get a draft together. I expressed these concerns at the end of our merger meeting. Ed said he’d take over. I handed my notes over to him.
Year 2: Week 40: Thursday
It took Ed about a week to get the first draft back to us by email. But it looked good. We fixed a few small things by email. We had a few big things that needed face-to-face discussion.
I asked Ed, “In Sections 8 and 9, your TDG went with a 60% majority vote. Why is that?”
Ed said, “We talked about a two-thirds majority vote. But we felt it was too strict. We might be in a situation where we needed to pass an amendment and not getting the two-thirds vote could set us back a year. We wanted a super majority but not that strong.”
I said, “As someone who has chaired a couple of amendment meetings, I don’t want to do a lot of math with lots of people watching. With a two-thirds vote, it’s easy for me to determine whether twice as many votes are for the amendment as opposed. For example, if I count 15 votes for and seven votes against, I can easily see that 15 is more than twice of seven. Amendment passes. And other members can easily check my math. With a 60% majority, somebody has to do a calculation.”
“Just take the total number of voters and multiply that by 0.60. It’s not that hard.”
“What if no calculator is around? Or what if we give this calculation job to someone who makes a mistake and no one else catches that mistake? What if a voter shows up late — after the chair tells the meeting that, let’s say, 22 votes are needed to pass this amendment. Then we need to redo the calculation. And what about those voters who abstain? Are their votes counted in that 60% calculation? Or do we just count the votes for and against?”
“Hmm. Maybe you just found a flaw in our Northeast constitution,” said Ed. “By its wording, I now see that 60% has to include members who choose to abstain in the vote count — maybe. The two-thirds is clearer, and it does make the calculation a lot easier.”
I said, “I also think when the executive committee is planning an amendment or merger, it should do so with the intent of getting a very strong majority — if not unanimity!”
Jerrod enhanced my argument: “The executive committee should really do the ground work to get these big changes passed. Lots of communication with the members. Just planning for only a two-thirds vote should be considered a failure.”
Finally, we discussed the transition from two smaller TDGs to a bigger TDG. That became Section 10.
Year 2: Week 41: Sunday
Ed put together our second draft and sent it by email. Jackie, Jerrod, and I concurred with this document, but there was some wording that required clarification, plus a few grammar issues, which we did by email.
Eventually this document was emailed to all the executive committee members of both groups.
SECOND DRAFT OF THE CONSTITUTION FOR THE TDG DISTRICT OF NORTH RIVERBEND
PREAMBLE
This constitution reflects the merger of: (1) The TDG District of Northwest Riverbend and (2) The TDG District of Northeast Riverbend.
SECTION 1: TDG PRINCIPLES
We members of this TDG group believe that American democracy is failing us. We are striving to build a new replacement system of governance based on the TDG principles of (1) no political parties, (2) democratically elected representatives based on good character and capacity for governance, (3) no electioneering, and (4) a culture of consultation. We believe that we can build this system of governance to peacefully assume authority and responsibility of our current elected institutions.
SECTION 2: HUMANISTIC PRINCIPLES
We members of this TDG group believe in:
1. The equality of the male and female gender.
2. The equality of races in America.
3. The freedom of religion.
4. The freedom to retain aspects of one’s culture.
SECTION 3: BOUNDARIES
This TDG district shall encompass the northwest section of Riverbend. Exact boundaries shall include:
1. Battenor River the south,
2. Riverbend’s municipal boundaries to the north, west, and east.
This TDG district shall include the Riverbend neighborhoods of: (1) Churchill, (2) Creighton, (3) Davidson, (4) Gimli, (5) Grenfall, (6) Gull Lake, (7) Loon Lake, (8) Nipawin, (9) Oxbow, (10) Rosedale, (11) Senlac, (12) Sifton, (13), Steinback, and (14), Waskeda. Each neighborhood will elect its own representative.
SECTION 4: MEMBERSHIP
1. All members of this TDG shall have a primary residence in the district.
2. Members shall provide a mailing address to the executive committee for mailing purposes.
3. Members shall be at least 17 years old.
4. Members must be American citizens.
5. Members must affirm their acceptance of the principles in Sections 1 and 2.
6. Members cannot vote in TDG affairs until they have been members for at least 30 days.
SECTION 5: ELECTORAL RULES
1. The executive committee shall schedule an annual general meeting in the month of April.
2. The annual general meeting will occur in two locations: one in Northwest Riverbend and one in Northeast Riverbend. This meeting shall be the election of all neighborhood representatives to serve in the next year.
3. The executive committee shall keep a record of members.
4. The executive committee shall send by US Post official notice of this annual meeting to all members.
5. All members attending this meeting shall be given a blank ballot. Each ballot shall be color-coded to correspond with their neighborhood.
6. The executive committee shall provide a list of all members in each neighborhood. The members can inspect the list for their neighborhood.
7. Prior to voting, the current chairperson of the executive committee shall give a short speech about voting for good character and capacity for governance.
8. When voting, each member can write the name of one member in their neighborhood as his or her choice to represent the neighborhood on the executive committee.
9. Any ballot with a name not belonging to the appropriate neighborhood shall be considered spoiled.
10. All ballots shall be placed in a ballot box.
11. When voting is finished, the ballot box shall be opened and votes shall be counted.
12. The person with the highest number of votes in each neighborhood shall be declared the neighborhood representative.
13. If there is a tie vote, another round of balloting shall be conducted at the meeting. Only the two people in the tied position as cast as eligible names. Only members of that neighborhood and who are attending the meeting may vote.
14. If there is another tie vote, the current chair person shall toss a coin to determine the representative.
SECTION 6: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Election
1. The executive committee shall schedule a meeting to elect the next executive committee in October.
2. Only the 14 neighborhood representatives are allowed to vote.
3. Only the 14 neighborhood representatives shall be voted for. Votes cast towards any other names shall be considered spoiled.
4. A ballot with the provision for five names shall be prepared. Each voter can put one to five names on this ballot.
5. Prior to voting, the current chairperson of the executive committee shall give a short speech about voting for good character and capacity for governance.
6. The five representatives who attain the most votes shall constitute the executive committee for the next year.
7. If there is a tie for fifth and sixth place, another round of balloting shall be conducted with only the two people in the tied position as eligible names. All 14 representatives can vote.
8. If there is another tie vote, the current chair person shall toss a coin to determine the representative.
Operations
9. The executive committee shall have authority and responsibility over the all affairs of this TDG except amendments to the constitution and mergers with other TDGs.
10. The executive committee shall set up officers to perform specific tasks.
11. Quorum of the executive committee is three members.
12. The executive committee is encouraged to attain a consensual decision. If consensus cannot be attained, a majority vote shall constitute the decision. If there is a tie vote, the decision shall go to the status quo.
13. The executive committee is encouraged to set up committees using the 14 neighborhood representatives.
14. If there is disagreement between a committee and the executive committee, the decision of the executive committee shall prevail.
15. The executive committee shall set up an email list of members who choose to receive email communications from the executive committee.
SECTION 7: ADVISOR
The executive committee can appoint an advisor to this TDG district.
SECTION 8: AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION
1. The executive committee has the authority to formulate amendments to the constitution. When the draft of an amendment is finalized and approved by the executive committee, the executive committee shall send notice of the amendment meeting to all members by US Post and its email list.
2. Quorum of this meeting to amend the constitution shall be at least 10% of the membership or 30 people, whichever is lower.
3. If two-thirds of voting members in attendance vote for the amendment, the amendment is ratified.
SECTION 9: MERGING TDGs
1. The executive committee has the authority to investigate and negotiate a merger with a neighboring TDG. When the draft of the new constitution for the merged area has been finalized and approved by the executive committee, the executive committee shall send notice of the meeting to merge the TDGs to all members by US Post and its email list.
2. Quorum of this meeting to merge the TDGs shall be at least 10% of the membership or 30 people, whichever is lower.
3. If two-thirds of voting members in attendance vote for the merger, the merger is ratified.
SECTION 10: TRANSITION
Until the conditions below have been fulfilled, the two founding TDGs shall operate as separate entities:
1. Approval of this merged constitution from the two executive committees of Northwest Riverbend and Northeast Riverbend.
2. Ratification of the membership from Northwest Riverbend as per the rules of its current constitution.
3. Ratification of the membership from Northeast Riverbend as per the rules of its current constitution.
4. Election of neighborhood representatives in Northwest Riverbend as per this constitution.
5. Election of neighborhood representatives in Northeast Riverbend as per this constitution.
6. Election of the executive committee as per the rules of this constitution.
When 10.6 is complete, the two former constitutions shall be considered null and this constitution shall prevail. All assets of the two former TDGs — including money and membership lists — shall be turned over to the new TDG.
Year 2: Week 43: Tuesday
The executive committee of Northwest Riverbend passed this constitution, fulfilling condition #2.
We realized that we again had to change our electoral rules, this time going to one representative per neighborhood. And for this transition period, our executive committee would be comprised of eight members. We discussed the wording for our next amendments. When that was decided, I was given the job of chairing the amendment meeting again.
I couldn’t see any reason to oppose the amendments, so it should be a rubber stamp meeting again.
I used to be frustrated as to why government often doesn’t move fast enough. Due process is not easy and moves slowly. Here are the steps we in the Northwest have to go through:
1. Approval of our executive committee for the merger (done).
2. An amendment meeting to bring our Northwest electoral structures in line with the merged constitution.
3. An election in April to elect our eight neighborhood representatives, who will form the next executive committee.
4. A meeting of the membership to approve the new constitution of the merged area.
5. And finally, in October, the election of the executive committee of the merged TDG.
We are looking at about 15 months after the draft constitution has been prepared to fully merge the two TDGs. Most of this time comes from following our own rules.
My sense is that most of our TDG membership isn’t concerned about the details coming from the two executive committees of Northwest and Northeast Riverbend. While they have bought into the idea of the TDG as a future system of governance, they are happy someone else is building it. If they see their TDG moving forward and we, the elected representatives, are not fighting amongst ourselves, they will continue to support it by attending public meetings, making donations, or speaking positively in their social discussions. It is quite possible that the executive committees of both TDGs could move this merger faster by ignoring some of the rules. I doubt our membership would be displeased — or even notice.
But if we get into this practice of ignoring the rules now, we are setting an example for the future. If we follow the rules now, we show respect and trust for the TDG itself.
If we find the rules are not working, we can change them — but with due process.
I now see a possible way to reduce the time to a few months to merge our two TDGs, within the rules of our two current constitutions. But a few more executive committee and amendment meetings will be needed. Maybe I should introduce this way, but the two executive committees are satisfied with the process that is currently laid out. The 15-month process is likely to succeed, whereas my plan may have some flaws I cannot yet see. We just might spend a month or two to prove my way won’t work. Besides, the rest of Riverbend still needs to catch up. No, it seems a better use of our TDGs’ time and energy to work on increasing the membership and helping other TDGs. And maybe this patience is the lesson we need to learn. At least a lesson I need to learn.
Year 2: Week 51: Tuesday
We had our amendment meeting at the Senlac Hall. I was chairing it, but I let Holger do most of the speaking. That gave the impression that the chair was impartial.
Holger explained that a neighborhood-by-neighborhood election is the ultimate goal of the TDG. Our district-based election was useful in our early days when the membership number was much lower and we wanted to keep things simple. Our TDG is getting bigger, and changes are needed.
A couple of members expressed concerns that going to smaller electoral districts might result in some members being elected to the executive committee with only a handful of votes. Their recommendation was to wait for the membership to get bigger. It is now 213.
Holger said that the second tier is the ultimate decision maker of the merged TDG. If an ineffective representative is elected at the neighborhood level, it’s not likely he or she will be elected to the second tier. Ineffective representatives not rising higher is one of the inherent features of the TDG.
I then did the due process stuff. Forty-two voted in favour. Three against.
We then went to our public meeting. Thelma did an admirable job talking about consultation. Betty talked about the future role of the advisors. Then snacks and beverages and some social time. I had a good chat with Marwan. He brought some Egyptian friends to the meeting. And we got another 15 new members.
Year 3: Week 31: Tuesday
Today was election day in Northwest Riverbend. The executive committee and a few volunteers were quite involved in TDG work this last week, making sure this new style of election was going to happen without a problem. We got some useful tips from Ed Broncher as Northeast Riverbend has had experience with this kind of election.
We set up a membership table where all members could pick up their ballot.
The membership table directed each voter to the voting table of their neighborhood. Two tellers supervised the table and ensured the ballot was for their table. Behind the table were the names of all the members of that neighborhood and the voter could inspect that list. We loaned clipboards to the voters so they could keep their choice private. This time voters would be writing only one name on the ballot. The voter put them in the ballot box. We had various mechanisms in place to ensure that the number of ballots given out were the same as the number of votes that were cast.
I was one of the two tellers for Creighton. I was happy to announce that Marwan was the winner in this neighborhood.
Holger, Thelma, and Aiden each won their neighborhoods.
When the Gull Lake vote was announced, the teller said: “Lorena Shelby: 9 votes; Len Pash: 7 votes; Jackie Pash: 1 vote.” My heart sank to my feet!
I recovered somewhat to put on a brave face. But I’m sure my body language was something other than gracious. Holger, Thelma, and Jackie gave me a look that showed their sadness for me when they couldn’t say much in public. I walked to Lenora and offered her my congratulations. I think she was a little surprised at winning, and she made a comment about having big shoes to fill. But, in all honesty, I was in no frame of mind for listening and chitchat.
Lenora had been a frequent visitor to our public meetings. We’d chatted a few times. She lives a couple blocks from us. She works as an addictions counsellor in downtown Riverbend. She has been quite active on various community boards for many years. I guess some TDG members in Gull Lake knew more about her than they did about me. In that sense, they had cast a wise vote.
But it’s still hard to have been a key player of my TDG for the past two-and-a-half years — and then be voted out of office.
I couldn’t sleep much that night. Jackie and I talked a lot. She said that under the old rules, I would still be on the executive committee because many people who wanted to vote for me couldn’t because they weren’t living in my neighborhood. I tried to rationalize the inherent wisdom of the TDG, but the loss still hurt. I didn’t realize how important the TDG had become to me.
Year 3: Week 33: Wednesday
Thelma came over tonight. I was expecting this visit. She was elected as treasurer of Northwest Riverbend, and it was time for me to hand over the books. It still hurt a little. But we had a good visit regardless. She has really matured as a TDGer.
Year 3: Week 38: Tuesday
Today was the membership meeting to ratify the merged constitution. The executive committee decided this would be a members-only meeting. I’m not sure why, but they must’ve had their reasons. They also sent out a copy of the draft constitution with their notice of the meeting.
This time I was in the crowd of regular members, following Aiden as he chaired the meeting. He kindly acknowledged me as one of the architects of this document.
As expected, the ratification easily passed.
Year 4: Week 12: Wednesday
I have been attending TDG public meetings if I have a free evening. I’ve brought a few people to these meetings and got about five of them to sign up.
Today was the election of the new executive committee of the merged area. The 14 neighborhood representatives elected their five-person executive committee. Members were invited, but I didn’t go.
By email, I found out that the 14 representatives elected Holger, Thelma, and Ed into the executive committee. Lenora and someone from Northeast Riverbend named Rochelle were also elected. I can’t recall ever meeting Rochelle.
The election of this executive committee was the last requirement to officially merge the two TDGs into one TDG.
Year 4: Week 13: Thursday
By email, I found out that Holger was chair of the new executive committee for the TDG District of North Riverbend. Thelma was treasurer. Ed was in charge of membership. I know these three are all good people. Rochelle was secretary. I didn’t know anything about Rochelle, but I trust the TDG elections did a fine job in selecting her.
I had an important part in building the system that found these good people.
And maybe that was enough. Maybe I have done my service to the TDG.
