Locking Out the Bondholders

Editorial

 

This editorial expresses my personal views and not necessarily those of  the committee For the Players.

 

The Board of Directors sought the help of their attorney to rewrite their Bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation.  Inconvenient aspects of these were eliminated.   The concept of “membership” was purged, and the Board assigned themselves and their Bondholders the sole controllers of the OMBC.   These revised documents are published on their website.

The committee For the Players is interested to know who is now controlling OMBC and who is electing them.  Two of our bond-holding members, Dave Rogers and Gloria McCain, wrote to the Board's attorney to request this information. (Please click to read Dave’s and Gloria’s requests.  Also read Dave's 2nd Request)

They would seem entitled to it.  Under the newly revised Bylaws, the treasurer is required to provide access to the books of OMBC’s financial condition to Bondholders upon reasonable request.

The Board and their attorney do not see it that way.

The president of the Board wrote to Dave refusing his request.  She explained that their attorney had advised  that she needn’t respond to Dave.  He was not entitled to this information.  I don’t know if Gloria has received a response.  I can't imagine it would be different.

The lockout is complete.  This is the latest in a long stream of alienating, paranoid actions.

The Board has removed player members from its charter, elevated the few Bondholders remaining to the controlling force on the Board, and is now refusing to furnish Bondholders with information they need to vote for new board members. 

The OMBC has now arranged its conversion to an autocratic organization.  It operates for the benefit of the club owners and is controlled by the most senior of these.  Most of the old bondholders have cashed out, all but one of the Board has resigned, and the spirit of the Center has been impoverished by this heavy-handed and callous treatment of players.

Nobody should be surprised that volunteers are drying up and players are deserting the Center.  The sense of belonging has been sucked away by the repeated insistence that players are not “members” but “customers”. 

The club spirit of OMBC has fled, driven away by the uncaring actions of club owners and their leader.  The game owners can feel more secure, their leader is as firmly enthroned as ever, but the players miss their illusion of belonging to a club.

 

--John Christman  10/27/2015