Open the Doors

In a community with a long-term history of actions taken place behind closed doors,  of power-brokers rotating and containing their accommodations among their colleagues so as to both continue to enjoy and protect their seats at the table and of questionable decisions made with inadequate ventilation - it's no surprise that a culture of excessive if not bizarre seclusion prevails.

A new leaf is being turned and many desperately seek to experience fresh airs blowing in the window.   Old hands however, continue to intimate that the actions of stealth and secrecy, of hoarding information and individuals in a room, offer the suggestion of a healthy privacy.

A number of people who have expressed a preliminary interest in undertaking a role as a Director of one of the new Yeshivah legal entities have been invited to a meeting to hear something of the role of a Director this week.  I congratulate these individuals who have put their hands up at this stage.  They have shown a commitment to their community, their school, their children (if they're parents), their Shule and other communal institutions.  In every way they've stepped up to participate and one can only wish them well.  

As someone who knows something of the steps one takes prior to taking a position on any Board, I was at the very least dismayed, if not alarmed,  to hear that invitees have been asked to sign a document of confidentiality regarding their attendance at this evening.  I have no idea  why they are being asked to sign such a document, what exactly it might contain - but regardless, here is perhaps just the one reason why all attendees should graciously hand it back without signing.    

Any prospective director, EVERY prospective director should do an element of Due Diligence prior to taking a seat on a Board, most absolutely one the size and complexity of Yeshivah at this stage of development.    This might begin with having a conversation with someone to find out just WHAT information you should seek.  It might entail taking further advice regarding the information you have received from the organisation.    With an organisation such as Yeshivah it might well include a trip to your own lawyer with some Yeshivah constitutional documents (professional advice would be an absolute if you are not on top of this sort of material) and other materials or information that you might carry out of a prospective directors meeting such as the one being held this week.  It would not be implausible to include consideration and advice on 'the team' of fellow directors; knowing that you had appropriate, able and suitable colleagues with the right mix of skills as well as suitable values and ethics at the Board with you.  One doesn't know what one will see or hear so one doesn't know what one will feel the need to be able to independently follow up on.

It would be a wonderful, wonderful idea for the organisation to have an Open Forum,  the step they seem to have altogether missed, to engage as many of the community and discuss the preliminary commitments and requirements of the role of a Director.  A meeting not only for those who have submitted Expressions of Interest early in the timeline, because with some general information many more members of the community could hear something further and consider stepping forward. The time commitments, something of the legal responsibilities, the various undertakings involved in being a Director.  It just doesn't make sense to limit information and opportunities to a select few and be holding another gathering with the sour suggestion of stealth or secrecy.  

So to begin a first meeting with a confidentiality requirement?  Whether this requirement is going to bind attendees from discussing others who are present, or whether it is going to limit them in how they engage with any of the information in the room on the evening - this is the wrong amount of information at the wrong forum.  And definitely the WRONG intent to have those who come along put pen to paper.

This meeting has once again been painted with the colours of with-holding any information from escaping from beyond the room.  It re-iterates the culture of the gravest of problems for Yeshivah.  When does the with-holding stop?  Who is making these decisions?

Thousands, yes thousands of the members of this community, were for decades unable to access the constitutions that governed their lives and it was only as they became Exhibits at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that we saw them posted  on-line and accessible to all.

While on the subject of both constitutions and cessation of withholding.  

It's a given that as part of due diligence eventual directors will read the Yeshivah Constitutions.  Whether interested in YBRSL or CIVL there is an important relationship to YCL - any prospective director needs to be reading all three constitutions and taking independent advice.

Though the Yeshivah Centre Ltd Constitution has not yet been registered, it stands to reason that a Final Draft is sitting in a filing cabinet somewhere - perhaps many Final Drafts in various filing cabinets.  One just has to be lucky enough to have such a filing cabinet in your home or office.  That being said - with the release of the Chabad Institutions of Victoria Ltd Constitutions and the Yeshivah Beth-Rivkah Schools Ltd Constitution it seems imperative that as part of this process at the very least one such filing cabinet needs to be unlocked and a Final Draft needs to be released to the community and prospective directors.

I hope that those who attend the upcoming meeting have a thought-provoking and valuable meeting.  I hope, I urge them to all begin the meeting by assuring those presenting on behalf of Yeshivah that the days of stealth are done, that the days of trust are here.  I hope as one, that attendees all agree that there is no need to be signing confidentiality documents.

...marcia pinskier