Turmoil at the Faculty Club

The Faculty Club seems to be in turmoil, at least at the governance level. It recently emailed members a timeline of the turmoil, reproduced below (with some annotations of "WHY?" by yours truly). But even with the timeline, exactly what is happening and WHY is unclear:

 On January 10, 2024, the Faculty Club (FC) Board of Governors (BOG) held a Special one-item meeting per Bylaw Article IV, D-7. The meeting was announced via email to the FC members on January 3, and was held at the Faculty Club. It was also available to members via Zoom. The purpose of the meeting was to address the recent leadership transition, and it was led by Interim President, Linda Sarna, Distinguished Professor and Emerita Dean of the School of Nursing, former Chair of the Academic Senate (2012-2013), and a FC member for 32 years. The current elected and ex-officio BOG members were introduced along with General Manager Andrea Curthoys, who assumed her position in August, 2023. Gratitude was expressed for those participating on this voluntary governing board. The BOG’s values of transparency, civility, excellence, sustainability and joy were shared with the members.

Chronology of Recent Events in the FC BOG:

In September, 2023, the prior President of the FC BOG resigned and chose not to assume the Past President position.

The FC Bylaws (Article IV, G-3a) state that “Ballots shall be delivered to eligible voters on or before April 26 and should be returned May 10.” However, in 2023 that did not occur. [WHY?] The slate for nominations was not completed until October with final results announced November 30, 2023. The slate for President-Elect was blank. As a result, the December 7, 2023 meeting was the first FC BOG meeting for newly elected Board members.

On December 7, 2023 the new FC president told the BOG of her intent to resign during an Executive session. [WHY?]

As there was no President-Elect or Past President to step into a leadership position, the BOG held an emergency meeting on December 13, 2023 to discuss the situation. At that meeting they agreed to formally accept the President’s resignation.

According to the FC Bylaws (Article IV-G), suggestions to the BOG for filling vacancies would typically be made by the Nominations and Elections Committee, however that committee was not fully operational. The BOG is empowered to appoint and fill vacancies as soon as possible. Thus, the Board appointed Linda Sarna as Interim.

A Special one-item meeting was planned to be held in early January to announce the leadership transition, and to announce openings for other BOG Interim appointments (i.e., President-Elect, Member-at Large).

As per BOG recommendations, former FC President, M. Belinda Tucker was invited and accepted an Invitation to serve as Interim Past President to fill that position. The appointment was approved electronically by the BOG on December 18.

As membership on various committees of the BOG had not been filled, this was a top priority for the BOG and the Interim President.

At the Special Meeting on January 10th, an appeal was made for members willing to be considered for appointment to an interim position for President-Elect and for member- at-large (since that position had previously been held by Sarna).

FC committees are now filled pending the Nominations committee which requires three outside FC members. The Interim President-Elect will serve as the Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee

A full description of the roles in the Bylaws can be found on the website. Next week, a follow-up article in the newsletter will also highlight these responsibilities.

The FC members are urged to send any suggestions, as well as self-nominations for Interim President-elect and Member-at-large to the Interim President at lsarna@sonnet.ucla.edu.

Three FC members who are not serving on the BOG are also needed for appointment to the Nominations and Elections Committee. Being a member of that committee does not preclude running for office. These suggestions also can be sent to the Interim President at lsarna@sonnet.ucla.edu. It is hoped that all open appointments can be made by the end of January at the next BOG meeting.

The next FC BOG elections will occur in April, 2024 with a slate to be approved at the March, 2024 meeting. All Interim appointments will terminate on August, 31, 2024.

Interim appointments must stand for election if they wish to continue their service. The slate with balanced representation from academic units and from faculty and staff will be required to replace 8 members of the BOG:

President-Elect

President

Past President

Treasurer

Member-at-large (Sarna who vacated this spot to serve as Interim President)

Member-at-large (currently Dunkel Schetter)

Member-at-large (currently Epstein)

Member-at-large (currently Becerra)

Note: Current BOG members may run for re-election, but per the Bylaws, no BOG member can serve for more than 6 consecutive years. After a one-year time period, prior BOG members can run again.

All terms will begin September 1, 2024 with an orientation scheduled for early Fall. A follow-up [email] will detail the roles and responsibilities of the various positions. The Interim President strongly urged members at the meeting on January 11 to consider participation in the FC during this very important time in the FC’s history.

As this was a Special one-item meeting, questions from members about other issues were deferred by the Interim President until the General FC member’s meeting on February 1. That meeting will provide an opportunity to address the state of the FC including ongoing challenges and new opportunities. The meeting will be in-person at FC and via Zoom. Details will be forthcoming.