Revolutionary Hodag Party - Thinking Outside the Cave!

Revolutionary Hodag Party
Thinking Outside the Cave

National Speleological Society
Board of Directors
Election
2010

[Motivation][Background] [Platform] [Issues]

[CaveChat Election Forum]
[NSS Nominating Committee Page]
[NSS Articles, Constitution, and Bylaws]

Troublemaker! - Official theme song of the RHP
Lyrics MP3 Video

hodags@hodagrevolution.com
[Be Heard - Email the BOG]

Bill Putnam, NSS 21117 RL/FE, Lawrenceville, Georgia
Jay Clark, NSS 3896 RE/FE/CM, Birmingham, Alabama
Dean Wiseman, NSS 32690 RE, Indiana, Indiana
Debra Young, NSS 44886 RE, Palm Bay, Florida

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds." - Bob Marley

In what can reasonably be interpreted as a mandate from the NSS membership, RHP members Jay Clark, Bill Putnam, and Dean Wiseman have been elected to the NSS Board of Governors as Directors of the Society. Clark received the highest number of votes cast (1,184), followed by Putnam (1,136) and Wiseman (940). Incumbent Debra Young, who was endorsed by the RHP, came in sixth, with 709 votes. The ballot return rate was 19%, which is slightly higher than last year's 18%, and is the highest return rate since 2003. There were 10,173 ballots mailed (about 800 fewer than in 2009) and 1,934 valid ballots were returned.

All three RHP candidates would like to express their appreciation to the members of the Society who gave their support and encouragement. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve the membership and the caving community at large, and are eager to begin work to get the NSS leadership back on track and working more efficiently and effectively for the benefit of cavers, caves, and caving.

We reaffirm our commitment to listen to you, the members, to speak and act on your behalf, to conduct ourselves and the business of the Society in a responsible, serious, and professional manner, to be accessible and available to you, and to be held accountable by you for our actions and decision.

The first three will be easy. The fourth one will be hard, and will require continued support from each of you - the members of the NSS. We thank you again for your support, and we look forward to hearing from you as we begin our service to the Society.

The time has come for all good cavers to come to the aid of Our Society. Rise up! Throw off the yoke of Apathy! It is time to put an end to Irresponsibility, Obfuscation, Denial, and Incompetence on the NSS Board of Governors. Send a message to our leaders that they cannot ignore! The ballots are in your hands, and with them, the Future of the NSS. Fewer than 20% of NSS members return their ballots. You can make a difference. Vote!

As promised during my valiant but ultimately unsuccessful 2009 write-in campaign for the NSS Board of Governors, I am now an official candidate on the 2010 ballot for Director. I am informed that the ballots were mailed on March 15. Look for yours, and be sure to Vote! The Revolutionary Hodag Party urges every NSS member to carefully read the ballot, visit the NSS 2010 Directors Election forum on www.Cavechat.org, and take the time to become a thoughtful and informed voter.

As in 2009, Jay Clark has joined me in this campaign, and is also on the ballot. Jay and I are the nucleus of the RHP, and we are committed to reforming the NSS leadership and governance. This year we are pleased to have Debra Young and Dean Wiseman with us as well. Together we hope to gain a footing on the Board of Governors and change the direction and tone of the NSS leadership. To do so, we need your support and your vote. We will be answering questions and explaining our ideas and position on the official member forum of the NSS at www.cavechat.org. We urge all NSS members to create an account on Cavechat and join us there, as we seek to improve the leadership of the Society.

Our primary goal is to try to change the nature of the NSS leadership to make it more professional, more appropriate to the core mission and purposes of the Society, and more responsive to the membership. To do this, we need your help.

We each need about 1,000 votes to get seated. We all know that there are over 8,000 members who discard their ballots every year without voting. We believe that in many cases, this is because they are also unhappy with the leadership but do not see any real hope for change. Well, there is a way to make change happen. We are working to build a coalition of reform-oriented directors, and we will turn this thing around and get it on track and working.

We would appreciate it if you could take the time to read the following statement and pass it along to your fellow cavers who may not be aware of our campaign. Please reproduce and distribute it as widely as possible - this campaign is all about "get out the vote" and is dependent on the Internet and word or mouth. You are our campaign workers. If you have already mailed your ballot, find someone who has not and encourage them to vote for me. Then work together to find others. We can do this!

Feel free to post any comments or questions to the NSS Cavechat forum or to email them or even to call us. I am mad as hell and I am going to do something about it. Please join me. We can change the NSS for the better. Right here. Right now.

We should direct our efforts toward promoting the study and science of speleology, supporting the protection of caves and cave life, and promoting fellowship and community among all members of the caving community at large. We do not have to conduct science, buy caves, or throw parties to do these things. We can produce publications, create and give scholarships, make grants, raise awareness, conduct outreach, create educational programs, sponsor conferences, conventions, and expeditions, and do many other things that no other organization in North America is doing. We should not compete with other organizations or institutions where our interests overlap - we should support and cooperate, and allocate our resources wisely.

We believe the NSS must be a leader in the research and prevention efforts related to WNS. We must support research in every way that we can, lead by example, reach out to the non-NSS cavers, and take an active role in partnership with BCI, ACCA, US-FWS, USGS and other organizations as befitting the premier speleological organization in North America, and we must make sure the members and the public knows everything we are doing and have done in this area.

We must lead the way, and not let the crisis lead us. In doing so, however, we must not forget that we are the only organization in America that represents the interests of cavers. We believe that the NSS can be an advocate for both bats and cavers at the same time, and that it is been too slow to come to that view. The recent policy statement and press release are excellent examples of this, but the BOG should have come out with these last year, before cavers were labeled by the media as the significant agents for the transmission of WNS. Members and directors urged the leadership to act, but our leaders were very slow to do so, and valuable time was lost. We now face an uphill battle to redeem cavers in the eyes of the public, the media, and the agencies that manage publicly owned cave lands.

We must also act to protect and conserve our own caves and do everything possible and reasonable to prevent harm by WNS, whatever its cause and transmission method. We must work with private and public cave owners and managers to educate them and advise them about WNS and cave conservation and protection. We must consider all types of caves, all types of cavers, and all types of caving, and avoid simplistic "one size fits all" approaches in favor of carefully targeted approaches with sound scientific basis. Caves are unique individuals, and must be treated as such.

We can do these things carefully, and deliberately, working in partnership with government agencies, scientists, and other non-profit organizations, but we must have serious and thoughtful people as directors and officers in order to succeed. We are the only organization representing the interests of both caves and cavers, and we must choose our path carefully and wisely, and communicate constantly and effectively with our members and partners, always listening to their concerns and seeking their input, so that all are fully informed and all options and opinions are considered.

We believe the NSS office should remain in Huntsville unless that becomes economically impossible. We have considered and discussed the three proposals recently developed. The Indiana site is too remote from airports and interstates and would be too expensive to build on and operate due to its rural location, and that the Kentucky site would be too remote from airports and from a sufficiently large grotto or member base for adequate volunteer support. Huntsville, on the other hand, has a regional airport and is served by interstate highways. It has a large, established grotto with many active members who have historically supported the office in countless ways until alienated by the NSS board and officers. It is in one of the most cave-rich and caver-populous regions of the country. We also have a substantial investment in our office staff, which will probably be lost if the office is relocated out of the Huntsville area, increasing training and staffing costs and reducing efficiency and member services.

The proposal to build a new facility across the street from the present Huntsville office (on land purchased and donated specifically for that purpose, and not located on top of Shelta Cave), demolish the old office or rehab it into a visitor center, and expand the Shelta Cave preserve is a good one - both environmentally and economically. It offers the least disruption of NSS office activities and operations. Its estimated cost is within the ability of the NSS fund raising activities, given adequate leadership, focus, and effort. It will be the quickest and easiest plan to implement. It will have the largest volunteer and member support base (assuming that we can repair the relationship with the Huntsville grotto, as we believe new leaders can and should do). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is doable right now. The Cave Research Foundation conducted a similar sized project a few years ago with a much smaller membership base. We believe that the new office complex as proposed can be designed to house, protect, and display the NSS library and museum, something that is long, long overdue, and can be expanded and upgraded to improve the work environment for the office staff as well as the quality and breadth of services provided to the membership.

We believe that the NSS should not seek to buy, own, or manage caves. That is the mission and competency area of the local and regional cave conservancies, such as the SCCi, IKC, MAKC, WVCC, NCC, and others. The NSS should support those organizations - not compete with them for funds and other resources. Buying, owning, and managing caves is demanding work, and it diverts energy, time, volunteers, money, and other resources away from our core mission areas. If a significant cave is offered in donation to the NSS, we should consider accepting, provided that we have the resources to manage and protect the cave, but we should first consider whether there is some better home for it, such as a local or regional cave conservancy.

We believe the NSS should investigate and seriously consider spinning off a National Speleological Land Trust, an entity similar to the National Speleological Foundation that manages the NSS financial assets, so that we can transfer title to our cave preserves to a separate tax-exempt land trust dedicated to their care and management. This will allow the NSS to substantially reduce its liability insurance costs while providing greater protection for the Society's other assets as well as for the caves themselves. Cave conservancies already follow this successful model - it works, and it takes the management of our caves out of political hands and micromanagement and puts it into the hands of the people who know and love them best.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we believe that the NSS must work harder and more effectively to recruit, train, nurture, and retain talented volunteers. The BOG and officers have had a terrible track record for volunteer management, alienating both individual volunteers and even entire grottos over the last decade. We are losing talented people, valuable donors, and priceless opportunities because of mismanagement, miscommunication, and just plain misbehavior. It is time for this to end, and for the NSS leadership to conduct itself in a rational and professional way.

Please feel free to email us at hodags @hodagrevolution.com or to call any of us to discuss NSS-related questions or concerns that you have that we have not addressed here. We will also continue to participate on the NSS Cavechat election forum and other distribution lists and will be happy to respond to any questions or comments there as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for your consideration. If our message resonates for you, we would appreciate your vote, and your help in getting word of our candidacy to all your friends and fellow NSS members. We each need about 1,000 votes to get seated. If we do, we promise that the NSS leadership will hear you, and will respect you, and that it will be accountable to you. We do not expect these changes to come easily, but we are confident that we can make them happen. It will be, at the very least, interesting.

I am a Life Member and Fellow of the Society, having joined in 1980, shortly after I began organized caving with the caving subcommittee of Outdoor Recreation Georgia Tech while I was in college. Before that I was an occasional spelunker and flashlight caver in the caves around my home in Birmingham, Alabama, having been bitten by the caving bug while on a family vacation visit to Ruby Falls and a school trip to Rickwood Caverns.

I have served the NSS most recently as the IT and computer network support person for the NSS Office since 2005. In that capacity I have written and procured grants for the office to purchase new computer equipment and software, and have saved the NSS thousands of dollars in IT consulting expenses by installing and supporting the office computer network and applications and procuring donations and grants of new software and hardware. I also served as the Editor of American Caving Accidents (from 1996 to 2007, producing five multi-year issues during that period and saving the NSS more than $40,000 in publication costs) until I stepped down from that position in June, 2007.

I am an Instructor for the National Cave Rescue Commission, and just finished teaching at the South Central Regional Seminar in Arkansas last week and at a special training weekend for the Dogwood City Grotto last month. I have also served as the editor of the Georgia Underground, the publication of the Dogwood City Grotto, of which I have been a member since 1980. I was the editor and principal author of the 1989 NSS Convention Guidebook, Caves and Caving in TAG, as well as two TAG Cave-In guidebooks. I have written and given presentations extensively on caving, cave surveying, safety and techniques, and cave rescue.

I cave actively in the TAG region, but have also been active in Kentucky (surveying in Mammoth Cave with the CRF), New Mexico (Lechuguilla expeditions, including one last year and one this year), Wyoming (Tetons, Gros Ventres, and Bighorns), Mexico (primarily as a pit-bopping speleo-tourist to date, but I hope to get on a deep cave survey expedition soon). I will be an active caver and NSS member until the day I die. I love to survey and produce maps. I collect caving literature and I am an aspiring cave photographer. I am a member of the Chattanooga Hamilton County Cave and Cliff Rescue Team, and have participated in many cave rescues over the years, including my own (rock fall, caver fall, injury and aid, broken leg) in 1987. My only regret in caving is that I did not find the NSS until I was 19.

I am a founding member (SCCi #6), incorporator, and past Chairman (1994-1999) of the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, Inc., and the only director of the SCCi who has served continuously on the board since its founding in 1991. The first organizational meeting was held in my living room. I currently serve as Acquisitions Chairman, and in that capacity just completed the acquisition by the SCCi of Surprise Pit and the majority of Fern Cave.

I served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the SCCi during its growth from a small group of dedicated cavers into a nationally recognized leader in the cave conservancy movement. I have participated in or directed the acquisition of almost every one of the SCCi's 27 cave preserves, negotiating and writing contracts, leases, and easements, securing and arranging financing, developing management plans, conducting meetings and hearings, dealing with state and federal agencies, and raising donations to pay off the mortgages. I am a sustaining member of the SCCi at the highest level, and have been since the creation of the sustaining membership program. In 1998 I was honored to accept a Certificate of Merit presented to the SCCi by the NSS for the acquisition of Neversink, which was negotiated by then Acquisitions Chair Mark Wolinsky and myself.

I have attended more board meetings in 30 years than I care to recall. I have served on and chaired NSS committees. I have supported the NSS as a Life Member and with targeted donations to the Great Ex purchase, the library fund, and other funds and projects. I have edited NSS publications and supported the NSS office with my professional skills, time, and talents as a volunteer.

The NSS is in a crisis, but it is not a financial crisis, a membership crisis, or a biological crisis: it is a leadership crisis. Our problems and challenges are but symptoms of this larger deficiency. The mis-management of the current election is an excellent illustration. It is time to address the root causes.

We have been poorly served by our officers and directors for far too long, and good people have resigned in disgust or declined to run for reelection because they are fed up with the obstruction, obfuscation, incompetence, and inaction of our leaders. The current board and officers know that these things are true, but some have ignored and suppressed them. It is well known to the board members that they have had difficulty each year finding candidates willing to run for the board - this year was a case in point. One reason for this is that no talented person wants to waste his or her valuable and limited time serving on an ineffective board. I have been solicited to run many times, but have declined repeatedly for exactly this reason. I know others who can tell the same story.

It is time to clean house, lead by example, and get the NSS back to its core mission and principles. We need leaders who are not afraid to take positions, answer questions, and make tough choices in the best interests of the Society and its members. I am such a person, and I ask you to write in my name on your ballot, and to urge your friends and associates to do likewise. NSS Board elections typically garner only about 1000 to 1200 ballot responses - less than 10% of the membership. Your vote and efforts will make a difference.

Further, I urge you to vote for or write in people you know or believe will be active, dynamic, and outspoken leaders, and not just chair-warmers. We need an activist board, where each director is expected to chair at least one committee and serve on at least two others. I will commit to do this and hereby challenge other candidates and directors to do the same.

We need articulate people, who can speak clearly, write coherently, and provide thoughtful opinions and constructive debate. We need people who are serious and committed, and who have taken the time and trouble to read our governing documents, attend board meetings, and give substantially of their time, talents, and resources to support the society in its mission and projects. We need people who will lead by example and walk the walk.

I believe that the NSS can and should do a better job of listening to and communicating with its members. I know it must do a better job of recruiting and supporting its volunteers. I know that we can make this happen.

I served as a director of the NSS from 2006 to 2009, but left the Board at the end of my first term due to my frustration with the inertia, ineffectiveness, and lack of leadership I experienced there. I have been a member of the Society longer than any of the present directors, and I can remember when the NSS had real leadership. We do not have it now, and we need to change that.

I am a lawyer in active private practice in Birmingham and do trial work defending people who get sued. Among my clients in the past were the NSS, The Huntsville Grotto, and several members of the Huntsville Grotto whom I defended in a wrongful death case (Teresa Carnes v. The National Speleological Society). I serve as general counsel for the Southeastern Cave Conservancy. I negotiated the acquisition of Tumbling Rock Cave and have served as the preserve manager for that cave since its acquisition.

I am in favor of the NSS Office staying in Huntsville. I presented the proposal to the Board on behalf of The Huntsville Grotto at the April Board Meeting. I do not feel the Board has given that proposal a fair review and reasonable consideration, as evidenced by the fact that several directors and officers were still unfamiliar with its content and detail at the November 2009 Board meeting when they voted to reject it and recommend a move to an unspecified location in central Kentucky. During the discussion, some directors and officers made statements about the proposal that were clearly at odds with the actual content of the proposal, demonstrating their lack of familiarity with it, or a lack of understanding of its content. We expect our directors to do their homework, and do it properly.

I am against the NSS owning cave preserves. I am not against the NSS buying caves and then spinning them off to other organizations such as the National Speleological Foundation. Owning and managing the preserves is a risk that the Society does not need to take, and it places all the other assets of the Society at risk. We can spin off the cave preserves to local cave conservancies or a special non-profit land trust created to manage them in the same way that the National Speleological Foundation manages the Society's financial assets. That would improve the security of all out assets, reduce risk and liability, and reduce insurance costs for the Society. These costs presently consume more than $20,000 per year of our budget.

I am a firm advocate of civil behavior between all of our directors and all our volunteers who were kind enough to devote their time to serve the Society. Our present officers often do not behave in a civil manner to one another, to the directors, and worst of all, to the members they server. This is not acceptable and should not be tolerated.

I have had ample experience as a Society Director and as a practicing attorney in excess of 40 years. I would propose the following:

I appreciate your interest in the future of the NSS, and I hope that you will support us in this campaign.

I have been a recreational caver since 1981, when I was a Boy Scout in Indiana, later joining the NSS in early 1990’s as a college student. Since that time, I have proudly been a member of two grottos in Indiana (Central Indiana and Bloomington) and in Georgia (Augusta Cave Masters) as well as the Indiana Karst Conservancy, Indiana and Georgia Cave Surveys, a Joint Venturer in the Cave Research Foundation, and a member of the former Lechuguilla Cave Exploration and Research Network (L.E.A.R.N.), and have actively participated in my own and others’ cave exploration, survey, and mapping projects around the country. At this time, I serve as Vice Chairman of the Central Indiana Grotto. One of the reasons I chose a research career in Biological Science (I am currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine) is from my many learning experiences and encounters underground. Caving has been an invaluable source of personal skills, including self-reliance, perseverance and responsibility for the well-being of others. Even more valuable to me are the wonderful friends and relationships I have gained from these times, not to mention the astounding memories! Of the thousands of hours I have spent underground, it seems I can recall each and every trip almost like I can recall a friend or acquaintance, each one unique and special in its own way.

As we all know, the National Speleological Society is currently faced with the most formidable set of challenges in its history: The North American bat population is witnessing a crisis of historical proportions with the onset of White Nose Syndrome. The economic downturn and wars abroad are a drain on our government’s ability to direct much-needed attention and effort toward research and conservation of our natural and non-renewable cave resources. Thirdly, the very caves which we hold most dear are being subject to blasting and permanent closure due to ill-informed and liability-paranoid decision-makers.

Our Society is also currently in the midst of the decision-making process of where and how to relocate our National Headquarters, a decision which will have immense and lasting ramifications on our Society’s future. Lastly, but most importantly, our Society is facing increasing competition from other activities and media for our most vital resource, our future members. Each of these issues on its own would be tough, but all at once, means our Society is in desperate need of people who will give objective, careful consideration that will serve the best interest of our Society in an effective, professional, and timely manner.

Despite these challenges, it is my belief that now is NOT the time to sit back and rest on our laurels, nor is it the time to return to business as usual. Our Board of Governors needs to attack these challenges with all the vigor, conviction, and intelligence that it can muster. When it comes to our "national profile", we must raise the bar; we must increase our outreach and our profile. There was a time when the Society could rely on new memberships strictly on reputation, as well as our exclusivity with regards to knowledge of caves and cave locations. This is no longer the case, and we are increasingly finding ourselves competing with other organizations, media, and activities for members and their participation in our Society. As a result we must redouble our efforts to attract, inspire, and retain members who will be our future leaders and Society’s lifeblood in the effort to preserve, conserve, understand, and sustain our cave resources. As a candidate for the Board of Governors, I promise to bring all my experience, education, reason, and professionalism to bear on these critical issues. I hope you will consider me a candidate who will not serve just an individual interest, but a larger Society-wide picture for today and tomorrow. Thank you for your vote, and cave softly!

I have been an NSS member for over 15 years and I am currently serving as the Chairman of the Marketing Analysis Committee as well as my current term on the Board. During my time on the Board I have gained a great deal of appreciation for the amount of volunteer work that goes on in this organization. Volunteers are truly the backbone of the NSS. I believe one of our most important issues is not just growing the membership, but making volunteering more attractive to our members.

We must also work harder to make our current volunteers understand our appreciation for them and their value to this organization.

My professional experience includes 25 years in Marketing and Sales with extensive experience in pricing, budgets, forecasts, and customer service. I have strong listening skills and problem solving abilities that can benefit others in my interaction with customers/members on their concerns and needs. I have served as grotto chairmen, treasurer and vice president in the past so I understand the issues with keeping member support.

I feel I can continue to bring a flexible and fresh viewpoint onto the Board and will work with other members to continue to make improvements within the NSS. The NSS is an amazingly complex organization for which I have gained a greater appreciation. I can use my learning experiences over the past few years to help our organization grow in a positive direction.

I also hope to have the opportunity to continue our ongoing efforts to improve membership numbers and to continue with guiding the progress with the new museum and headquarters plans.

National Speleological Society Board of Directors Election 2010

National Speleological Society
Board of Directors
Election
2010