Eyes on SAA has blogged extensively about the delegate selection process for SAA Constituency Meeting-Shows (CM-S). We contend that the process has been outrightly rigged in past years "coincidentally" resulting in a neat array of dozens of married couples being named as official CM-S delegates. In addition, we have received credible reports of people that received the delegate votes of their fellow church members, yet were cancelled by the Spencerville Church - in disregard of governing documents - in a manner that could only be called arbitrary and capricious. We also have observed a pattern of individuals who speak out in a manner challenging or unflattering to SAA in any given year, who somehow disappear from the list of delegates in the next year. Reminiscent of the dirty tricks used in the Old South, or in Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall of 19th century New York City, such schemes disenfranchise tithe-paying members in good standing by suppressing their votes.
We know from sources and from subsequent written explanations in writing by Spencerville Church, that the attention brought to this flawed process has resulted in a higher level of regularity. The "before vs. after" evidence stares you right in the face when you just look at the roster of CM-S delegates from 2021 that looked just like a marriage retreat sign-up; then compare how drastically it changed in 2022 and 2023 with the disappearance of the couples-phenomenon. Eyes On SAA wishes to remind all of you faithful Spencerville Church members that despite your years or even decades in the pew and paying tithes and thinking you are part of a democratic process of constituent oversight - your "votes" are not really votes at all. They are mere "nominations" subject to the approval of a church board operating in secret to apply a capricious filter to your nominations with the veto power to nullify your ballot. It has happened before, and can happen again. So there still is an invisible, secret component in transforming a "nomination" into a "vote". It's akin to the secretive ballots of the Catholic Cardinals in a papal enclave, whose deliberations culminate in the white smoke emanating from the copper chimney of the Sistine Chapel causing all those closely watching to cry out: "Habemus Papam!" Or in this case, "Habemus........delegati?"
For the full background, read our 3 posts on point:
1. Constituency Meeting or Couples Retreat? (2021)
2. RIGGED - again (2022)
3. You've Come a Long Way, Baby. (2023)
So this evening your delegati are the ex-officio members of the SAA Formerly-Secret School Board Society...
Plus those others whose names emerged from the Spencerville Enclave...
And in addition to those 100+ names, we also add SAA staff members, and that rounds out the official delegati.
So there you have it. No doubt that there many solid, smart folks are on this list. And we won't hold the flawed delegati process against them. Heck, a sizable chunk of them won't even bother to show up. Let's just hope that those that do will ask the tough questions of SAA, and not settle for the canned and evasive answers too often heard from Principal Bowerman as she presides over her final CM-S tonight - her swan song. So let the singing begin!
-Lillian Hepburn-Richmond
(A Cohort of Concerned Parents)
Shining Light. Breaking Silence. Holding Accountable.
We’ve got Eyes On SAA.
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