Oops. I made a boo-boo. I’m not going to blame anyone else. I’m not going to try to get away with it. Nor am I going to put others to the trouble of having to work up the nerve to tell me.
Where I come from. The way I was raised. The manner in which I roll. You stand up. You own up. That may be old-fashioned. But hey. This is the weekend of The Great Gatsby. And I’m wearing my straw boater.
I have stood for the WSM Board of Directors four times before. I’m pretty certain that each time close of nominations was at the end of August. A month for printing election material. Then voting in October. And count at the beginning of November.
I assumed nominations were opening much earlier this year in line with the WSM Board’s stated intent to do all it could to encourage multiple candidatures so as to avoid another year of uncontested elections.
But stupidly, it didn’t occur to me to check when nominations closed. And for some reason this year they close much earlier also. At the end of June.
The rules are quite clear. And I helped draft them, back in 2008. You have to have been an owner for one continuous year before close of nominations to be eligible. And I became a worker-owner again in August of last year. So, I ain’t eligible to stand for the WSM Board in 2013.
No-one’s fault but mine that I did not read about the earlier nomination period before jumping around all over the place like an excited ferret in heat. And no-one else should be put to the bother of having to declare my ineligibility. It was my boo-boo. No-one else’s.
So. With all the dignity I could muster, I gently eased myself out of the Throne of Co-operative Passion last evening, swung the Righteous Stole of Facial Egg around my neck, and wrote to the WSM Elections Committee, informing them of my ding-dong, and apologizing for putting them to any inconvenience.
Now, I know, I know. You are all bitterly disappointed. I can hear the gnashing and the wailing from here. But please, please. Show a little restraint. Get up off the floor, and wipe away those tears. Turn that frown upside down. Let yourselves down gently.
The fact is I stand by my reasons for wanting to become a worker-owner again. I stand by my desire to want to run for the WSM Board at this crucial time. And I hope that there are others out there who will want to stand, to help return WSM to being the authentic co-operative we all richly deserve and desire it to be.
As for me. Well. I’m still trying to get the Righteous Stole of Facial Egg out of my hair …
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