Toronto YMCA Mismanagement

[via fax]

Dear Mr. Orr,

I write you as one of a group of 70 Toronto YMCA members who have signed a petition requesting an end to years of mismanagement at the Y. Thirty-eight of us have also signed an objection to ethical breaches on the part of Y management.

The Y’s nominal objectives are laudable, and you are to be congratulated for supporting them. In donating $25,000 last fall, you were quoted as saying:

The YMCA is an appropriate charity for Shaklee to support. Shaklee is committed to the health and wellness of young people, just as the YMCA is dedicated to building strong families and communities.

Sadly, the Y’s actual dedication has been thrown into question by its persistent rejections over the years of petitions asking them to stop wasting resources. Since it is your money that is being squandered, I believe the Y’s mismanagement directly concerns you.

Y management has shown itself remarkably unresponsive to its members. Since you are a financial contributor, I am hoping you would be more effective than we have been in reminding Y management what its mission is supposed to be about.

Details of the problems (as well as this Open Letter) can be seen at www.urielw.com/ymca/, but here is a brief summary of some of our issues:

• Our petition was submitted March 22 to Lesley Davidson, General Manager of the Metro-Central YMCA. A two-week response was promised. After 6 weeks, the petition was rejected.

• This was only the most recent rejection. Three petitions from members concerning the same issue have been rejected since 1997.

• Ms. Davidson has refused to justify the rejections. Most petitioners are in regular touch via an email list. Ms. Davidson’s refusal to explain her position is evident in an exchange of public emails to the list, reproduced at the above website.

• The deliberations leading to the recent rejection took place in closed-door meetings. Our request for input and participation was rebuffed.

• No one in management has acknowledged or shown any interest in the allegation, signed by 38 Y participants, that a particular manager has persistently lied to members in order to defend unjustifiable policies. To the best of our knowledge, the allegation has not been looked into.

• Toronto Y President Richard Bailey has taken the position that it is not within his powers to review complaints of serious mismanagement and ethical breaches, and has declined even to discuss our concerns -- even though our complaints involve the performance of his own subordinates.

• Mr. Bailey instead insists that the matter is out of his hands and must be dealt with by committee. But the regulation he cites does not mandate such a procedure.

• Even before the committee ever convened, it became clear that we could not expect a fair hearing. Mr. Bailey’s appointed committee chair flatly refused to permit the organizer of the 1997 petition (which addressed the identical issue) to attend the committee meeting.

Mr. Orr, I hope you will agree that the management style described above is seriously inappropriate for a charitable institution such as the Y.

Since we seem to have exhausted every avenue in our efforts to resolve this directly with Y management, I am turning to you for help. What I ask is that you put your influence with the Y to good use by expressing to Mr. Bailey that mismanagement and waste are objectionable; that you expect management decisions to be explained to members; and that you expect the Y to take seriously its “Commitment to Service,” and to deal with its members honestly and in good faith.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at the phone number or email address shown below.

Yours sincerely,

Uriel Wittenberg
uw@urielw.com
[Phone #]