Thursday, January 28, 2010
Getting A Quorum
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:21 PM
This year, I've decided to turn some of my focus to MATA and public transportation. (You may have noticed.)
For the last few months, I've been going to their meetings and I *assumed* the MATA board had five members.
Because that is how many board members I've seen at the meetings.
But I recently ran across some information on the city's boards and it turns out MATA has a nine-member board.
According to that information, MATA has three vacancies on its board, along with members Karl Birkholz, M.P. Carter, Fred Johnson, Dale McClendon, Cliffie Pugh, and John Vergos.
One of those board members I've never seen. Two of them have terms that expired two years ago. Two of them have been on the board for more than 15 years.
Maybe no one wants to be on the MATA board, but if someone out there does, there seem to be plenty of openings. And I would daresay they need the people.
Right now, they barely have enough board members to get a quorum. Compare that to Memphis City Beautiful, which has a 35 member board and two vacancies.
UPDATE: I just talked to the vice chair of Memphis City Beautiful and apparently, they have seven vacancies instead of two. He said they were looking for more good people, so if you're interested in that board, they are interested in you.
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I heard there are some nice perks and trips being a MATA Board Member.
35 on Memphis City Beautiful. That's almost as many kids who graduated from Manassas High School last year.
35 people? What exactly do they do? I seems to me that their time would be better served out picking up litter.
I'd love to be on the MATA board, but since I am not a reverend, minister, or relative of some politician I don't think I'm qualified for an appointment.
Someone who actually uses MATA should be on that board.
JN,
That pretty much eliminates everyone.
I'd like to see the Flyer pursue this. Find out how many more boards or commissions are running "under capacity" so to speak, and what effect that's having.
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