The following is an open letter to the Issaquah Valley Seniors Board of Directors:
As longtime members and still current users of the Issaquah Valley Senior Center, we ask you to carefully reconsider your current position and recent actions taken on behalf of the senior center and its membership and assets.
As directors of the Issaquah Valley Seniors organization, you are charged with taking actions that benefit the organization, especially in view of the organization’s objectives quoted from the Dec. 8, 2015 IVS bylaws:
• To promote and operate programs and facilities that will improve the environment and welfare of the senior citizens within the service community (i.e. Issaquah School District).
• To receive and administer funds for the purpose of improving the environment and welfare of the senior citizens with the service community.
• To serve as the official organization in matters related to senior citizens within the service community.
• To gain recognition by private, city, state and federal agencies as the representative spokesman for the elderly in the service community.
We understand you may have some issues with the city of Issaquah, but please tell us how your position and actions taken and being considered — to divest the organization of all its remaining assets — fulfills any of the above objectives or will otherwise benefit the organization before you relinquish the facility to the city on Dec. 30. As board members, you have a fiduciary responsibility to the organization and its members that you are failing, and that is a significant concern of the current center membership, us personally, and we think the community at large.
Your responsibility as board members requires you to represent a membership that is much larger than just the city of Issaquah, rather than your individual or collective feelings toward a presumed or actual slight against the board. Please don’t fail that responsibility and cause further damage to the IVS membership by continuing on your current path.
We are committed to the above stated objectives and want to help the organization obtain them, and we ask you to join us in that endeavor. What questions do you have?
Rowan and Barbara Hinds
Issaquah
