THE IMPORTANCE OF A TEAM

Kudos to Susan Bucher for an excellent job moderating at the forum yesterday. Most of the people I know felt that Dave Israel won hands down over Phyllis Richland, who showed a surprising  lack of understanding of matters such as Wi-Fi and seemed defensive and angry when asked about her previous resignations and absences during UCO working hours.

Unfortunately Dave didn't have enough time to say all he wanted to say in his opening statement in the allotted time. I am glad he has put the full statement on the blog.

What struck me the most in his statement was his emphasis on the necessity of a TEAM. Dave is a visionary. One of his areas of expertise is computer-related matters, which in this day and age affect us all. Both Phyllis at the forum and Gary Olman on his blog have acknowledged the wide array of Dave's accomplishments.

As Dave says in his statement, however, running UCO is not a one-man job. Anybody running a big business, as Grace M points out in her comment, knows this (or should). You need a team. You can't have dissenters running around all over the place actually TRYING to upset every applecart you have put in place. You can—and should—have people surrounding you whom you will listen to and who are not all "yes men." But that is wholly different from having those who are dead set against you on your team, actually wanting to sabotage your efforts.

This is why I am urging Village delegates to not only vote for Dave Israel in the March 4 election, but to also vote in Ed Black and Joy Vestal as vice presidents and to vote in John Hess and Bobbi Levin for the two secretarial positions. UCO needs all five officers in place in order to function harmoniously, get things done, and serve the Village effectively. WE will be the losers should these folk not get in.

Ed Black is NOT the ogre, by the way, he has been portrayed by some to be. I think it is fair to say that like many of us he has mellowed over the years, and that's a good thing. Neither is he the puppeteer pulling Dave's puppet strings, as the mals would have you believe. But he HAS been an indispensable member of the team, often the "go to" man and the one to drop everything and fix a problem—at the security guard house, at the Reporter office, you name it.

Joy Vestal is amazing. I don't know myself how she can hold down two jobs and do them effectively, but she does. She is a winner. I sure enjoy working for her and Myron Silverman at the Reporter.

Thankfully, Dom Guarnagia will automatically be elected to the Executive Board. Can you believe that Dom, who has done so much for the Village, was actually criticized along with Toni Salometo by the mals for being too quiet?

I don't know how many of you know Bobbi Levin, but I know her. She's on the Reporter staff. She's bright, she has no axes to grind, she does copy-editing, and she is a very good writer. She is a natural for the job of Corresponding Secretary. I hope you vote her in.

Finally, John Hess. John cracks me up. He said at the forum he has done a "fair" job as Recording Secretary. I love such understatement. It will win me over every time. I chided him about this remark in the parking lot after the forum. We laughed, and he said, "Well, I suppose I COULD have said I take copious notes…." Please vote John in. We need his kind in UCO.

I hope you will vote in Dave's whole team in the election.