911's Gang of Four
All hell broke loose when the board of 911 Media Arts Center fired the organization's executive director Fidelma McGinn last week.
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Here is another one for the books: On Monday morning, when the staff of 911 Media Arts Center arrived at work--for what promised to be a tense, contentious day anyway--they found that someone had poured glue into the door locks and plastered the storefront windows with posters depicting the remaining four members of 911's board (Marea Angela Castaneda, Paul A. Tobin, Holly Taylor, and Joy Cordell) as China's Gang of Four. "Self-appointed for life," the poster said. Locksmiths were called.
This is the latest and most vivid example of trench warfare at a local nonprofit--a war that has been quietly raging behind the scenes since at least last August. The arts organization's staff, led by Executive Director Fidelma McGinn, has kept it under wraps in order not to interfere with 911's programming, which, last fall, included hosting the NAMAC (National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture) conference as well as other ongoing programs and 911's core concern as a new media resource center.
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But this past Friday, the board fired McGinn, giving her a few hours to clear out her desk and leave the office. The board then installed themselves in the office. It came to light that 911's bylaws had quietly been changed, after a consultation with lawyers, to exclude the membership--removing membership, and any voice the membership might have, as a prerequisite for the organization's existence. It seemed this board of four people had changed the rules to consolidate their power and seize total control of 911. Then came the posters, the glue, and the shouting.
What happened?
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According to McGinn, the unrest began early last year, when she began to feel she was doing too many different things for 911. In addition to being 911's executive director, she was heavily involved in NAMAC (including serving as that organization's board president) and its upcoming conference, and pre-planning for a possible move to a new space. She presented, as a result, a number of options to the board--then eight people--for her future role at 911, among them the option of firing her as executive director and hiring her in some other capacity, probably fundraising and organizing for a potential future move from their old space to the Toshiro Kaplan Building in Pioneer Square.
What this translated to was a board vote, in August, to accept McGinn's resignation, which came as a surprise to her since she hadn't offered it. Board members began to resign; some stayed in hopes of representing reasonable views. Two board members appeared in her office to work on a "transition plan" for her resignation. "I told them they'd have to fire me," McGinn remembers. "They wouldn't. They had no grounds."
This sort of back-and-forth continued--with one mediator, with another. In one meeting, McGinn said, "They proceeded to assassinate my character. It was unsubstantiated, and personal. They called me a bully, a blackmailer, and a liar. They told me I created a toxic work environment, and that my staff had complained."
McGinn continued to ask the board for actual directives. Finally, they told her they couldn't accomplish anything with her in the way, and gave examples: the website, which they wanted designed by an outside design house and she had overruled and done pro bono. Raising the membership fee from $5 without asking them. Her request for a pay raise (which the organization could not afford).
This went on until mid-January, when the board canceled a meeting with the staff, and then met in private anyway. McGinn lost her patience. She handed in her resignation, and offered to stay through mid-March to oversee the transition. Her letter went unacknowledged until last Friday, when she was told to clear out her desk.
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There is some sound reasoning behind a nonprofit's board/director structure, and it has to do with a balance between long-term vision and everyday management. The perennial problem, however, is that it creates a rift between the people who hold the power and the people who are in touch with the actual operation of the organization. A carefully budgeted organization, for example, probably shouldn't be thinking about hiring full-price out-of-house design firms, as 911's board wanted to do.
But these conflicts happen. What is less easy to understand is why a board of directors would target a popular and effective executive director. Since McGinn was hired in 1997, she has taken the organization out of debt, doubled the staff, and initiated, fundraised for, and raised the profile of 911's successful programs, such as Reel Grrls, the New Works Laboratory, and artist residencies.
And there's a growing truth in Seattle that when some organizations sink under the weight of such rifts--think of the Center on Contemporary Art--they have a lot of trouble resurfacing with any kind of credibility. For some people, On the Boards still bears the taint of a similar struggle four years ago, when Mark Murphy, their very popular artistic director, was fired. Public pressure was brought to bear; Murphy came back, and ultimately left for greener pastures. Still, not everyone thinks that On the Boards ever fully recovered from Murphy's initial firing. 911's work--its programs, its resources, its prodigious network--is thriving now, but can it survive firing McGinn?
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The board's claim that McGinn was somehow standing in the way of their objectives rings false when you look at how well the organization was running. Often when a board removes an executive director, it's because the board members' vision for the organization encompasses something that the director doesn't believe in, but no one has heard 911's board propose anything new; rather, they seem to be insisting that nothing is going to change.
The board declined to comment on McGinn's version of events, offering instead, through spokesperson Cordell, a rather anodyne statement suggesting the parting was mutual, rife with the kind of vague language that cloaks rather than clarifies: "Fidelma came to 911 with goals and challenges. She's admirably succeeded with many of them; she's been planning to transition to new challenges for over a year. We appreciate her many accomplishments; we wish her the very best at future endeavors." (When I pressed her, Cordell would only add, "We've discussed it, and this is really what we want to say.")
Former board members who have tried to come to the organization's aid say they are alarmed by the senselessness of the current board's actions. For former board member Terry Simpson, the fact that people kept deserting the board told him everything. "Those four people scared everyone away," Simpson believes. "The other board members couldn't stand the vendetta, the way it was going. A board of four people is less than a quorum for any other board I know of--they're using [the] very narrowest legal definition of the power they have to impact a lot of people." Simpson circulated a list of three demands--including one that the remaining board make clear any conflicts of interest. Heather Dew Oaksen, another former board member, asked the board to table McGinn's resignation until the board could be repopulated and a more demo- cratic structure put in place.
The organization's supporters, including former board members and advisory council and staff, have organized a public meeting this Thursday, February 6, at 7:30 at 911's office (117 Yale Avenue North); if for some reason they are not allowed to use this space, the meeting will be held at Consolidated Works (500 Boren Avenue North). So far, 911's board doesn't seem interested in what the rest of the arts community thinks--odd for an organization whose very credibility rests on its good track record in the community.
These supporters hope the meeting will mobilize support for McGinn, or at least clear the air so that 911 can move forward. "I'm concerned that what's going on with the current board is affecting our members," Simpson said. "To me that's the real issue."
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