A member of the Club submitted a complaint against one of the members of the BoD's. So there are a few issues that are called into question here.
1. Shouldn't the officer in question be removed from duty until the investigation is completed?
2. The VP is part of the membership committee and supposed to help members submit complaints. When this member approached the VP with this complaint, she was very clear that the way she understood it that the way she was harassed met all the classic legal definitions for sexual harassments and that she wanted to put in a complaint. She made this request in front of another member. Instead of helping the member fill out a form and move forward to stop this behavior from happening in the future; the VP turned around and made false statements to the BoD's stating that the member was making threats to sue. She was even corrected by the other member that was present at the time that the original request was made, she was told she was incorrect that that no such statement about suing was made. Shortly after this incident the member was once again sexually harassed by the Board Member, no complaint was filled out by the VP. One week later this member filled one out with the Officer - Member Liason. Is this Neglect of Duty by the VP?
3. During the last Membership meeting the member came to the meeting to hear about an update. While at the meeting she was grilled about the complaint by the Treasurer, asking if there was money offered in exchange (yes, The officer said member would never have to work again). This seemed highly inappropriate to ask openly during a meeting. The President said he would like to be part of the investigation. HERE is the biggest and most important question. When I chaired this board, I never participated in any membership boards because the President is supposed to be seen as impartial. I had taken complaints, but then handed them off to others. When the President made this request, the member turned and said 'And how many times did YOU ASK ME OUT?'. The answer was 5! Should this President be considered unbiased and allowed to sit on the membership committee to hear the complaint by this member? The whole thing seemed like further harassment of the this member - Completely out of line.
The front door to this meeting was locked, so that only members that had keys could attend if not right on time.
I requested copies of the agenda and was told too bad, we only made 2 extras. I was basically told too bad and the VP barked at me while I was made to share copies with her.
As a member I was told by the Treasurer I could not speak on the same subject, at the same time as previous members. When I stopped to wait for the Chair to rule on this, he was too busy reading other material and not paying attention to the meeting.
The President allowed voting via email even though it is not in the bylaws. So they had a Secretary that is now not really a Secretary (?).
This club is one for supporting people in Recovery, it is vital to the community.
It should not be allowed to be run anyhow they see fit.
Thanks for any help you can provide!