Avery Jenkins leaves PDGA Board of Directors

[turbosteve]

I saw this announcement posted on the PDGA website.
http://www.pdga.com/announcements/board-member-resignation-0

 

[oddjob]

His future is wide open.

 

[dashiellx]

So, that leaves Kevin McCoy, Rick Rothstein and Shawn Sinclair as the only "players" on the BOD? And while Rothstein is a Hall of Famer and the others are way better than me, it appears the board is now devoid of a "professional" player presence.

 

[smyith]

Curious. I wonder what is up. Shive then Jenkins. Makes me wonder....

 

[dashiellx]

Curious. I wonder what is up. Shive then Jenkins. Makes me wonder....

Don't forget Feldberg left last year.

 

[smyith]

Don't forget Feldberg left last year.

im leaving out lots of other stuff.

 

[The Hammer]

Curious. I wonder what is up. Shive then Jenkins. Makes me wonder....

Too many trees.

 

[BraveThrower43]

:hfive:

Too many trees.

 

[bwgort]

So, that leaves Kevin McCoy, Rick Rothstein and Shawn Sinclair as the only "players" on the BOD? And while Rothstein is a Hall of Famer and the others are way better than me, it appears the board is now devoid of a "professional" player presence.

Kmac is a professional player.

 

[dickparker]

Too many trees.

tehehe

 

[heartman]

Kmac is a professional player.

Saw that too, but assumed he meant "touring all over the country professional"

 

[puttlikeablowfly]

Whoa, I completely missed the news about Shive and Sinclair. I can't find any announcements on the PDGA site that mention Shive's refusal to take his elected seat, and his support of Sinclair. I don't want to rehash any discussion abut why Shive did what he did, but I wish the PDGA had at least posted an announcement of this turn of events, put it in an email, or a PDGA weekly update. They posted the election results, but now simply list Sinclair as a board member and not Shive. Apologies if someone can show me they did post an announcement.

 

[optidiscic]

Avery sure takes a lot of Internet abuse.

That being said I have a bunch of BOD domey AJ destroyers that should be worth something on DDGA

Seriously though having touring players run the pdga is kind of like having inmates running the asylum due to special interests isn't it.

 

[MurderMike41370]

Avery is the homie. He's great for promotion of our sport. I'm not pointing any fingers, but doesn't make you think that the PDGA was maybe holding or limiting him to what he could do? Especially when Avery says " I felt that as a Board Member I could only do so much to give back to the sport but I feel that as Player that I can do so much more to increase the exposure of Disc Golf Worldwide."

 

[jeverett]

Avery is the homie. He's great for promotion of our sport. I'm not pointing any fingers, but doesn't make you think that the PDGA was maybe holding or limiting him to what he could do? Especially when Avery says " I felt that as a Board Member I could only do so much to give back to the sport but I feel that as Player that I can do so much more to increase the exposure of Disc Golf Worldwide."

You didn't talk about Peter Shive at all there, which I think is an important consideration here. Two board members with radically-different philosophies/ideologies, and *neither* of them felt like they could accomplish what they wanted (or anything) while on the board. I feel like this maybe bodes ill for the current organizational structure as a whole. I did think the PDGA survey was timely/on topic, as well.

 

[tbird888]

Whoa, I completely missed the news about Shive and Sinclair. I can't find any announcements on the PDGA site that mention Shive's refusal to take his elected seat, and his support of Sinclair. I don't want to rehash any discussion abut why Shive did what he did, but I wish the PDGA had at least posted an announcement of this turn of events, put it in an email, or a PDGA weekly update. They posted the election results, but now simply list Sinclair as a board member and not Shive. Apologies if someone can show me they did post an announcement.

He posted here

On August 3 I informed Brian Graham and Rebecca Duffy (Board president) that, although elected, I would not take office when the new terms start September 1. I recommended that Shawn Sinclair be appointed to take my place.

The main reason for my action is that Board members have a duty of loyalty that I would not be able to fulfill. After my oh-fer of June and July, documented by several of you who posted snippets of meeting minutes on this thread, I have given up hope of ever being able to accomplish anything significant for the little people from service on the Board. Instead of working optimistically for positive goals, I would likely spend the next term working pessimistically (and unsuccessfully) to obstruct other Board members from enacting programs that they clearly believe in. That is an impossibly negative prospect. It is also dishonest because it is actively disloyal. I need to get out of their way and let them do their thing.

It works both ways. Recent developments suggest to me that there may well be attractive options for the little people outside of the PDGA, and I want to be able to look into them and perhaps even help develop them. The duty of loyalty to the Board prevents me from doing that, and also from being as candid on this message Board as I would like. I now believe that I can be far more effective working outside the Board than from within. Starting September 1, I will be able to do just that. My first project will be to revivify my Divisional Tour Newsgroup, which has suffered from inattention while I tilted at windmills on the Board. I will continue to post here, on a different thread, when I feel like I have something worth saying.

Some people believe that I dislike the PDGA. Not so. The PDGA has done, and will continue to do, many wonderful things. Some of these things have changed my life, big time, in amazing ways. I expect that I will remain a PDGA member because for me the positives still outweigh the negatives. I would even work for the PDGA, so long as the work I was doing was going to improve the lot of the little people. Some Board members claim to have valued my "different perspective" on things. I told Brian and Rebecca that anytime they wanted an antithetical opinion, I would be happy to provide it, but that I don't need to be on the Board to do it.

Some believe that I dislike Open players. Also not so. I have happily contributed thousands of dollars of my own money to their purses, and I wish for them to prosper from their efforts in the game. My only disagreement is where the money for the prospering should come from.

 

[_MTL_]

Avery submitting his resignation is the most active thing he has done on the board in a while.

He missed multiple board meetings this year (check the minutes) and didn't even attend the summit which was at the same time and location as a National Tour Event.

This resignation is long overdue. I like Avery personally and enjoy the conversations I have with him, but his absence each meeting is excusable.

 

[shankinputz]

Avery is the homie. He's great for promotion of our sport. I'm not pointing any fingers, but doesn't make you think that the PDGA was maybe holding or limiting him to what he could do? Especially when Avery says " I felt that as a Board Member I could only do so much to give back to the sport but I feel that as Player that I can do so much more to increase the exposure of Disc Golf Worldwide."

This sounds about right^^

I follow Avery on FB and his heart is DEFINITELY in the right place when it comes to growing the sport at all ends of the earth.

Not to mention ex-bod FeldBeard landed a spot on Duck Dynasty. That means he will showcasing disc golf to more people than all other players/bod members combined to date. Duck Dynasty has 11.8 MILLION viewers folks!

This is for sure the year of the players. I hope he has hooked up with a good agent and I sincerely hope these great player(s) are in turn rewarded for their great work.

 

[JC17393]

You didn't talk about Peter Shive at all there, which I think is an important consideration here. Two board members with radically-different philosophies/ideologies, and *neither* of them felt like they could accomplish what they wanted (or anything) while on the board. I feel like this maybe bodes ill for the current organizational structure as a whole. I did think the PDGA survey was timely/on topic, as well.

Perhaps the key word in your description is radical. From what I've read of Shive's ideas and desires, he could be described as a radical, or at least a radical thinker. His explanation for resigning from the board (twice now he's done this) is basically that he didn't feel he could get his way and didn't want to waste his time pushing ideas that were going to go nowhere. Well, that tends to be the way for radicals. They wouldn't be radicals if there was a significant amount of agreement with their ideas.

Perhaps the same holds true for Avery. Every candidate runs for the Board with an agenda. Sometimes it's their own personal agenda, sometimes it's on behalf of what they feel is their contingent of the voters. I think touring players ran for the Board with the agenda of having influence and input on the tour. This isn't unique to Avery. Feldberg was there for the same reasons (and neither of them were the first touring players to be board members so this isn't exclusive to them).

They appeared to dominate the board for a while, got somethings pushed through to benefit the tour. Seems like perhaps that touring player agenda has either changed or lost support among the other board members. First Feldberg cut bait and ran, now Avery's doing the same.

On one hand, I appreciate that they get out when their heart is not in it anymore, and I admire them for wanting to find a new direction for their energies that will be more beneficial. On the other, they are quitting on the people that voted them in (for whatever reason that people cast their votes). They're taking their proverbial ball and going home. Can't help but see that as at least a little bit lame.

 

[_MTL_]

You can't defend Avery when he doesn't even show up to the summit hosted at the site of a National Tour!

Check the records!