In general, if the media decides to put any credence in the individual's
accusations (who is, after all, a private individual since he is no longer
on your board), they will contact you for a response.  It may be clear to
all that this person has an axe to grind, in which case they won't believe
anything he says anyway.  Mean-spirited remarks tend to go unnoticed,
whereas plausible rumors are the things you need to watch out for.

We had a similar situation here, where a change of leadership resulted in
some very bad comments from former employees.  It made a semi-public splash,
with an appropriately measured response from the institution, and because
nobody overreacted it blew over fairly quickly with no long-term damage to
the institution in question.

So, don't ignore it:  prepare a response in case someone should come to you,
but don't go out of your way to "respond" to a situation that may not
actually exist beyond a small inner circle.

Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Aaron Marcavitch
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2001 2:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Sticky Situation with non-board member


Ok, I have one for you all to help me with.

One of my many organizations I work with (mostly as ex-officio) has a
situation brewing.  One of
their former board members is sort of on a rampage trying to get attention
(as they see it).  I
dont know if he has good points or not, but he not coming to the board with
his problems, but is
using a media outlet he has unlimited access to.

I can provide more detail, but in general do you think we should just ignore
him or should we
acknowledge his concerns in some manner.  (I will say that most of his
comments are mean spirited,
especially against the executive director.)

Thanks for your time,
Aaron

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