A recent glossy mailer and proxy ballot for board members of Fairchild Garden was changed at the last minute to provide for an annual meeting of more than 35,000 members with Garden management racing the clock to manoever around an incipient rebellion. A first batch of expensive mailings did not include notice of the meeting. A second, did, calling for 8 AM on March 22nd. At such an inauspicious time on traffic clogged Old Cutler Road, the number of members who will be available to attend-- or challenge trustees-- will be few enough to fit in a teacup. That's the plan. Meanwhile, most of the 35,000 plus members of the Garden have no news at all about the turmoil triggered by mismanagement at the Garden, lead by Garden president for life, Bruce Greer. Repercussions continue from Greer's firing of the Garden's education director, Caroline Lewis. This week Alexandra Forrester, who replaced Lewis to lead the Fairchild Challenge, resigned. The Garden entrepreneurial educational program is out of momentum, with staff infighting, schools re-evaluating whether or not to continue participating, and rumor of board members also resigning.
Not a hint of this controversy appears in the Garden's recent mailing featuring the standard photo of Marjory Stoneman Douglas in her rocking chair for an imprimatur to the Garden she would not have lent, had she been alive. (My own view, as conservation chair of the organization founded by Douglas, Friends of the Everglades, and a longtime Fairchild member is that Ms. Douglas would not have abided the recent turmoil at the Garden. For one, she would have been thrilled at the attention the Fairchild Challenge shone on the Everglades and furious how trustees pulled the rug out from under the educational program.)
A group of members, long-time and honored volunteers (I am among those) had tried to promote their own slate of directors but were refused access to membership mailing list by trustees, refused the right to call a special meeting by trustees, and stopped from offering an amendment to institute term limits for trustees, now controlled by a small executive committee. Instead, the Garden board ran an end-around with a new rule providing that any amendments to Garden rules must be approved by a supermajority.
In December, Garden president Greer reached around human resources and fired the educational director, Caroline Lewis triggering public protests outside the Garden walls and a banner plane circling over the Garden trying to send a message to its insulated board. Ms. Forester, who had been recruited to train under Lewis, was only months later put in charge of a department without any constructive instruction to the crisis by management.
Judging from this result, the question remains: why did the Garden trustees want to weed out an environmental education program that had succeeded in elevating and energizing tens of thousands of students and teachers? (I doubt any but a small fraction of trustees ever bothered to understand what its entrepreneurial spirit by Ms. Lewis and innovations were about.) Trustees, oblivious to the goings-on instead reacted with paranoia and outlandish allegations to the incipient rebellion they caused.
It is possible that issues of fairness and equity at the heart of the Fairchild educational program caused unease with big money donors of the Garden. For instance, the large pledge by an agricultural grower in South Dade to build a new science center at the Garden would not necessarily run concurrent with energetic debate by students about the merits of phosphorous pollution in the Everglades and Florida Bay caused by agriculture. Build a building, limit it to the study of plant behavior, and tame students will fit there.
The Fairchild Challenge has done its sad fade in just a few months from a program about to break on the national stage as a model for environmental education in the United States, to a model how environmental education that frees young minds to imagine a better world will always find strangler weeds in Miami. This is shocking. For more than two decades working on environmental issues in Florida, it has been clear to me that education of young students is the best hope to connect urban populations with the imperatives for future change. The more that trustees of the Garden try to parse the trouble they caused as just a few disgruntled members and volunteers, the more damage they do. That is one reason the public and members of the Garden are still waiting for news how far the Garden has fallen.
24 comments:
This is a travesty! I wonder if the folks with an interest in expanding the Urban Development Boundry have had their hands in this mess. Why hasn't this been on the front page of The Miami Herald?
Now is the time for all honorable Board members to resign and go public about the vile maneuvers of Bruce Greer and the other Board officers.
If Bruce is still holding court, frequently conducting business outside by the Garden's cafe, then members should ask him, loudly, about why they are being prevented from having a voice in the organization that their dollars are supporting. Anyone who is not renewing their annual membership should let the membership department and the board members know exactly why.
If enough board members are publicly embarrassed, perhaps they will do something about this godawful mess.
Where did all the Greer trolls go?
As one who spent a career dealing with board members in non-profits, let me say that Mr. Greer is completely beyond his authority here. I can't even begin to understand why the director of the organization tolerated Greer making a staffing decision. This is clearly the responsibility of the Director (who hires and fires staff). The board hires and fires the Director. The general membership should demand Greer's ouster as soon as possible by threatening to withhold all financial support until he is gone.
Is the Herald reluctant to write more about this terribly unfair situtation because the Garden is a constant advertiser? It seems such a mess. I did not receive the card about the meeting in my mailing...What dirty tricks.. Has the board done due diligence in notifying members of the meeting? I guess we have another by-law that Bruce will have to change....The board members should be ashamed of themselves...Fairchild is a PUBLIC GARDEN!!!SHAME ON THEM!!!
I have a hard time believing that this is anything beyond an egotistical, power hungry, wounded federal judge candidate, flexing his muscle to stay in control of an enterprise that he wants total control of. With an inept English major in place as COO, a puppet with no administrative experience as Director, and a board that seems very clued out on what's really going on, Mr. Greer has created a scenario where he is free to do whatever the heck he wants. Kick them all out and give the garden back to the members!!
Bruce Greer is a sh*thead of epic proportions. The whole freakin' Garden makes me sick.
Although it would be terribly unfair to the plants, someone should consider salting the earth. At least Greer would then have nothing left upon which to continue building his wealth and power.
But he'd probably just pave over the dirt, erect a roller coaster, set up an arepa stand, and order his mouthpiece, Carl Lewis, to proclaim Fairchild "the preeminent dirt park of the nation."
I doubt Greer could tell the difference between a cycad cone and a pineapple, if his life depended on it.
With no director of horticulture, no curators of the special plant collections and very few researchers left on staff, Greer is left to write the Herald articles on Sunday, or does he??
Concise and well researched article on the state of Fairchild Tropical Garden.
Hopefully the Members will either withold
voting for all canditates or write in the names of those Membes of the Board, who are now candidates, who have served more than one consecutive term of 9 years.
Board membership needs to be changed on a regular basis to keep an organiztion refreshed with new mind, not given as a prize for heavy giving. FTG is a not-for-profit corporaion oganization. The latest
action(s) of THe Board of Diretors puts
The Gardens 501C3 charitable designation in serious dager of being revoked.
I visited Fairchild two weeks ago with a visitor from out of town. It was beautiful.
If Caroline Lewis hadn't made some racist comments to staff, she would still be there today. She has only herself to blame.
Madeline --
Cool story, sis.
Yo Madeline,
wake up this isn't about Lewis. This is about BRU-Nette, little Carl and the fools on the board who have followed the leader...Let see, Garden lawyers Arrango and Stearns have a wife and daughter on the board, Banker and board member Tria is getting the garden's endowment account, and board member and ex-director Mike Maunder is still receiving an annual consulting fee from the garden. What is wrong with this picture??
What a shame that Fairchild management can not be the bigger person in this debacle. For them to change the rules to fit their needs and revoke members rights in the midst of proposed bylaws changes is not something one would expect from an organization like Fairchild. They are not playing fair, thats dirty pool. If I remember correctly the annual meeting was always a weekend event when the working folks could attend and enjoy a day at the garden. It's obvious they are trying to exclude as many as possible by doing what they have called for. Another sad day in paradise!
It is bad enough that Carl allowed himself to be Bruce's puppet in removing Caroline Lewis, but Bruce's plan doesn't stop there. Carl is completely disengaged from staff and programs that he is supposed to support and direct. Carl hides and does not answer his phone, return emails or attend weekly meetings. There have not been any updates as to hiring the Associate Director position that was posted the day Caroline Lewis left. His message is basically "sink or swim". The potentially explosive situation (which never was) that Bruce and Carl stood behind when they fired Caroline Lewis doesn't hold a candle to the destructive, demoralizing and hostile work environment they have created. Most believe this is EXACTLY what they want.
I have just read your blog and I am outraged at this behavior. As a member I think I deserve the right to hear both sides of the proposals. My concern is the majority of members will have no idea whats going on and will most likely not even bother to read or return their ballots. The board has set this up to be a win win for them no matter what. Who ever heard of an unreturned ballot counting as a "yes" or "for" vote. I'm taking Monday off just to go and tell the board how unfair and self serving they have become.
and who do you think is going to count the votes that are cast either by proxy or in person???????????? what part of this could ever be called "fair?"
The APGA, American Public Garden Association, defines a public garden as, "not only a tonic for individuals; they are positive forces in the community, engaging in civic activities that include city beautification programs, historic preservation, arts, educational programs, lectures, flower shows, and a wide assortment of other social, recreational, and cultural activities. They are more than just pretty places to visit, public gardens are heavily involved in significant scientific research and innovation (e.g., introducing new plants to the nursery and home gardening trade through breeding, collection, and selection programs. Public gardens go beyond their garden gates to promote global environmental and conservation issues." With that being said why is Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden dismanteling the biggest environmental movement it has ever seen in it's history? The Fairchild Challenge program brought fame and fortune to the garden at an unprecedented level never seen before. Why have they not replaced the curator for the largest living palm collection in the world? Why have they not replaced the Director of Horticulture, Director of Research, Director of Education, Director of Development. The bigger question, why have all these people left?
BRUCE,BRUCE,BRUCE,BRUCE,BRUCE,BRUCEBRUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just heard a trustee and his wife had to be driven home from the last Board gathering at the garden after having to many "spirits". That however did not save these two from harming themselves or others. Injuries were sustained upon exiting their chauffeured ride and 911 was called to cart both away to the hospital for an emergency room visit. Is this the type of persons the board unanimously re-elects to continue to serve the gardens best interest? Is this a club of social elitist partying at a public gardens expenses? I think it's time for Bruce Greer and his buddies to find another venue of less civic importance to have a glass of the grape and allow people with a genuine interest in botanical gardens to take the reins.
I now hear there is another curveball coming on Monday at the members meeting. Apparently the nominees for the board from the term limits folks will be on the ballot distributed to those at the meeting. If you already sent in a proxy you can rescind it and use the new ballot distributed at the meeting. Of course, no one knows about this as the term limits folks were told that all nominees had to have a super majority approval from the sitting board. What is going on here? Is this true???
So sorry to see that it is business as usual in Miami. Grandaddy, Col. Montgomery, Simpson and Corbin must be rolling in their graves to mention a few of the early members of the Garden
David Fairchild Muller
How can that board look members in the eye with a straight face? They are really being dishonest. All this seems so disruptive for such a tranquil garden. Something tells me lawyers are involved. Who else would play such dirty pool?
Granted the garden has the best lawyers money,influence, and family connections can buy but, make no mistake about it, it is all directed by BRUCE GREER.
Monday Mar. 22, 2010 is the day members can make a difference and change the direction of the garden. You must "VOTE: to be heard and the 4 new nominees for the board are going to be on the ballots. While they are not on the proxies as this was intentional by current board members you can still vote in person at the garden for the new nominees. This is your chance to be heard and effect change. See you there!
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