Dear Friends of the UNA SF Bay Area Council of Organizations,
This is going out to the COO Core Collaborators.
It has been a rocky road for me as Chair of the COO Committee at United Nations Association of San Francisco (UNA-SF). My assumption all along was that the COO is a coalition of organizations that support the goals of the UN in the San Francisco Bay Area. The keyword there is “coalition”. I often have described the COO by saying the COO is a project of UNA-SF, but UNA-SF is a member of the COO. This ambiguity, it seems, is not OK with UNA-USA, the parent organization of UNA-SF. The COO must be subordinate to UNA-SF if it is to say it is UNA related. Specifically, the COO must be a Committee of UNA-SF.
I have my doubts. If the COO does not make decisions of its own, but merely goes along with UNA-SF projects, then what is the point from the perspective of the COO members? Whether we call it a coalition or not, the COO has to feel that it has a life of its own if it is going to be worth supporting.
If we have cooperation and trust all the way around, and why not, considering that all of us support the goals of the UN and are stronger together? then I think we can make the COO work. As I see it, there are four structural elements we need to agree on.
1) The COO needs to have its own bank account. Actually we already do have our own bank account as it happens, though to be sure, this is also a UNA-SF account. (We have $230, including profit from UN 69th.)
2) The COO must work on the basis of an annual budget of its own devising but which has been approved by the UNA-SF Board. Expenditures outside of the budget would need to go through the UNA-SF Board, and all transactions would be available for inspection by the UNA-SF Treasurer and open to audit.
3) The Chair of the COO and the Chair of the UNA-SF COO Committee need to be the same person.
4) There should be a Doing Business As name for the COO bank account.
We have the bank account and the COO Chair and UNA-SF COO Committee Chair are the same - ie myself, Roger Eaton. I expect the budget idea will be OK with the COO, though that needs to be checked. The DBA can be kicked down the road for now as can the question of how we replace the COO Chair.
The organizations that have become members of the COO have thereby shown a trust of and desire to cooperate with UNA-SF. This trust and desire to cooperate needs to go both directions, though, and that is where I have been troubled. The UNA-SF Board has shown definite signs that it distrusts the COO. Rather than give up, I plan to take the matter to the UNA-SF Board for a vote at our next meeting the evening of Wednesday, January 14 at the AAACC 3rd floor conference room, 762 Fulton St., San Francisco. Doors open at 6:00 pm. Meeting begins at 6:30. Free parking in the lot next door. I am hoping that in the discussion all matters can be cleared up and UNA-SF will come down in favor of the COO. Meeting ends before 9:00 pm. You are invited. Please come.
Something to note: UNA-SF is expanding its Board. Nominations are open until January 15. You should feel welcome to nominate yourself at this web address: http://2015nc.weebly.com/. Perhaps you might attend the Jan 14th UNA-SF Board meeting and then decide if you want to nominate yourself. The election of new Board Members will take place at the annual UNA-SF members meeting in February. You must be a member of UNA-SF to nominate yourself. You can join at unausa.org/join - be sure to specify San Francisco Chapter.
Thanks so much.
Best and Happy New Year!
Roger Eaton
UNA-SF Communications and COO Chair
rogerweaton@gmail.com
415 933 0153
