Just wanted to express my appreciation for all the great folks who have volunteered their time in making PBS an excellent society and web presence. Although the email that caused some excitement was unfortunate, the reality is that certain individuals have personality traits destructive to the cooperative environment needed for the PBS board. I’ve been involved with various groups and have experienced the damage a single individual can do. I applaud the board in recognizing and avoiding the problems from an unsuitable candidate. And now, an opinion: Cuba has many issues, but they do value education (literacy rate in 2022 was almost 100% versus 79% for US) and all citizens have access to high quality health care. In light of that, I do appreciate the PBS following Cuba’s example with our strong emphasis on education and a concern for the health of our society and our plants. Cheers and my Dichleostemmas are blooming, -Denis Message: 4 On Sunday, 12 Feb 2023 at 16:42:45 Robert Lauf via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net: Yes, it would be nice to allow members to vote on lots of things, but the PBS governance model appears to be patterned on that of Cuba.? The Board essentially elects its own members from a list of candidates they select via an arbitrary, capricious, and completely opaque process, much like the Politburo.? We were recently (inadvertently) given a glimpse into the inner workings and attitudes at the Mother Ship and it wasn't a pretty picture.? Nor surprisingly, many excellent people have better things to do than try to improve things in the face of resistance, secrecy, and outright abuse.? Is it any wonder that volunteers are hard to find in this environment? It's time to send a few of the Commissars off the the Gulag and start over.? Just my opinion, but feel free to make it your own. Bob? Zone 7 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…