DDF Meet
Dear Editor: A drama, debate and forensics competition is really an old-fashioned idea in which a variety of people get together and communicate. Thanks Sitka for all of you who helped make the MEHS Invitational DDF Tournament on Oct. 2 and 3 a rousingly successful communication.
First, a big thank you goes to our workshop presenters Zeke Blackwell, Annabel Lund and Ira Snelling. Your lively, inspiring and creative workshops had coaches and students, alike, praising them throughout the tournament. Calvin Drake and Phil Horton, the debate workshop was most helpful.
Thank you to the students, staff and administration of MEHS. Your encouragement and support was a big part of our success. Mr. Goldsbury and Mr. Gurule, we appreciate your continued support of our DDF program. Thanks to Shirley Perkins, Paula Clayton and others who staff and supply our hospitality room. A special thank you goes out to Sitka Bottling for supplying the bottled water for our hospitality room.
Thank you to the students and parents of the Sitka High DDF team. We appreciate your willingness to help house students. We also appreciate the tech support provided by the SHS DDF coaches.
Finally, the coaches and members of the MEHS DDF team thank every community member who took time away from their weekend to judge at our meet. You make us happy to be a part of the Sitka community.
Marcy Drake, Kristin Scotchmer,
MEHS DDF Coaches
Hospital Board
Dear Editor: I think the city Assembly is getting close to appointing a new Hospital Board. I hope so. We’ve been over a month without any Hospital Board, even though a board is required by our city charter.
Unfortunately, the Assembly is setting up the new board to have the same problems as the old board. You can change the people on the board, but if you fail to address the core problems of the way the city, board and CEO work together, the problems will remain.
During the past few days I’ve been asked by city officials and employees of the hospital if I am reapplying for the board I was just dismissed from. Both Matt Hunter (the sponsor of the ordinance to remove the board) and Mark Gorman have asked me to reapply. Though I’m flattered by their encouraging words, it doesn’t make up for the total disrespect the city showed to the board members. Apparently the city officials do not understand the chain of command or the problems that have lead to the financial challenges at the hospital.
Here’s a breakdown of how our system is supposed to work: the Assembly appoints a board, the board hires and supervises a CEO, the CEO manages the operations of the hospital. The board is responsible for the fiscal well being of the hospital but not responsible for the operations of the hospital. That’s tricky since the fiscal well-being is dependent on sound operations.
During the last several years past CEOs have tried to shut out the board. There were problems that the former CEOs didn’t want to address. They didn’t inform the board of problems. And when board members asked, they were told the board cannot get involved in hospital operations. I remember asking a former CEO why the number of patient visits were going up and up yet the revenue had gone down. I was basically told to butt out. These problems are costing the hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars each year and have for several years. There was a total disconnect from what is going on at the hospital and what the board is told or allowed to question. Prior leadership of the board fell in line with the CEO’s contention that he didn’t have to answer to the board.
In hindsight I should have been more assertive, gone to the city, raised the red flag. But with patient confidentially issues and employment confidentially issues, I was not comfortable going to anyone but the leadership of the board. That was my mistake. And I apologize to the citizens of Sitka for letting these problems continue and erode away at the financial stability of our jewel of a hospital. These problems are not related to patient care but are business operations issues.
The various underlying problems at the hospital can all be traced to the disconnect between the board and the former CEOs. It’s not that the problems were created by this disconnect. But the solutions to the problems were unreachable with a CEO and board working against each other instead of with each other.
We have a new CEO who is trying to work through these problems and was working well with the board. Then Matt Hunter on behalf of the city decided to step in and solve all our problems by dismissing the board and building a new one. To accomplish this, the city jumped the chain of command, bypassing the board and asking the CEO what type of board he wants. The CEO is an employee of the board. He should not be taking a lead role in deciding how the city will design his supervising board. Apparently the city doesn’t understand their own chain of command. During these discussions with Rob Allen, Matt Hunter and Mark Gorman, they decided on a better makeup for the board. But somehow the business operations problem that is costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars was not addressed.
The city’s actions have set up for a new board under the advisement of the CEO. This gives the impression that the city thinks the CEO is in charge of the board, not the other way around. So the city has now perpetuated the root of the financial problems at SCH.
I know several of the applicants for the new board. I think they can be a dynamic and successful force. I hope the city can give them the tools they need to be effective. At the very least, I hope the city has learned some lessons about respecting citizen volunteers and upholding the chain of command. I feel bad that the new board will probably be all new. So they won’t know the history of the business operational issues. They will have to learn to walk the tight rope of responsibility for the fiscal position of the hospital without having control over operations. And they will have to develop confidence in their role of supervisor of the CEO regardless of the impression the city promotes that the CEO is in charge.
Sitka has a great community hospital. We can all be proud of it and have confidence in the care provided to us. It is an asset of Sitka well worth the support of the city. I wish the hospital and the new board the best of luck.
Ann Wilkinson, Sitka
Climbing Wall
Dear Editor: Pink Floyd describes a “Wall” in, of, by, and for which we – each, every, and all of U.S. – are all (in time and thus invariably and inevitably) in all, (just another) brick.
This is a different kind of wall.
Unlike Pink’s, which assumes all manner of questionable assertions, THIS is a wall that assumes and asserts nothing beyond that you, a (not even “the”) climber, are indeed subject to nothing more and nothing less than the facts and realities mandated by: first, the laws of gravity; and second, by the laws of physiological muscular fatigue and failure; and, third, by the realities of psychological paralysis under, relatively speaking, varying degrees of perceived lesser or greater, but – hanging there by your fingertips as your toes drift randomly, helplessly, and aimlessly off into seemingly infinite space – in actual fact, rather quite extreme stress.
Other than that, you’re on your own. So … penultimately, when you climb, or boulder, or traverse ... it’s just you and the wall (and, as applicable, your belayer or spotter). But, ultimately, it’s just you.
And then, it’s really just about how well you have come to learn how to not merely to just hold on to, but to dance – to actually, really, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and indeed almost spiritually (to say nothing of figuratively, and literally) dance – with it. With The Wall. Because it’s usually (if not almost always) precisely then, that … that when you stop dancing, for whatever seemingly currently pressing reason, that that’s when you fall off it.
But the wall is still there. Waiting. for you. For when you come back. And for when you are ready to dance. And to then climb back on.
The Hames Center rock climbing wall is presently open on Thursday, from 6-8 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Stay tuned for perhaps increasingly possible possibly imminent further openings. And please join us. For further information, call 747-5080, and ask for Paul.
J. Moebus, Sitka
