Many SPJ leaders believe the LDF auction controversy has been overblown and is now blowing over.Sadly, I don't think so. It's starting to resemble a bad cold sore: small but obvious, growing slowly but steadily, and not likely to get better on its own.
If we don't do something, here are my Nostradamus-like predictions, based on what I think and what I hear...
• If this isn't addressed before the convention, it will dominate the small talk and dampen the vibe. Candidates for office will be asked about it. The LDF committee will be distracted in its meeting. Other committees will discuss it in their own meetings. There may be LDF resignations.
• President-elect Kevin Smith will be questioned. If he takes a side, he loses his influence with the other side. If he doesn't take a side, both sides are irked. Neither is a hospitable place to be at the beginning of a presidential term.
• SPJers with axes to grind will see this as their whetstone. Some will boycott the auction. Attendance will be noticeably down.
Some observations (I'm in a bullet sort of mood)...
• This isn't just about the LDF. Apparently, it dates back several presidents. Committees feel disrespected — usually, organizations prize their volunteers by asking for their creativity and helping with the execution. In SPJ, the organization is perceived as setting the creativity and asking the volunteers to execute it. I haven't been around long enough to know if this is true. I only know that some important SPJers believe it is.
• While I still haven't taken a position on the auction, I agree it's too late to change it. But it's not too late to talk about it. We need to let upset SPJers vent. The only way out, as I see it, is for the Executive Committee to admit it made a mistake in the way it handled the switch — and to promise to delegate and communicate better in the future.
• Lest you think I'm blowing this out of proportion, the few people who are most upset by this also happen to be the core of our in-the-trenches SPJers. Without them, we're nothing.
