Before I get into the President’s letter this month I would like to mention a few important events this month.
Annual St Patrick’s Day Banquet!!!!
Our Annual St. Patrick’s Day Banquet is scheduled for Saturday, March 6th at 7:00 pm. We will be swearing in the new officers for the upcoming year as well as awarding the Officers of the Year to Officers Liam Hawkins and Matt Wosney, Humanitarian of the Year to Detective Mary McInness and Man of the Year to Thomas Nee (BPPA president). Cocktail hour starts at 7:00 pm sharp with dinner at 8:00 followed by the swearing in and awards. Live Irish music will be provided by John Coe and a few other talented musicians. A traditional Irish dinner will be served by Dominic the Union Caterer. We look forward to seeing you there. Seating is limited so please call for your tickets right away. Donation is still only $40.00. Call the hall at 617-323-9018.
Comedy Show on March 27th!!!!
On March 27th we will be having the comedy show that had originally been scheduled for February 27th to benefit the Brockton VA hospital. City Councilor John Tobin has offered to run the night for us. Pat Whalen and Danny Adams recently visited the Brockton VA to visit the ward that takes care of the veterans with spinal injuries. When they got there, they spoke to the person in charge of that unit, explaining to him that they wanted to help out the spinal injury ward. In a totally selfless act of kindness, this person asked that they instead do something to help the psychiatric ward which deals with all the returning veterans suffering from issues like Post Traumatic Stress. Apparently there is very little support for them.
I would ask each and every one of us reading this newsletter to make every effort possible to either attend the comedy show or spread the word. There absolutely is no worthier cause than helping our soldiers in times of need. We owe our freedom to all our veterans and we should never turn our backs on them. Let’s make it a point to support this fundraiser any way that we can.
President’s Letter
I would like to take a minute to thank all those who quietly supported the Society during what proved to be an often volatile year. Specifically I would like to thank John Casey and Pat Whelan who unfortunately will not be returning to the E-Board this year. Both of these gentlemen came with incredible past experiences, John as a former bartender and a commercial real estate specialist and Pat as a self employed small business owner and a past union representative for the railroads. Rarely, that I know of, have we had people of their experiences bringing such great insight and ideas to the board. The two of you will be greatly missed. Thank you once again to John and Pat for their service over the past year.
Another person that I have to make mention of is Jack Sheridan. Jack is a person who has quietly been a very active member of the Society and the board for a long, long time. There were a number of meetings where different ideas were brought forward and Jack, without missing a beat, calmly and clearly explained with incredible preciseness the reasons we did not want to do what was being suggested. Jack’s experiences in the insurance industry, as well as a former police officer, have guided the Society well for many years. He quietly sits back and listens, formulates his own thoughts and his own opinions and speaks when he has something of substance to add. There have been times when I have been in total disagreement with Jack and other times when we have agreed, but his decision making process is always so well thought out that he quickly brings me over to his side.
This year I have the unfortunate task of presenting you with a letter of resignation from our incoming President-elect Joe Sullivan. Joe’s letter will clearly explain his reasons. Many of his reasons are the same reasons why I will be taking a back seat from this time forward.
I took over the office of President last year with a lot of hope and anticipation for the year that was ahead of me. I started the first E-board meeting of the year by giving everyone on the board a copy of the by-laws. I also asked everyone present what they were hoping to see the Society achieve in the 2009 – 2010 year. We heard a lot of great things and I think most of us eagerly anticipated the year ahead.
We had just finished the new bathrooms, the new HVAC system and the new electrical system in October of 2008. All that combined with the new bar we had built in March of 2008, gave the Society’s 10 Birch Street hall a great new look. We were able to complete all these renovations with about two thirds of the cost being paid for out of pocket and the rest was covered by a line of credit from the Roslindale Cooperative Bank. Given the way that commercial lending has gone, we are very lucky to have this line of credit.
As the year progressed, we realized, and brought to light, that the bar was not living up to its potential in a number of ways. Please keep in mind that the proceeds that the bar generates are pretty much what keep the building going. We had a number of meetings with the auditing committee in which we included the bar manager (Bob Welby) to specifically address what needed to be tightened up. As most of you know Welby is a retired police officer who was shot one New Year’s morning and retired as a result.
After about nine months of seeking an accounting from the bar operations, we called a meeting of the entire E-board and the Auditing Committee which was announced in the January newsletter. There were fifteen people at this meeting, thirteen members of the E-board (including three past presidents) and two members of the Auditing Committee.
That meeting went for almost three and a half hours during which time the performance of the bar operations were discussed. Because of the importance of ensuring the income stream from our largest source of revenue, it was decided that a professional bar manager would be in the best interests of our society to have. By a clear and convincing majority, the EBoard voted to hire a professional bar manager and at the same time retain Doc Welby in recognition of his contribution generally. While Doc was offered the opportunity to remain in place as the manager while a professional bar manager was interviewed and hired, a process we are doing now, it was decided collectively that the president and an E-Board member assume this role on an interim basis.
None of this was done with an eye towards diminishing the sacrifice that one of our members paid while serving and maintaining the long and honorable traditions of the Boston Police Department. Our role however in carrying out the business functions of our Society in order to perpetuate and preserve its existence call for and in fact demand the principal source of revenue at our hall be overseen and run by a professional trained and experienced in this task. While our earlier experiences running the bar may have allowed for a bit more informality than what we have today, the reporting and accounting requirements that exist today require us to approach this in a more businesslike and professional manner.
This has been a difficult and at times, uncomfortable process. Not all of us are happy about this, but we are all committed to ensuring that the traditions we have honored and our collective desire to continue as a fraternal organization do not get derailed in personality differences. I urge all of us to take the long view here. Our meetings are open and each of us should feel free to express their views, but we must act decisively to protect our financial ability to stay afloat in these challenging times.
In past newsletters, I indicated that the membership would receive a full explanation and have tried to do so, both informally and formally. This has lead to what I consider a less than fair response by some who have sought to use other mediums to attack decisions made collectively by our executive board in the discharge of their duties. This is unfortunate and regrettable as it serves only to demean our society and reduce us in the eyes of our peers, other departments and the public at large. Maintaining our professionalism in this climate has been candidly, a real challenge. While some have mistaken my direct approach, none have had any difficulty understanding the message I bring. I chose not to engage in personalities then, and I do not do so now.
When this controversy passes, and it will, there will be other issues to deal with and we need to realize that it is the collective strength of the membership that will sustain us in the decades to come. Singling people out who disagree with the direction we choose to take is counterproductive and while it may be deserved, in the long run it will serve only to foster ill will our society can neither afford or want.
The alternative of course is to engage in a series of “he said, she said” which in the end, will reduce us to ridicule and derision by our peers and the public generally. I decline to do that. My goal for the last three years has been to improve and strengthen the Society. A little history may be instructive. In 2006, at the urging of Sean McCarthy, I ran for and was elected to the E-Board. Danny Adams and I both became active worked hard to bring the Society forward. We brought a fresh set of ideas and energy but during our monthly meetings, it became clear that records for the bar were lacking. Some of us may remember an earlier board meeting where we learned we didn’t have enough money to pay for the upcoming liquor license so we brainstormed to come up with an idea to make enough money in two weeks to pay for the liquor license and the insurance for the year. It was that collective effort that accomplished not only raising enough money to renew the fee, but to also cover the insurance costs as well. There was no way it would have happened without all the help of so many members.
In each meeting we talked about trying to make more money off the bar but in order to improve it we needed to know what we were doing right and wrong. Times had changed over the previous ten years and the Society had not changed with them. I will absolutely say that I had no idea of how much work went into running the building, but I quickly found out. After a few months of overseeing things I had a great appreciation for the previous bar manager and his crew.
When I became President for the 2007 – 2008 year, we oversaw another event for the Society that again took care of the major expenses for the upcoming year, and two months later the board worked to see the construction of a beautiful mahogany bar that now is in our function hall. My brother (name) donated the mahogany and we completed the bar, painting, some plastering and some electrical work in under two weeks and we opened for our banquet with the new look.
When Danny Adams (my vice-President and most ardent supporter) took over as President and I served as his vice-President. Danny continued with our work begun in 2006-2007 E-board and then as President and vice-president. In the course of 2008 – 2009 we once again ran numerous successful events and increased our financial stability. We also oversaw renovations of the bathrooms which included adding a men’s room, a lady’s room and a unisex handicapped bathroom, a new heating and air conditioning system and upgraded the electrical system.
In December of 2008, the society once again had a successful event to cover all the major expenses for the upcoming year (third year in a row). I became President again, this time with Joe Sullivan in the vice-President’s position. Unfortunately in December of 2008 our liquor license was not filed in time so in January of 2009 we had no liquor license and thus we had to apply for a one on an expedited basis. While this was an oversight that pointed out the need for a professional bar manager, the mistake was a costly one and made it clear that we needed to address the issue once and for all.
In spite of this error, we continued to debate the issue of bringing in a professional bar manager, and in the face of assurances of increased accountability, we deferred the issue once more. As the year progressed we continued to see problems but deferred the matter to the Auditing Committee put in place to oversee the expenses and operation of the bar Unfortunately the documentation we needed to assess the success of the bar operation continued to be elusive and in our January E-board meeting, the board reached the conclusion that the time had come to act decisively and hire a professional bar manager.
Unfortunately, as with all decisions that generate controversy, a small group within our ranks chose to react badly with negative attacks that in the end only serve to reflect badly on the Emerald Society of the Boston Police Department. I find this regrettable in the face of the obvious need we confronted to shore up and stabilize our most important revenue generating activity. I won’t pretend to say I enjoy being the subject of anonymous attacks lodged on the internet, but more fundamentally, we are being criticized for putting the interests of the society before the select interests of the few. While I chose to remain above that type of behavior, in the end it serves no good end to engage in this type of conduct. It saddens me that people who profess to care so much about the Society could let their personal dislike of what we have had to do cloud their judgment.
People who chose to hide behind the anonymity of the internet and spew untrue statements add nothing to the society and in the end can serve as a dangerous destabilizing influence for those who would mistakenly take what is said by them seriously. I stand ready, willing and able to inform each and every member that seeks a fuller explanation of what occurred but please know that we are acting in the best interests of the society as a whole as opposed to those interests of a few. I hope you read this and conclude what we have done and understand why we did it.
I finish my term as President on March 6th and I have sought to serve all of you to the best of my ability. While I am troubled by the negative behavior of some, for the vast majority of the society, it has been a pleasure and honor to serve you. I am very proud of this Society and the work that was accomplished during my term. I thank my fellow officers and the EBoard for their support and encouragement, for the faith you have put in me these last four years and believe that the Society is now a better place for all of you and the generations to come.
Slainte,
Frank McLaughlin
President, ESBPD
A letter from Past President and current vice-President Joe Sullivan
Members,
It is after much thought that I have made the very difficult decision to resign as the President – Elect for 2010. A lot has gone on in the last few weeks within the Emerald Society, and many people have had a lot to say in forums such as Facebook and E-Mails. I have chosen to address you the members in our only sanctioned Forum – Our Monthly Newsletter.
The Board of Directors made a very difficult decision when we voted 9-3 to remove our bar manager Doc Welby from his position. The decision was only difficult because of who “Doc” is as a person, a friend and a colleague. The other side of this argument is the fact that from a “Business” standpoint, the decision was a very easy one. The bar was being mis-managed, and we were not turning a profit where we needed to turn a profit. We are very fortunate as a Society to own a building – we are even luckier that there is a bar inside of that building to help defray the day to day costs associated with the building.
My decision to resign is based on a number of reasons. First, and foremost I cannot and will not stand by as our President and most active member Frank McLaughlin is slandered by our own. There isn’t one person reading this newsletter that can’t say we are a better organization because of Frank’s leadership, hard work and dedication. However, members of our society and members of our board have gone outside of our membership to disgrace Frank and to spread rumors and innuendo in an attempt to discredit Frank and his attempts to professionalize the Emerald Society. This divisive rhetoric is childish and completely uncalled for.
Since the renovation of the Emerald Society there have been numerous functions at our hall and people have spoken quite highly of the hall and the improvements. However, within the last few weeks since the 9-3 decision by our board to replace the bar manager I have heard nothing but negative things being said about the Emerald Society. Most are outright lies and I have been forced to defend the board against rumors such as the fact that “We” want the bar to be open 7 days and function as a full time bar. This is completely false, and the members of the board know that this is false. However, this along with many other lies were spread on social networking sites such as Facebook, which has a very far reaching network. I have never heard the Emerald Society being portrayed in such a negative light.
I have been approached on numerous occasions since the first posting on Facebook by people who are not members of our society who want to share their uneducated opinion of baseless lies that they have been fed through the internet. I have also been approached by members who have not cast a shadow in our hall for a meeting in years who were also fed a one sided argument based on lies. I am completely disgusted by these individuals who share their opinion with me before asking for the other side of the story. It is hurtful, it is disgraceful and it is a discredit to those men who fought so hard 30+ years ago to create an organization that we could be proud of.
I will continue to be a member of the Emerald Society, however, I refuse to be the head of a governing body whose members would resort to such a smear campaign based upon lies and bring forward an agenda of dividing the membership instead of uniting our membership…
God Bless: Joe Sullivan
A letter from Past President and E-Board Member Dan Adams
Unity of the membership and advancement of the Society is the goal of this letter. First and foremost, the decision of moving in the direction of new bar management was not hastily made. I personally have spent the past six months and beyond on this subject. The facts surrounding the final decision do not need to be exploited. However, I will accept any genuine conversation on the matter by any member at (617) 780-6535.
I would like to thank “Doc” for his service and let it be known that the fault does not rest solely on the shoulders of “Doc”. “Doc” tried to the best of his ability, but he just is not a bar manager, promoter or businessman. “Doc” is a Cop’s Cop retired or not. When we worked together in B-3 he heroically distinguished himself in my eyes on more than one occasion. “Doc” and I have spoken. We are now at a peaceful disagreement and will remain friends forever. My decision is based on the advancement of the Society.
The Executive Board has spent an abundance of time on bar-related issues for the past five years and beyond. The bar must be handled by a professional for many reasons. The alleviation of time on Society matters is just one of those reasons. The renovations to the hall are, in my opinion, of great importance.
“Pride in Our Heritage’ is the motto of the Society. One of the ways to show this pride is in our appearance. The hall can speak volumes for the membership to visiting officers and to others who cross the threshold for the first time. Having an impressive venue in which we can share memorable moments with our families and friends is an attainable treasure. The improvements do not happen without revenue. The thought of the bar being idle without any good reason is moronic.
The argument over the Society and the bar is not as complicated as church and state. The Society will always be an organization that supports Boston Police Officers and all those in the law enforcement profession. The hall should be thought of as an extension of the Society. It is our home to find comfort in or to showcase and take pride in. The bar on the other hand, is solely a tool of the Society. I do agree that the idea of having a retired Boston Police on the license is ideal. However, we must think of the bar as a business that serves us, the membership. I have given of myself and taken time away from my family and other obligations, as many others on the E-Board. My benefit has been the advancement of the Society which, I took an oath for. I feel it is wrong to ask others to put so much into the Society and not ensure that we are maximizing their efforts. The Society controls the bar and liquor license. No one person can take the license out of the hall or claim it as their own.
I hope we can all put this separation and turmoil behind us. The Society is meant to bring people together and unite them. Those who have read my newsletters from last year will recall I referred to the Society as family and I still continue to think that way. I would never turn my back on family and certainly wouldn’t now just because the times are a little tough. The future of the Society is as good as we make it. I encourage the whole membership to be involved in extending their “Pride in Our Heritage”.
