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Speak Out
Business community might be better off without WGBPA
I feel compelled to voice my own perspective of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association conduct, elections and my reluctance to participate.
As background, my partner and I opened a new business on Lincoln Avenue in early March 2000, and were immediately encouraged to participate in the WGBPA. In fact, I signed on as a board member. I was very involved in the early days of 2000, as the new administration was being "sworn in."
I was not the only new participant; several new businesses on the avenue were becoming involved and there was great energy regarding a "new" WGBPA. Unfortunately, in spite of direct and constructive feedback to the president, the leaders of the WGBPA seemed more interested in focusing energy on what had happened previously than what needed to happen in the present. Board meetings were nonproductive and filled with conflict. Several board members (myself included) were weary of Mr. Waligore's persistence in vilifying the previous president.
It became quite obvious to some of us that this group was not going forward in a positive manner. One by one, new participants and old participants stopped coming to meetings. Some of the executives of the WGBPA showed little in the way of leadership, project management or people skills. Visitors and potential new business members, who came to board meetings, were routinely offended and insulted, with predictable results.
As a business owner I have very limited time to share with my business community. If I come to believe that my participation is a waste of that precious time, I will not continue. On the other hand, if I believed that my participation would benefit my business (now or in the future), I would still be a participant. This is not apathy; this is a business reality.
I am saddened to hear and read that the WGBPA lacks business community support and participation, however, perhaps we should consider the notion that this association is no longer effective and should be disbanded. After all, there is nothing preventing business owners from working together on our own to better the business and community of Lincoln Avenue. A grassroots, informal movement would probably net more constructive forward movement in a shorter amount of time than I have seen over the last 12 months.
The good news is that there is ample leadership talent and energy in the community of business owners on the avenue.
There is a message being sent to the present administration of the WGBPA that should be obvious. The only cure for the so-called apathy that Mr. Waligore laments is a rebirth of the organization, altogether. The tragedy is that Mr. Waligore has left a toxic political mess that even the most fervent WGBPA advocate is not willing to step into. Let the past be buried and mourned, then let the WGBPA come back some day in the future with new leadership, a new charter and only the future to be concerned about.
Cara Finn
Owner, The Grapevine
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
