By Mark Hutchenreuther
Credit card warnings, newly elected local officers, and players on the bench
I have some bad news. Two of us were victims of credit card fraud at the San Diego RG. One of the hotel desk employees gave a friend our American Express card numbers, which the friend used to make long distance phone calls. AMEX is handling it, and has credited my card, which was hit for about $100. Another member was hit for almost $300. If you were at the RG, check your card bill very carefully and call the hotel manager if there are any suspicious charges on it; they are investigating.
I want to emphasize two things. First of all, the blame lies with the hotel and their staff; there is nothing the RG Committee could have done about this and it could have happened to us anywhere. Second, this goes to show that no matter how careful you are with your credit card, you can still be the victim of fraud. Be vigilant!
In recent local elections we have some new officers. Over in Phoenix, Carol Young takes over the job of LocSec from Kent Van Cleave. Stephenie Crowley is continuing as Editor. In San Diego, Jack Turner takes the reins from Leslie Tutelman as President, with Fred Longworth continuing as Editor. Tucson and Channel Islands reelected their LocSecs and Editors to another term. Thanks go out to Jeff Shenk and Paul Madarasz in Tucson, and "Mel" Melancon and Mark Hutchenreuther in Channel Islands for their continuing volunteerism, as well as to Stephenie and Fred, and all our other officers.
Richard Wylie, Editor in Harbor Area Mensa, recently underwent successful surgery for his hip. While Richard was out, Diana Altman stepped in and edited Hamlet. She also recently stepped in as a replacement Hospitality chair at the HAM RG, which makes her a multi-talented -pinch-hitter and an asset to the HAM "bench."
In each of our groups, we have a Vice LocSec or Vice President who can step in and take over when the leader is unable to perform his or her duties. However, the duties of a leader pale in comparison to the duties of the Editor. I don’t believe any of our groups has an Assistant Editor, and far too many have a very burned-out former Editor. HAM is very fortunate in this regard, and an example for the rest of us. I hope we never need a quick replacement Editor, however, if we do, who might that be?
The ultimate solution was brought up at the Region 8 LOTS I attended. One of our first duties in office should be to start training our replacement. Too often we fail to do this, and find ourselves scrambling to find someone to take over at the last minute. We need to develop a bench, with a set of reserve players who can step in when needed and be ready to perform the job.
That is what we need to do, but that is not what we do. Even I am guilty of failing to find and train a replacement. I will set an example by starting to look for my replacement(s) now. You need to do this too.
I hope to see you at the Inland Empire RG, MEnsavania 6-5000 on October 24-26 in Ontario. It’ll be fun!