Dear Editor:
TEAM Burnaby, according to Nick Kvenich, (TEAM looking to unite opposition, Burnaby NOW, Dec. 14) needs to clean house. I could not agree more with Nick's sentiments. Mr. Power, as nice a guy as I have known him, certainly does have his work ahead of him.
As former member of the board at the executive management level of three civic groups and also federal and provincial groups, including TEAM at one point, too often personal power plays from those who want to dominate get in the way of the overall scope of things and those who actually can complete tasks.
In a light way, internal bickering and infighting can end a well-meaning car wash event idea at a monthly meeting. At its worst, a few can go off on their own, start a new group and end up splitting the vote, resulting in the opposition winning the seats at city hall or a legislature and, yes, even reaching to the point where months and a year or so of dedicated volunteering is thrown into the dumpster because a few cannot level off their personal agendas in favour of the more important universal goals for the entire group. Or worse. I've seen that, too.
There are many ways to build and develop TEAM into something that people can support and vote for.
It can be done, if it is done with good people being able to do what they do best, and if TEAM can end the internal power dominance and be more accommodating to new ideas and people.
I, like Mr. Kvenich and others, will wait to see what happens in that regard.
In short, if Mr. Power's group wants to be TEAM, act like one, and be one.
Paul Keenleyside, Burnaby
