Reesetricted
Membership Expired
Having lived in both/either Dallas and Houston for all of my life, and having kept reefs most of my life, I've been a member of both DFWMAS and MARSH. I'm not even sure I should post this... I feel like a gossip but, I also want to prevent such a thing from happening in this club. I assume many of you are members of multiple texas reef/coral Facebook groups(and/or MARSH) and are already aware of the situation but, for the rest, here is a news story that will say a lot more than I can, or should, about a situation that I am completely isolated from:https://www.google.com/amp/amp.fox26houston.com/news/man-who-wanted-to-make-others-aware-of-registered-sex-offender-files-suitI bring this up bc this seems to have both, brought our hobby and club into the spotlight, in a most unfavorable way, and bc it seems to be destroying that club. They are deleting posts, banning members, completely erased the accused(whose handle I'll leave annoymous), and posting a ham-handed defense...only to pull it a while later. While this situation could happen any where, among any group of people, this was handled in a truly awful way... at nearly every turn. This is subjective but, it seems, when the BoD learned of the man's record they could have contacted an attorney(such as the one on the news, who happens to be a member...or ANY other) to see what their liabilities were/are and what steps would be prudent. That seems like common sense. You have put a registered (child) sex offender in proximity to your members/guests children from whom he is legally required to be sequestered. They kicked him off the BoD(without explanation to the members), allowed him to continue to post, and allowed him to continue attending (family oriented) events. The protocol for all that stuff seems more subject to debate. I'm no beacon of moral guidance and try not pass judgment on people for their past transgressions, lest I be judged for mine... but, allowing him to attend event/s that you know (rented a bounce house) will include children seems absolutely daft. Maybe they shouldn't throw him under the bus and publicly humiliate the guy but, measures should have been taken. Again, I feel like a gossip but, I wanted to, at least, bring this to the attention of others in order that, in the event that this happens elsewhere (here?), it can be handled, basically, any way but the way their BoD handled it.
