As a Game Manufacturer’s Association Special Membership meeting scheduled for next Monday approaches, key players are voicing their opinions on the decision not to renew Executive Director John Ward’s contract (see "GAMA Board Calls Membership Meeting").

Two new aspects of the board’s decision, described as a "narrow" on the Executive Director have come to light since the decision was made.  We’ve received clarification from an organization spokesperson that the vote was taken with the core board of directors; the three emeritus directors were not invited to vote on this issue.

Second, board member Jeff Tidball (see link to his post below) clarified in his essay on the decision the rationale for not disclosing the vote tally or the votes of individual board members.  "The decisions made by the body are the decisions of the entire body, and so it would be inappropriate to publish a list reciting the votes of each member," he explained, describing the issue as being the subject of "very recent dialogue."  The origin of the policy had a specific impetus.  "The question arose in the first place when a previous board decision led to a board member’s business being threatened," he wrote.

We are publishing three guest columns containing the dialogue between key GAMA players on this issue:

An essay by board member Jeff Tidball explaining why he thinks GAMA needs a new Executive Director (see "Jeff Tidball of the GAMA Board of Directors:  It Is Wise for GAMA to Seek a New Executive Director")
A response from GAMA Executive Director John Ward (see "GAMA Executive Director John Ward Responds")
Comments from GAMA board member Brian Dalrymple (see "GAMA Board Member Brian Dalrymple on the GAMA Executive Director Situation")

The Executive Director decision is only one of the issues currently causing turmoil around the trade association.  Tuesday the organization announced that it was censuring President Stephan Brissaud for an incident at Gen Con (see "GAMA Board of Directors Censures Organization President").  And former Deputy Director Angela Ward (John Ward’s wife) has retained counsel in connection with her termination in July (see "Former GAMA Deputy Director Has Retained Counsel").