Lonehill: Do Not Be Afraid To Question FEARLESSLY

After having had a great Christmas break on the KZN North Coast with family and friends, and having taken the time to review every post written on this forum by self (and having reread every link contained therein) , I so want to wish those directors and others on the LRA who take themselves overly seriously just to 'Be Happy' in 2009 and to get over their personal egos and their seemingly misplaced beliefs that the LRA must be protected from any form of critique or criticism at all costs.

I repeat my preface in Lonehill: Who's Fooling WHO..? (please read it in full) - 'Please note that my comments in this email/post are not aimed at those who truly make things work and happen in Lonehill. I will never criticise those who honestly strive for excellence in delivery of our vision.'

After much contemplation during this break I am absolutely convinced that it is the personal egos of some of those in 'leadership' positions on the LRA who are not willing to apply the most basic of inclusive community leadership principles that holds our LRA back from being the powerhouse it can possibly be for all resident stakeholders.

It is not as if they cannot do it, anyone can do it if they really want to, but in my opinion more to do with a Child-like (as in Adult, Parent, Child - Transactional Analysis) instinct that prevails in a school-yard playground - 'I'm in charge of the ball and I'll pick who can play in the game'. The Parent would say, 'If you can't play nicely together I'll take one or some of you out of the game' - typical of the autocrat. Whereas the Adult would look to ensure that everyone, who wants to, gets to play and enjoy themselves.

So, I guess what I am calling for is a commitment to Adult Leadership on the LRA... and I fully expect the Child and/or Parent in some to lash out in massive assumption and misinterpretation before reading this Adult Leadership link.

For those whose egos can't stand the introspection, I gift you with a great piece of prose that I discovered many years ago and which soothes my tender ego whenever ruffled by the criticism of others:

ANYWAY
sourced from - Readers Digest Dec. 1982

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred.

Love them any way.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest people with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for some underdogs anyway.

What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

-------------------------------

The copy below was written in draft on 18th December, but not posted until after Christmas so as not to give some the heartache that they will extract from it:

Last year I was able to write - Lonehill: Grateful Thanks & A Simple Christmas Wish - 'Christmas is the time for giving thanks... and I want everyone of the LRA volunteers - especially those involved in the various Security portfolios and weekly meetings - to know that I offer my sincere thanks to them for getting the LRA process back to where it was with a reasonable semblance of management order.'

This year, as much as I'd like to give thanks to someone for making great things happen in our community I'm afraid that, in my opinion, it seems that we've gone backwards once again. And, what's the point of encouraging such retrograde steps with false compliments that some would like to hear.

In fact, reading this post - Here's OUR Challenge & Why WE Must Speak UP - written November 24 2006, where I wrote - 'My Point: Our challenge will be to proactively stem the influx of opportunistic criminal elements into our midst and thereby to protect our families peace-of-mind and security.' - it seems that we have slipped back to those times. What a sad waste of time, money and effort.

For me, and from my direct experience with some of these 'leaders', 2008 proved to be a sad, sad year for any prospect of great leadership taking root in our community.

I am of the opinion that our security initiative was allowed to slip into slumber mode, leaving us with primarily a reaction service as opposed to a proactive service, and as a result we probably had one of our worst years of security incidents on record since the launch of this initiative.

I cannot see anything of much added significance having been achieved this year by our LRA - apart from perhaps a focus on keeping the community neat and clean (aaaahhh, for that I can give thanks).

From the time we were attacked in our home - Lonehill: Attacked - 3 Gunmen Storm OUR Home! - to events leading up to and after my post - Lonehill: Who's Fooling WHO..? - the saddest revelation to me has been how our LRA 'leadership' have reacted in almost direct opposite contrast to the sage advice offered on the many, many leadership and community development links referred to on this forum.

To me, our current 'leadership' sucks in that they have no idea of how to respond positively to the challenges of community leadership innovation posed on this forum or to this writer, nor do they have any idea of how to include those in the community who do not conform to their views (regardless of whatever the commentators openly declared vested interests or otherwise)... and they react predictably with open indignation as being hard-done-by, unfairly-slated, community volunteers who 'are doing their best'.

They clearly get little to zero respect from this writer for not having the leadership maturity to rise above their predictable reactions to criticism from their public/s.

As example, it took over 70 days - Lonehill: 70 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA - to get something of an attempt at answers to some simple questions posed of the LRA - see 2 comments or extracts below - which questions seem not to have been appreciated at all by the LRA respondent. Now that should raise every thinking person's attennae.

I can predict, right now, their very reaction to the above introduction... and it won't be to compliment this writer for offering an honest and frank opinion that they will address positively... ;-)

So, despite what I expect to have heaped on self, here's my warning to our community... do not abrogate your responsibility to ask simple questions of those in positions of leadership and trust.

It is no slight on you or them.

And, if they think it is, and they demonstrate clearly that they don't like the responsibility that comes with leadership of answering questions related to their actions or otherwise - start asking MORE questions!

Here are some interesting links that relate to the importance of individuals asking questions of those in positions of trust, and high-risk characterisitics to look out for, in any organisation:

1. The importance of questioning fearlessly and answering honestly - extract1: 'Those in the position to answer them seem to regard questions as accusations, if not inquisitions. Questions make them feel threatened. Or humiliated. Or both. That psyche makes them paranoid. They become totally defensive. They try as best they can to get away with saying nothing. Alternatively, they become totally vicious and vindictive. If they have a nimble tongue, they fight back with facetious cynicism..'.

And, extract2: 'The supreme question-dodger is somebody who ignores the question and chooses to answer an unasked question of his own making. That way, any damn fool can, unquestionably, always answer a question. But that brings us no nearer to the truth under any circumstances.'

2. TheInfluenceofOne.pdf - 'The independence, freedom and transforming power of even a single citizen should not be underestimated. There have simply been too many that have prevailed against improbable odds.'

3. Developing Ethical Leadership - extract: 'Principles, values, cultures, and individual differences often conflict. Ethical leadership requires an attitude of humility rather than righteousness: a commitment to one’s own principles, and at the same time, openness to learning and to having conversations with others who may have a different way of seeing the world.'

4. David Alexander - '..it's important to look at character traits of managers. Those managers who are aggressive, have big egos and can't admit to being wrong are high-risk candidates.'

5. Bernie Madoff - $50 Billion Alleged Scam - ‘No one has ever dared question what I’m doing.’

Never, never, NEVER... be afraid to ask simple questions and get straight answers... so let's see how our LRA fare for you.

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This extract from 2 comments - LRA response in blue below:

i. What are the biggest challenges facing our initiative in the coming year?

1.1. The prevention of crime and especially violent crime in Lonehill and environs on the basis of zero tolerance.

1.2. To continually and innovatively raise the performance levels of the security service provider and its personnel and that of the Association.

1.3.To ensure the continued improvement of the environment in Lonehill and its environs.

1.4. To remedy complacency and apathy in the greater Lonehill community towards the above aims and objectives and to promote community involvement and spirit in achieving such objectives.

1.5.To promote such community participation in an atmosphere of encouragement and support and to confront and eradicate the type of destructive input from one or two malcontents that continues to have the effect, intended or otherwise, of dissuading participation by many of the incredible giftings and talents latent in our community when they view the contemptuous and disparaging manner that Association members and staff are subjected to when serving their community.

1.6. Increase Association funding by raising membership and corporate sponsorship.

1.7. Improving the efficacy of SAPS, Metro and other government depatrment interface.

ii. What plans are in place to resolve those challenges and what innovations will we see?

2.1. The roll our of a comprehensive security enhancement programme, aspects of which are in the process of finalisation but components of which are already in action and have been publicised.

2.2. A new marketing initiative is in the process of implementation and the Association website updated and to be imminently re launched.

iii. Who is accountable for deliverables on these resolutions (what are their KPI's)?

3. The Association and its board and the management of the security service provider are responsible for deliverables and Key Performance Indicators for external assessment include crime statistics, the financial status and performance of the Association, the extent of community participation in Association events such as Carols by Candlelight, Fundays etc etc and the standard of the environment in the Lonehill and environs.

iv. What finances are required for the coming year and future... and where will it be sourced from?

4. The Financial Statements of the Association include forecasts of future expenditure and financial needs, track budget and actual income and expenditure and are subject to annual audit and monthly mamagement review by a Finance sub committee and regular community scrutiny at public feedback meetings.Future financial needs shall be sourced from present and future projected Association members and corporate sponsors and donors.

v. What are the critical numbers we should be watching to assess future success of the project?

5. The critical numbers and success indicators are set out in 3. above.

vi. What is being done to reduce the burden of current contributors?

6. A new marketing programme to attract additional members has been embarked upon and negotiations with service providers and corporate sponsors for limiting cost escalations and sponsorships are ongoing.

vii. Why do we only have +- 300 voting members on the LRA from +- 6000 householders?

7. One can only speculate as to why there are the number of voters as at present but it should be noted that when this Board commenced its tenure, there were only 8 members and now there are over 300.

viii. Are there any expected major budget allocations (in excess of R50 000 in total) that may be paid to individuals in the coming year and for what?

8. There are several sizeable budget allocations anticipated by the Association but excluding budgeted and regular salaries and remuneration, none of these allocations are to be paid to paid to individuals, but to service providers and equipment providers primarliy for improvements to the security of the community and environment.

ix. Should a new budget allocation limit be imposed on the Board requiring referral back to Members for approval?

9. At present, the practice of the Association is to disclose expenduitre of all sizes to the residents at regular feedback meetings generally before such expenditure is incurred save for urgent items and repairs. It follows however that disclosures can only be made once negotiations with service and/or equipment suppliers have been finalised so that accurate figures may be quoted. The Associations Board is authorised to carry on its business and that includes such activities as expenditure.

x. What added-value does each paid individual on the LRA add to our initiative (e.g if paid +- R250K, did individual add another +-R250K and more to the initiative)?

10. The value add by individuals to the Association, wherther paid or otherwise, is subjective and open to interpretation. Suffice to say that at present, the Association and its Board are satisfied that the limited personnel operating on behalf of the Association are performing a Herculean task in challenging circumstances but continually strive for higher standards and the implementation of technology to assist where appropriate.

xi. How can stakeholders benefit from and use the LRA community centre facilities which they have funded?

11. Concerning the community centre, if there are any suggestions for its use, please feel free to submit these."

It is not the Associations intention to get caught up in endless questioning of its affairs and will in future be focussing the energy applied on trying to answer your questions and elicit your co operation and support to more worthwhile endeavours such as the security of the community the Association was created to serve.

LRA

Tue Dec 09, 06:34:00 AM 2008

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I will leave you to assess the above answers for yourself, and make my comment on them in January's post.

In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

Lonehill: Man Assaulted At Lonehill Roadblock - 'Nobody In Control'

Lonehill: Man Assaulted At Lonehill Roadblock - 'Nobody In Control' - click link for article

YOU can now comment on the above post on www.lonehill.ning.com - sign in (complimentary) and interact.

An informed community is one that communicates openly.

Take a look at and participate in the discussion links already posted on www.lonehill.ning.com (see below) or add your own:

Can ANY Criminal Intent Really Be Justified?

Victims Against Crime - The SCOURGE of "Complacency and Reasonableness"

Information and Intelligence Gathering - Criminal Activities

What Would YOU Like To See Discussed/Offered On This Forum


Please accept this invite to participate in a complimentary NEW Social Network Platform for the Greater Lonehill community.

Go to www.lonehill.ning.com and Sign Up.

Here's what you can do on this Lonehill Social Network Forum:

1. Stimulate Discussion Topics... make your comments known

2. Develop a local Security Alert facility

3. Create Individual Street/Complex Groups - invite your neighbours to participate - form Buddy-Buddy security networks to look after each other in your neighbourhood

4. Post Photos/Videos

5. Form local Interest/Service Groups - Bridge Clubs, Jogging, Camera Club, Security Observers, Counselors, Babysitters, Handymen, et al

6. Contribute Blog Posts

This is YOUR community.... make it work as YOU want it to work. All ideas and input welcome.

Go to www.lonehill.ning.com and Sign Up.

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

Lonehill: Oh, For A BARACK On Our LRA Board..!

It's no secret that I am not at all enamoured with our LRA 'leadership' - see Lonehill: Who's Fooling WHO..? - and nothing has transpired since that article to change my view.

I find it frightening and extremely unhealthy that one cannot ask questions and/or get answers of the LRA Board - see Lonehill: 70 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA

In my opinion, our LRA 'leadership' lacks authenticity for the reason advocated in this article: Authenticity Starts With Transparency - extract: 'Leadership is about influence. Influence is about buy-in. Buy-in comes through trust. Trust is born in transparency. Transparency is a reflection of authenticity... lack of transparency opens WIDE the door of misunderstanding... there is nothing that builds trust more, than letting people inside and being... TRANSPARENT.'

I noticed this recent announcement in the world media - Obama announces his national security team - 'Obama: I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that's how the best decisions are made. '

Now THAT's Leadership!

Is Barack Obama going to make mistakes? Of course!

But, here's what I believe he recognises that our LRA 'leaders' don't - see Do you want to make better-quality decisions? - extracts: 'Many leaders, managers, supervisors, and employees have become conflict-averse. They shy away from conflict, feel uncomfortable about “going against the grain”, rocking the boat, or being perceived as a “trouble-maker,” not being a “team player.” If you’re not experiencing constructive conflict in your workplace, you’re most likely not making high-quality decisions; nor are you encouraging your colleagues to be committed to implementing the decisions you are making.'

A thought just struck me that it might be an interesting postulate to research that: 'weak leadership begets that which it fears most'.

Googled it and found these extracts:

1. 'Secrecy begets suspicion, suspicion begets fear and fear can beget conflict rather than cooperation.'

2. “Like begets like, honesty begets honesty; trust, trust, and so on.” James F. Bell - Here are the 12 most common reasons (not in any particular order) I hear over and over for why teams won’t take responsibility.

3. '..poor leadership begets more poor leadership because poor leaders often select managers who possess the same traits they themselves demonstrate.' - What It Takes to Be a Good Leader - Ken Blanchard

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

LRA Director Responds (extracted from comments)

2 comments

J Berdou said...

Having read the contents of this blog as authored by Trevor Nel and several of his associated contributors, I decided to respond as per Nel's invite on the blog, to his version of the "attitude" of the current LRA board and related matters. I set this out as follows:

1. I find the depth of criticism, jaundiced interpretation of fact and perchance to insult and recrimination which is replete in regard to the present LRA board to be quite frankly disgusting, uncalled for and unnecessary not to mention the total antithesis of the community spirit Nel subscribes to or so he says.

2. The present LRA board are most certainly not subscribers to mediocrity in service delivery especially when it comes to the provision of security for the residents of Lonehill.The pursuit of zero defect in this respect is the top priority of the present LRA board and the SAPS statistics reveal that Lonehill experiences far lower levels of crime than any of its surrounding precincts which is a clear result of the LRA security initiative and its associated activities. The fact that some criminal activity still takes place in Lonehill, such as what happened to Nel and several other of our fellow Lonehill residents, is simply not acceptable and should spur us all to redouble our efforts to pull together as a community rather than embark on the route of blaming the LRA board, who incidentally consist of fellow Lonehill residents giving of their time and effort and whose families security is of equal concern as that of all other Lonehill residents. In short we are in this together. It should be remembered that criminal activity still took place in Lonehill from time to time from the inception of the Lonehill Residents Association initiative, including during the tenure of Mr Nel , so to ascribe the blame for occasional criminal activity that still takes place in Lonehill to the present LRA board is not factual.

3. The fact is that criminal activity evolves in cycles with vehicle borne armed gangs being the most dangerous. By placing unarmed security officers in reflector vests on streets to give such criminals a fright, as suggested by Nel, is simply not the answer. Readers of this blog will know what will happen to such personnel if such personnel were to confront these armed gangs. The only way to deal with such a threat is to institute roadblocks using properly trained, equipped , armed and legally authorised personnel and to site such roadblocks at places of our choosing as far away from homes and schools as possible for obvious reasons.

4. As such, the LRA board, in association with the SAPS, has launched an appeal for residents of Lonehill to volunteer to join the SAPS reservists. Such reservists will receive training, proper equipment including automatic weapons and will be legally empowered to conduct searches unlike ordinary security officers. Additionally, the LRA board is in the process of securing donations of equipment such as vehicles, radios and roadblock materials in association with sponsoring corporate contributors.

5. The LRA Board most certainly does not believe that they cannot benefit from inputs from the community and in fact owes its existence to such community and its inputs and participation. But this cannot surely be taken as an invitation to destructively criticise, insult and demean fellow Lonehill residents who happen to be serving on the LRA board at present.Im sure there is no reader of this blog who would appreciate being spoken about as Nel has spoken of the present LRA Board on this self same blogsite!

6. With the correct counselling and mediatorial interventions, perhaps the tremendous and remarkably extraordinary efforts that Nel goes to in his criticisms of the present LRA Board, could be channelled into co operative activities with the LRA Board who, contrary to the impression given on this blog, remain open to such joint activity.

7. We owe it to our community to put all of this ridiculous recrimination aside and to get on with the job of focussing our limited resources and time on protecting the residentsand bettering the environs of Lonehill for the benefit of all its residents. J BerdouFellow Lonehill ResidentMember of LRA Board
Fri Nov 14, 07:24:00 AM 2008

Trevor said...
if the cap fits wear it... far more productive to answer questions posed on this forum which will show what the LRA Board is actually doing, or at worst, planning to do. Refer previous post linked in main post above - Lonehill: 42 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA Talk is cheap. What does the LRA Board want to have happen? Who do they want to deliver on the objectives? Allocate tasks to competent people (volunteers and/or professionals) who will make things happen... and then get out of the way.
Fri Nov 14, 08:59:00 AM 2008

Lonehill: Who's Fooling WHO..?

Preface:

Please note that my comments in this email/post are not aimed at those who truly make things work and happen in Lonehill. I will never criticise those who honestly strive for excellence in delivery of our vision.

I aim my comments specifically at those whose lack of strategy, tactics and/or proactive action have resulted in the current failure in our community initiative to deliver a 24-hour total security solution. When guns against our foreheads in our homes are now the result of their short-of-the-mark efforts, I WILL call a spade a spade.

I am reminded that we all see things differently and that I acknowledge the right of others to hold a contrary opinion.

I apologise up-front to those who may take personal umbrage to my tone in this email (please forgive me) and ask that if we do seem to hold an adversarial position that you look past any tone that may upset you to the core issue/s in discussion. Please feel free to submit your argument/debate/opinions in response.


Summary Extracts: This forum post argues, with reasons derived from a 3-hour meeting with the LRA Board, that in my opinion:

1. Our current LRA Board provides lip-service to our Vision of zero-tolerance towards crime in Lonehill
2. Our current LRA Board accepts levels of innefficiency, incompetence, mediocrity, and deficiency in their service delivery under the justification - 'we're doing our best'.
3. Our current LRA Board no longer considers itself responsible for delivering on no-nonsense pro-active first-line-of-defense security for its community.

It is my contention that this current LRA Board is fooling themselves... and us as a community who believe that our Vision of 24-hour total security is being resolutely honoured and delivered upon by the LRA.

My primary observation from this meeting was that this Board clearly does not believe that the LRA can adequately protect this community against crime.

It has now passed the point where I actually FEAR the Peter-Principle incompetence, intransigence, ineffectiveness and crime-accepting-resignation of our 'leadership' MORE than I fear the criminals themselves.

This is now the third time in our twenty years in this community that I have experienced this sad showing of our LRA in Lonehill.

Some of this Board did not take kindly to my analogy of their attitude to their 'best efforts' being like constructing a 'Golden-Gate'-type bridge across an ever-widening Grand Canyon and having it fall 20 metres short of reaching the other end. Some still cannot see that all their 'best efforts' are rendered ineffective in delivering on the intended objective if 150% span, change, expansion, flexibility, innovation and growth et al are not built into the design of the bridge.

My Resolution: To return to shoring up our own personal home and family protection once again from our Home and Street outwards - recognising sadly that we're on our own again. And, at the same time, to do everything in my power to return the Lonehill Community initiative to the original Vision intended, no matter how unpopular that may make me in the eyes of some.

Summary Ends.


Now to the full post, for those who want the full insight and reasoning behind my opinion.

Warning: this post is lengthy because I am serious about safety & security for all in this community:

One of the easiest things to tell in the business world are those individual egos wrapped up in their own corporate arrogance. And often, these egos look to congregate in collectives (called Groupthink ) to engender support and seek 'official' confirmation to back up their arrogance... no matter that it further deepens the fools they make of themselves in the eyes of their publics.

There are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see.

Or, put another way, there are none so blind as those with closed minds who make up their minds to manipulate the 'facts' to fit their own jaundiced perceptions and/or subjective assumptions.

Classic case (could well be a pun given the corporate in this story) of this occuring at the moment is in this story - Our Zero tastes just fine: Coke - where some Coke corporates appear to miss the entire point of one man's critical input and clearly enjoy the 'research' and rulings that support their arrogant view on the situation.

A real pity, because Coke is one of the world's greatest product and business stories of all time. But, great history does not protect an entity from the arrogance of a few individual egos in their midst.

Here's what I mean. In my taste-buds' collective opinions, there is no way in a generation of Sundays that Coke Zero tastes like Real Coke.

My taste buds are hooked on Real Coke..! They know the real thing.

That's all that one man was telling them (there's no way that Coke Zero tastes like Real Coke)... and they seemed to fight that one man with research data and a justification that is totally off issue (the point is not whether people like Coke Zero or not) seemingly not realising that they are fooling themselves and their publics by making patently unbelievable claims to which many just don't bother to jump up and say anything about.

We just won't buy the stuff.

If anything the unwitting 'genius' in their claim (for which I doubt that they can seek credit) is that it's probably doing more for improving the sales of Real Coke due to the marked 'yugh' factor from the first taste-test of the new product. I immediately bought a Coke to wash away the after-taste of the Coke Zero.

The corporate arrogance of such individuals cannot see that it is not what you say that is important, but what you do/deliver as a customer experience.

You can do everything you want - cute slogans, adverts, studies, legal opinion, and press releases - to fool my taste-buds into believing that it taste like Real Coke... but what you actually deliver is the true acid test. That's where your integrity gets found out.

And so it is with the LRA right now.

The LRA's new slogan could well be: LRA Zero - just like the Real LRA.

Here's why I say this.

Just like the Real Coke... our Real LRA was taken over in 2001 by an active community (the Lonehill Security Action Group formed in 2000) to deliver on the Vision: To create an up-market village community where all residents are free to live, shop and exercise in pristine surroundings with total peace of mind in their personal safety and security.

I will argue below why today's LRA Zero is a pretender delivering on PARTIAL safety and security and placing our families and homes at risk... as opposed to TOTAL safety and security.

As promised, I followed through on requesting a 3-hour meeting of the LRA Board last Friday 24th October and introduced them to six outsiders from my vast contact network of business specialists with resource, experience and skills in the fields of business strategy, innovation, leadership and crisis centre management.

Personally, I was extremely disappointed with the outcome of the meeting, having prefaced my opening comment with my committment to subordinate my emotions of the attack on my family, friend and home, and to allowing past happenings within the LRA to be water under the bridge, in preference for finding positive ways to move our initiative forward.

I think that the invited outsiders were also a little taken aback at what they witnessed: See - Attack Meeting: Outsiders Feedback & Thank You Thread

I chose to ignore the earlier attempts at stonewalling the agenda despite being invited to set the agenda - 'Trevor, Our understanding was that this session today was specifically to address the security issues at hand, at a high level, with a few people, in order to prepare for a more open public session. Your agenda details otherwise, and seems to want to focus on a myriad of other matters. This will not happen, and the focus will remain on the security issues. RG' - with my simple response: 'Sorry... this is the agenda... it is not your meeting'. See link: Friday 24 Oct 2008 Meeting Agenda Thread

Update insert: This intransigence and arrogance continues 15 days later with the LRA Board not releasing draft minutes of the meeting to all attendees who participated, but preferring to release it to their select few for their sanitising first before releasing it to others (even the sanitised version is not yet released). My response to the LRA Chairman (still ignored) was this : 'I would think it far more appropriate and transparent to allow ALL who took the trouble to participate in this meeting an opportunity to comment on the 1st draft minutes of that meeting.' Sadly, the LRA Board seems incapable of assessing how such action has the potential to render any such sanitised minutes to be unreliable and not representative of those who attended, and for how it shows a lack of respect and disregard for the value of the time and input of others.

I ignored the fact that the agenda was claimed not to have been received by the LRA Board and therefore not printed for circulation at the meeting despite all clearly having been copied on the agenda email: From: Rob Gillespie - To: 'Trevor Nel' - Cc: Don Perry ; Hamish McBain ; Jean Berdou ; Michael Goodwin ; Ray Stride ; Ray Stride ; Rob Gillespie ; Roger McKee ; Sally Pearson ; Simon Bradshaw - Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 9:03 AM - Subject: RE: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

However, instead of allowing the meeting to flow down the direction of brainstorming ideas for achieving innovative excellence and positive change to the 'don't cross this line in the sand' attitude to crime in our community that is our Vision and Mission, the verbal ripostes from the LRA Board members highlighted their frail, defensive, protective sensitivities as a collective - demonstrating a seemingly misguided loyalty to each other as individuals - towards any comment made by this writer on this forum.

The first indication of their intended direction was when they embarrassed themselves with a puerile show of unmitigated suspicion towards representatives of a Crisis Management Centre that had traveled a long way without condition as part of my team of invited outsiders to lend of their experience in brainstorming possible solutions.

The LRA Board's general 'NO, We Can't' poor attitude to almost every innovative approach made to them is in stark contrast to Barack Obama's 'YES WE CAN' campaign that swept him to victory in the US Presidential elections. Just as Gregg thompson writes in When The Leader Speaks…. : 'Things happen! People become engaged. Teams gel. Customers are served. Problems are solved. Products are invented. Such is the power of a leader’s communication'. Would that our leaders would just deign to read this article link, if nothing else.

There are some that patently could not hide their deep embitterment for myself and this forum's comments (which they interpret has wholly negative), leading to non-helpful emotional comments and barbs arising from the LRA Board, such as... 'there are many people in Lonehill who hate you'... 'if we bring you onto the Board there are many who will leave - they just won't work with you'... and... 'it seems that you have something to sell..' and even an after-meeting follow up telephone contact comment to one of the attendees to say '..he's lost the plot'.

All such silly barbs do is to compound my lack of respect for their leadership immaturity. I'm not into politics. I couldn't care less for what other people think of my looking to protect my family, home and community from armed gangs running around at will through our current security initiative which currently leaks like a sieve.

I have no desire to be on such intransigent Board lacking in any innovative growth-oriented qualities at all - I've already committed over four and a half years to establishing this initiative and being on the Board. Besides, they would never be able to take the honest feedback and input of an individual like myself on the current Board... worse, they subscribe to none of the minimum standards and principles that I use as a base measure for governance, openness, inclusivity and transparency, et al - judging by their shutters coming down the moment I referred back to our original Lonehill Manifesto proposals.

And, to confirm my consistent stance on this forum, if the LRA Board is going to waste R100 000's to millions of our hard-earned Rands on non-delivery by incompetent people, as has happened, I'd rather see competent people in Lonehill being paid to deliver what we really want. But, I recognise that given my role on this forum, it's hardly likely that I could give away ice-cold Real Coke to an immature LRA Board dying of thirst in a desert... let alone 'sell' them anything!

The issue is not about smokescreens, bruised egos, false perceptions of power and control, personalities and silly internal politics - that's just pathetic in any community - and it turns me off to see it consistently at play here in Lonehill.

So, what's the issue?

It's about the hard-core issue of non-delivery on our most critical objective - total 24-hour security.

It's about being an individual responsible for striving to achieve the difference between effective delivery vs. ineffective delivery of this key objective in our community.

Maybe it's time for the sensitive softies (who all have an equal place in this community) to separate themselves into focusing on the soft issues that keeps them 'so busy' - sterilising feral cats, garden competitions, et al... and to bring in the hard-core to focus on the hard issues.

I just believe that it's time again for some of the fragile egos on the LRA Board obstructing our community progress on our core issue of providing 24-hour total security to step aside and allow fresh, mature leadership to lead the way forward!

In my opinion, it seems that many of the current LRA Board are more intent on protecting their personal egos/integrities, which they perceive to be under 'attack' from this writer/forum, than they are committed to seeking and innovating solutions for providing 24-hour total security to us homeowners in this community.

They should read: Lonehill: Uphold The Right To Comment, Critique, Disagree & Criticise .

On my asking why we only had +-300 LRA members from +- 6000 householders after almost 3 years of this new Board's tenure and given the changes to the LRA AGM voting participation requirement process, only one individual on the Board, to his credit, had the honesty to call a spade a spade (which I do repect) and to admit a core area/s of failure of the LRA - Marketing & Communication - which led to a positive suggestion from self to address the problem at the root of our community: To conduct a market research interview of EVERY household.

The response to this market research proposal floored me, to paraphrase: 'We already use Fidelity to conduct this type of market research feedback and the findings are excellent'.

Hmmmm... well, they would be, wouldn't they? Why not just get the criminal elements that attack us to conduct another even more 'unbiased' market research opinion of our security initiative?

What is frightening, is that some of these Board members truly believe some of the absurd logic and assumptions they verbally espouse and do everything in their power to control or browbeat contrary opinions into oblivion. I focus on' verbally', as it is almost impossible to get this LRA Board to make and clarify such absurd logic and assumptions in writing. Most disingenuous. Refer: Lonehill: 42 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA - this link also includes an indication of how draft minutes from our meeting will not be circulated to all attendees for comment prior to sanitisation by the LRA Board.

Who's fooling who..?

Let me just say that the divide between certain individuals on this Board and self is so wide as to have us more than Poles apart on our viewpoints.. ;-)

My primary observation from this meeting was that this Board clearly does not believe that the LRA can adequately protect this community against crime... and therefore they are resigned to doing 'the best we can' and look to justify their service and actions by comparison against statistics in other areas.

In other words, in my opinion, this Board does not believe in the most critical part of their mandate as stated in our Vision derived from our original security mission - '..to provide 24-hour total security..' and consequently they choose to focus on softer issues that they feel they can deal with operationally.

Not that I have any problem with what they're attempting to achieve on the softer issues - see: Lonehill: Should We Be IMPRESSED? - I am just more concerned with the hard issue of how we can protect families in our community from being attacked in their homes and driveways with guns to their heads as we were.

Individual Board members highlighted clearly their views that the responsibilty for protecting oneself against crime in this community vests in the householders themselves at their home base... and that the LRA was merely just another incidental line of defense. Some, of course, blamed the government and the police, which just was not useful comment at all.

There is an attitude of resigned 'acceptable deficiency' that prevails. The current LRA Board is accepting that crime will happen in our community... and, I repeat, are happy that their best is OK as long as we 'look' better than the stats from surrounding areas.

This attitude, in my opinion, has resulted in a marked decline in any semblance of pro-active security visibility.

It is now becoming rare to see a Lonehill Security vehicle parked off anywhere (whilst one notices them either travelling outside of our community or parked off at the LRA office - what good is that?) and roving guards are becoming difficult to see. No wonder criminals are seeing us as easy meat once again.

This attitude also has some on our LRA Board REACTING to any of my/our pushing for expected service delivery ... by themselves pushing back in often belligerent, defensive, protective, aggressive and even obstructive (stonewalling) fashion... rather than accepting our questions and feedback as essential input to be applied positively to attaining our ideal of total 24-hour security in our community.

It is clear that the LRA Board's jaundiced attitude to questions asked by this community is that such questions are designed to undermine the LRA... whereas in actual fact, their not answering simple questions honestly, with openness and transparency, foolishly undermines their very integrities they seek to protect.

It would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that people have been attacked in their homes in Lonehill whilst I believe this LRA Board must know in their heart-of-hearts that they have NOT been focussing on protecting us to the levels of excellence that we expect... and, all the more pathetic in that that they almost always seem to begrudgingly react after serious incidents to launch stop-gap reactionary attempts at short-term security visibilty in damage-control mode to minimise the fall-out from their publics.

That's too LATE!

The LRA Board must know their deficiencies, they must know that they react no different to the way that most security companies react in most communities, and they must know that they appear not to have a clue what to do to make this initiative sustainable and PROACTIVE in delivering total 24-hour security for our community.

This LRA Board does not appear to know where they want to go and seem intent on just keeping the ships engines turning... and therefore they meander around in circles painting the decks and re-arranging the deck chairs.

It has now passed the point where I actually FEAR the Peter-Principle incompetence, intransigence, ineffectiveness and crime-accepting-resignation of our 'leadership' MORE than I fear the criminals themselves.

This is now the third time in our twenty years in this community that I have experienced this sad showing of our LRA in Lonehill.

As further indication, from the experience I have from the reaction and follow-up to our attack, it is my opinion that their sad attitude is now endemic from LRA top-down and permeates through to the E-grade guards on the ground who are now too scared to communicate (those that have the ability to communicate) with us as a community - their clients on the ground.

Sadly, I had to witness the patent fear of an intelligent proactive guard who applied his street-smart savvy towards reporting suspicious activity (very likely, from the descriptions, a return of our attackers) to a non-appreciative and threatening internal management structure. To me, this fear stems from the autocratic, subjective, closed, 'I'll fire you' management-by-fear style that emanates from the top of our LRA, that has people on the ground, and management in-between, too scared to comment for fear of retribution.

Bully-Boy 'threat' and 'fear' seems to be a consistent weapon/tactic of choice employed by some on this Board as I have personally experienced in both the threatened litigation of self for comments I make on this forum - See: Lonehill: The BEST of People... The WORST of People... and Everybody In-Between ... and in responses to my dealing with unfair labour practice issues on behalf of a loyal LRA staffer who was not having his simple questions answered. What for? These are out-dated management-style tactics that belong to a bygone pre-1994 era... and should have disappeared with The Ark.

Consequently, it's my opinion, the LRA Board gets only the feedback that their fearful subservients believe they want to hear.

Some of this Board did not take kindly to my analogy of their attitude to their 'best efforts' being like constructing a 'Golden-Gate'-type bridge across an ever-widening Grand Canyon and having it fall 20 metres short of reaching the other end. Some still cannot see that all their 'best efforts' are rendered ineffective in delivering on the intended objective if 150% span, change, expansion, flexibility, innovation and growth et al are not built into the design of the bridge.

It will collapse at some point!

It's like the car manufacturer advertising 'zero-tolerance' in their brand whilst having a built in 'acceptable-deficiency' which can have four lock-nuts left off a rear wheel.

So, I sadly left our 3-hour meeting recognising that we (my family and household) can no longer depend on these LRA Board members to protect us as an initiative with a no-nonsense first-line-of-defense, as they no longer feel accountable for that... and that any reference to 'zero-tolerance' to crime as I read in a recent LRA e-mail is purely lip-service from this LRA Board.

They have almost returned our initiative to back to being not much better than any other security reaction service in any other community.

What they are really saying is - LRA Zero - just like the Real LRA - and sadly, in my opinion, they operate to that mantra and they will not allow the facts to interfere with a good story that they're going to stick by.

Here's my offer to each current LRA Board member, please enjoy a Coke Zero on me and tell me if you truly believe it is the Real Coke. And then ask yourself whether you believe that what you offer to us as a zero-tolerance 24-hour total security service in our community right now is truly that.

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

Attack Meeting: Outsiders Feedback & Thank You Thread

The following thread from bottom to top are thank you's to LRA Board and Outsiders, and Outsider's responses received:

Ivan Andersen writes:

Hi Trevor,

Only a pleasure. Sorry I could not do more in moving the process toward a mutually acceptable way forward.

My feeling is that there appears to be just too much baggage on both sides to get to point where the parties could/would sit around the same table and be able to leave the personal sensitivities and egos behind and focus on the “right” solution for the community as a whole. This feeling was confirmed when statements like “if Trevor is to join the board, some members would leave ...” were made. This clearly shows division and differing agendas, in my opinion, as that comment was made after a proposal for you to be co-opted and positive statements w.r.t. your passion, energy and experience had been voiced.

This is unfortunate, because initiatives like this, depend on people working together for the greater good. As soon as there is fragmentation of effort and agenda the system WILL break down and fail.

It would appear to me, as an outsider to the community, and with my limited exposure to the inner workings of the LRA, that a shake-up is required.

My perception, as a frequent visitor into the Lonehill area is that there has been a noticeable drop-off and reduction in visible policing (Fidelity foot & bicycle guards), specifically in the last six weeks or so. I clearly recall a number of discussions we have had in this regard over the last few years and have noticed the disappearance and re-appearance and disappearance of these guards from time-to-time. This to me is also an indication of the challenges faced internally by the LRA.

As I mentioned on Friday, clearly one’s priority must be the safety of your own family and home first, so the decisions need to be made from that basis.

All the best
Ivan

----------------------------------------------------------

Morne Mostert writes:

Hi Trevor

I am always cautious not to oversimplify these things, but here are a few thoughts:

The LRA requires a clear vision of what they intend to achieve in the next 18-24 months. I don't just mean what actions will they take, but what will Lonehill look like in 18-24 months from today as a result of their management practices

They may then benefit from articulating a number of Values that will govern their behaviour, such as client centricity, safety first, etc - this will depend on the unique challenges and character of Lonehill

Then they need to be clear on a few strategic objectives with regards to issues like safety, client engagement, internal management, decision-making processes,etc.

Internally, they then need to respond to some challenges, such as their Human Resources: If they only have one person for communication & marketing, what strategies will they employ to overcome this constraint? They cannot simply point it out it is a constraint. This includes possible solutions such as a communication drive for co-opting volunteers, ensuring each board member is managing a committee of volunteers, etc., establishing LRA sub-committees, etc.

On Marketing & Communication, there appears to be a lack of feedback mechanisms for residents to respond to them. They then argue that no news is good news. It's a bit like saying no-one has ever complained about living on the the planet Jupiter, so it must be a great place to live!

In terms of broader stakeholder engagement, I am not convinced they are interacting regularly with bodies corporate of complexes, other security companies in their area, business networks, etc. They appear to operate in a highly isolated way.

On Finance, they may want to consider sponsored advertising by local businesses on all their communication. This will reduce costs dramatically.
In terms of their overall functioning, such a more strategic approach will make them less reactive.

They then need to communicate these commitments to the community and report regularly on progress made.

I hope this helps a little - we all have our own angles on ways for improving effectiveness.

Kind regards
Morne Mostert
Director of Leadership Leadership Options
Tel: +27 (0) 11 467 9985
Mobile: +27 (0) 82 855 7328
Fax: +27 (0) 866 133 476
morne@leadershipoptions.co.za
http://www.leadershipoptions.co.za/
DataDeal Place, 41 Wessels Road, Rivonia, 2191
P.O. Box 104, Petervale, Bryanston, Johannesburg, 2151

--------------------------------------------------------

Marilyn Overend writes:

Hi Trevor

Yes, we were not prepared for the highly emotional interaction from both sides. However I do believe they were compassionate about your situation. I think there are very few South Africans that would not feel for your situation. It happened to my younger son two months ago – and he is lucky to be with us. So I understand the anger and despair and fear.

From our perspective we felt there was blaming on both sides rather than finding some common ground to move forward to the start of a solution.

As you have a lot of experience Trevor, then maybe you need to move back onto the committee. I think it was a good idea to “put a stake in the ground” and move forward – learn from what is not working and try new ideas.

Warmest regards

Marilyn Overend
Assessor - Corporate College International
Assessor No. 175733US

Futuristic Training and Development
Cell: +27 82 601 0056
Tel: +27 11 704 6838
Fax: +27 11 704 6815
http://www.futuristictraining.com/

marilyn@futuristictraining.com

--------------------------------------------------------

Kevin Foot writes:

Hi Trev,

Firstly it was no trouble!! And you are not beholden to anyone….favours are not given or stored for cashing in later; they are given with love and respect and with no expectations.

Only a pleasure to assist and participate….I only wishes I had known sooner about the incident, and been in a position to give you and Ivan more support.

Any time, anywhere…it’s only a phone call, and I will do whatever I can. Both of you know that.

My thoughts today are not changed from the conversation we had at the Wimpy. And Ivan summed it up very well. And your final remarks about securing the home, the street etc are most valid.

To carry on interacting with the LRA now, is a “mission” I think you should delay and give yourself time to heal.

Cheers.

Kevin

PS. On 3 occasions this week; today at about midday, Thursday morning, And Monday...can't remember time.......I drove thru Lonehill and around the "big Loop" and was surprised to note that the Bobby on the Beat was conspicuous by their absence. Not so long ago, the security personnel were visible all over the area, including vehicles. Has there been a cut back in the number/activity?

--------------------------------------------------------

From: Trevor Nel [mailto:growth@global.co.za] Sent: 25 October 2008 09:30 AMTo: Kevin FootCc: Ivan Andersen; Marilyn Overend; Jacques Grobbelaar; charlvj@lantic.net; Morne Mostert; Lindy BoulangerSubject: My Thanks - Fw: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Kevin, Marilyn, Morne, Jacques, Renier, Charl, Ivan, Lindy

Many thanks for volunteering your valuable time to attend yesterday's meeting.

I cannot express adequately how much I APPRECIATE your trouble taken to lend an ear and participate.

I am beholden to return the favour to each of you, I am at your call... :-)

Below is the response to the LRA Board attendees FYI.

Realising that it must have been very difficult to enter such meeting totally uninformed (that was necessary so as not to create preliminary bias from any perspective) and try to evaluate 8 years of history in such a short session, I would however like for you to be brutally honest in what you assessed as being at play from your specific specialist skills-set point of view.

I will forward that to the LRA Board, either as anonymous comment, or under your professional signature so that the LRA can contact you direct for your professional input or otherwise. You choose - just let me know.

You are more than welcome to contact the LRA Board in your professional or personal capacities, as you see fit, to offer advice/service/solutions.

Regards
Trevor - 011 - 705-2790


----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: Don Perry ; Hamish McBain ; Jean Berdou ; Michael Goodwin ; Ray Stride ; Ray Stride ; Rob Gillespie ; Roger McKee ; Sally Pearson ; Simon Bradshaw ; info@lra.org.za
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 7:15 AM
Subject: Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

To all in attendance

Many thanks for taking of your valuable time to attend this meeting.

I will reserve my personal comment pending:

i. Review of minutes/notes taken by Elmarie/Jenny - please forward ASAP compiled.
ii. Feedback from outsider specialists invited. (will copy you on their feedback).

Rob/Jean, as regards your joint claims that the http://www.lonehillaction.blogspot.com/ forum does not post your comments, this is surprising as it is an OPEN forum where any comment can be posted by anyone under the comments and Post a Comment facilities.

My records shows 2 posts from LRA directors - LRA Director Comments & LRA Chairman Responds - and I have personally posted - LRA 2008 AGM - Chairman's Report & LRA AGM 2008 Minutes - to represent the LRA's views to this community.

I am unaware of any request from yourselves requiring publication to this blog not being published, kindly copy myself on any such request having been made and I will ensure that it is published.

You are, of course, cordially invited to respond to the questions asked on Lonehill: 28 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA .

Thank You
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790
Lonehill Resident

Friday 24 Oct 2008 Meeting Agenda Thread

Posted for recordal purposes:

From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 9:12 AM
Subject: Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Sorry... this is the agenda... it is not your meeting

----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Gillespie
To: 'Trevor Nel'
Cc: Don Perry ; Hamish McBain ; Jean Berdou ; Michael Goodwin ; Ray Stride ; Ray Stride ; Rob Gillespie ; Roger McKee ; Sally Pearson ; Simon Bradshaw
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 9:03 AM
Subject: RE: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity
Trevor

Our understanding was that this session today was specifically to address the security issues at hand, at a high level, with a few people, in order to prepare for a more open public session.

Your agenda details otherwise, and seems to want to focus on a myriad of other matters. This will not happen, and the focus will remain on the security issues.

RG

From: Trevor Nel [mailto:growth@global.co.za] Sent: 24 October 2008 08:52 AM
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Subject: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Hi Rob

Herewith guideline agenda - I will facilitate initially and hand over to an outsider 'Chair' asap during process

Please can you arrange light refreshments/snacks/ cool drinks for all attending to keep them energised.

Flexible Agenda for LRA Meet - Friday 24th Oct 2:30 to 5:30

To all attending:

The purpose of this afternoon is to conduct an informal Current Situation Analysis and Brainstormer Session for further progress.

Specialist outsiders have been invited to facilitate impartiality, balance and input where they feel so inclined - 5 confirmed attending - others trying to change diaries.

It appears that some Lonehillers are determined to attend as observers from feedback I am receiving - cannot confirm, numbers unknown - should they attend they will be given 10 minutes at end of each 35 minute segment discussion to comment/provide input.

LRA to provide simple show and tell feedback with samples/visuals/graphics/maps/financials of feedback shared at weekly/monthly security and LRA Board meetings

The agenda for this afternoon will progress in simple discussion units of top 3 priorities per segment.

2:30 - Introductions

2:45 - feedback on LRA's Top 3 Priorities

1. Security
2. Community Contributions/Commitment - Financials, Contributors and Demographics
3. Marketing/Promotions

3:30
Soft Issues related to LRA attitudes towaeds Leadership/Vision/Strategy
1. LRA attitude towards community
2. LRA attitude to internal service/competence levels
3. LRA attitude to openness/transparency

4:15
Change, Innovation, Growth
1. Shattering the dogma of mediocrity and 'best practice'
2. Constructing a change-oriented eco-system - a living, breathing organism 'built to thrive'
3. Understanding the Age of Transparency

5:00
General

5:15
Closing question for LRA Board: Is there any reason why the LRA will not commit to supporting the changes discussed..?

5:30 Ends

----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Gillespie
To: Trevor Nel
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 9:18 PM
Subject: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

I have arranged for Friday afternoon starting 2.30pm at the LRA offices, for your discussion forum. Please let me have an agenda if there is one, or else we can put it together at the meeting.
RG

Lonehill: Heartfelt Condolences & ATTACK Meeting Proposal Follow-Up!

Condolences:

To Lonehill's Allan Brown and Family (and to all the families affected by this week's plane crash tragedy). Words can never express the deepest, deepest sympathy that we feel for you and your family at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. We pray that you can all find peace and comfort. God Bless.

To Yvette and Etienne - condolences on the loss of your Mom - Lily Nel - wife of the late Dr. Jan Nel - both staunch supporters of our Lonehill Security initiative. Lily faced her long-suffering bout with cancer with feisty dignity. Treasure the memory of an exceptional woman.

Update:

A loss of a loved one makes all else pale into insignificance and it hardly seems appropriate to follow through with this update.

But, having come close to death in our home last week, and being once again reminded from the above family sorrows of the PRICELESS VALUE of every single life in this community... I am compelled to proceed.

First, both Gary Rivas (Lonehill Methodist Church) and Colin Ekman (Lonehill Village Church) have counseled myself on the spiritual implications of my third return to the fore in striving for the standard of excellence we all want for our families safety, security and well-being in our community.

Both have committed every spiritual resource they can muster to support our objective. I thank both for allowing me to work through much heart-sore anguish and humbling soul-searching to find the humility to assess the correct reasons for stepping up to the plate again. That's done and a given.

I found an email that I wrote on 29 Oct. 2000 - Lonehill: A Community In Transformation - where I wrote: 'I know that there are many good God-fearing folk in prayer-chains who are hard at work praying up a pile of God's blessings of peace, love, hope, salvation and joy for us ALL in Lonehill..'.

I also wrote: 'Talking of FAITH... I am constantly tackled by individuals who tell me that we have taken on an 'impossible' task... 'it'll never work'... or, 'you don't even have a plan..'. Oh ye of such little faith (now where have i heard that before). Quite simply, my entire life experience has shown that EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE... and it becomes highly probable when you have a CLEAR FOCUS..'.

My purpose in this third return to the plate is to stimulate a return to the above attitudes of a belief in attaining the unbelievable and achieving the impossible... to never be satisfied with what we have!

From my last week's invitation, I have been inundated with voluntary input offers from non-Lonehillers within my vast network of '..the finest facilitators, conflict resolution specialists, disruptive innovators and strategic thinkers in my network to an urgent 3 -hour, totally transparent, OPEN, critical situation analysis and solutions brainstormer of current LRA information, to ensure that past badwill is put far behind us (they will shut me up as they know my respect for them) and ensure that solutions are found for going forward with clear strategic goals and action plans understood by the entire community.'

Those committed (some trying to change their national flights and programs to attend) include a leading business specialist, academic and author in the field of Systemic INNOVATION, a banking industry leader currently on sabbatical completing a dissertation on Innovation for his banking business sector, a recent past Chairman of Dainfern Residents Association, and specialists in Business Strategy and Turn-Around consulting, Leadership, Corporate Governance and Transparency.

They all want to see a model of community excellence being established as a prototype to be transplanted into their communities.

I have deliberately targeted non-Lonehillers to distance their input from the emotions attached to this initiative in the past. I continue to maintain that we have the finest minds and talent in our community to make great things happen... and this resource has been ignored and even spurned. That must change.

We meet with the LRA Board and Fidelity representatives at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow Friday 24th October.

My brief to the panel attending is simply: 'I look to drive for unreasonable levels of zero tolerance, continually innovating, continually growing/thriving, continually breaking down stereotypes and rebuilding anew, and for continual disruptive innovation to eradicate/nullify the events that we experienced. The theme is to be Lead, Follow or Get Out Of The Way... and you guys are specialists at looking out for what needs to be re-framed in stodgy minds.'

Recognising that mine could well be the most stodgiest mind of all.

The LRA have called for this to be a closed meeting which is anathema to everything I uphold for this community. I believe that all interested Lonehillers should be entitled to attend, observe and participate with comment at planned intervals. If you feel as strongly that you'd like to observe, and if you're available at such short notice, respond to this email and I will forward your request/motivation.

Otherwise I will ensure that the session is clealy recorded and reported on this forum.

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

Lonehill: Attacked - 3 Gunmen Storm OUR Home!

There's nothing like the cold barrel of a 9mm parabellum against your forehead to clear your sinuses.

At 5 p.m.yesterday evening, 3 armed gunmen - well-dressed, well-spoken and looking like super-efficient police-detectives - stormed our home and placed their guns against my business partner's and my heads... demanding '..where's your gun, where's your safe, and where's your money'. None of which are on our premises.

It is only by God's GRACE and the presence of mind of my business partner who calmly got me to lie down and follow their instructions that we were not shot. My wife carrying our 4 week-old grand-daughter had even greater presence of mind to see them enter my Home Office and managed to slip out to hide in the garden.

I'm told by my partner that I was kicked and roughed up on the ground, but I recall nothing of that, except that I have a pretty painful hip area that I can't account for.

They then demanded that we show them a room that they could lock us up in, thankfully right next to my office... and locked the two of us in there, whereupon we heard them leave with my partners vehicle parked outside and a getaway car.

My wife heard them leave and bravely came back to press the panic and set us free

The shock and speed of the attack left me literally numbed in shock and I'm still wondering how I didn't soil my pants, although my business partner tells me that my sole concern was in stressing for the safety my wife and grandchild who I could not see... I can't recall in the blur.

My life didn't flash before me, none of those things. Just stunned numbness.

Here's my belief, that they were on a mission to attack someone and clearly were attracted by the vehicle on our driveway indicating people inside. The vehicle blocked direct line-of-sight access to our front door entrance. So they had clearly got out of their vehicle to attack our home regardless of what they confronted. My wife had also just returned home some minutes before. That's frightening!

Now, it's no secret that I am not at all enamoured with the LRA's lack of commitment to critical service delivery excellence, especially when it comes to our mission for this community - to provide safety and security for all to enjoy (to paraphrase).

When we launched this initiative we drew a line in the sand around our perimeter and said 'no further'.

Today that line is the hairline on the sights of a gunman's weapon and it is aimed at our foreheads.

That's not right..!

I am acutely aware that LRA leadership is not enamoured with me.... but here's the thing that I have always being striving for... it is not about the personalities and the internal politics of people playing silly games on the LRA, but about who is most effective at keeping us safe and secure in our community.

We are clearly not safe in our homes in Lonehill any longer, and like we did in 2000... and again some three-odd years ago... something now needs to be shaken up once again.

I am giving my LRA 'friends', past and present, who know my true open feelings about some of them and their actions (or lack thereof) to which we are clearly in disagreement (as expressed again between ourselves last night) an opportunity to contact me today with plans for how they will open up to people like myself again for us all to work together on this challenge to our families safety and security in this Lonehill initiative. For me, they have been ignoring the concerns expressed in this forum for too long. And, they can be addressed simply with competent people who do not have fragile egos.

My offer will be to bring a team of 3 to 5 of the finest facilitators, conflict resolution specialists, disruptive innovators and strategic thinkers in my network to an urgent 3 -hour, totally transparent, OPEN, critical situation analysis and solutions brainstormer of current LRA information, to ensure that past badwill is put far behind us (they will shut me up as they know my respect for them) and ensure that solutions are found for going forward with clear strategic goals and action plans understood by the entire community.

Being a God-fearing fundamental Christian man of very basic street-wise up-bringing, leanings and brash character, who has no idea why God's sense of humour seems to be to throw us into such situations to see how we will respond (although I believe we are all born with a purpose to fulfill on this planet), I will be approaching local community church leaders/elders today for much-needed spiritual counseling to bring humility to bear in this so-badly-flawed human-being as I prepare to muster willing troops once again to take on this evil now again being allowed to wander freely into our midst.

This call to the Almighty piddled people off when we launched the initiative back in 2000, but we succeeded with action supported by committed prayer groups. And, I believe I know why. So I am about to piddle people off again... but that's tough. This evil element attacking us does not worry if you are atheist, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or Gentile... or whatever your belief or non-belief. And I don't have any problem with your foundation belief either, I'm not out here to convert you - you should be mature enough to fathom your beliefs for yourself given all the information at our fingertips, but let's just bring every 'weapon' in our community armoury to bear in succeeding once again at this community challenge. I'm just going to ask for DIVINE support, is all. YOU can bring whatever GOOD resources YOU can muster to the party. You won't piddle me off... ;- )

If you wish to offer words of counseling, guidance, help, support or just plain honest-to-goodness criticism of self, please let me know and I'll keep you in the loop as to what transpires.

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

Lonehill: 70 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA

In Lonehill: What Is The MISSING Ingredient? I wrote:

'So let's get to test just how open, mature and transparent our current LRA leaders are by requesting some straight answers to the simple questions posed on this forum, which I will send to the Chairman and post the answers on this forum as soon as they arrive.'

Below is the email thread of questions and reminders addressed to the LRA and LRA Chairman - Rob Gillespie.

Still no answers after 70 days... the intransigence, arrogance and lack of co-operation / transparency is patently clear to see, particularly in the Oct. 31 retort from the LRA Chairman '..I and we have so much on our plates that is of significantly greater urgency and importance than the questions you asked..'.

Really? What would that be... sterilising feral cats, filling Christmas hampers, organising garden competitions? Take a look at the questions asked at the bottom of this thread:


From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 5:39 PM
Subject: Fw: Courtesy Reminder - draft minutes and forum questions (70 days) pendings
Courtesy reminder... 70 days pending on forum questions... following LRA Public Feedback meeting were these questions addressed as you said they would be... and is there any presentation material slides/notes for those who could not attend?


From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: Courtesy Reminder - draft minutes and forum questions (63 days) pendings - Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity
Courtesy reminder... 63 days pending on forum questions...

From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 1:44 PM
Subject: Fw: Courtesy Reminder - draft minutes and forum questions (56 days) pendings - Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity
Courtesy reminder... 56 days pending... and also, still no sight of draft minutes or otherwise from LRA/Fidelity/Outsiders meeting

From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 2:15 PM
Subject: Fw: Courtesy Reminder - draft minutes and forum questions (49 days) pendings - Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Courtesy reminder... 49 days pending

From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 8:38 AM
Subject: Courtesy Reminder - draft minutes and forum questions (42 days) pendings - Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Hi Rob (for time recordal purposes)

Courtesy reminder:

Please let me know when I can expect to receive either or both of the pendings below.

i. draft minutes not yet received - Subject: Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity - Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 10:40 AM

ii. 42 days - no answer in writing to: Subject: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum - Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 10:03 AM

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Hi Rob

re: point i. I would think it far more appropriate and transparent to allow ALL who took the trouble to participate in this meeting an opportunity to comment on the 1st draft minutes of that meeting.

re: point ii. Will repeat my response comment of Tue0ct21:

I am afraid that your response to 1. below is unacceptable as it highlights precisely one of the key the points of the http://www.lonehillaction.blogspot.com/ blog forum... that the LRA and you, as LRA Chairman, do not communicate with openness and transparency to our community in answer to the questions we may ask.

In particular, this forum writer asks that you answer questions in writing for recordal purposes on our blog forum.

May I suggest that consideration of your response/answers in writing to these questions will actually aid your presentation in a future OPEN forum.

RegardsTrevor Nel - Lonehill Resident011 - 705-2790

----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Gillespie
To: 'Trevor Nel'
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 9:11 AM
Subject: RE: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity
Hello Trevor. The minutes were only fwd’d to me last night in 1st draft mode. They have been circulated to the Board members who were present to verify / correct, which should take a day or three, before they will be circulated to all who were present, whose addresses we have.

On your point ii, with all due respect, I and we have so much on our plates that is of significantly greater urgency and importance than the questions you asked, and as a result they will be answered in due course, when time permits. We said that we would do so at the next public feedback session which if I’m not mistaken, will be in two weeks time.

RG

From: Trevor Nel [mailto:growth@global.co.za] Sent: 31 October 2008 08:21 AMTo: Rob GillespieCc: info@lra.org.zaSubject: Re: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Courtesy reminder:

Please let me know when I can expect to receive either or both of the pendings below.

Thank you
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790
----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor Nel
To: Trevor Nel ; Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:24 AM
Subject: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity

Courtesy Reminder:

Still pending receipt from yourselves:

i. Review of minutes/notes taken by Elmarie/Jenny - please forward ASAP compiled.

ii. No response yet received to questions asked on forum post - on Lonehill: 28 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA as sent 5 weeks ago (35 days). Sending repeat again as courtesy reminder.

Thank You
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790
Lonehill Resident

From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:24 AM
Subject: Still Pending - Re: Agenda - Re: Meeting with the LRA and Fidelity
Courtesy Reminder:

Still pending receipt from yourselves:

i. Review of minutes/notes taken by Elmarie/Jenny - please forward ASAP compiled.

ii. No response yet received to questions asked on forum post - on Lonehill: 28 Days - NO Answers Yet From LRA as sent 5 weeks ago (35 days). Sending repeat again as courtesy reminder.

Thank You
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790
Lonehill Resident

To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za ; Rob Gillespie
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 8:25 AM
Subject: Re: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum - and - Re: Last Night's Shooting Incident, Crisis Meeting feedback and Re: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum
For attn:
The Chairman: Rob Gillespie
Lonehill Residents Association

Hi Rob

I am afraid that your response to 1. below is unacceptable as it highlights precisely one of the key the points of the http://www.lonehillaction.blogspot.com/ blog forum... that the LRA and you, as LRA Chairman, do not communicate with openness and transparency to our community in answer to the questions we may ask.

In particular, this forum writer asks that you answer questions in writing for recordal purposes on our blog forum.

May I suggest that consideration of your response/answers in writing to these questions will actually aid your presentation in a future OPEN forum.

So I will request again:

1. Courtesy reminder: No response yet received to questions asked (below) as sent 4 weeks ago (28 days). Sending repeat again as courtesy reminder.

RegardsTrevor Nel - Lonehill Resident011 - 705-2790

From: Rob Gillespie
To: 'Trevor Nel'
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 4:11 PM
Subject: RE: Last Night's Shooting Incident, Crisis Meeting feedback and Re: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum

Trevor,
1. Your questions sent previously will be attended to at the next Public Feedback Forum – date to be advised shortly.

2. Shot fired by Fidelity in pursuit of a wanted burglar after a break in at Eagles Cragg. He was not apprehended. The goods were recovered.

3. There was no format or PPT last night. The people were informed of the modus operandi of the current spate of events, what we were doing about it, and what they believed we were not doing and/or should be doing, essentially sensitizing and requesting assistance. Notes have not yet been written.

RG

----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor Nel
To: info@lra.org.za Cc: Rob Gillespie ; Rob Gillespie
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 8:02 AM
Subject: Last Night's Shooting Incident, Crisis Meeting feedback and Re: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum

For attn:
The Chairman: Rob Gillespie
Lonehill Residents Association

Dear Rob

1. Courtesy reminder: No response yet received to questions asked (below) as sent 3 weeks ago (21 days). Sending repeat again as courtesy reminder.

2. Kindly provide details of last night's shooting incident in Crestwood/Franschoek area - where exactly it took place, who cried for help, who responded, who fired shot, and description/result of incident.

3. Please also provide feedback and/or presentation PPT from last night's Lonehill Security Crisis compulsory meeting called for Chairmen and Trustees of Complexes and Road Closures... would like to circulate it to those who are not the above or were unable to attend.

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790

----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor Nel
To: info@lra.org.za
Cc: Rob Gillespie ; Rob Gillespie
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum

Courtesy reminder: No response yet received to questions asked (below) as sent 2 weeks ago. Sending repeat again as courtesy reminder.

----- Original Message -----
From: Lonehill Residents Association
To: 'Trevor Nel'
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 8:25 AM
Subject: RE: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum

Dear Trevor

Your request has been forwarded to Rob and I’m sure he will reply as soon as he can.

Regards

Elmari Dell


From: Trevor Nel [mailto:growth@global.co.za]
Sent: 30 September 2008 06:21 AM
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za; Rob Gillespie; Rob Gillespie
Subject: Re: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum

Have received no response or acknowledgement of receipt from either addressee to this request sent 1 week ago. Sending repeat as courtesy reminder.

----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor Nel
To: Rob Gillespie
Cc: info@lra.org.za
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 10:03 AM
Subject: Questions from Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum

For attn:
The Chairman: Rob Gillespie
Lonehill Residents Association

Dear Rob

For the purposes of posting answers to our Lonehill Community Stakeholders forum - http://www.lonehillaction.blogspot.com/ - please be kind enough to provide answers to the following questions that were apparently not covered as per reading of the feedback provided from the recent LRA AGM (treat questions as at date of AGM).

i. What are the biggest challenges facing our initiative in the coming year?
ii. What plans are in place to resolve those challenges and what innovations will we see?
iii. Who is accountable for deliverables on these resolutions (what are their KPI's)?
iv. What finances are required for the coming year and future... and where will it be sourced from?
v. What are the critical numbers we should be watching to assess future success of the project?
vi. What is being done to reduce the burden of current contributors?
vii. Why do we only have +- 300 voting members on the LRA from +- 6000 householders?
viii. Are there any expected major budget allocations (in excess of R50 000 in total) that may be paid to individuals in the coming year and for what?
ix. Should a new budget allocation limit be imposed on the Board requiring referral back to Members for approval?
x. What added-value does each paid individual on the LRA add to our initiative (e.g if paid +- R250K, did individual add another +-R250K and more to the initiative)?
xi. How can stakeholders benefit from and use the LRA community centre facilities which they have funded?

Regards
Trevor Nel - Lonehill Resident
011 - 705-2790