Dalton RobertsChange is afoot at Erlanger and I see little to be lost by it. However, some of it has not been thoroughly reasoned out yet.
The current board of 12 members is appointed by the county (4 members), the city (4), Hamilton County chancellors (1), the legislative delegation (1), the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society (1) and the Erlanger medical chief of staff.
It now appears the new board will have only seven voting members and, after the initial appointments are made by the county and the legislative delegation, replacements or renewals will be made by the board itself. The board may also have two non-voting members, an educator and a physician. I assume these two will be resource persons.
There is a touch of self-perpetuation in this but “self perpetuation” is not necessarily a bad term. If those who self-perpetuate themselves on the board become obsessed by power (always a problem in any enterprise), this could become a problem. If the board develops pride in the quality of its management and always hunts new members compatible in philosophy and efficiency, it will prove to be a positive thing.
The quality of the two non-voting resource persons will be critical. Erlanger management cranks out reams of paper for each board meeting. If these two members can bottomline a ream of paper and condense the material to understandable terms, it will be a major contribution.