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Richard M. Rieser Jr.
PO Box 27
Chautauqua, NY 14722
rickrieserchq@gmail.com
July 28, 2024
Dear Chautauqua Friends,
I'm excited to announce that I will be a candidate for election as a Class B Trustee at the upcoming Chautauqua Corporation Meeting of August 10, 2024. I’m asking for your vote if you’re a Property Owner and your support and endorsement if you’re not.
A good Chautauqua friend asked me, “Is this a lark.” I replied, “No, I’m dead serious.” “Why?”, he asked. I replied, “Because our Founders envisioned Chautauqua would become an “educational and moral influence”, their Successors built Chautauqua into a heterogeneous community of young students and life-long learners, of arts lovers, and spiritual souls, and kindred devotees of the outdoor life, and I see current Chautauqua Leadership tearing down our delicate Institution. I was raised that, when it’s within my capacity, I’m duty-bound to try to repair what is being broken.
In so doing, here are the principles that will guide me:
1.] Transparent and Open Corporate Governance. I want you to know what’s happening before it’s too late. I want you to be able to observe Board deliberations; I want you to have your voice heard if you so desire, and I want you to know who voted for and who against the decisions that concern you.
2.] Pursuit of Excellence and, its corollary, Superior Execution. I want you to know our goal is that every activity Chautauqua Institution presents be top-tier; that every service Chautauqua offers be accessible, work with ease, and be delivered courteously and on time; and that every facility or bit of infrastructure be maintained in tip-top shape. I will encourage less time musing over strategic objectives and more time focused on improving day-to-day operations.
3.] Revising Strategic Objectives. The Institution’s current strategic plan, 150Forward,2024-2028, puts Philanthropy first and the Four Pillars second; it prioritizes money over mission. You – unless you’re a whale donor – have been relegated to the rear. I will work towards putting you first by rebalancing those objectives. The fact is, our community life and the Four Pillars, taken together, are a commercially viable source of substantial fee revenue if we target the right audience. The marketing muscle we need to accomplish this rebalancing will have to come by re-investing in what we are, rather than pursuing, at high cost, a “virtue-signaling” agenda.
4. ] Leadership Reimagined. I plan to call to the Board’s attention four cavernous gaps in its Leadership model. I will closely monitor the following:
A] During my first term in office, our CEO’s employment contract expires. I want to ensure that Chautauqua’s next CEO possesses certain requisite qualities. The Board needs to be mindful that the CEO be smart, hard-working, and mature; bring relevant management experience; and be self-confident enough to hire key subordinates who are even smarter and harder working than they are.
B] The Board has the responsibility to hold leaders accountable for grievous mistakes and misdeeds, including conflicts of interest, as well as persistent or significant failures in execution of responsibilities.
C] The Board controls executive pay incentives. When it does so, it should always build balanced-scorecard incentive pay structures that promote the well-being of our whole community.
D] The Board should prepare to intervene and closely manage executive functions when it identifies blatant management failures or serious missteps. It appears our current Board leadership believes that the Board should simply set policy direction and keep its hands-off management whatever the circumstances.
My Experience. To inform you about my background, I grew up in Western New York, graduated cum laude from the Nichols School in Buffalo, attended Brown University where I received my BA in American Studies, and graduated with my Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
After a couple years in Chicago practicing commercial law, specializing in banking and tax, I joined a small growing commercial bank in Chicago. Four years later, I and a small group of investors, purchased a tiny bank in the western suburbs of Chicago. We grew the company to a 23 branch, $2.3 Billion, publicly-held bank holding company where I served as CEO. I also served two four-year elected terms as the Village President of Northfield, IL. I’m, therefore, equally experienced in top-down and collegial forms of governance.
My wife Susan and I are in our 19th full summer at Chautauqua, after visiting my father and mother here beginning in 1982. We have been active in many of Chautauqua’s support groups. We live the balance of the year in Palm Beach, FL and Northbrook, IL. We have two surviving children, both in the Chicago area, and four granddaughters, who don’t visit us enough.
Why you should vote for me. Just as I have been a strong advocate for Chautauqua and our Property Owners through my writings, I will be a strong voice inside the Institution's Boardroom. So, if you like what I stand for, vote for me on Saturday, August 10th.
If you don’t like what I stand for, vote for me because you’ll be consigning me to joining the current minority in Chautauqua’s Boardroom, tantamount to being sentenced to one of Dante’s nine circles of Hell.
If you’re a Trustee who doesn’t agree with me, vote for me under the old adage, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
If you have questions. Shortly, I’ll publish a list of where and when we can meet, so I can answer your questions in a public setting. Watch for it.
Meantime, see you at the polls on August 10th.
Warmly,
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