They came right out and said it was not a democracy. That was another catch phrase. We've all heard it from different people in their leadership.
The heirarchy is this...
The Leader, who was elected 3 years ago and nothing since.
The Steering Committee, consisting of 3 ladies hand-picked by The Leader (Celeste being one of them.)
Team Leaders, consisting of about 12 ladies chosen by The Steering Committee.
These people were the ones that made the decision to leave CHEF. Not the membership.
I guarantee we're going to attempt to put by-laws in place to prevent this from happening again. One of the people on the Steering Committee had complete charge of the checkbook, so when they left and took the money with them, there was nothing we could do. We're going to set it up that BA CHEF has complete freedom with the checkbook, but that Big CHEF has the ability to shut down the account if need be.
Has this done permanent damage to your friendship with Celeste?