Doors Locked At Tullahoma Fine Arts Center
by Russel Mobley, MTA Editor
August 27, 2010
Photo: Personal effects of former TFAC Executive Director Lucy Hollis are loaded into a moving van on Saturday. Russel Mobley/MTA
The doors to the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center are locked.
TFAC Vice President Keith Moore says they will remain locked until mid-September, at which time he expects old TFAC members to elect officers and a board of directors. The public is invited to attend and to join the organization, but new members who join after August 23, will not be allowed to vote. They will, however, be allowed to seek a position on the board or serve as an officer.
This comes as a surprise to Troy McFarland, who had hoped for a chance to vote for a new TFAC board. He is one of several Tullahoma area residents, who had met in recent weeks as “friends of the arts center” and pressed for new leadership and a new direction for the Fine Arts Center.
“Just because new members join after Lucy (Hollis) left, they shouldn't be kept from voting,” said McFarland, adding that the situation is like some that have plagued the center in the past.
Hollis, who served as the center's executive director for four decades and was also the TFAC board president, abruptly resigned effective August 23. In the months preceding her exit, Hollis made several appointments to the board, including Moore as vice president, and Debbie Mayfield. Although she was on the board for just over a month, Mayfield resigned just days before Hollis departed.. Brenda Arnold, the center treasurer, also resigned. Moore is now temporarily in charge of the center, until the election.
Moore told the “friends of the arts center” on Thursday that no one will be allowed in the center until the membership meeting and election that he is calling for at 7 pm on September 15. He said the meeting will be in lieu of the November meeting, which is required by the TFAC bylaws. He added, letters announcing the meeting will be sent out to those persons on the membership list he has in his possession.
McFarland, who refused to sign his membership form as long as Hollis held her position, finds himself is a strange predicament.
“According to Keith, I can be elected to the board, but as a new member I'm not going to be allowed to vote for myself,” said McFarland. “That isn't right. All of the new members should be able to vote as they have in past years. ”
