Mangoheads choose a new board for the Strut

The Mangoheads met last night at The Grove Spot to vote seven new members onto the King Mango Strut, board of directors (King Mango Strut Inc.).

Len Scinto (shown here with his wife Rocio Goni) conducted the meeting and spoke about the history and present problems with the Strut, everyone wants to see it continue, but they felt that the current two member board, Glenn Terry and Antoinette Baldwin, need to be part of a board of nine.

The bickering twosome, Glenn and Antoinette, were asked not to attend last night's meeting in hopes that things would run smoothly, which they did.

After almost two hours of discussions, sometimes loud (picture the English Parliament meetings on C-Span), a board finally was chosen by everyone who attended the meeting. Before the vote, those who put themselves up for nomination spoke a bit about their goals, then everyone filled in a paper ballot and voting began. The votes were put into a bag (shown here with Len and Rocio) and then tallied up on the spot; Rocio and I did the tallying.

The new board members are in alphabetical order: Jane Decker, George Ibars, Joel Kreiger, Nathan Kurland, Michael Lucas, Sue McConnell and Len Scinto, who will serve on the board with Glenn Terry and Antoinette Baldwin.

Joel Kreiger tied Keith Root for the final seat on the board, so as the last piece of business for the evening, five of the six members who had just won a seat on the board (one of them had left for the night) voted in a secret ballot and they chose Joel 3-2 to be the final board member.

Now the fun begins. According to Glenn Terry, who has control over the current board (with Antoinette), he will only approve of the new board if they sign a licensing agreement. The problem is, which came first the board or the agreement? If he doesn't approve of the board, what board is there to sign the agreement? And will they even agree to sign the agreement? At ths point the only person who could sign the agreement is Antoinette.

Antoinette gave her blessings and approval of the new board in advance, saying she would agree to a nine member board and to all who were voted in at last night's meeting.

Glenn is holder of the state and federal parade King Mango trademarks, he wants to offer a 33-year license to use the trademarks for the parade and for use of the corporate name. He said that if they don't want to do that, they should "just start a new parade with a new name and logo."

Glenn said, " I'm glad the Mangoheads are getting together to figure out ways to solve the problems of the Grove's great parade. I look forward to meeting with these folks. I also know we need to include new people and younger people in this group if we are to give the parade a bright future."

Many feel that he had no right to trademark and incorporate the King Mango Strut name and claim ownership when it is a Grove-wide entity and should not be owned by any one person. They feel that Glenn is prepared to make money on the Strut while they do all the work for free. They also feel that the Strut needs to become a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization in order to raise funds more effectively and not become a commercial entity.

And that is where the fuss all started a couple of years ago, and to this date there is a stalemate between Glenn and Antoinette. Hopefully the new board will fix things. If it is ever approved and allowed to be.