This open letter is to Michael Moran, the TCAN Board of Directors and Natick, hoping a disgraceful and un-supportable action will be reconsidered and corrected. Knowing folks on both sides well, I have sought insight regarding the Board vote to fire Michael.

I am sick of stories wherein folks, possessing the vision and gut-wrenching tenacity required to create something against all odds, get severed from their creations because the “money watchers” of the maturing organization can’t get along with the visionary. In start-up companies, at least, the founders generally go away with a pocketful of stock options or other tangible benefit. Here, the founder was just put on the street, unemployed.

Don’t waste time arguing: “It’s different when an organization assumes more obligations as they grow.” This is a given, not in dispute. What I find so distasteful is that this board and Michael have become so bereft of creativity and compromise that a bald termination is the best they could do.

The board is constituted of folks, some of whom date to the beginning and others who have contributed large sums, are politically active or skilled re: financial management or fund-raising. They must protect the organization’s viability. However, if the price is firing the person, without whom no Center would exist, that price is too high, period. The founder NEVER stops being special.

Michael, if you are so rigid that you won’t leave room for others to address important tasks the Center needs to thrive, I fear efforts by me or others are doomed to failure, since mature organizations need mature business practices to survive. There must be room for significant diversity in an organization dedicated to the arts, the most diverse arena of human creativity.

I beg both sides to step back and revisit this tragic error in judgment. I don’t want to have to wonder whether this organization is worthy of continued support. Everyone doesn’t have to like each other, but they do need to learn to share the sandbox nicely.