Give Dan Meier his job back

This is a petition to be sent to management committee of the Marcus
Jewish Community Center, in an effort to convince them that the
termination of Dan Meier is an error that should be reversed.

Dan has been employed at the JCC for some 18 years. In this time Dan has
worked tirelessly to promote the center and build the sports programs there.

Dan knows almost every kid by name. In the few days that he has not been
there, his presence is already sorely missed. Our view is that if the
MJCCA thinks they can replace Dan with an unknown entity that will be at
the Dunwoody branch 2 or 3 times per week, then this is a serious
miscalculation that dramatically diminishes the value that we as
customers receive.

He is a 19 year veteran with the JCC. He has put tremendous care in
building the youth program. Besides knowing every kid, he knows which
parents make good coaches and he knows who needs to be paired with whom.
He has always worked long term in the recruitment and selection of
commissioners and coaches. He aggressively promotes sponsors and makes
sure that in drafts that the different potential sponsors are spread
throughout the league so as to maximize sponsorship level. He knows
where the potential problems are going to be and heads the problems off
before it manifest itself. An example of this includes selecting out of
his network of referees the strongest ref for the game with the
potentially most difficult parent on the sidelines. Dan, unlike any of
his counterparts at the Center, on game day works the fields. He does
not stay in his office. He is engaged, active and involved. To many
kids and parents Dan IS the JCC.

We all would agree that one aspect of maintaining, and or growing a
program is the level of involvement of the volunteers. If the program
has a few very committed volunteers it will be successful. Over the
past years we have learned that involvement of volunteers is
proportional to the involvement of the individual being paid to run the
program. Dan Meier makes it easy to say yes to be involved. First,
and foremost he really does not give you a choice. When Dan calls you
tend to say yes. With Dan you know he is going to run a good program,
so it makes it easy to say yes.

Dan makes our child(ren) feel special and makes them want to enroll in JCC Youth programs.
The Youth program, being run by Dan, is a contributing factor in my family
maintaining our membership at the Center. Our sincere feeling is that without
Dan being at the Center, especially in light of his termination after 19 years
of service, the undersigned may consider all options including, but not limited to,
termination of membership at the Center.

We the undersigned are unhappy at Dans termination, and more so, by the timing and method.
Dans has given his heart and soul to the center, and its members, ... and it shows.
Its not that we cant afford to keep Dan.. we cant afford to lose him. This is not how we treat people.

We respectfully urge the MJCCA to reconsider its position, and to put
the human face of the MJCCA back where it belongs, and reinstate Dan Meier.