You know I couldn't just leave the issue alone, so I responded to the comments in the "open forum" for people talking about my "view" of OBGC games. They ran it in last week's Gazette.

This time I received an email from the executive director of OBGC in response. Tell me if this letter reads like somewhat of a threat or am I just paranoid?

Hello Maggie,

It was nice meeting you at Sonya's Silpada Party last night. She is a good friend and from what I understood, you are a new member of the neighborhood - congratulations. I believe we may have also met at Beth Sterling's Triathlon party several months ago.

We have been concerned about not hearing back from you after our Chairman attempted to communicate with you directly regarding issues you raised in an email sent to the club, while at the same time it was being sent to the Gazette. It would be helpful to better understand your intent of not responding to us directly and only communicating in a public forum. I wanted to be fair and let you know that given the new public letter you sent to the Gazette, we will need to respond. As many members have commented, it is again unfortunate that an organization that takes great pride in its children's programs and activities, is subject to public comment without being able to open a simple line of communication with the complainant.

In addition to the "Contact Us" information listed on our web site, I wanted to again send you my direct e-mail address and phone number, so you can formally share your concerns. Please do not hesitate to continue to share you thoughts and concerns and we are happy to speak with you directly so I can help clarify any misunderstandings in the future.

Thanks,

Elisabeth Deal
Executive Director

Which part of this doesn't she understand that this isn't about me making a complaint to OBGC; it's making a point about their code of conduct? Isn't it a given that if you're a big organization you will be subject to public comment?

It's not that I even care about the issue that much; I just couldn't help pointing out how their policy doesn't exactly encourage people to file complaints.

And--yikes--how do you like the "just wanted to let you know we will need to respond" part--is it just me or does that smack of a scenario where I pick up the phone and someone, in a garbled voice, says "I'm warning you--you better just leave it alone and stop the public comments or else."?

Hey, it's a free country. And now that the woman at my kids' school who embezzled $30,000 is in jail and the big neighborhood adultery scandal that dominated the gossip mill all summer has gotten old, people need something else to gossip about.