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But I do ask that you continue to push hard to have anyone that has a conflict of interest removed from the board of directors.

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Hi TT:

That's our position as well. It will be very difficult for us to support the PPA until this is resolved.

Best wishes,
Mason

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For clarity are you asking for no industry representation or a majority of "player" representatives? I would have thought that the later - with an elected board would be sufficient.

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TT & Mason,

I agree with Richas here. Although any industry reprentatives are going to be subject to a conflict of interest, I think the strictest standard of only accepting player reps on a board totally elected by members is not necessary or feasible. This is as long as those reps are clearly being named as such, consitute a minority of the board, and also don't have direct conflicts to do with other forms of gambling, like online sports or casinos companies. I don't want such industry interests to dominate the PPA, but I also don't think that they shouldn't have any place at the table. This is especially the case as a lot of the members of the PPA would probably vote for such persons who have a lot of name recognition.

However as noted above, those persons need to clearly state who they are representing, instead of trying to maintain the fiction that a writer for CP magazine isn't a representative of CP. Thus I would think Allyson Jaffrey Schulman, who is also an attorney, would be a legitimate member of the board, as she does have something to contribute, and also will clearly be seen as a rep of CP, and thus indirectly the sites that advertise with them.

The reality is that the PPA would most likely not be able to conduct elections for members of its board from its total membership, as only a small majority of same would actually be interested enough to vote or assign a proxy. A system where the board is partially self-chosen for a minority of the board, and the rest elected by state chapters by region or something similar, is probably going to the best that is practical.