I returned to the Island just after the Yard article appeared in the Christmas Eve edition of the Gazette.

As an Island creditor owed $18,000 by the Yard, I have been on the receiving end of a dismissive response to both my concern for Wendy Taucher — who did not leave but was asked to resign and when she refused to do so was fired — and my concerns about repayment.

My overall concern goes deeper than this lapse of respect.

For the record, Ms. Taucher was not paid this year for her work.

Ms. Taucher has fronted the Yard for five years and I think we can all agree she did a wonderful job as her allocated title demands; she turned the Yard into a thriving arts center quite in keeping with her wide–ranging vision and that of its founders, fulfilling all expectations.

When the post of the last executive director was vacant, the board could not afford another executive and Wendy took on many of those responsibilities alongside her creative duties.

The report in the Gazette states that the executive director’s salary was $58,000 in the year 2008. Why one year should be singled out is unclear.

Firing Wendy before the end of the season was a cruel and ill-advised decision.

The board’s treatment midseason of a highly respected professional was to cut off her mobile phone (provided by them), close off access to her work by removing her computer and forbid her from entering the Yard’s premises and communicating with any of her staff and colleagues.

This after five years of loyal service.

The manner in which Wendy was severed overnight from her position appalled many of us who have coproduced with Wendy, donated or loaned monies to the Yard and enjoyed its growth over the years.

Severing Wendy without a fair hearing, without giving her access to the financial records which clearly demonstrate her substantial contributions to fund-raising during her tenure, was premature.

At the end of the summer, the public and the Yard’s contributors as well as the performers are high on the wave which accompanies a successful season.

This is when Wendy’s persuasive abilities come to the fore and she is able to take advantage of the positive climate to raise money before the season shuts down.

And Wendy always managed to take her energies to her New York connections, continuing to raise money through the winter months.

We have lost the best artistic director the Yard ever had.

Ms. Taucher’s ability to raise money — she solicited funding from private individuals as well as through arts council grants — her connections in the arts world internationally as well as in the U.S. and her intuitive and intellectual grasp of contemporary and arcane theatre, opera and dance resulted in a widely expanded repertoire we were all so grateful for at the Yard.

Was she adequately supported and rewarded by her board?

Returning to the subject of unpaid Islanders, I was contacted by the Yard’s treasurer just before I left the Island in October who confirmed that bankruptcy was “one of several options the trustees were considering.”

She asked whether I would be prepared to convert my loan of $18,000 to a donation.

This is one way to write off the debt, but $18,000 pays several months board for my horses, or a year’s university education for my daughter in Australia.

No, I will not defer my loan.

There are many questions that the trustees should be made to answer. They are running a nonprofit, which both serves our Island and depends on the faith and good will of its people. No business can function optimally where there is loss of attentive governance or trust in the community.

The running of the board should be our overall concern, and it is critical that the Yard not lose its hard gained status in the arts world.

In England we have a public enquiry into these sort of conundrums. I am not sure what the U.S. equivalent is here, but somehow the latest fund-raising plea to the public to raise money to pay off the public seems ill-advised without more information.

Many supporters of the Yard feel that financial advisors or consultants should be brought in and that Wendy Taucher should be reinstated.

Her dismissal does not solve the financial obligations of the trustees and bodes ill for the artistic integrity of a much-loved institution.

The Yard board will be hard pressed to find a replacement.

But taking responsibility is an absolute must.

Francesca Kelly lives in West Tisbury