Post by crazydima on May 22, 2006 16:24:28 GMT -5
Tovarischi,
Well since the BOD has not seen fit to pass along any details I thought it would be good to pass along this statement from Tim Scherrer regarding the actions taken by the BOD one month ago.
With Tim's permission I have posted his statement here. I guess these would be the gory details which our current pres wants to spare us from hearing.
"If you read the recently received copy of the Edge newsletter in the HRS, there is an editorial by Dave Fornell about the status of the HRS. In it he states “I will spare the membership the gory details of the bad politics that have been going on between board members and a couple of individual members over the last nine months.” Details do count, especially when you have had multiple resignations, an impeachment and removal from office, by law amendments pass, unannounced closed door meetings, and then an effective whitewash. Then again, how do you explain actions that are indefensible?
The situation as I understand it. This is what Dave Fornell wouldn’t tell you….
Randy Palmer was removed from office as President of the WWIIHRS in two closed door board meetings. These meetings occurred on 17 and 18 April 2006, and threw out of office a president, who ascended to the presidency after a vacancy was created. Randy was overwhelmingly elected to his position as Vice President. He was charged with seven offenses, and only 4 were supported in this closed door meeting, but even to this day Randy does not know which charges he was removed from office. I guess when you can’t defend your actions, you just hide them from public scrutiny and hope it goes away. Well, this one won’t.
During these same meetings, they also voted to boot me out of the HRS due to my founding of the HRS Commanders Reform Committee. You have already seen the fruits of the efforts of this committee, which accurate minutes of meetings being posted in the Edge and webpage, at least until last month. Openess of taking minutes allows the membership to see what the board is doing and voice opinions for or against it, as well as determine where their dues are going. They are critical for a democratic organization.
The attempt was made to remove me from the HRS in these closed door meetings on 17 and 18 April, and in the open meeting them on 20 April 06. In this open door meeting, unit commanders successfully argued that it is inherently unfair for a board to be able to charge, remove and then hear the appeal of a member’s status being taken away from them. Currently my status in the HRS is on appeal to unit commanders, but doing this ensures me staying in the HRS. I suspect they will delay this until they are all out of power and leave it to the next board. I can forward copies of my removal document to anyone who wants to see it. I have not received any official communication about this from the board minus my discharge charges prior to them voting on it, but I assume this is accurate as well since this was discussed in the board meeting.
Marilyn Fornell resigned from office after I impeached her on 4 charges, to include nepotism in the appointment of her son to the board, failing to do minutes while as secretary, .publishing a misleading email about doing coordination regarding insurance for my event, and publishing a personal attack in the Edge. The board, in their closed door meeting, voted down the charges, but has not announced they ever existed. Ms. Fornell made the smart decision and left the board and organization before having to face the appeal of those charges. If Dave Fornell voted on any of these votes, he committed nepotism himself.
Ken Thompson left office the treasurer’s office on 13 May. You can ask Ken his reasons, but knowing Ken, he was unlikely to compromise his integrity to work with a board who impeached a sitting president, and then attempted to whitewash it.
Both the by law proposals also passed with overwhelming majorities. Why this was not mentioned in the last Edge, I do not know, but having to work within my own by-law proposal as well as admit that the membership is for openness was a very unpalatable proposition considering the current actions of the board.
All of these things occurred out of sight of the membership of the HRS members, and they should be made aware of it. Removing the man elected to serve in the by laws from the presidency should not be swept under the table.
Issues within the HRS that require attention and reform:
-The current HRS board is broken and needs to be resolved. Only half the members of the board were elected to their positions, and none of the corporate board members were. The man claiming to be president ascending through a nomination of nepotism by his mother, and then through a closed door removal of the president, not even explained to date by the board to the member or anyone else. None of the corporate board members (Pres, VP, Sec, Treas) were elected. New elections should be held this summer for a term to go through the December of 2007.
-Audit of the organization’s books. It is standard procedure in not for profit groups to audit the books when a new treasurer is appointed. This documents the status of the organization’s finances between the two office holders. With the previous office holder departed, an audit is in order.
Additionally, I ask that these financial items be cleared up:
-The pay of the Edge editor. The pay has been called a stipend, which means the HRS could be liable for reporting their income. A failure to report pay could get the HRS into hot water with the IRS, and we could pay unnecessary fines. This may impact both the current and previous newsletter editors, who have received pay. This issue was being addressed by Randy Palmer when the board impeached him from the presidency.
-Exactly what $612.29 was spent on for the board meeting/ballot counting expenses listed for the 4th quarter of 2004? It is listed on page 2 of the October 2005 Edge . I am not sure how you can get to $612 to count ballots and have a board meeting. This seems very excessive and should be looked into. Any excessive funs should be recouped into the organization’s treasury.
-Exactly who received travel expenses, specifically the $205.54 listed in the 2004 year end accounting, page 3 February 2006? I have no problems with board members being reimbursed for expenses like office supplies, phone, but no one should be receiving any personal reimbursement. This money should be returned to the HRS account and spent in an appropriate manner. This issue was also being addressed by Randy Palmer when he was impeached from the office of President.
-Publishing of the Edge electronically: From what I can discern, the HRS spent about $9,000 on producing the Edge, including printing costs and mailing (see page 3 Feb 2006 the Edge). This is over 60% of the HRS’s annual budget. This money could be better spent on getting the HRS better insurance, or perhaps providing financial support to events, or even lowering membership fees.
A lower membership fee could be given to those who take the newsletter electronically, and those who do not have access to computers could pay the regular membership fee for mail delivery.
Publishing the Edge electronically could also lift any constraints on the size of the electronic publication, thus allowing more inputs from the units, much like we saw in the Point, the Edge’s predecessor.
-Elimination of the pay for the Edge editor: In an organization of over 600 members, why are we paying a newsletter editor? I know of several volunteers who would do this for free. This practice was started under Dave Fornell and continued with Mike Bollow. Paying the newsletter editor also creates problems with reporting income to the IRS, etc. Why pay for something we can get for free?
-Elimination of nepotism on the WWIIHRS board: Having multiple family members on the HRS board creates insurmountable conflicts of interest. Family crises can quickly become organizational crisis when it spills over into HRS business, such as a death, divorce or other illness. A by-law amendment needs to clearly state this is not how the HRS is to do business, versus dealing with the issue as conflicts of interest. No one living in the same household, or related either by blood or marriage beyond the first cousin level should serve on the board at the same time. Some of the serious issues the HRS has today can be traced to the problems associated with nepotism. It has to go.
-The Emergency Powers Act needs to be stricken. The HRS is not some Third World country on the verge of a coup, and there is virtually no business that would need to be conducted without input and oversight of the members. Over the course of two evenings in April a quorum of HRS board members impeached an elected president and attempted to kick me from the organization. These meetings were not announced to the members, and even to some of the board members. While it is unclear if the emergency powers act was invoked formally, it likely was used informally.
If a president can be kicked out of office in 24 hours, what rights do you have as a member if in a similar situation? Fortunately my appeal is being sent to the unit commanders for a vote, and I should have a majority to stay inside the organization without problem. I am told by other unit commanders who attended the open meeting later in the week that Dave Halseth argued against the appeal going to anyone except the board. What fairness is there in a process where you can be charged, removed and appealed by the same group of people?
Elimination of appointed Board members: All positions of the HRS board should be elected by the membership. No one should be appointed to the board by other board members. The nepotism that occurred on the board in February is an example of how this can go wrong.
Elimination of Two Year board terms: The two year board term is a failure. We have had 3 presidents and currently the office is open in 18 months. Board members should be accountable annually, and shorter terms would allow a quicker replacement for openings on the board.
Elimination of the requirement for a board member to approve by law changes: If you want to change how the board operates, you have to have someone on the board support your proposal. This is a conflict of interest. A member, with the support of other members, should be able to submit a by-law proposal to the organization to vote on. Having the group approve all changes to how it functions is not a good business practice.
Creation of a Russian Representative on the board: Russian reenactors should not be grouped into a category with everyone else. They are distinct and need representation on the board.
An apology be issued to Randy Palmer for being impeached: Randy was impeached on 17 April and removed from office on 18 April. Seven charges were presented against him, only 4 of which were supported in the secret meeting, To date there is no announcement, even to Randy, of the charges that he was impeached on, and no announcement of which board members voted for which charges. While this is promised as forthcoming, it has yet to be seen.
Randy was trying to clear up some financial issues, specially the pay/reporting of income for the newsletter editor, and the reimbursement issue for mileage when the board took action to remove him from office. These issues required some members of the board to release records, and instead he was impeached and removed from office without any announcement to the membership.
Summary: The WWIIHRS should be better organization than this. The sloppy business practices need to be cleaned up, and power of the board reduced significantly to return it to the members. The most recent rewrite of the by-laws gave considerably more power to the board and “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
If we want this to be a small reenacting club without all of these constraints, then we should drop the corporation status with the state of Illinois, and do business using the board’s whims. However, being a not-for-profit 503 c (4) requires the organization to do business a certain way to retain our tax free status. There are certain specified and implied tasks that have to occur for us to maintain this status.
I have been in this organization since 1983 and I started this reform movement last fall due to the problems I saw how it was ran. I did this seeking no personal return for it. I do not seek office and my desire is for a more professional, democratic, transparent, financially accountable and forward thinking group to be the premier reenacting body in the country. I have paid a personal price for this with the board trying to remove me from the HRS. That’s OK, because I would rather stand on principal than look the other way.
We have a great group that has been mired in problems caused by the board lacking oversight and having too much authority. I ask that you work with us to try and fixing these problems. I also ask that you find members inside your units willing to step up and serve the group using their leadership, insurance or financial expertise.
Greg Lee and David Jameson have volunteered to help in the interim until the next election. They are good honorable members who can help eliminate this mess the HRS has become. I also thanks Randy Palmer and Ken Thompson for their integrity in trying to reform the organization. They have paid a personal price for their efforts. More work needs to be done, and their efforts and sacrifices should not be ignored but used for more impetus.
Tim Scherrer
CO, 84th ID
WWIIHRS
Member of WWIIHRS Commander’s Reform Committee"
Of course folks will say that we are only getting one side of the story. Well at least we are getting some part of the story as opposed to no story from the BOD.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Dima
Well since the BOD has not seen fit to pass along any details I thought it would be good to pass along this statement from Tim Scherrer regarding the actions taken by the BOD one month ago.
With Tim's permission I have posted his statement here. I guess these would be the gory details which our current pres wants to spare us from hearing.
"If you read the recently received copy of the Edge newsletter in the HRS, there is an editorial by Dave Fornell about the status of the HRS. In it he states “I will spare the membership the gory details of the bad politics that have been going on between board members and a couple of individual members over the last nine months.” Details do count, especially when you have had multiple resignations, an impeachment and removal from office, by law amendments pass, unannounced closed door meetings, and then an effective whitewash. Then again, how do you explain actions that are indefensible?
The situation as I understand it. This is what Dave Fornell wouldn’t tell you….
Randy Palmer was removed from office as President of the WWIIHRS in two closed door board meetings. These meetings occurred on 17 and 18 April 2006, and threw out of office a president, who ascended to the presidency after a vacancy was created. Randy was overwhelmingly elected to his position as Vice President. He was charged with seven offenses, and only 4 were supported in this closed door meeting, but even to this day Randy does not know which charges he was removed from office. I guess when you can’t defend your actions, you just hide them from public scrutiny and hope it goes away. Well, this one won’t.
During these same meetings, they also voted to boot me out of the HRS due to my founding of the HRS Commanders Reform Committee. You have already seen the fruits of the efforts of this committee, which accurate minutes of meetings being posted in the Edge and webpage, at least until last month. Openess of taking minutes allows the membership to see what the board is doing and voice opinions for or against it, as well as determine where their dues are going. They are critical for a democratic organization.
The attempt was made to remove me from the HRS in these closed door meetings on 17 and 18 April, and in the open meeting them on 20 April 06. In this open door meeting, unit commanders successfully argued that it is inherently unfair for a board to be able to charge, remove and then hear the appeal of a member’s status being taken away from them. Currently my status in the HRS is on appeal to unit commanders, but doing this ensures me staying in the HRS. I suspect they will delay this until they are all out of power and leave it to the next board. I can forward copies of my removal document to anyone who wants to see it. I have not received any official communication about this from the board minus my discharge charges prior to them voting on it, but I assume this is accurate as well since this was discussed in the board meeting.
Marilyn Fornell resigned from office after I impeached her on 4 charges, to include nepotism in the appointment of her son to the board, failing to do minutes while as secretary, .publishing a misleading email about doing coordination regarding insurance for my event, and publishing a personal attack in the Edge. The board, in their closed door meeting, voted down the charges, but has not announced they ever existed. Ms. Fornell made the smart decision and left the board and organization before having to face the appeal of those charges. If Dave Fornell voted on any of these votes, he committed nepotism himself.
Ken Thompson left office the treasurer’s office on 13 May. You can ask Ken his reasons, but knowing Ken, he was unlikely to compromise his integrity to work with a board who impeached a sitting president, and then attempted to whitewash it.
Both the by law proposals also passed with overwhelming majorities. Why this was not mentioned in the last Edge, I do not know, but having to work within my own by-law proposal as well as admit that the membership is for openness was a very unpalatable proposition considering the current actions of the board.
All of these things occurred out of sight of the membership of the HRS members, and they should be made aware of it. Removing the man elected to serve in the by laws from the presidency should not be swept under the table.
Issues within the HRS that require attention and reform:
-The current HRS board is broken and needs to be resolved. Only half the members of the board were elected to their positions, and none of the corporate board members were. The man claiming to be president ascending through a nomination of nepotism by his mother, and then through a closed door removal of the president, not even explained to date by the board to the member or anyone else. None of the corporate board members (Pres, VP, Sec, Treas) were elected. New elections should be held this summer for a term to go through the December of 2007.
-Audit of the organization’s books. It is standard procedure in not for profit groups to audit the books when a new treasurer is appointed. This documents the status of the organization’s finances between the two office holders. With the previous office holder departed, an audit is in order.
Additionally, I ask that these financial items be cleared up:
-The pay of the Edge editor. The pay has been called a stipend, which means the HRS could be liable for reporting their income. A failure to report pay could get the HRS into hot water with the IRS, and we could pay unnecessary fines. This may impact both the current and previous newsletter editors, who have received pay. This issue was being addressed by Randy Palmer when the board impeached him from the presidency.
-Exactly what $612.29 was spent on for the board meeting/ballot counting expenses listed for the 4th quarter of 2004? It is listed on page 2 of the October 2005 Edge . I am not sure how you can get to $612 to count ballots and have a board meeting. This seems very excessive and should be looked into. Any excessive funs should be recouped into the organization’s treasury.
-Exactly who received travel expenses, specifically the $205.54 listed in the 2004 year end accounting, page 3 February 2006? I have no problems with board members being reimbursed for expenses like office supplies, phone, but no one should be receiving any personal reimbursement. This money should be returned to the HRS account and spent in an appropriate manner. This issue was also being addressed by Randy Palmer when he was impeached from the office of President.
-Publishing of the Edge electronically: From what I can discern, the HRS spent about $9,000 on producing the Edge, including printing costs and mailing (see page 3 Feb 2006 the Edge). This is over 60% of the HRS’s annual budget. This money could be better spent on getting the HRS better insurance, or perhaps providing financial support to events, or even lowering membership fees.
A lower membership fee could be given to those who take the newsletter electronically, and those who do not have access to computers could pay the regular membership fee for mail delivery.
Publishing the Edge electronically could also lift any constraints on the size of the electronic publication, thus allowing more inputs from the units, much like we saw in the Point, the Edge’s predecessor.
-Elimination of the pay for the Edge editor: In an organization of over 600 members, why are we paying a newsletter editor? I know of several volunteers who would do this for free. This practice was started under Dave Fornell and continued with Mike Bollow. Paying the newsletter editor also creates problems with reporting income to the IRS, etc. Why pay for something we can get for free?
-Elimination of nepotism on the WWIIHRS board: Having multiple family members on the HRS board creates insurmountable conflicts of interest. Family crises can quickly become organizational crisis when it spills over into HRS business, such as a death, divorce or other illness. A by-law amendment needs to clearly state this is not how the HRS is to do business, versus dealing with the issue as conflicts of interest. No one living in the same household, or related either by blood or marriage beyond the first cousin level should serve on the board at the same time. Some of the serious issues the HRS has today can be traced to the problems associated with nepotism. It has to go.
-The Emergency Powers Act needs to be stricken. The HRS is not some Third World country on the verge of a coup, and there is virtually no business that would need to be conducted without input and oversight of the members. Over the course of two evenings in April a quorum of HRS board members impeached an elected president and attempted to kick me from the organization. These meetings were not announced to the members, and even to some of the board members. While it is unclear if the emergency powers act was invoked formally, it likely was used informally.
If a president can be kicked out of office in 24 hours, what rights do you have as a member if in a similar situation? Fortunately my appeal is being sent to the unit commanders for a vote, and I should have a majority to stay inside the organization without problem. I am told by other unit commanders who attended the open meeting later in the week that Dave Halseth argued against the appeal going to anyone except the board. What fairness is there in a process where you can be charged, removed and appealed by the same group of people?
Elimination of appointed Board members: All positions of the HRS board should be elected by the membership. No one should be appointed to the board by other board members. The nepotism that occurred on the board in February is an example of how this can go wrong.
Elimination of Two Year board terms: The two year board term is a failure. We have had 3 presidents and currently the office is open in 18 months. Board members should be accountable annually, and shorter terms would allow a quicker replacement for openings on the board.
Elimination of the requirement for a board member to approve by law changes: If you want to change how the board operates, you have to have someone on the board support your proposal. This is a conflict of interest. A member, with the support of other members, should be able to submit a by-law proposal to the organization to vote on. Having the group approve all changes to how it functions is not a good business practice.
Creation of a Russian Representative on the board: Russian reenactors should not be grouped into a category with everyone else. They are distinct and need representation on the board.
An apology be issued to Randy Palmer for being impeached: Randy was impeached on 17 April and removed from office on 18 April. Seven charges were presented against him, only 4 of which were supported in the secret meeting, To date there is no announcement, even to Randy, of the charges that he was impeached on, and no announcement of which board members voted for which charges. While this is promised as forthcoming, it has yet to be seen.
Randy was trying to clear up some financial issues, specially the pay/reporting of income for the newsletter editor, and the reimbursement issue for mileage when the board took action to remove him from office. These issues required some members of the board to release records, and instead he was impeached and removed from office without any announcement to the membership.
Summary: The WWIIHRS should be better organization than this. The sloppy business practices need to be cleaned up, and power of the board reduced significantly to return it to the members. The most recent rewrite of the by-laws gave considerably more power to the board and “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
If we want this to be a small reenacting club without all of these constraints, then we should drop the corporation status with the state of Illinois, and do business using the board’s whims. However, being a not-for-profit 503 c (4) requires the organization to do business a certain way to retain our tax free status. There are certain specified and implied tasks that have to occur for us to maintain this status.
I have been in this organization since 1983 and I started this reform movement last fall due to the problems I saw how it was ran. I did this seeking no personal return for it. I do not seek office and my desire is for a more professional, democratic, transparent, financially accountable and forward thinking group to be the premier reenacting body in the country. I have paid a personal price for this with the board trying to remove me from the HRS. That’s OK, because I would rather stand on principal than look the other way.
We have a great group that has been mired in problems caused by the board lacking oversight and having too much authority. I ask that you work with us to try and fixing these problems. I also ask that you find members inside your units willing to step up and serve the group using their leadership, insurance or financial expertise.
Greg Lee and David Jameson have volunteered to help in the interim until the next election. They are good honorable members who can help eliminate this mess the HRS has become. I also thanks Randy Palmer and Ken Thompson for their integrity in trying to reform the organization. They have paid a personal price for their efforts. More work needs to be done, and their efforts and sacrifices should not be ignored but used for more impetus.
Tim Scherrer
CO, 84th ID
WWIIHRS
Member of WWIIHRS Commander’s Reform Committee"
Of course folks will say that we are only getting one side of the story. Well at least we are getting some part of the story as opposed to no story from the BOD.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Dima
The more I read the more this whole blowup seems even more ridiculous. I don't understand why a couple of people have such a beef while 800 more or less don't. I have never met Tim S. and only exchanged a couple of emails with Randy P. but it seems they brought these problems on themselves. They launched a major attack but there was a counter-attack. What do they expect? The attackers have seemed to have gotten what they wanted as Marilyn Fornell is out but there were some casualties and Randy P. took one for their team. This whole episode should die a quick death. There will be an HRS election this fall. We can let the voters decide then. Beating a dead horse has never accomplished much. Bury the horse, bury the hachet before the putrification process begins. I want to have fun while preserving history. This is not fun. This is just plain dumb.
