Keeping the tradition vibrant!

Gilbert A. Smith

Why Does the Regime Not Have Numbers for the Impending University of Chicago Press Decision?
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Why Does the Regime Not Have Numbers for the Impending University of Chicago Press Decision?

Unless those who believe only the Business Session of ASALH owns the publishing issue win the day, the ASALH Executive Council is poised to make a decision on the University of Chicago contract proposal on Tuesday.  Despite having the basic proposal for nearly six months, the regime has not presented the board with the any financial information and analysis that should accompany a major decision.  At the Business Session of the 101st Annual Meeting, Gilbert A. Smith, our treasurer and a CPA, told the members they that the $100,000 per year was all profit, not simply revenue.  We have exposed that to be a lie, but since then neither he nor the committee headed by Sharon Harley has produced known expenses or a cost-benefit analysis. Although the council met in person last Friday and will vote on Tuesday, the editorial office expenses, including overhead, has not been represented to the decision makers–and the Chicago proposal makes clear it does not cover 100% of the publishing costs.  And nothing that looks like a cost benefit analysis of self-publishing versus going to Chicago has been produced.   Mind you, without such numbers two former presidents of ASALH, Robert Harris and John Fleming, have endorsed the move–somehow. This is not surprising giving ASALH’s history of making poor big decisions such as the purchase and sell of two headquarters buildings, the 14th Street property and Q Street. Given that this Association, founded by Carter G. Woodson, has self-published for a century and given that its journal is the oldest, scholarly journal in the black world–yes, the entire black world– you would think that due diligence would be done, that a sound basis for making a decision would be made.  One is left to speculate aloud about why due diligence is not being performed.  Why hasn’t it?  Your guess is as good as ours, but let me suggest a number of possibilities.

Why not Delineate the Expenses against the $100,000?

  • Revealing expenses will confirm that the original position that the Chicago money was all profit was a flat-out a lie?
  • Enumerated expenses will reveal that the promise that all members will receive free hard copies of the journal was a lie, too, or that keeping the promise will cost as much as $20,000 to $24,000?
  • Disclosed expenses might reveal a decision to eliminate office staff whose position would be made superfluous by the contract?
  • Reporting expenses would reveal an on-going overhead cost of $15,000 because it cannot be eliminated, reducing the revenue available after the deal?
  • Reporting expenses would reveal a decision whether to increase the editor’s salary $5,000 or not, which was the origins of the entire fiasco?
  • Fear that surplus revenue of $10,000 to $20,000 is not worth ending a century of tradition?  This begs the question of the cost-benefit analysis.
  • It would become clear that there would not be any money left to do all the wonderful things the for rest of the Association as the regime has suggested there would be.

Why not Prepare a Cost-Benefit Analysis?  Well, It Would Reveal the following:

  • We can make $200,000 over five years via self-publishing.
  • We will have a $55,000 Reserve Fund proffered by the Get Right with Woodson Campaign.
  • We can make more surplus revenue without eliminating a staff position.
  • That the if the Chicago contract proved unprofitable, our revenue might slide 50% in five years and cannot be replaced.
  • That it would cost us $20,000 or more to re-establish our self-publishing if necessary.
  • The opportunity cost for not self-publishing.  We could work with branches to place JAAH in primary and secondary schools, a place where Chicago cannot effectively market.
  • Would reveal that something other than our traditional values and money were behind this entire project.

Those Right with Woodson Believe in Data

For more information on the financial benefits of self-publishing. Despite the personal success of the folks who make our decisions, the collective failure of ASALH boards–past and present–reveals a fundamental shortcoming of our institutional life.  How tragic it is it that Carter G. Woodson, who viewed the lack business acumen of educated blacks part of their mis-education, has been plagued by the shortcomings he sought to eliminate.  It is almost as tragic as the organization’s losing its way on the question of self-determination.  None of this is right with Woodson, and those of us who disagree will either stop this move before it happens or clean it up in its aftermath.  Do know that the self-publishing tradition will prevail now or later.

A Telling Vote of Confidence for Treasurer Despite His Lying to Membership and Not Producing Financial Reports
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A Telling Vote of Confidence for Treasurer Despite His Lying to Membership and Not Producing Financial Reports

Much can be said about the Executive Council Meeting of February 24th, but the Regime is denying that the 102nd Business Meeting in Cincinnati has authority over the decision to self publish the Journal of African American History or take on the University of Chicago Press as our publisher.  Pretending that they still have the issue, they are ignoring the much more profitable self-publishing option made possible by the changes in JSTOR’s Current Journals Program.   Never mind that there is three times the profit is self-publishing.   Yet the truth about the superiority of self-publishing is not clear because the Regime is not interested in putting out a projection of the revenue versus expenses for going to the University of Chicago Press.  After more than four months since the 101st Annual Meeting, where Gilbert A. Smith represented $100,000 of revenue as profit, he has still not provided the math.  There still is neither a cost-benefit analysis or a set of expenses that will remain during the period of the proposed Chicago contract.   The latter takes perhaps more work than then regime cares to perform, but the latter is something that a head of household can produce.  If one did not know better, the board will vote to go to Chicago without numbers.

Why Not Present a Draft Report with Everything but the Trivial Amount?

We hear that the numbers are not definitive yet because the current expenses are not accurately known.  Gee, how did we get this far if the board has no handle on the numbers?  And Chicago is poised to make the deal even though it admits it does not have good numbers.  The numbers in question have to do with the current revenue and expenses for print subscriptions.  The other expenses are well known and make up the bulk of the expenses, indeed, the provisional numbers would only change the bottom line on print expenses by roughly 10% to 20%, or $600 to $1,200.  It all involves whether we ship out print an additional 30 or 60 customers.  It is a trivial expense.  Some might call it akin to spoilage.

What Reason or Reasons Would There Be to Not Presenting a provisional Draft?

Well, there is no good reason since the report would be between 98% and 99% accurate.   The problems are twofold.

  1. Such a report would demonstrate that the Chicago Proposal is almost $200,000 less profitable over five years than self-publishing.
  2. It would be also be the proof that Gilbert A. Smith, CPA, misrepresented revenues as profits–in a very major way.

Those who believe in self-publishing produced a comparative report using the same base of data.

Despite This Failure to Do Due Diligence, the Executive Council Gave Him a Vote of Confidence

The Executive Council revealed itself once again more concerned about being on the best terms with one another regardless of how the membership, the legislative body, has been lied to as it was in Richmond.  Never forget that Gilbert A. Smith told the standing-room only crowd at the 101st Business Session that $100,000 in revenue would be profit.  Clearly taking issue on my blog and social media posts about the treasure’s mischaracterization of the $100,000, a board member called for a vote of confidence in the treasurer.   Gilbert easily won the vote–imagine that–despite never addressing the issue of revenue and expenses!  And the board was aghast that roughly a quarter of their members–mostly new–voted no confidence.

Hope for the Future as the Board Is Changing Before Our Eyes

The board was audibly surprised and upset by the number of new board members who were not on board with the sell out.  The truth is, you cannot get many people to sign on to the sell out.  Indeed, I was surprised at a couple of people who put their sympathy for Gilbert A. Smith above his role in lying to the membership by knowingly calling revenue profits.  Yet, everyone on the board should know that they are at odds with the membership on this question.  And Chicago should take note.  The people selling out tradition will be sent packing from the board.  Too many of these folks are here to be self-important at our Annual DC Black History Luncheon.  That becomes clearer every year.

 

 

Self-Publishing, Self-Love, and $250,000
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Self-Publishing, Self-Love, and $250,000

The Regime’s effort to take our century-old Journal of African American History to the University of Chicago (Bae) is once again in trouble.  Other than money, the Regime could never point to any reason to go to Chicago except the pleasure of the esteemed press’s company.  Sharon Harley virtually said there was nothing in the deal for Chicago, except what they thought of us and our Journal of African American History.  It was beyond money.  That never satisfied many ASALHites since we have always loved ourselves and been wary of suitors promising things in return for control.  We have believed in the Woodson tradition of having a platform from which we could speak the truth about our past without a concern over whether someone would moderate what we publish.  Sensing that the love, trust, and belief in some other  entity, especially that university where White City used to stand, would not sway the rank and file of ASALH, the Regime resorted to the claim that revenues were profits.  Oh, we were told in our 101st Business Session that we were being wooed with money and free journals.  Oh, yes, there would be $100,000 in profits and a free journals in every mailbox.   Some of us knew better, but why would a certified pubic account, Gilbert A. Smith, simply lie like that?  And they had lots of folks fooled–including a number of retired former leaders who have been lobbying for the sell out.  (More appropriately, they are trying to stage a love out. T’aint no money in it.)

JSTOR Drops a Game Changer for Self-publishers

For months those of us opposed to the move have argued that the journals are currently as profitable as the Chicago offer, especially when the journal’s remaining expenses are charged to it and when the price of the so-called free journals are added.  Their Bae, we knew, has made no such promise.  They don’t love ASALH like that.  It’s about future positive revenue for them, and they will only spend so much in pursuit of it.  We also put $55,000 on the table for a reserve fund against future revenue decreases until we could put the journal on more stable financial footing.  These prudent measures had no effect on the love outs on ASALH Executive Council.  Functioning like a regime, they continued their plans to love out, ignoring our legal assertion that because there was still a motion on the floor of the Business Session.  Their contention remained that only the Executive Council had the authority to make the decision, and yet they knew their power over the council was waning.  New members had been elected precisely to stand for self-publishing.   We were poised to slog it out in today’s Executive Council meeting just like that, then JSTOR dropped a bomb.

The Short Version of the JSTOR New Journal Program and the Numbers

In response to the University of California Press and the University of Chicago Press both leaving their Current Scholarship Program, JSTOR is ending it.  It was predicated on a 25% charge for marketing and other services.  To keep new scholarship alive and flowing into its main product, their archive, JSTOR has decide to function purely as a journals host.  This will save ASALH over $20,000 a year.  The effort to secret this program from the Executive Council failed, and now it is manifestly clear that self-publishing is a better financial move than going with the University of Chicago Press.

2018 Self-Publishing versus Chicago Revenue Promise minus In-House Costs

 

The financial outcomes of self-publishing get better in 2019 as we are able to reduce our costs because we are self-publishing.  Some of the expenses associated with VP Franklin’s unique editorial style and the creep from 600 to 800 pages per volume can be remedied.  This can be done not by cutting articles published but by reducing front and back matter, publishing reviews digital only, and ending the unnecessary indexes not needed in the digital age.

 

Where Is the Due Diligence of the Regime?

The regime enters the Executive Council meeting today without having provided the members of the board any of the things associated with such a major change in operations.  We have been self-publishing for a century–a hundred plus years–and none of the following has been proffered to justify the move.

  • No cost benefit analysis
  • No history of expense-revenue reports that are produced quarterly.
  • No face-to-face meeting with the proposed publisher.
  • Chicago, the regime says, was given the charge of handling our affairs with JSTOR, their competitor.   At best, this was incompetent and a violation of the board’s fiduciary responsibility.

We have heard rumors that the University of Chicago Press representatives might appear in person, but we have heard conflicting rumors that they will at best Skype in.  We believe it will be the latter because there is not any money in this for Chicago.   As I have written elsewhere, this contract for Chicago represents an effort to control a catalogue of intellectual property and build an archive.  The efforts to sell back tiles to existing customers stands virtually little chance to let them make of their $100,000.

Time to End This Time-Consuming, Pride-Driven Love Out–Take the $250,000 Advantage in Self-Publishing

The opportunity to end this mess is before the Executive Council.  A vote to go to Chicago will be challenged in court, if necessary.   Not only would it be a violation of fiduciary responsibility, it would also run counter to the motion on the floor of the 101st Business Session that forbids the board from ending self-publishing without the permission of the Business Session.

A year is along enough to make a case for ending self-publishing.  The Regime has not even attempted due diligence.  They have nothing.  Gilbert A. Smith has misrepresented revenue as profits, and he has not adduced any expenses against the $100,000 for anyone to explore because it would be an admission that he lied.  Remember, the good CPA reported that the Chicago money was all profit.

We have a $55,000 reserve fund added to positive revenue over five years that approaches $200,000.  This is a $250,000 advantage to self-publishing.

The opposition needs to lobby the fence sitters, and put a motion on the floor the charge the Executive Director of ASALH to sign the contract proffered by JSTOR for the Current Journals Program.

President Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s Alternative Facts for ASALH Branch Presidents
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President Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s Alternative Facts for ASALH Branch Presidents

 

It is never becoming for historians to enter into the world of historical fiction, and it is wholly destructive for them enter the world of alternative facts.  Yet when we get caught in modern-day controversies and are actors as well as scholars, the need to defend untenable positions can lead even the best scholars astray.  This has happened in the case of Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham as she responded to my letter to the branches.  Her letter is filled with misrepresentations and even alternative facts to justify her position that the Executive Council still has the authority to make a decision on the future of the Journal of African American History.  Moreover, she wants to erase or soften the debacle of the 101st Business Session, where we were lied to and disenfranchised for the sake of selling out our history of publishing Woodson’s journal.  Mind you, she never explains why we have to cease our self-publishing after a century.  It is not money, so it must be status.

I Reassert, Revenue Was Represented Falsely as Profits

In my letter, I argued that Gilbert A. Smith flat-out lied about the University of Chicago Proposal.  He said repeatedly that the $100,000 promised by Chicago was profit,  not revenue.  How silly.  Just because someone says you can do what you want with money they give you does not make it profits.  You do not have to be a certified public accountant to know that if you have obligations to pay, it isn’t profits.   What alternative world is the President trying to construct?  As long as the journal has significant bills to pay–and there are tens of thousands of them to be paid from the $100,000, then the money is not profit.

Indeed, Evelyn and VP Franklin both say so themselves in post-meeting statements.  After the 101st Annual Meeting, VP Franklin sent out an email in which he said part of the $100,000 would be spent on Journal expenses.  In his words:  “In light of the proposals submitted to publish the JAAH, there was no need to continue to ‘self-publish’ since the university press would cover publication expenses and guarantee an annual income to ASALH to cover all of the editorial expenses in producing the JAAH.”  VP was utterly honest about this.  In the letter to the branch members, Evelyn states “It is not fair to V.P. Franklin, now on a retiree’s income, to spend his own money on the Journal.”  So, indeed, the money is not profit as Gilbert told everyone.

So profits were not profits, they were revenue.  Gilbert A. Smith is not only a Christian gentleman associated with the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  as Evelyn of Harvard states in her letter, he is also a Certified Public Accountant who had and has a fiduciary responsibility to report profits as profits and revenue as revenue.  To suggest he did otherwise in front of 250 witnesses is to promote an alternative fact.  When a CPA represents revenue as profit to a legislative body, he is lying about the business proposal.  Revenue reported as profit is an alternative fact.  The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2003, which requires disclosure of financial information to decision makers does not allow alternative facts.  Rather than taking the treasurer to task for misleading the people, our president is painting him as a victim.  For reasons of status they are dedicated to ending a century of independent black publishing.

(And let us not lose sight of the fact that VP Franklin will only edit the journal one more year, so this should be a non-factor.  Others are willing to edit the journal  without compensation from ASALH.)

After Promising a Journal in Every Mailbox, the President Prepares to Renege or Go Broke

In my letter, I pointed out that the Gilbert A. Smith and Sharon Harley promised that if JAAH goes to the University of Chicago, the members of ASALH would all receive a hardcopy of the journal.  In her long response, Evelyn gives the impression that everyone will get a hardcopy of the journal, then suggests everyone read a letter from Sharon Harley written after the October 6th Business Session and sent out.  That letter silently breaks faith with the promise by saying in effect that everyone will not get a copy of the journal as she, Gilbert, and VP Franklin all promised in the meeting.  Instead only life members and branch members will get copies.  This may go over well with branch members, but what of the graduate students and the regular members who were sold a bill of goods by the president, the treasurer, the journal editor, and the publications committee chair?

It is rather clear that the regime, feeling the pressure from the business meeting, went beyond what they had planned in giving away journals.  Indeed, in the handout to the membership, Sharon Harley stated that Chicago would pay for all eligible members to receive a hardcopy of the journal.  Mind you, the University of Chicago proposal makes no such promise, so any journals received would be paid for out of that $100,000.   Chicago charges members $20 for hardcopies.  Not knowing the facts, she puts it at 500, which would cost ASALH $10,000 out of the $100,000.  The cost to meet the current promise would be roughly $28,000.  And the cost to meet the big promise made in the Business Session would be $44,000.

 

Shortly after the meeting, having pandered to the unwashed, disenfranchised membership of ASALH–the legislative body–of our organization, the leadership of the sellout started to walk back the promises.  Here is a link to the Harley document, sent to all the members.  In her letter to the branch leadership, she attached that post-101st Annual Meeting letter. Here is an excerpt:

The Chicago Proposal makes no such promise of free journals to anyone, so all of these journals will be paid for will come from the $100,000 of revenue.  Mind you, ASALH now provides this to members as we self-publish.  This means that the financial advantage of selling out shrinks by $20 with each journal given away.  Indeed, if the promise made to the membership is kept, then there is no financial advantage of going to Chicago and we would make more money by continuing to self-publish.

The President Misrepresents My Seconded and Debated Motion to Deny It Is Controlling and that the Executive Board Must Now Yield to the Members on This Issue

At the 101st Business Session, the motion I put on the floor was the ASALH to cease and desist in any and all efforts to let any other firm publish our scholarly journals.  That motion was seconded and debated but a vote was refused.  The president did not say the motion was out of order–and that matters when you are following Roberts Rules of Order, and she had her paid parliamentarian there.  Here she is trying to construct an alternative fact by altering the motion I put forward.  By claiming that my motion was to break or end an existing contact, she trying to construct an alternative fact.  You see, if my motion concerned a non-existing contract then it could be ruled out by a point-of-fact violation of Roberts Rules of Order.  This is what she is suggesting happened.  By putting an alternative fact in my mouth for my motion, she is trying to change the narrative so she can say she ruled it out for good reason.  But, that, too requires another alternative fact–my motion was never objected to before it was seconded and discussed.  Indeed, we discussed it for more than thirty minutes before she pulled the plug for other reasons.  Below is her material alteration of the motion I made.

 

The Most Disturbing Part of These Misrepresentations

What I find most disturbing about the president’s response to my letter is that she writes as if no branch leaders witnessed the spectacle.    The presidents of the South Florida Branch, the Tampa Branch, the Jacksonville Branch, the Chicago Branch, the Detroit Branch, the Julian Branch, the Manasota Branch, and others were all there.  There were innumerable branch members and general members, numbering some 250 people.  Many of you and your members know that $100,000 in revenue was called profit.  Everyone heard the promise that all members–all members–were promised a hard copy.  And you saw the President of ASALH–after my “cease and desist motion” was properly read, seconded, and discussed for more than half an hour was refused a vote.  The motion was not called out of order.  No, we were told that the Executive Council, not the Business Meeting, could make this decision.  And not a mumbling word was heard about Associate Members–and if the president knew anything about ASALH she would know that there are less than a dozen associate members out of 2,200 or more members!  This is a scam on the scale of the Republican claims of a tainted voters pool.

The Petty Claims in President Higginbotham’s Letter

I won’t spend but a moment on the petty claims that act as filler in the President’s effort to deny that the members now legally own the outcome of the self-publishing issue.  Higginbotham is ultimately responsible for having the police sicced on me at the 101st Annual Meeting but she poses as a victim because I said she had done nothing worth talking about before becoming president.  She made no significant contribution and she nor anyone else would dare list one.  It would be another alternative fact.  Her lack of experience is why she does not understand that there will be mailing cost that ASALH has to pay if the journal goes to Chicago.  While Chicago will ship the journal, books and manuscripts in various stages of preparation are shipped, often by federal express, to and from the editorial office to headquarters.  This high-priced mailing costs about in the $2,000 range.  Had the president not rejected my offer to head the publications committee when I was president, she might know that.  Enough of the petty.

We Are Not Deterred, the Decision Legally Belongs to the Business Session in Cincinnati

We will stick to our guns.  Gilbert A. Smith should be recalled for lying to the membership gathered in the Business Session for representing revenue and profits, and thereby grossly misrepresenting the financial advantage of going to the University of Chicago.  And we note for the record that Gilbert A. Smith did not speak up to refute my claim.  He knows he is in deep.  More importantly, the decision on the Chicago Proposal and any proposal from a publisher cannot be acted on until that 102 Business Session meets in Cincinnati.  We will remain strong and firm, and yes we will go to court if necessary.  We will not be disenfranchised, and unless it is the will of the membership in session, we will not break faith with our founder.  And there is certainly no financial reason to do so.  Under separate cover, I will show how the journal can be more profitable self-published rather than published by Chicago.

The Essence of the Big Lie to the Legislative Body of ASALH Laid Bare
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The Essence of the Big Lie to the Legislative Body of ASALH Laid Bare

big-lie-merged-with-bare

 

When $100,000 is Represented as Profits by Professionals to the Legislative Body of ASALH

After not sharing and misrepresenting the University of Chicago proposal to the Executive Council for months, the leadership of the effort to sell out the self-publishing tradition took their show on the road.  At the 101st Annual Meeting of ASALH in Richmond, before the Business Session, which functions constitutionally as our legislative body, the membership waited with much anticipation.  After all, the day before, hotel security had been called to thwart me from challenging the effort to end self-publishing, and it resulted in pictures of me being circulated and Richmond’s finest being called to the scene.

The two hundred plus members of our legislative body were  regaled with almost two full hours of presentations by the ASALH President, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, the Treasurer, Gilbert Smith (CPA), and the Publications Committee Chair, Sharon Harley.  We were told that the prospective move to Chicago was not being done for money, but it would be profitable.  Yes, profitable.  We were told that there would be profits of a $100,000 or more each year to do many of the things we needed but lacked the money for.  The treasurer, Gilbert Smith, laid it on heavy, telling us about his experience and credentials.  He holds a MBA, he said, and is a CPA.  And he told us we would have profits, not simply revenue.  No one in the know corrected him and later he would correct no one himself.  Certainly the highly credentialed professional knows the difference between profits and revenues the way historians know the difference between primary and secondary sources.  And yet he represented revenue as profits.   Now that we have the University of Chicago Proposal, let’s take a snapshot look:

the-money-clip-from-uncp-proposal

 

Lookie there, Chicago’s proposal calls it income, not profits.  And lookie there, Chicago says that $45,000 will be earmarked for paying the editorial office.  Say what?  Expenses will be paid from it.  Lord, we have to subtract to find our profits, if any.    Now, clearly Chicago knows, like I know from having done this work for thirteen years, that those expenses are roughly $45,000 for the payment of salaries and stipends.  But that does not include funds for everything including the thousands we pay in shipping materials and books to the editor.  It does not include changes made in our accounting where a greater percentage will be charged to the editorial office.  And it does not include increases in healthcare costs.  That estimate of $45,000 is probably off by $10,000 when all is said and done.  So here we are at $55,000 in spending money.   Just in case anyone is confused, here Chicago represents expenses as expenses again:

second-money-clip-from-uncp-proposal

A Free Printed Journal in Every Mail Box?

In her presentation before the Business Session of ASALH (our legislative body remind you), Sharon Harley told us that Chicago just adores us–just loves our journal–that they were not trying to profit.  They just want to be close to us.  Our publisher, so that we can benefit from the pleasure of their partnership.  They were generous people at the University of Chicago.  So generous were they that along with our $100,000 in “profit” we were going to receive hard copies of the journal again.  All members, all 2000 or so of us, would receive free hard copies.  Oh this would be an advantage that might ease giving up a century of self-publishing.  Indeed, today, we provide hard copies to life members and some branch members but others must pay $20.  In total, we probably ship 700 to 800 hard copies to members, leaving more than a 1,000 without them.  This is indeed the origins of our profit of roughly $30,000 a year.  Other members get digital only.  Well, this proposal would give us all hard copies, all of us.  It was this promise from Sharon Harley that sent the room thinking that maybe selling out ain’t so bad, after all.  But low and behold, the Chicago Proposal makes not a mention of a hard copy in every mail box.  The only promise is for a digital copy, just like now as we self-publish.  No worse,  there is no provision even to service our life members with the hard copies we have been promised:

member-benefits-in-chicago-proposal

With there being no promise of a journal in every pot, then ASALH would have to pay for that out of what is left of the $100,000.  Now Chicago charges members of associations $20.00 for the hard copies that they print and ship to mail boxes.  (Their charge is the same as ours.  Gee, I wonder why that is–maybe it has to do with costs?)  With 2,000 members that means that the cost would be approximately $40,000.

Folks, there is less money in going to Chicago than there is staying at home.

Any school kid can do the math now.  With $95,000 in expenses, there is not much money here to sell out about.  I won’t even deal here with the misrepresentations of our current self-publishing finances.  I will leave that for later.

The Fiduciary Trust Has Been Broken

The fiduciary responsibilities of an Executive Council and an organization’s legislative body are awesome.  How could our leadership come before our legislative body and misrepresent the Chicago Proposal?   There must be a reckoning for officers of an association who misrepresent the truth of a proposal to the membership.  Worse still, the business session is the legislative body, so they have misrepresented financial information to decision makers.  This is a violation of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. This cannot stand.  More later.