[TheForge] The Board Elections

Sun Aug 25 11:39:00 2002

   There are two ABANA Board elections. One is the election for the 
Board. The other is the election BY the Board of ABANA Board officers.  
The ABANA President (currently Doug Learn) makes appointments of the 
non-elected committee chairmanships (Such as Steigler at Publications). 
The office of President, Treasurer (Hightower), Secretary (Kagel) and 
the VP (Lankton) are elected by the Board.  This Board election of their 
fellow Directors puts a lot of responsibility on the general Board. 
 Hopefully, they will vote wisely in the future.

I believe that the Secretary of ABANA has announced bidding for the 
Central Office job in the current Anvil's Ring.  I trust that the 
bidding will be fair and open this time and that the bid criteria, and 
current costs to ABANA's membership, will be published for the entire 
membership to read.

The last time I raised the issue of bidding and the ABANA Board I failed 
to supply documentation as broadly as some folks wanted. I trust those 
same folks will now spend an equal effort going after the Board's 
explanation as they did trying to convince us that there was no issue at 
all......it's a character thing, eh?

In addition, I was incorrect as to the apparent cost to ABANA's members 
of the Board's actions.  I had cited about $6,000 a year in increased 
costs as opposed to the Board's claim of substantial savings.  In fact, 
it appears that the total which ABANA Board duplicity and politics 
appears to have cost the members, is about $13,000 a year (for three 
years) MORE than ABANA paid annually prior to Ms Steigler's claim of 
"substantial savings" -  "saved $25,000" - "saved $30,000"...(take your 
pick, they were all claimed in writing to justify dumping Jim McCarty.

This came  after Jim forwarded emails showing that Board members Dorothy 
Seigler [email protected]   and Clare Yellin  [email protected] 
were misusing their elected and/or appointed offices and the Board was 
asked to stop them).

Since former ABANA Board member Fiorini reversed himself and stipulated 
that he had indeed received and passed to Doug Learn, the McCarty bid 
(after denying it), the dike holding back the facts about ABANA Board 
members' unethical actions has sprung leaks.  While there is a 
staggering about of documentation and contradiction flowing now, to it 
must be added the question of; 

"why did the ABANA Board's web site publish a self-serving, censored 
version of the Board Minutes from the 2000 Flagstaff meeting for the 
membership?  Have we been lied to?"

Compare motion 10 on the ABANA site document to motion 10 of the copy 
which every then sitting ABANA Board member received (and you can 
download below).  Some of the names on the uncensored version are on 
this list........

If this is a concern to you, note the email documentation of the stated 
savings and then consider sending the Board an email and ask them to 
explain.
Perhaps the Treasurer of ABANA, Will Hightower [email protected] (the 
$60 an hour ABANA answer man), can resolve the conflict between his 
fiduciary duties to ABANA and his motion 10.
Perhaps Vice President Scott Lankton [email protected] (who burned the 
tape of the Publications part of a previous Board meeting) can explain 
how his seconding of the motion saved ABANA money.
Perhaps Dave Mudge [email protected] (ABANA Internet Chairman and 
erstwhile ABANA online spokesman) can explain the discrepancy between 
the published document on ABANA's site and the original copy of the 2000 
Flagstaff Board Minutes, hidden from the ABANA membership until today.
Perhaps  Secretary of ABANA Jerry Kagel [email protected] can explain why 
he told the 'losing' bidder that they were 'too late' when the Board 
records show a decision based on substantial savings, not time frames.
Perhaps ABANA President Doug Learn [email protected] can explain how a 
"$25,000 savings" 6 months earlier became "a bid too late" after Bill 
Fiorini handed him the bid?  Why did President Learn show the bid to 
ABANA Executive Committee (the Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) yet 
fail to show the bid from the rest of the Board?  

Do not take my word for any of this.  Check it out.
All of the original, unedited publication fiasco documents can be 
downloaded here:
(Copies are being sent to ABANA Affiliates for review and comment.)

http://www.members.aol.com/reformabana/abana_board_politics.pdf

This PDF opens on any computer and includes the unedited 2000 Flagstaff 
ABANA Board Meeting Minutes, side by side bid comparisons, related email 
from Board members, claims of savings and related documents.
The censored Board Minutes are still available at:

http://www.abana.org/downloads/board_meeting_flagstaff.pdf

It is long past time to  reform ABANA; clean up the Board, Publications 
and the Executive Committee.
The ABANA President, Doug Learn, has a serious issue to face, too bad 
that he appears to be part of it.

Respectfully,
George Dixon
ABANA Member
Former ABANA Board Member