October 25, 2006
Arthur Thompson, CEO
John F. McManus, President
The John Birch Society
P.O. Box 8040
Appleton, WI 54912
Dear Gentlemen:
Art, I have your October 17, 2006 response to my letter, and it pleases me no end that you received my letter with such “great pleasure.”
I’m also tickled you’ve kept such close tabs on my Council meeting attendance, which started in 1986. Yours started, I believe, in 1998 or was it in 1999? So, I guess it makes sense that we didn’t see each other at the meetings.
And, as you know, health reasons have kept me from attending in recent years. But living in Appleton has me at a great advantage because I could see close up how well the Society was being led. I didn’t need to travel great distances to know that I had confidence in the JBS leadership.
I must object, however, that I do well know the procedures — perhaps far better than you do. When Ron Bennett of the Council requested the kind of information requested of you in my letter, I was happy to comply. But, of course, I had nothing to hide.
It is not enough to say that you share the data with members of your re-constituted Executive Committee. That is not accountability. I received a June 3rd listing of Council Members from you that identified a reconstituted Executive Committee. Were those changes approved by the Council? If not, who approved them? I received a copy of a recent email from you to a member of the staff in which you alleged that the June 3rd listing was wrong. If so, who is really on the Executive Committee?
My requests were not only for myself, but for all members of the Council, including those like myself who, for health reasons, cannot always attend meetings. Your unilateral decision more than a year ago to orchestrate a mutiny in order to force a leadership change at JBS has caused enormous disruption. Although we hear repeated claims that the morale of home office employees has never been better, how has this turmoil affected the members in the field, where it counts?
I believe we deserve to know if any of your chest-pounding promises have been accomplished and what price has been paid for the revolution you led.
Jack, my letter was to you as well as Art. As you well know, Art could not have pulled off his revolution without your cooperation. It was you who abused your trust as an influential Incorporator to strip the Executive Committee of its authority and seize power for yourself. Your action violated the well-established succession process established by Robert Welch.
Simply cloistering yourself in your home in Massachusetts does not excuse you from responsibility for the damage done by Art and his Appleton lackeys during the past 12 months. We deserve to have an accounting from you as well.
I look forward to a complete and accurate report to myself and all the Council members without delay.
Sincerely,
G. Allen Bubolz
JBS Council Member (March 1986)
copies: all JBS Council Members
P.S. For serious health reasons, I am unable to attend the meetings this weekend in Raleigh and I wish to be excused.
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