December 22, 2006
Dear Friends,
On November 29, 2006, Art Thompson sent out what appeared to be a desperate fundraising letter to JBS members. In it he made several statements clearly intended to deflect growing member concern. A number of individuals have asked us to respond in a general letter to what they perceive as inaccurate information. And, since Art’s letter contains so many fabrications, we are pleased to set the record straight.
In his letter, Art Thompson stated:
“Organizationally, we are making changes in ways to bring the Society back into line with Robert Welch’s wishes.
“We have expanded the Executive Committee (EC) back up to seven members. It had fallen to three Councilmen and Vance Smith by October 1st of last year. We have changed the bylaws back to what Mr. Welch wanted by having the Board of Directors in the EC rather than a Board made up of employees, as had been instituted in the 1990s.”
There are two very serious problems in this misrepresentation from Art Thompson: 1) Art is not telling the truth; and 2) Jack McManus, Nat Adamson, Glenn Schmitz, and other veteran members of the Council are doing and saying nothing when they know full well that what Art has written is misleading and un-true.
The truth is that the original JBS Board of Directors and Board of Incorporators were constituted by Mr. Welch, his wife, Marian, his secretary, and a few other intimate and trusted friends. Those boards were put together for the sole purpose of satisfying Massachusetts corporation laws only. Mr. Welch explained in The Blue Book, and to the members in various Bulletins, that the JBS succession procedures had to be handled by a carefully selected Executive Committee and Council, not by the corporate world “democratic processes.”
In 1986, a Council member, J. R. Smeed, convinced the members of the Executive Committee to vote themselves onto the Board of Directors. Thus, the period from 1986 through 1993 was the only time Executive Committee members wore the hats of Directors.
Executive Committee and Council members heard JBS general counsel, George Christodoulo, warn them in a 1993 Council meeting in Salt Lake City that a terrible mistake had been made. He explained that the Executive Committee, many of them heavy financial contributors, were leaving themselves open and vulnerable to lawsuits, if they acted as directors, and that the Society would do well to go back to the procedures originally put in place by Robert Welch — which, by the way, we did immediately.
Art’s letter states that they have changed the bylaws. Since no change in the bylaws was necessary to elect whomever they wanted, and, in fact, they have had Executive Committee members on their Board of Directors for many months, members should ask what were the REAL changes they made to the bylaws?
For example, under their new bylaws and their new practice, does not the Board of Incorporators, made up of employees, still choose the Board of Directors? And are these the same or different employees who now choose members of the Executive Committee? Can the B of I overrule the Council in appointing men to the Executive Committee?
Obviously, Art is trying to persuade members that he is responsive to the many concerns members have expressed regarding the mutiny he orchestrated last year, which subverted the established structure. But if Art were honest he would have to admit that the same mutinous employees who seized authority from the Executive Committee are still in charge. Instead, Art is offering members a smokescreen of falsehoods and distortions to cover up the fact that he and Jack still have no real accountability. Or have Jack McManus, Larry Waters, and John Fall given up their control of the Board of Incorporators?
Art boasts that there are now seven men on the Executive Committee and that there were only three, plus Vance, in October 2005. The truth is that there were seven members in early August of 2005. Then one passed away in August and another was subsequently removed for his role in helping to orchestrate a coup. After Art’s selected date of October 1, as I recall, another stepped down for business reasons. But absent the coup, all of them would have been replaced in the upcoming Executive Committee Meeting on October 29, 2005 in Orlando, Florida. The cited drop was very temporary.
So, the question is: Why did Art Thompson try to deceive the general membership? And why did the others sit quietly and allow him to do so? The answer is simple — because of the truth now being understood by so many of you about the terrible wrongs done to the Society in October 2005. It is obvious that they are all now on the defensive where they feel they must distort the truth in order to justify their wrongs. What a shame!
In his letter, Art also inadvertently highlighted the lack of leadership currently at JBS headquarters with his reference to the Society’s lame “Determination” packet. Art wrote, “The packet is a work in progress. Improvements will be made continually, both in content and direction as needs become apparent.”
For most of us, those apparent needs came into focus at first sight. Several downright factual errors should have been caught before they were printed. We understand that the printing bill for that packet was approximately $65,000. Add to that the postage, and the “Determination” packet had to have cost nearly $100,000.
Incredible! Imagine this kind of expense for a nearly worthless packet at the same time field Coordinators are being laid off! Some “work in progress.”
(As you know, the JBS members have been told for months of the great marketing strides forward engineered by their two new, highly paid marketing directors. Interestingly, they have now added one of those two directors to their ex-employee list.)
In addition, your Society’s top man made this comment in his November 29th letter, “Nor should you show videos to educate or entertain.” Art, we don’t show videos to educate? That is news to us. Most of us thought that showing videos and bringing speakers to our communities was done for the specific purpose of education and development of prospects.
There have been many changes at The John Birch Society during the past 14 months. One change that none of us thought we would ever see at JBS is a change in the basic slogan: “Truth is our only weapon.” Unfortunately, the present leadership and the present Council that support them can no longer see value in that great statement by Robert Welch.
Sincerely,
G. Vance Smith
Chief Executive Officer
Robert Welch University
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