May 4, 2007
Dear Dr. Leithart,
I recently received a copy of an email that you wrote to some dedicated and deeply concerned JBS members who had asked for your support in requesting a financial audit at JBS. Even though you asked that the letter not be forwarded to any of us affiliated with RWU, good people are compelled to pass their correspondence along when they do not feel they are getting their inquiries answered thoroughly enough. Since you are relatively new to the Council, I have volunteered to write you and, again, seek answers and clarification.
The request was simple — an audit “…needs to be performed. Now that so much time has elapsed, you need not only to audit the year before the change in leadership, but you now should also audit the performance of the JBS since the change in Oct of 2005. This needs to be a full audit, not just a performance review or compilation of records.”
This is a justified request. It would not matter if Allen Bubolz or Wayne Rickert or Jeffrey Skinner went to the Appleton JBS headquarters and spent a day or more looking at the books. That would not constitute a certified audit done by an outside impartial CPA firm. You understand that, and you must also understand that the request for the audit comes, at least in part, because of the letter you signed dated January 26, 2007. In that letter you stated:
“Here are the facts we now feel compelled to relate dealing with why the Society needed new leadership. To begin with, as the letters being mailed out to our members and donors admit, the Society was in decline. What they don’t say is that we were suffering from a $100,000+ monthly operating deficit, and good people were being run off continually.”
This is an incredible accusation you have made! Or, perhaps you didn’t make the accusation? Perhaps the letter’s unidentified author took license and was not checked by you and the other signers as to the veracity of his statements? Perhaps he was the same someone who helped start the smear campaign against Vance Smith, Tom Gow, and us on the former Executive Committee so many months ago. Nevertheless, and for whatever reason, you chose to sign the letter as if you had written it yourself. So you have to agree, you are responsible for the probable actionable statements that were made in it.
Vance Smith and the former management team spent wisely, as far as we could see, the Society’s valuable and scarce resources during the many years they ran the Society. We, as an Executive Committee, met with them several times a year and we carefully went over the financials that were prepared for us by the Society’s accounting department and its contracted accounting firm, Clifton Gunderson, LLC. To the best of our knowledge Vance Smith and his team spent efficiently and effectively the income (e.g. donations, contributing support, TNA advertising, and wills and bequests) and did exactly what they said they would do in the Bulletins and fundraising letters that were sent out. They paid salaries, expenses of field staff, operating costs, and they developed and paid for the truly outstanding campaigns that the Society had undertaken.
For over 14 years the Society was run well by that team. The Society’s membership supported them. I believe you supported them with your efforts and your means. Why then, have you allowed yourself and your name to be used by those apparently full of hate and anger to denigrate those who served so well, and for so many years?
When it comes to expenditure of funds, are the present leaders doing differently? Are they not spending the Society’s income, including wills and bequests, to pay the day-to-day operating expenses?
In September 2005, we on the Executive Committee were given reports indicating that the regular and projected income for the year was down. The fundraising team, who included Larry Waters, Jim Fitzgerald, Bill Cherry, Tom Rice, and their leader Art Thompson, were down $500K from goal, and down $350K for the same time period from the previous year. We also were shown where bequest money had been used to help compensate for the poor fundraising performance. I will be happy to send you a copy of that report, and I will gladly give it to the auditors at the commencement of the audit.
By the way, it wasn’t until several months later that we learned that, instead of working diligently to reach the Society’s financial goals, at least two of those fundraisers, Art Thompson and Larry Waters, were spending their time, and the Society’s resources, orchestrating a smear campaign against the people signing their paychecks. How’s that for integrity?
No, Dr. Leithart your response to members is not adequate. Yes, there needs to be a full and complete audit done by a neutral outside accounting firm. Yes, it may cost $50 to $60K. And, the amount of money needed to cover those costs should easily be recovered by eliminating the salary of the man, or men, who wrote the nefarious letter that you and others were persuaded to sign on January 26, 2007.
For the record, Tom Gow did not write this letter. And, by the way, I have been assured that he did not write the other letters that some at JBS have accused him of writing.
Further, your statement that “The former CEO is determined to either get back his position or destroy the JBS” is not at all the case. I know Vance Smith very well. He is not that kind of man. Most probably, in your heart, you know that as well.
Robert Welch University and the new organization are moving, and are moving forward. The battle to preserve freedom and expose the Conspiracy is paramount to all real patriots. And the consequences of not engaging in that battle with the selfless determination and seriousness of purpose demonstrated by Robert Welch will cause the entire freedom fight to come up short and ensure victory for our adversary.
Over the past nearly five decades, you and all good Birchers have been able to count on the accuracy and documentation of virtually everything that came out of JBS headquarters. Unfortunately, during the past 18 months that has changed. Rather than predetermining that this letter is just another “brickbat,” please look carefully and deeply into what we are saying. So much is at stake, and I’m certain that you want to be on the side of truth and accuracy.
We have chosen a course where “Truth is our only weapon.” And at present, you are saying, “Both Art Thompson and Jack McManus have been doing an outstanding job.” Only time, critical as it is, will determine who was right.
Nevertheless, I agree that all members and donors of the Society should want that audit, and we are counting on you to help us get it. Further, good doctor, as the good Christian man that you are, it is my opinion that you owe Vance Smith, Tom Gow, and the former Executive Committee members, living and dead, an apology for allowing your signature to be affixed to the letter of January 26, 2007.
Sincerely,
Keith Van Buskirk
Copies: JBS Council
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