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JBS leaders react to member concerns
Thank you to those who received my mailing for taking the information seriously. Your comments clearly got the attention of someone at headquarters, because on January 31, 2006, I received the linked note and letter (retyped). Although their author is not identified, the main letter is signed by 19 JBS employees. It contains a number of errors and flaws, which I address in my response.
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The following letter, mailed
to selected JBS leaders and members,
defines the purpose of this website.
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January 10, 2006
To: My friends in The John Birch Society
I am sending this letter to JBS friends whom I have met and/or worked with over the years. Some of you are members of the field staff, chapter leaders, youth camp instructors, and speaker chairmen.
Friends have called me to ask what’s going on with the leadership changes in The John Birch Society. I have answered them as clearly and honestly as possible. At their urging, I am sharing this information with you. Certainly -- on the face of it -- my perceptions are the same as yours: Something is not right in Appleton. I will do my best to address the problem as I understand it, and to explain and document what is at the core of it.
On the face of it --
Proper leadership changes in the JBS do not happen without a farewell message from the outgoing officers. This custom and courtesy was employed in the resignations of Robert Welch, Cliff Barker, Chuck Armour, and Allen Bubolz. Why then do we hear nothing from Vance Smith? Moreover, at no time in our 47-year history had newly appointed officers disparaged and demeaned the men they have just replaced. This is unprecedented and raises serious questions.
The rather offensive implications first appeared in the December Bulletin in a message from Jack McManus and in a letter signed by the two sons of Robert Welch, individuals who, during the lifetime of their father, never joined or took any part in building the Society. But now they say they were seriously concerned over the direction the Society was taking, and regretted “the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual.” Had they read The Blue Book they would understand that monolithic leadership cannot become “dictatorial” when employed in a group allowing members to freely join and freely resign -- a principle their father clearly explained in Section Eight “Through The John Birch Society....” (See the enclosed copy of this.)
Another sign on the surface, so out of character with true leadership, appeared in a fund-raising letter dated December 9 by Arthur Thompson, the new CEO. In this letter he praised the new leadership (himself) and blamed the former leaders for failure to adopt innovative ideas and for creating the financial shortfall he faced.
So here we have new JBS leaders utilizing the national Bulletin and a mass mailing for taking potshots at the former leaders. This one-way communication unfairly muzzles the men about whom they speak with so much disdain. After 14 years of dedicated service, have Vance Smith and Tom Gow simply dropped off the face of the earth? But more significantly, we must ask, what happened to the process established by Robert Welch for the proper and open removal or appointment of JBS leaders? Simply stated, the safeguards Mr. Welch set in place have been circumvented. How is this possible? I will explain.
At the core of it --
In 1958, Robert Welch founded The John Birch Society under the laws of incorporation in Massachusetts. He was legally required to name a Board of Incorporators. So he named himself, his wife, his secretary, and a few close friends as members of the board. He never mentioned this and never intended for it to be used for anything other than to satisfy the corporate legal requirements of the state of Massachusetts. *Note correction below.
Soon thereafter, Mr. Welch established an Advisory Council of about 20 men. He then vested executive replacement authority in an Executive Committee of five to seven individuals chosen from among members of the Council. It was the responsibility of the Executive Committee “to select, with absolute and final authority,” a successor to the highest office. You will find this on page 172 of The Blue Book. Until now, this procedure had been faithfully followed.
However, 47 years later, with new members on the Board of Incorporators, this innocuous body exercised its latent legal authority. This came as a surprise to everyone except those who engineered it. Never at any time was the Board of Incorporators intended to be anything but a legal fixture for launching the JBS. On October 21 the board altered the structure that was so carefully and wisely set in place by Robert Welch to prevent infiltration and demoralization by our enemies. The Board deviously took the appointment authority away from the Executive Committee and, in effect, made Jack McManus the President and Arthur Thompson the CEO.
When this brazen step was taken, three key, veteran members of the Executive Committee, Wayne Rickert, Walt Ruckel, and Keith Van Buskirk resigned from the Committee in protest. They had scheduled a meeting to deal with the leadership matter on October 29 and had pleaded with the Board to hold off their action for eight days, until the Executive Committee could convene and all sides of the issue be heard. But no, three members (a majority) of the Board refused to allow the system to work and rushed into their meeting on October 21. Thus, three men circumvented the “absolute and final authority” of the Executive Committee. Doesn’t this rash, no-huddle play seem a bit strange to you?
In the December Bulletin, Jack McManus tells our members that Mr. Smith frequently stated he would depart “gracefully and quietly” should the Society’s “properly constituted authority reach such a decision.” Well Jack, we’re still waiting for the properly constituted authority to reach such a decision. Jack McManus well knows that replacing officers is not the role of the Board of Incorporators. However, the incentive to dishonor this perfunctory trust was quite high for Mr. McManus because he is a member of the Board, and cast the improper vote to dump Vance Smith and create an office for himself.
It is interesting to note that Jack McManus, who was in on the plot to crank up the power of the Board of Incorporators, and bring about these developments, alludes to them in the Bulletin as being “remarkably unexpected.”
On that same day, October 21, the Society’s President and CEO, Vance Smith was forced to resign (and so did our esteemed Vice President Tom Gow). I am enclosing a copy of the letter and support material sent by Vance Smith to the Council on November 7. Knowing the Council had received this material, and realizing the Executive Committee had been denied its hearing, I assumed the Council would take steps to make the truth known and dispel the many false charges levied against Vance Smith. Apparently this did not happen and therefore I am sending a copy of that letter to you.
There is considerable irony in the fact that Vance Smith was forced to resign by two staff members (Jack McManus and Larry Waters) and one former staff member (John Fall) violating their perfunctory role as members of the Board of Incorporators. If this corruption of the system is allowed to remain, it would not be hard for our enemies to sabotage and destroy the organization.
I think it is absolutely essential that we plug this dangerous loophole by returning to the Executive Committee those three principled men who resigned on October 21: Wayne Rickert, Walt Ruckel, and Keith Van Buskirk. Because these men are not on the JBS payroll and all have devoted much time and considerable resources to the Society, they will not endanger it simply to save their hide or their pride.
Once the Executive Committee is restored to its mid-October makeup, this body will exercise its authority to properly appoint new JBS officers. They must also be appointed as responsible members of the Board of Incorporators. I feel certain the Council would welcome these men back into the Executive Committee and would respect their judgment regarding the urgency of controlling the Board of Incorporators.
If this makes sense to you — that is, if you want to save the Society from unwise friends or ultra-wise enemies, please contact me immediately and I will give your name to the Council, stating that you want them to reconstitute the authority of the Executive Committee and close the loophole in the Board of Incorporators. Frankly, if this, or something similar, is not done, I think we will lose our only hope for a free America.
Nobody asked me to write this letter and my purpose is not to campaign for Vance Smith or any other personality for leadership in the Society. As mentioned earlier, I am sending this only to you wonderful men and women I know. I do not have a JBS membership list, so please help by making copies for others — or if you prefer, just send me their names and addresses and I will send them the material.
Please let me know how you feel — one way or another — by phone: 435-648-2766, by fax: 435-648-2765, by email: Don Fotheringham, or by mail at Box 59, Glendale, UT 84729.
Sincerely and urgently,
Don Fotheringham
P.S. There is another way to get this message out: I have started my own website especially for this purpose. Anyone can access it by going to: www.donfoth.com
cc: Members of the JBS Advisory Council
*Correction: In a recent letter from John Fall, he said Robert Welch told him privately that he deemed the Board of Incorporators to be "an important ultimate safeguard with the power to act when subordinate channels of leadership might become derelict or worse in their duties to keep the Society on its true course and to his (Mr. Welch's) intended purpose." Mr. Fall's correction does not hinder my case in the least, for in fact the Society was precisely on its intended course and thus the meeting of the Board, and its rash decision, was entirely unjustified.
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