July 25, 2006
Dear Glenn,
I received your note of July 11, 2006. While short, it speaks volumes about you and your views on the horrible situation that presently exists with The John Birch Society.
Since you are not the only member of the JBS Council who has approached me wanting me to return to the JBS, I am addressing the Council as I’m addressing you in this letter.
Glenn, have you been asleep during this whole affair? Have you not noticed how Walt, Keith, and I have been attacked and repudiated by Jack, Art, and others on the Council? Have you not read their various letters and depositions exclaiming that we as Executive Committee members neglected our duties, allowing Vance and Tom to completely mismanage the JBS? If I was so derelict in my duties previous to October 2005, then why the urgent plea for me to return?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me, Glenn. The current leadership’s poor management has nearly bankrupted the JBS and now you need someone to bail you out. You could care less about the leadership that I could provide on the Council. The team you have installed has nearly destroyed the JBS, and you need someone to write some checks to cover up these reckless actions.
You state, “Believe it or not you are in a position to change the course of history.” Well, I agree with you. That is why Walt, Keith, and I have tried so hard in recent months to get you and the other Council members to re-evaluate and reverse the mistakes you made last October.
But in reading your letter, I feel perhaps our efforts truly are in vain. If you and the others really believe that “Jack Mc[Manus] is still JBS to our country,” then we will never sing on the same page.
JBS to me is Robert Welch, The Blue Book, the extensive writings including “Beliefs and Principles” of the Society by Robert Welch. The JBS has a nearly 50-year history of fighting the Conspiracy and enlisting friends and neighbors to help us win back our freedoms.
The John Birch Society is America and freedom. It is not one 71-year-old man who has given the same talks for 40 years, told the same stale jokes, and turned the Society on its ear to egotistically regain the title of “President” and draw a paycheck. How absolutely pathetic to think that you believe the Society is no more than that. I am disappointed.
You say that the JBS, with its current leadership, Board, and members can win. I disagree, and I am sure Mr. Welch would, too. There is no way that JBS can win without strong leadership and more members. You seem to be under the illusion that Jack is a leader just because he speaks well. If nothing else, Jack’s recent (7/13/06) foolish letter to JBS members and donors proves he has no leadership judgment at all. I’m certain if you and I agree on nothing else, you would agree with me that Jack’s letter demonstrates extremely poor judgment.
Jack is clearly not a leader, has never tried to be a leader of an organization, doesn’t even understand organization to get Birchers to Birch and wage campaigns other than handing out McManus articles and speeches. And, with the current leadership vacuum, Jack still shows no interest in acting as a leader.
In fact, none of the three officers are even committed enough to live in Appleton to provide day-to-day leadership to the Society. No one with experience and ability is running the store. I am sure that the current leaders have briefed you on the dismal state of our chapter structure. How can it be built up with non-Birch hands in Appleton to win? How can sufficient chapters be rebuilt with only 15 Coordinators nationwide, in time? Do you believe that the Society can win, if all its members are in the home chapter?
You wrote that Jack had made this statement, “Wayne is a self-made man and he doesn’t like to lose.” I don’t like to lose when I’m right, and if you’ll observe, I didn’t lose. After stealing JBS from its members, Council, and Executive Committee, Jack and his small group of cronies broke into and tried to steal RWU. They broke the law, they took JBS out of the fight for several months, they alienated countless members in the process, which has resulted in poor growth and finances, and THEY LOST!
If you and the others want me and my checkbook back, then prove it. Here’s a news flash, Glenn: John McManus and The John Birch Society are suing me! Do you really think that is a way of winning me back?
In 1995, the Society’s leadership, the Council, and the Executive Committee promised the donors and members they would protect the $1.3 million building purchase. We promised those buildings would never be mortgaged to pay operations costs. And through all these years, we held true to our promise.
If we are guilty of anything, it is in not putting the buildings in trust years ago. On the other hand, we never imagined that Jack McManus would support a drive that altered the Society’s founding principles and would seek to squander its assets. We erroneously expected that all those we had appointed to the JBS Board of Directors understood the commitment not to mortgage the building assets and had loyalty to that commitment. In hindsight, we were obviously wrong in our assumption.
But as you know, Walt Ruckel, Keith Van Buskirk, and I, sensing the danger, did act in time to create an endowment trust to see that the promise we made is extended into the future. This trust and restrictive covenant does not put a penny in my pocket, nor does it in any way benefit Vance Smith and those at RWU. It is there, in place, to protect The John Birch Society. And for doing this, we were sued without any prior effort to negotiate!
The RWU case has been properly and correctly settled. All JBS suits and countersuits have been settled. All but one, and that is the suit brought about by Jack and Art who, through their mismanagement, now need the funds from the JBS buildings to bail them out. (And please, don’t try to tell me that Vance and the former team left the Society in bad straits. I have a copy of the September 2005 financial statement that would disprove that hoax.)
In an effort to end all of the lawsuits, we members of the trust offered Jack and his team an out. We suggested they drop their suit, that they leave the trust and the restrictive covenant in place, and that they be allowed by the trust officers to mortgage the buildings up to $300,000. We felt certain that you and other Council members would want some restrictions on Jack’s ability to put the Society in debt, and that $300,000 would be sufficient indebtedness against the buildings.
The offer was refused out-of-hand.
Yes, Glenn, I do believe I could help change the course of history. But no, Glenn, not if I’m being sued for doing something that needed to be done — something that you should have wanted done. So, if fence-mending is truly on your mind, you and other Council members should want to use your influence to call off this lawsuit and leave the restrictive covenant in place.
Finally, you asked, “Do you really think if current JBS folds — it can be rebuilt again in time?” This is a very interesting question from you. It seems implicit in your question that even you see that under this present regime the Society is likely to “fold.” Well, I believe you are right. Unless you remove Jack and Art from their positions, the Society’s collapse is inevitable. The $64,000 question is, why are you and the other Council members content to sit back and watch that happen?
Rebuilding the JBS will certainly be easier and faster if the current leadership is prevented from squandering all of the value in the buildings before you decide to take action.
Glenn, there is still time. Let’s step forward together and save both The John Birch Society and our nation.
Sincerely,
Wayne Rickert
Copies: JBS Council Members
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