An Anthem Opinions Guest
Editorial
A small example of Unity (or now Unity Underground)
power, if your readers need another one, is what happened at the I.C.C.C.
meeting on November 13th. As many of you
know, Forrest
Fetherolf has been active on the I.C.C.C. Board of Directors as their
Treasurer. As such he has streamlined
their operations, better organized their functions and introduced actions to
ensure compliance with SCA Club Guidelines.
Forrest was an enlightened asset to all I.C.C.C. Club
members.
Because he is an experienced leader, some
I.C.C.C. members asked him to run against incumbent Charlie
Wong for President of their Club.
But, electing Forrest as President would have flown in the face of the
real power broker of the ICCC, Marianne Blaha, a big
Unity supporter. So, she immediately put
out the call to her Unity friends, and guess who showed up at this Club meeting:
Jean Capillupo, SCA Board President, Board members
Bella Meese and Mike
Carey, Mr. David Berman himself, Marianne and
Frank Blaha and numerous other Unity supporters who normally wouldn't be seen at
these meetings. And Charlie won hands-down.
What does this situation show all of us? That when anything or anybody threatens the
sovereignty of a Unity institution, the call goes out, and the followers respond
en masse. These are the same people who
were active Unity supporters when Unity was an open organization, and they are
the same supporters who still work hard to get their people elected to the SCA
Board year after year. They are a real
group, actively working to keep as much power within their organization as possible. And they are successful at
it!
Very soon there will be another SCA BOD
election cycle, and Unity will again be active supporting their interests and
candidates who will vote their way (look for a big party at
the Blaha's home).
If you
are happy with the governance of past and present years, vote for Unity backed
candidates.
If you want a change, vote for whomever represents your vision for a more transparent Board, and one that responds to the needs, wants and desires of you, the resident. Unity candidates have never done that, so don't expect them to do it as a member of the 2014 Board. The choice is yours.
From Resident...Rivka Wolf...to....Anthem Opinions
ReplyDeleteGreat article Dick!
A response to Rivka Wolf....from Anthem Opinions
DeleteRivka,
I wish I could take credit for this article but it was submitted by a reader who attended the election. This individual was actually called and told to "show up" to vote for Charlie Wong.
None of this surprises me because a member of this organization, an individual named in the article, was seen as "stuffing" ballots in the ballot box at Anthem Center during the 2010 board election. At that time, candidate Don Schramski lost by all of 61 votes.
I've learned that the number of members in ICCC is greatly exaggerated; that Forrest made at attempt to correct records to reflect the correct membership; that the ICCC board elected to make this correct change, yet was opposed by the current and newly elected president.
We would hope that the Lifestyles Committee will thoroughly investigate the membership of this organization that over time, has caused a number of its members to leave and form other groups, namely the Filipianas and Chinese Culture Club.
I know that Forrest made a number of attempts to bring all of those groups back together, but those attempts were rebuffed again and again.
Draw your own conclusions as to what all of this means, but it certainly points to problems that should be investigated for improprieties.
From....Forrest Fetherolf...to...Anthem Opinions
ReplyDeleteOne year ago Charlie Wong (ICCC President Elect) came to me asking my help to organize ICCC' s procedures, diversify and recruit active membership, and suggest changes for events.
What I found...
Illegal slush fund
Improper documentation of clubs operations
Decision made only by the Club President
Illegal Board Membership
Very little communications between the Club President and Board Members
False out dated and poorly managed membership list
Isolation and ill feelings with other clubs
When addressing these items, I was told that was the way it has been for years and changes were not necessary.
The major disagreement started with the membership list. We were told by Lifestyles to clean up the membership list requiring membership to yearly “opt in” rather than “opt out” of ICCC.
ICCC had chosen the “opt out” knowing previous members may have moved away, changed contact information, didn't have an email address, have died or would ignore the request, and that members would not or could not respond thereby keeping the membership count at a false inflated level.
Our Club President was the only Board Member to refuse change with the belief the actual membership would shrink to only a few rather than the stated amount of over 1500 members.
This was Charlie Wong and Marianna Blaha's means to deceive our community with their power and status by manipulating ICCC.