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At 12:09 AM 6/7/04 -0400, Harvey wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>On Sunday, June 6, 2004, at 10:32
pm, Emlyn ORegan wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Wait wait wait... where did this
come from? Should I have been<br>
subscribed to the transhumanism list to see this particular storm<br>
exploding?</blockquote><br>
The WTA founders have been doing unethical things and hiding them from
the members for a long time. Things like selling members e-mail to
spammers to make money, adding people to the membership rolls without
their knowledge or permission, having secret agendas and methods not
revealed to the members, etc. The WTA founders have been ignoring
board votes or doing things without the board's knowledge or
permission. The Oxford board meeting was one example where we were
not allowed to vote on whether to hold the international meeting or
not. <br>
The conference on Transhumanism and Spirituality is another example where
the "leaders" went ahead despite board objections. There
also were complaints about inaccuracies and plagiarism in the "WTA
FAQ" which the board was not allowed to address. Basically,
the "leaders" are not willing to cede their self-proclaimed
control over to an elected board as their constitution directs.
They are now pushing for a new Executive Director position who can run
WTA independently of the board with little or no oversight or
control. James wants to be Executive Director just as he has been
chairman, treasurer, secretary, publications director, newsletter editor,
and website master. Despite the claim to have a democratically
elected board, the founders of WTA still retain all control for
themselves and hold virtually all offices by
themselves.</blockquote><br>
Harvey, we know that the FAQ was created by Alex Bokow and somehow became
the property of Nick and WTA, but certainly WTA can explain this.
Regarding James becomeing Ex. Dir., I don't remember voting on it
recently or receiving any email about it. Doesn't WTA have a policy
of voting on its principles? If so and we did not vote on James,
there must be a reasonable explanation. Guilio, can you enlighten
us?<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>The final straw was when James
self-declared himself as Executive Director and said he wanted to start
taking a $60,000 salary. They intended to vote on this at the
Oxford meeting, but forgot to include it in the list of votes at the end
of the meeting. When they returned, one board member resigned, and
two others who did not attend the meeting were against the idea.
(Mostly because WTA doesn't take in $60,000, so we don't want James
pocketing all our funds until we do so.) It then became apparent
that James might not have enough votes to be appointed ED. Instead
of allowing a vote, James, Giulio and Nick decided that the
"intent" was to hire James, and that they considered it done
without a formal vote. They refused to allow any further votes on
the issue. They even abridged the official meeting minutes to add
this non-existent vote, and sent this out to the membership. When
we pointed to the public archives for historical evidence, the board
voted to shut down the public archives. When we pointed to the
wtaboard private archives for evidence, the original motion and minutes
were deleted. When we attempted to reveal these votes to the
public, it was voted NOT to open board votes to the public in
wtahall. When we attempted to publish the original minutes, the
board voted NOT to publish the original minutes, and to NOT amend them to
the new minutes, and to just leave everything as it was.<br><br>
Most of the board rather hide the truth to save face rather than tell the
truth. When a small minority of three board members started
discussing this publicly, we were called liars and claimed their lies
were the truth. Our motions and seconds were ignored. There
were private discussions by the majority how to boot off the minority
without appearing to kick them out. There were specific plans
discussed to try to get me to resign so it wouldn't look like they voted
to remove me. Finally, I was told I was removed and had my access
to the wtaboard revoked. Later, they denied this ever happened and
made their motion that I had to resign or be removed.</blockquote><br>
Is this why Bruce Klein (BJ) resigned from the board? I know he did
because he mentioned it on the chat last week, but he did not completely
elaborate. <br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Look for an announcement of a new
election to replace three board members who have resigned since James
took over as self-declared Executive Director.</blockquote><br>
Okay.<br><br>
Eli, do you have any comments? You were on the board.<br><br>
my best to all,<br><br>
Natasha<br><br><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl>
<dd><font face="Viner Hand ITC" size=4 color="#000080">Natasha
Vita-More</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF">
<dd><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/" eudora="autourl">http://www.natasha.cc</a><hr>
</font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times">President, Extropy
Institute
<a href="http://www.extropy.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.extropy.org</a>
<dd>Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture
<a href="http://www.transhumanist.biz/" eudora="autourl">http://www.transhumanist.biz</a></font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><a href="http://www.transhuman.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.transhuman.org</a>
</font>
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