This is your President

[Emerald525]

I was not going to post this in the public thread but feel I have the right to do so to defend myself.

 

This is in response to this thread started by the President:

 

http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?35463-First-Quarter-Report

 

Again I hate to air more dirty laundry but I feel Kevin has left me no choice. I am not going to simply roll over when the President of this forum makes such accusations. I hope that this does not get moved or closed so please be respectful in your comments. However I feel I need to present my side of the story as well as defend others that are being wrongly called out. In the time of I have been a member of this forum I have never seen so many people step down. Currently we have had 3 board members, 2 officers`and 3 admin (including one long term admin member) and the TFT coordinator step down. You really need to ask what is going on behind the scenes that so many people are stepping down. I feel Kevin is overstepping his powers and will move threads or close them so he can have the last word.

 

Fellow pnwmas members I am sharing this because you need to know the type of person you now have as President. I am sharing this with you because you have all interacted with me and know that I had a passion for Tanks for Teachers and still see it as a wonderful program and that Beth and I spent many hours, gas money, time, heavy lifting and our own money to help out the schools and the teachers.

 

As many of you know Pledosophy's poor communication, unwillingness to work in collaboration, or listen to any opposing view has already contributed to so many people stepping down.

 

At the bottom of this page, you will see the pm I received from Kevin.

 

First let me explain the context of this pm. Several years ago I opened a TFT paypal account after getting approval from the bod, officers and Mr S who was the former TFT coordinator before Robbie (MrWheeling) took his place.

 

It was needed because people were wanting to donate and there was no good way to track these donations and where the funds were going so I set up the account. It was meant to be a temporary account and was linked to my checking account which is why I used the name tanksforteacher@gmail.com (and intentionally left tanksforteachers@gmail.com for the club to use)

 

Like the rest of you, I received a group email from Micah about the details about the breach of security that occurred when the site went down and recommendations to change passwords as a safety measure. I changed the password to the TFT account and informed Robbie and Kknight and told them to set up a new TFT account and I would transfer the funds.

 

Yesterday, I logged in to my pnwmas account (after not being logged in for a few days) and received pms from Derbird and Kevin about the paypal account. I told them to set up a new TFT paypal account and I would transfer the full balance and suggested using tanksforteachers@gmail.com as a new name. The account was kept separate from the pnwmas to avoid confusion about where people's donations were going and where.membership fees were going.

 

 

I was floored by his response which is at the bottom page.

 

 

 

The image of Portland police breaking down my door and handcuffing me over an 1800 dollar paypal account would be laughable if it was not so insulting. I feel that Kevin overstepped and really took things too far with his threats and accusations. The reason the program was so successful was because people knew I cared and could be trusted to insure their donations went to the schools. To accuse me of stealing and threaten to call the police with not one ounce of proof and have me go to jail is infuriating and borders on libel.

 

Instead of listening to opposing views or getting all the facts your current President chooses to make unilateral decisions and use methods of intimidation and bullying to insure his way is the only way.

 

I find it disturbing that he would quickly jump to threats of calling the police and jail time simply because he does not agree with the past decisions of the club without having a discussion about the best course of action.

 

I also find it concerning that funds that members who donated intended to go to tanks for teacher are now in the general club fund and this is a misrepresentation of a charitable group. There were people who for whatever personal reasons did not want to contribute money to the PNWMAS and specifically wanted their donations to go to TanksforTeachers.

 

However, I did transfer the entire funds which was a little over 1800 dollars to the main PNWMAS account yesterday as I do not have the time or energy to deal with this kind of negativity.

 

Once someone explained to me how to remove my checking account from the TFT account I transferred it over. I also sent a long list of personal notes I had about costs from the builds. I did not have all of them as it was in the board discussions.

 

Below is the pm:

 

 

 

Quote Originally Posted by pledosophy

Hmmmm interesting: I have already contacted the police. You are welcomed to transfer the funds to paypal@pnwmas.org now, or we can continue. Holding funds for years away from a non profit is criminal. At this point weeks after the request and years later after the appropriate transfers were warranted . . . This needs to happen now. We have been in contact with paypay, US bank has surrendered the accounts. You can surrender the passwords and account information immediately or we can take the next step.

 

If this is some kind of misunderstanding, I am sorry. But given the extent of what I am dealing with I am proceeding that all embezzlement is criminal and we will be moving forward such.

 

Surrender the passwords and information immediately as the by laws said you would in July or the club will continue with prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law Monday. According to the police this is jail time for you.

 

I'm sorry Kim, I'm out of options. I am trying to the best of my ability to move this club forward. Where I am sitting now due to the lack of responsibility from my peers is disheartening,. What has transpired is criminal, and I will prosecute over taking the fall. It is really my only choice

 

I took this position because I wanted to grow coral better.

Cooperation is a much easier task.

 

I'd just like to end this now and not escalate.

 

All I am asking is that you surrender the accounts that were made for the benefit of our non profit so we can continue our non profit work. The longer it takes the more harm it causes. According to our by laws this should have happened July 1st. This needs to happen now, or we will have no other options then to proceed criminally.

 

 

 

I find it really disturbing how Pledosophy can cloud such a wonderful program and one of the best things about this forum in my opinion. I find it offensive that he has the nerve to imply that I was using the funds for my own personal use and his accusations border on libel.

 

He has no proof of his accusations. I also find it upsetting that he would be so critical of former members such as Karen and Derbird who has given so much to this forum. The year before was more disorganized. Mohaynow took the fall for that but the fact of the matter was that noone really had the time to be President so other people were asked and he only agreed to stay because nobody else was willing or able to take the role. Regarding the by-laws there was nothing specific about Tanks for Teachers and how to manage it as it just was something that Roger a wonderful member decided to do. I just simply had a passion for this like others and was trying to help. During my time Beth and I with the help of others personally helped to set up 5 systems and provide livestock (Lakeridge, Clackamas, Sand ridge, Huntington and Pioneer and personally maintained the Pioneer tank ) During this time I never kept one piece of equipment and never took any of the money for my personal use. As all of you know, it costs a lot more than 1800 dollars to setup and maintain this many tanks. It is not true that things were not tracked. Major purchases were discussed in the board forum and unfortunately the past 2 years of these discussions were lost. I was able to get lots of donations from members and sponsors alike because they know that I am a person of my word. I would expect more respect towards former officers and more professional behavior from someone who has been a moderator for so long. I hope we can move forward and move on and would ask that the current President discuss with the rest of the board and officers before he makes such accusations in a public post. I for one very much appreciate all that the officers and former board members have done and I know how many behind the scenes hours go into making this forum work well. Again I was hoping we could move forward and move on but I will not keep quiet when I feel that I and other good hardworking former officers are wrongly attacked.

[pledosophy]

I have seen the top of this before, all but the last paragraph. This is the PM that you sent out to several people about 3 weeks ago about me. I know you set it to them, because several people sent it back to me. The PM in there from me to you I did write. I also later wrote you and apologized for the tone in which I spoke.

 

At the time I wrote the PM it had been 10 days since you went into a club account, changed the password, and had not contacted anyone in the club to tell them what that password was. Part of the fault was our own, that password should have been changed immediatley when the new term took over. But just because the password was not changed did not make it right for you to lock the club out of money that was to be used for the TFT's.

 

Kim, I am sorry you took my words on the Quarterly report to mean that you were stealing. I did not say that. I don't even think that, and when others looked at the transaction history, I actually defended you stating that I did not think it was theft. What I did say is that the spending of the money was not tracked and that receipts were never given to the Treasurer or the Secretary. We have asked both of them several times if they had any documentation and they do not. I could post the PM's with them stating such, but I think you will take my word for it as you know you did not give receipts.

 

When you logged into the TFT account, which has been managed by the club for a long time now, evident by your posting in the BoD forum about the spending of money (sometimes, not all the time, there were several transactions that were missing) it was wrong of you to do so. You had been out of a position of club leadership for several months, you changing the passwords to a club bank account and not immediately telling us the password seems pretty shady. Yes you did transfer the funds, 10 days after you locked the club out of the account. The BoD had to continually ask you for the password which you had changed and it took 20 days from the time you changed the password until we again had access to the account.

 

It seemed very suspect when you had locked us out of the account, but when we viewed the transaction history, it seemed much more suspect. We actually spent a long time trying to make sense of the accounts. Searching through old posts by dates coinciding with the transaction records to try to make sense of where the money was spent on. We found quite a few posts, but several others were not documented. So when I say there is no record of how the money was spent, there is no record of how the money was spent, even before the hack.

 

We did get several email strains from you, about how certain money was spent. I didn't mention this before but that also rose several suspicions with people. It seems many people on the BOD and Officers were not aware you were using TFT funds to buy G.C.'s to pay people for helping.

 

Also when I wrote about donations not being tracked and mismanaged, what I meant was several of the things donated we have no idea where they are. We talked to you about several of the things. You stated different people who you gave things to, but none of those people had those things. None of um. I am not saying you stole them, but they were mismanaged since they seemed to have disappeared.

 

I appreciate that you think I should confer with the other Officers and BoD before I post a report like this. I indeed have. This report has been up in the BoD forum for several days asking for comments and was shared in the clubs new drop box account so I could get some help with my grammar. This was not a secret to anyone, the majority had read it.

[Emerald525]

I deleted my response. Not because it was inflammatory. It's just late and I just really hope everyone can move on.

[pledosophy]

Kevin I sent it to some of the members of the board to explain why I would not respond to your pms so of course I know they sent it to you.

 

Let's be honest here Kim you sent it to more then that. They sent it to me. Let's at least be honest. If we can't be honest there is no point here. Everything I have stated I believe to be true. I really do. I could be wrong and not have all the facts, but I have done a significant amount of work to try to find the truth.

 

Like I said before I told Kknight and Robbie that I changed the password and was waiting for them to make a new account.

 

I don't even know why you would think it would be suspect?

 

Neither Karen or Robbie should have had access to that account either, even more so since it was tied to your personal bank. I am just more secure with my money I guess. Our bylaws state specifically who has access to the clubs funds. I understand that there was a level of non chaulentness (I don't mean that bad it's just the best word I could think of) to the way the club was run in years past and especially regarding fianances, but as the President of the club it's kinda my job to protect the club so finding out someone changed the password and we couldn't get to the TFT money or transactions records which we are required by law to have... kinda irked me.

 

Furthermore I can not believe that for 3 years that account was never transferred to the club account. (I know it is true, I can't believe is just an expression). I mean, you were the signer on the club account. It would have taken you two minutes to transfer it over to PNWMAS server. That blows my mind.

 

You go on and on about giving people the benefit of the doubt and not listen to rumor. I give you a logical reason as to why I changed the password and your next reaction is to threaten to call the police?

 

I didn't call the police, I met with them. They instructed me on how to proceed. They told me to give you a timeline and see if we could resolve it. I was less then eloquent that day, which I have apologized for. In fairness to me, I didn't do it an hour after I found out, I waited 10 days after you locked us out of the account. After I wrote you that PM, which I really do feel bad about, you had the money to us in a couple of hours. It took another ten days to get the transaction records. That's to long Kim.

 

Going into someone else's account and changing the password and not giving up the account for 20 days, I have an issue with that, when I am the one supposed to be protecting this club.

 

Telling someone if you do this, this, and this, and I will give you your money back... How was I supposed to take that.

 

It's not like I am new to this forum Kevin. I have opened up my house for several meetings. I have bought the food and have not asked for reimbursement. When I was secretary I personally mailed out cards and used my own stamps and envelopes.

 

I'm not really new either, I remember when you started, and how we met. I am sure everyone in the club is thankful for your contributions. I bet you probably spent a bunch of your own money taking care of TFT (I know I have), your own gas, your own lots of things far far beyond stamps. When you volunteer someplace you often times end up doing a lot of the donating to it. Same with me, I don't get the recognition for it either. Just the way it is I suppose. I've probably put 150 hours+ in the club in the last 35 days or so. It's a thankless job.

 

That said, I still have to follow the rules. There are Bylaws, we have to abide by them. The missing receipts are a big deal to some people. You would have no way of knowing this but when we first got the transaction report it was me that went digging through years of posts in the BoD forum to match up what you had spent money on, in a large part to prove it was not theft. I asked others for help, but no one wants the fun jobs. I spent 50-60 hours one week straightening out the finances.

 

We all have done a lot for this club, but no one is above the rules. It is a group club and those rules have to be followed. It is a shame that so many people in the last few years stepped out and you were in the position you were in. I actually feel bad for you in that spot. Although I am starting to understand why so many people quit. You try to do the right thing, but it's a thankless job.

 

I donated money personally to the program from coral sales. I have donated corals from my tank to encourage members to join. I have donated corals as a prize package for POTM. I have donated thousands of dollars of the remaining rock and livestock to Hatfield. I have donated corals and books to get people to be paid members. The gift certificates to go to members for helping for a tank move was also something discussed with the board and Roger the coordinator at the time. It was to help reimburse for time and trouble and we needed help quickly for a 150 gallon tank that was being donated and needed to being moved. Again this tank and equipment was worth thousands of dollars as part of the deal to get the tank was it had to be moved within 2 days.

 

It was great of you to do those things. I like to give out corals and help people with their tanks too. Part of being a reefer I guess. Just fun to share.

 

You know the G.C. thing, happened in 2011, it would be on the forum, but I couldn't find it. Maybe it was in a BoD meeting, but there were no notes. I even asked others to help me find stuff. I asked a couple people about it who shoulda known, they did not believe me when I mentioned it happened. I can only go off of what I have.

 

It seems like a large hole in documentation happened. Which is why the new BoD and Officers have spent so much time and money to try to get everything documented, shared jointly offsite, and the transparency that comes with that.

 

I have served on this forum as treasurer/secretary, President and board member and feel I deserved more respect from you. I have earned it.

 

I know what you have done on this forum, I've been volunteering here for 8 years if you recall, but you never bothered to give me the benefit of the doubt either.

 

I was actually really excited to get to meet you back in May before I found out you weren't gonna make that meeting if you remember. Since then, seems like things have changed quite a bit.

 

 

Other people like Dtech and Karen have also deserve respect and not be called out in a "sticky".

 

What did the members of the club deserve? I think the club deserves that when you accept a position your going to fulfill that role. When you don't fulfill that role, and it affects a large number of people, those people have the right to know. It's not fair for the new people coming in to get flack that we can't do such and such because we haven't collected dues from a majority of the sponsors for years before they got here. That's not right either. There is a fairness on both sides. I know no one likes to be called out publically, I know I don't even when I do deserve it, but running an election to take a spot in a club there is a responsibility to it, and that work should be known by the people you are representing.

 

I really like Karen, I always have. Feeling might not be mutual right now, but I have always liked her. It felt weird writing that for me. But just saying the last secretary seemed odd. Let's just face it, it seemed weird. Is it Karen's fault there are no BoD minutes from last year, nope, there was never a BoD Meeting. I understand you the Officers and BoD had problems getting people to help out, but when we had the vacancies this month, a post in General had tons of volunteers.

 

I'm not going to go into the Darryl situation, everything has already been said to many times there.

 

 

 

I also have concerns about the current power you have. I believe the only person that was elected by the members was Derbird and Micah and you now. The rest were hand picked by you. While I appreciate their willingness to step up and some of them I know pretty well and feel they are wonderful additions. I also think running a special election have people run would have been the better way to go so the members could decide. While I have had my opinions about things, I have always listened to the other members of the board.

That is an assumption, but it is not true. That seems to happen a lot around here. People assume things, and then get mad or worry about them, which is always kinda quite odd when those who know what happened know it is not true.

 

Actually half the BoD and Officers were elected in May/June (Micah, Debird, Jeramy, Matty, and I, Jeff until a few days ago). 5 people have left, that was their choice, not mine. The people that were appointed were actually not hand picked by me, I know the bylaws state I should have done it that way, but I like to confer (you probably remember that about me when I was a mod and you were on the BoD, hasn't changed). We had a BoD/Officer meeting with 4 out of the 5 we had left, and voted on who was appointed. My appointments were all voted in. I sent out some questionnaires and we all sat down and went over their responses and tried to choose people on merit (not saying there was anything wrong with the people we did not choose). I actually didn't hand pick or appoint anyone without talking to the other BoD and Officers. The one person I really did push for was Robyn, and I think that has been one of my better moves thus far.

 

There has been a lot of confusion in this club for a long time now. A lot of assumptions have been made, are being made. I am trying to be as open as I can be. This is all of ours club. Everyone has the right to know what is going on. I am happy to discuss or answer any questions in a friendly mannor. But the ammount of hostility that is coming towards myself, the BoD, and other Officers has been unwarranted.

[Emerald525]

Kevin I deleted my response because I am just done with this and just want to move on. Again for you to bring it back and then respond to it shows you are abusing your power. I am going to close this thread and would appreciate if you did not open it back up.

 

I really am done with this discussion.

[pledosophy]

Kevin I deleted my response because I am just done with this and just want to move on. Again for you to bring it back and then respond to it shows you are abusing your power. I am going to close this thread and would appreciate if you did not open it back up.

 

I really am done with this discussion.

 

Your doing that thing again where you make a false assumption, believe it to be true, get angered by it, act on it, and then make accusations based on your false idea.

 

I did not did through the archives to retrieve the post you deleted. Our software does not even support that. You know are software does not work that way.

 

I did quote your post last night after you posted it, and responded to it line by line. By the time I posted my response you had deleted yours.

 

There was no abuse of power in quoting a post you put up Kim. Let's really a stretch.