The NTA and the new Outlook

[George Roof]

Dan, I won't defend issues I'm unaware of, but you are very badly mistaken about one part of your posting.  I've seen this said by others and it's patently untrue.  John Janelli was never EVER "booted" out of the NTA.  John is a friend and I'd challenge anyone to match his passion for the organization or the industry.  John sometimes gets in over his head and allows his emotions to take over.  John Janelli resigned from the Board of Directors.  He was asked to reconsider and insisted on resigning.  It was accepted.  Then he resigned his NTA Life Membership and some harsh words were spoken on all sides.  When John cooled down, he requested to be readmitted and eventually was.  AT NO TIME did the NTA take any actions that removed John Janelli from its rolls.

As for Al, he's an easy target.  He comes from a time and a place than 99% of you can't even fathom.  I won't excuse anything he does with this, I'm just stating fact of time and tides you can't understand.  He, too, is passionate about what he does and he could think of you as the biggest SOB in the world and tell you to your face, but if you ever REALLY needed help and you asked, Al Holmes would be right there to help.  Too many of today's "politcally correct" and "Christian" people are quick to pass judgement on someone like Al.  I don't agree with him on many issues, but I never have to doubt what his opinion of them are.  I can't say that about a lot of you.  I recognize him for what he is and what he does.  I point out our areas of disagreement when they come up, but I don't judge him.  If he "flipped off" a board member that this incident always seems to come up, none of your bother to tell the rest of the story that was the only retribution he took against an individual who'd publicly slandered him and defamed him.  He could have very well sued and undoubtedly had enough evidence to convict but he said, "..... got personal problems and don't have enough money to live on and I'm not goin to take that away from anyone."   How many other people do you know in today's PC world who'd have done that?  Sometimes the ledger balances out.  Too often we pick and choose which side that we want to believe and ignore the other.

[John Janelli]

 
Not to seem pusillanimous, but if the sky is indeed falling on the NTA then I must be walking on air because the future has never been brighter for all our members!  Forgive me for not responding to some of these threads sooner, for that is all they really are.  However, when those "threads" are intertwined into a cord and then into a rope, together we can either pull great loads for our profession or hang each other separately with it.  My choice is to help pull the load.  I am not here to promote or entice any kind of turmoil among the very people I care the most about, the members of the NTA.    Allow me to give you the readers another look at things in the NTA through yet another pair of eyes.  For the record, I believe in the NTA as it stands and in our president Bill Haynes with equal loyalty.  I stand behind everything Mr. Bill has stated here and during his presidency.  There has never been a president who has taken more abuse, been treated with less respect, verbally threatened and attacked as much as this gentleman has, and he doesn't deserve it.  He is the overwhelming choice of voting members and, as such, his direction and leadership is crucial to charting a positive course for the NTA.  As important to me is the way our executive director has been pegged here as a manipulator of bylaws by more than one member.  All while so much precious time is being taken up that it's enough to make the politics in my home state of NJ seem like a church revival.   Two more honorable persons cannot be found to entrust 36 years of NTA integrity and its future with than Greg and Cindy Crain.  These two people have one thing in common which is the underlying core of everything to do within the NTA.  They shape circumstances for the good of the membership rather than being shaped by circumstances to hinder it.  If I am to be credited with doing anything positive in the NTA,  especially during the past seven months, it would have been impossible without Greg and Cindy whom I have come to rely on every single day to get the jobs done and done right this time. Oh and what jobs they've been!   In addition, I'd like to add that there is NO OPENING OR VACANCY for the office of executive director.  Greg's contract merely comes up for renewal in 2007 and I have no doubt that this sitting board will make the right choice as it always has with such an important decision.  To place an ad in Outlook for another executive director is not unlike one taxidermy school placing an ad in a competing school's supply catalog.  Better still, imagine being at work for someone when the people who hired you order you to submit a job application in the company's newsletter for the very job you've been doing for years with total commitment and dedication to all those you serve.  This is not a political office per se, yet Greg is often accused of misadvising or controlling the president.  Trust me when I say Mr. Bill is his own man.  He cannot be lead, drawn or cornered into doing anything by anyone that he himself has not weighed all the consequences before hand that are so vital to successful leadership.  A very favorable virtue for a leader of a national organization.  Ever since the last winter board meeting its been open season on the content of Greg's character and the way that Cindy runs or does not run headquarters and or the Outlook.  There are ways of disagreeing with someone without reducing our families to tears over it.  The NTA is a family organization as well as a professional association.  If you're a member of the NTA, you ARE family. It's that simple.
   As the past financial committee person above has pointed out himself (whom I'd like to respectfully and affectionately refer to as the NTA's own 'Mr.Spock' because he has such a logical way of correcting people so eloquently) , my name was also mentioned a time or two, so that I also feel the need to clarify some things. However even Mr.Spock did not report the whole story in his financial rhetoric.  This work was already done pro bono by a professional Wall Street CEO who, with our treasurer's knowledge,  took the past five years of NTA annual reports and categorically charted and grafted everything on floppy disc form.  While there were minor adjustments in actual record keeping, much the same way the USFWS could give anyone of us a fine for ducks with no tags, there was no misappropriations of any money anywhere to be found. (Surely just because of a minor infraction of the federal record keeping regulations, would we want our customers to pull out from under us because of it? I hope not.)  Several NTA board members were given this 'report' and one whom I care very much about even spoke directly to this CEO friend of mine over the phone. I had with me at the winter board meeting the name of a licensed CPA who was going to analyze in audit form the entire financial system of the NTA all for no charge.  It never made the board table.  On the evening of April 13th, I personally phoned Mr.Spock to inform him of some very personal issues about someone and pleaded with him to postpone his "site visit" to our treasurer until the summer board meeting where he could be in the presence of other officers.  When I was told the money was already spent for his airfare,  I offered him a full reimbursement  the next day by Fed Ex but he refused.
   With regards to the motions pertaining to me, I can only state that at the last winter board meeting, my request to restore my tenure on the board was not motioned, voted upon or even tabled for consideration.  It was however effectively addressed by past president Mark Wilson together with Greg Crain.  Several board members had mentioned to me that this would be voted upon along with several other issues I needed addressed but no motions were made on those either.  Prior to that,  I personally asked the board for a show of hands to confirm or deny that I was in violation of bylaws for attempting to secure sponsorships last year,  only one hand went up in my defense and everyone else's remained down.  Unfortunately, I was guilty as charged leaving my termination as public relations chairman intact.  Therefore it needs to be said that I and only I am responsible for the failure to secure or lose any potential sponsorships this time last year.  I will personally address this issue to the board at the appropriate time.  This blame is openly shouldered by me and me alone.  Neither Greg Crain, Bill Haynes nor anyone else can be held responsible for the damage I've done due to my poor judgment.  I did what I thought was best and failed. BUT I'M NOT GIVING UP! Not on the NTA, it's members or our combined potential in this profession.
  Once again, please let me say that I was never booted, run off or tossed out of the NTA. I resigned just like several other board members did before. I left the NTA on my own accord. No one made me do anything that I did not want to.  The difference with me is I owned and apologized for the many mistakes I made. I refuse to be subject to the hype and judge mental behavior of a few people who just don't understand how more seriously they are damaging the NTA with their actions than if my own cousin Jo Jo was the treasurer. ( I sure hope he doesn't read that.)
 
  Hopefully this will now close the door to this unpleasantness and we can all move on from here to secure bigger and better things for the NTA. Only with the support and prayers of our members can we, the volunteers, officers, and board members improve the services and benefits that are now in place. If we must focus on change, let it be towards changing the perceptions in which the public, our patrons and our peers view our profession, our industry and our organization with.  

[Jim Tucker]

Two more honorable persons cannot be found to entrust 36 years of NTA integrity and its future with than Greg and Cindy Crain.  These two people have one thing in common which is the underlying core of everything to do within the NTA.  They shape circumstances for the good of the membership rather than being shaped by circumstances to hinder it.    

FINALLY!  It IS important that NTA board members stand up for Greg and Cindy on THIS forum.  They have done a great job......and it is a brutal job....since the beginning.

I don't really like these bashing posts, BUT the NTA cannot choose to ignore the internet.  Constant bitching about the NTA and no real defense OR even admission of any problem. 

No organization that supposedly covers EVERYONE in a field can make EVERYONE HAPPY.  You will always have mal-contents.  In the past "ignoring" them was the status pro quo.  However in this day and age INFORMATION can be passed around at the drop of a hat.  In the past, complainers were heard by few.  Thanks to sites like this, AND it is a GREAT SITE, these people can voice their conspiracy theories to everyone.  They might be true, they might not, BUT when there is no dissenting voice from the accused it looks bad in 2006.

Thank you again, John, George, and Clewis for having the fortitude to post in defense of the Crain's.  Notice how silent it has become.

[Kim Owens]

Jim, I appreciate what you said and I take George and John's post into consideration.  My only response, which I have thought about all day and have been here and left, been her and left, would be to John.  Your analogy about putting the ad in the Outlook- I guess I am misinformed- I always thought the Outlook was an NTA publication.  Thank you for shedding some light on the situation for me, now I know it is a Crain publication.

[George Roof]

Kim, why can't you stop sipping strychnine before it destroys you.  I've seen a lot of bitter people with venomous attitudes in my life, but you've become obsessed.  No where did John ever say that "THE CRAINS" owned Outlook.  You know, or at the very least you SHOULD know that before Cindy Crain sat down, handled all the layout, all the input, contracted a publisher, double proofed it and then sought advertisers in it, the only thing we got from the NTA was a NEWSLETTER.  Cindy has personally and solely brought it to the standard that you and a few others have constantly bitched about (You know, where you're tired of the prayers and the religious "junk" in the content?).  No ones ever offered to help her and she's learned by hard knocks and trial and error how to get a magazine published. She doesn't work for a PR company or a communications company or even have a journalists degree.  But let that magazine show up late, come hell or a hurricane, and see who the first person who gets blamed is.  "THE BOARD" actually implied that each board member is "supposed" to submit at least one article during the course of a calendar year.  Last year, even the Vice President never bothered much less a dozen other board members.  Both I and John Janelli were called on numerous occasions and asked if we could "come up with something" to fill out the Outlook.  I can assure any and all of you that when the board decides that the executive director position needs to be advertised, Cindy will insure that its placed in a position where anyone can find it.

As someone who once held you in high respect, I am embarrassed and almost pity how you've let personal feelings and abject hatred suck you down this hole of contempt.  I've said it before: when you're deep in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging.

[Kim Owens]

George, I am so sorry you find me so pitiful.  Please, go back and read John's post and do so objectively.  I will promise you that I am not the only person that read his comments that thought that.  I personally believe that Cindy and Greg do an outstanding job for the NTA.  Their hearts are true.  I also believe that it could be time for someone else to take things over.  I have not made any beans about that to anyone.  Let's not forget that the Outlook is Cindy's job.  She gets paid to do it.  The quote of  'hard knocks' is not really applicable in this situation.  It is not a volunteer position. The board already decided that the position needs an advertisement, it just has not happened.  As far as articles in the Outlook,  the last President's Message said there would be no "how to" articles in the Outlook.  Funny, George, Danny has never received a call from the Outlook looking for an article.  Danny could either write 'how to' articles or tell someone how to build a pond in their backyard.  Those are the things he knows.  I did not say anything bad in the above post or any previous postings I have made.  I am not in any hole and I can stand up for myself quite nicely, thank you.  Please don't worry for me,  I promise you that I harbour no hate in my heart and that I sleep very well.  Why do you feel it's necessary to come on here and cut me down?  I also know of no one who ever said the religious articles in the Outlook were junk.  Inappropriate for a trade magazine, but not junk.