To: Atlantic Chapter Volunteers and Leaders
From: Dan Miner
Re: Sierra Club National Pardons SC NYC ExCom Members
Date: Feb. 21, 2011
Some of you received emails from me about the disputed SC New York City Group ExCom elections of December 2009, and August 2010, which I copy below. To recap briefly, I explained that SC National applied a double standard, when it promptly and strictly enforced the letter of the law for procedural flaws in the 2009 election, but ignored the campaign of fraud and libel orchestrated by Ken Baer and Jim Lane in the 2010 election, documented in a formal complaint. In this election the longtime governing faction of the virtually defunct NYC Group ExCom returned to full control. In sharp contrast to its earlier response, National ignored the complaint for months. They responded, perhaps coincidentally, soon after I sent out an unauthorized email, alerting a large number of members to the unresolved complaint.
Many recall that Sierra Club National tried to shut down the NYC Group about ten years ago, but was blocked by legal action from Mr. Lane. I suggested that National’s apparent unwillingness to act on flagrant violations of Club rules was because it feared being sued by Mr. Lane, and predicted “if you never hear of this matter from Sierra Club National, or the complaint is dismissed without explanation, you can assume my theory is accurate.” I did receive a letter from National with their final decision. I am sharing it with Atlantic Chapter leaders because I don’t know if National has shared its decision with anyone else, and because it’s clearly relevant to National’s heightened scrutiny of the Atlantic Chapter, announced here. Here follows National’s letter to me. You can read the original PDF of the letter here.
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Mr. Miner:
We understand your recent decision as communicated to Robin Mann, to continue your activist efforts outside the Sierra Club. We sincerely wish you the all the best and hope that you find those other venues less frustrating. In light of your decision, we also trust that you will delete and make no further use of Sierra Club’s lists. Given all that has happened, we will not be taking further action on your request to remove Ken Baer, Jim Lane, Diane Buxbaum, Antuan Cannon, Edgar Freud Irene Van Slyke, Annie Wilson and Robert Adamski from leadership in the Club under Standing Rule 5.10.2 Termination of Membership or Suspension of Member Privileges.
The Standing Rule specifically gives us discretion not to act on requests that we believe should be dealt with more appropriately by other means. We are committed to work closely with the leadership of the Atlantic Chapter to address ongoing leader conflicts in New York City that have led to a circumstance of poor leadership behavior on the part of many, regrettably including yourself. We believe that working with chapter leadership will be a more effective alternative than acting serially on multiple leadership removal requests. We will keep the materials on file that you forwarded us about the situation and actions of leaders in New York City and appreciate your effort to compile it. This background is an important context and will inform our ongoing efforts with the Atlantic Chapter and the New York City Group.
Sincerely, Robin Mann, President
Michael Brune, Executive Director
Lane Boldman, Chair, Volunteer Leadership Committee
***
Let’s be clear that this is effectively a letter of pardon, issued from the highest level of Sierra Club. National implicitly admits that the current leaders of the NYC Group committed serious misconduct. National pointedly ignored the option of enforcing 5.10.2 only against Mr. Baer and Mr. Lane, who committed the violations, as opposed to their supporters, who were not directly involved, using that as a thin excuse to dismiss all charges. What can we learn from this? The handful of cronies who run the NYC Group ExCom are a national embarrassment to the Club. Besides having to resort to fraud and libel to retain their offices, they are still virtually inactive. A glance at their nearly empty website will show that I am still listed as the Group Chair. [Note: Gary Nickerson, who is singlehandedly maintaining the Group's newsletter and website, has updated it since then.]
From National’s perspective, this is okay. Sierra Club volunteer groups are often competent and effective. In the earlier email I included for comparison links to the LA and Chicago Groups. Many other Groups in the Chapter, even from smaller communities, are more active. But I think that what National wants from Groups and Chapters boils down to just two things. One is to provide compliant foot soldiers for National campaigns. The other is to support the narrative of a vast volunteer network in fundraising pitches to major donors. National is entirely comfortable with defunct, ineptly led volunteer groups that don’t cause complete disasters, and can be safely contained and ignored while National goes about its real business.
This pardon is an embarrassing course of action for National as well.When National says they will work closely with Atlantic Chapter leadership, I think it really means they are desperately hoping to avoid further embarrassment from that New York State volunteer leaders, and will monitor and contain them as much as necessary. As long as Chapter leaders don’t burn down the asylum, they will have a free rein. However, don’t expect increased National funding or staff – and do try to keep the obsession with rules and procedures in perspective.
Dan Minerwww.beyondoilnyc.org
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