IDF to SRD cc JCW 2008-02-01
Dear Rik,
Thank you for that. It seems that not only do I stand accused of being paranoid, but now I stand accused of being in some sort of conspiracy against John Wells.
In the year 2005-2006 I was in the Management Committee of Esperanto Association of Britain, under the presidency of Professor Wells. In the Management Committee I had the opportunity to observe at close quarters his behaviour, which in that period unfortunately was not beyond reproach. In the Management Committee meetings we sometimes had to listen to long reproaches under his presidency against a supposed wrong-doer. For me, that was all the more tedious, because I had already had to read similar reproaches by email. However, credibility and leadership qualities had been the reason for my having nominated him for the presidency in the first place.
To answer John Wells' claim to have done everything "democratically and in the open", I merely have to refer you to the secrecy clause passed in July 2005, and to the resolution of February 11, 2006, calling for my immediate suspension. The original wording had been "to suspend", but that was changed when it had been pointed out that they had no legal power to suspend a trustee.
The draft minutes of the February meeting, which provided the only documentation available at the time of the AGM, criticised me for having voted too often in a minority of one. Whether or not those draft minutes were accepted - and I had no say in that - putting any trustee under such pressure has to be a sign that democratic standards were not being adhered to.
John Wells has been in a position to have known what was going on, and will have had access to documentation from before his presidency. Indeed, I provided him with a draft data compilation of the presumed financial crisis, which he ignored, other than saying that I was unwell and paranoid. I also requested several times to meet him following the editorial article in The British Esperantist of Autumn 2004, and was ignored until I could raise the issue face to face at the London Esperanto Club. Then he became antagonistic, and not at all approachable.
I related some facts that I knew, again, with the purpose of drawing the president's attention to them, rather than in making any allegations. He snapped at me, "What would their motivation be?". I said I didn't know, but when he persisted, I asked whether he understood the motivation of Giorgio Silfer. "No, he said, "What's the motivation of Giorgio Silfer?" I suggested that when he found out, perhaps he could tell me what the motivation was behind certain people in the EAB Management Committee.
It was in that discussion that I informed him that the Management Committee had paid £16 000 for an outside solicitor with regard to the sale of the property at 140 Holland Park Avenue, when their own solicitor had been providing services free of charge, and whose main professional speciality had been conveyancing of commercial properties. "Perhaps they didn't know", he snapped. Whether or not they knew, I as a plain member of the association, felt a responsibility to inform the president of such information.
I would like to congratulate you on getting a response from John Wells without having to challenge him face to face. By the way, John Wells was a member of the EAB Management Committee for a short while before becoming president.
I think you encapsulated the situation very well, when, as you told me, you stated that EAB has left the Esperanto movement. One of the secrets of the Management Committee lay in a report, later claimed to be confidential by its author, now Honarary Secretary of EAB, of the Management Committee meeting of July 2002, in which they discussed to what extent EAB should go over to the Raumist philosophy.
I first came to see you in order to clarify certain legal issues which I felt I did not understand as regards statements in EAB about charity status. I was amazed to hear that those statements were not in accordance with the legal advice which you had been offering. I did not come to you with any theory as to what may be going on, but with information on my observations to that point. We spent many hours discussing the legal side, and exchanging information. That does not constitute a conspiracy. Indeed, I persuaded you not to resign in 2004, on the grounds that when John Wells was elected president, he would enable positive people to move forward. You had some doubts.
I can only conclude, from my extensive research, that you and some others before me have in all probability got it absolutely right about what is happening in EAB.
I am of course saddened by the current situation, but I hope to see you remaining as part of the Esperanto movement in the years to come.
Best wishes,
Ian
SRD to IDF 2008-02-03
"Perhaps they did not know"
The management committee had consulted me several times; my position had been publicly mentioned at the Congress in York. John's suggestion that the ManCom members were suffering from a collective amnesia is a greater condemnation of them than anything you have said, particularly in view of the fact that they regained their memories and attempted to get me to intervene when their negotiations appeared to be bogged down.