Fort Knox War-Is it over?
The votes were counted and results are in:
http://www.courierpub.com/articles/2005/11/17/republicanjournal/local_ne...
Will
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I hope everyone involved
I hope everyone involved will move on and continue the great work on the fort. I also hope everybody will continue attending the reenacting events and put this all behind us. I am relatively new to reenacting but enjoy the events at the fort very much
Other articles
There are a couple of more articles with info about the Friends of Fort Knox vote.
http://mainemilitia.com/aggregator/sources/18
The count doesn't seem close so I wonder if the absentee ballots made any difference at all? I do hope that the focus can be put back on The Fort now.
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Michael Johnson
Wishful thinking!
I guess nobody really thought this would be over. It is to everybody's expectation that the issue would end up in court but new stunts are pulled at every turn. See article:
http://www.wabi.tv/story.asp?11464
Last week's vote made it pretty clear that the majority of the members of the Friends of Fort Knox supported the current Board and their decisions. For a second time, the Seymour camp refuses to accept the outcome of a voting process they insisted upon having. Because the vote did not turn out the way they wanted, they are crying foul and want to recall the proxy votes. There is no evidence that the proxy vote targeted specific voters but the Seymour followers suspect that without the proxy votes his side might win. At this point there is no claims of vote tampering but I am certain this will be brought up.
Moral dilema, do you deny the vote to people who for one reason or another can not make an election? Do you cater to a specific special interest groups demands? From the lastest moves from the Seymour camp, it is clear they do not respect democracy nor are they looking out for the best interest of Fort Knox. Instead, this has become a self serving political campaign which is what I have inferred from the beginning!
All that the process is doing is wasting time, money and polarizing more people against each other. The longer this nonsense goes on the longer it will take to continue with the mission of preserving the Fort with the full extent of our resources.
Will
Lastest on the Fort
This article sums up both sides issues. It is split issue where on one hand one group is claiming it is the will of the membership that the excutive director be reinstated but then after losing wants to deny voting to some members because they were not in attendance. They could have protested the proxy process weeks before the election but chose not to do so. So much for the will of the members.
http://www.courierpub.com/articles/2005/11/25/republicanjournal/local_ne...
Long from over!
Comments from Mr. Seymour on acceptance of results:
[Asked if he would accept the sentiment of the full membership, reflected in both the in-person and proxy votes, Seymour said he would not.
"I don't think a lot of them knew the facts. A lot of them are personal friends" of current board members, he said.]
See full article:
http://bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=123913
Why the proxy vote at all?
I should just keep my mouth shut but...
I don't understand why the proxy or mail-in votes were even started? If the by-laws say must be present to vote, then where did this idea pf proxy votes come from?
I don't care for the politics from either side frankly. It's an ugly mess now. And the shame of it is that the focus is off from raising money for the fort. At least that is the appearence. I do hope I am wrong on this last part.
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Michael Johnson
As a board member...
...and Vice President of "The Friends of Fort McClary" I can only hope we don't end up with a problem like this. The focus should be focused on the Fort and not personalities. It's a sad thing either way.
"Hawks and Eagles fly like Doves"
Major Eric R. Reeder
CSO, 1st Division ANV, Staff
Liberty Hill Signals
Proxies
I think the issue was one of strategy but without seeing the actual by-laws I can only speculate.
It was expected that the True Friends will arrive in force with "Paper" names that will only show up once and seldom return. It is well known that they were mustering up new members including entire families to vote. Many of these people didn't show an interest in belonging to the organizaton until the issue of Mr. Seymour came up.
In order to get a true balance of want the membership ready felt, they allowed a proxy vote. Remember, the vote did not have any authority to hire, fire or reinstate, as only the board has this power. Thus it was only an advisory vote as what to do with Mr. Seymour. The real issue was whether or not they had the votes to remove any of the Board members.
Since it is allegedly not specifically in the By-laws as to the process of removing board members, the board feel it was best to allow a proxy vote as allowed by State Law. The end result proved their theory to be correct. The Seymour Camp arrived at the polls with overwhelming numbers and claim that the voting in attendance were 69-23 in his favor. You would have to had been a moron on to NOT expect this as he stack the odds in his favor with last minute members. This I know because I saw the list of walk in members when I entered and there were about 25 names on it.
It was a bit intimidation walking into the place with Mr. Seymour and some crony campaigning at the doorway walking in and out of the polling room. This is illegal at state and federal elections.
End result was that you still got a skewed number because even with the majority supporting the current Board of Directors. The 2/3 majority could not be accomplished for any single member.
End in point, is it right to deny vote to people that can not make it to the polls. Before gambling and losing, the Seymour camp felt everyone should vote. They were mostly silent on the issue. Afterwards Mr. Seymore is making absurd comments about the people who voted against him, as they don't know the facts or that they are friends and relatives of the current board members. Isn't that a twist of facts?
The really bizarre part of the whole mess is Ms Campbell and Mr Celli filing a lawsuit attempting to freeze the Friends bank accounts. Neither of these people are on the Board of Directors and have no authority to make transactions for the Friends to begin with. If this suit goes through, every group will need to start considering who they allow in as a member.
Eric, I agree with you...may you never experience this type of problem. Hopefully this will be resolved by spring.
Will
It's a Shame...
Is this Florida with the recounts and disputes over absentee ballots?
The Fort will suffer and will take time for it to regain the momentum that was lost due this dispute. If freezing the assets of the friends happens, it can only due more harm than good..
Shaking my head...
Marc
News Update Court date set for Friends of Fort Knox
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=64703
The court hearing is Dec. 16.
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Michael Johnson