The convention is now over. Celeste Greig was re-elected along with the rest of her slate. The important Bylaws Amendments were not even discussed. The Sunday session was rather tame compared with the previous day’s festivities. Litigation plans were clearly well underway and something will probably be filed tomorrow.
The biggest looser from the convention was clearly Peggy Mew; the Membership Secretary that conspired with Karen England to fix the election was thrown-out of office. Yesterday, she repeatedly refused to reveal any membership records even as the paper clubs she was vouching for were systematically being disqualified from having their delegates seated. The only rational explanation for her refusal to reveal the records was that there were no records.
Peggy let it slip that yesterday that “every chartered club was entitled to two delegates”. At the time I thought it was a strange comment to make in the context of the discussion. Now I think it was a window into her approach to the convention. If a club didn’t have delegates then she helps to find some.
Peggy assigned delegates to dormant clubs with no active members. As a result, these delegates were incapable of answering such basic questions as:
Who was your club president?
When did you meet?
How were you selected?
Even Karen England could not name the president of the club that she claimed membership in. I was told that the interview with her was embarrassing.
There is an old saying that should serve as a warning to Karen and her legal team. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” I think the next round of litigation could backfire on Karen and her friends and out them as empty suits running a bluff worthy of a world-class poker tournament. After the TRO last week if Peggy produced the records as requested and they showed what she purported then Karen world be president today.
The issue is will Peggy turn over the records to her successor or refuse to comply. If the records are released then everyone will know whether this is a bluff. If she refuses then we know that way also. I think either way she has a problem.
If the clubs denied the seating of their delegates are real then England will be back for round two at the next election; however, if she was gaming the system then I doubt we see her again.
Many folks were and are emotionally invested in this controversy. My sympathy goes out to those newbies that were used as cannon folder in this warfare. Most will never know how they have been manipulated. Emotion often trumps logic in such situations. I look back at my time with Barbara Alby and her minions when I first got involved in CRA. Demonizing the “other guys” and vilifying other people is a shortcut to power and is not a legitimate tool of leadership.