[amsat-bb] AMSAT-NA, another perspective

[John Brier]

I forgot to mention, I was on the BoD of a local online radio station
(we had intentions of being an LPFM, but that didn't work out). We had
quarterly meetings, and the org was extremely small. So one meeting a
year for an org as large as AMSAT seems very odd to me.

73, John Brier KG4AKV

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 2:21 PM John Brier <johnbrier at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From what I understand, what started this was just different opinions
> about ways of doing things between Patrick and officers/directors, and
> in different ways, between Michelle and officers/directors. They each
> have very different contributions to AMSAT, and that they ran into
> similar issues from those different avenues gives more credence to
> their claims.
>
> With Patrick it was mostly about issues with how AO-92 L-band
> operations were run. With Michelle there seems to have been tensions
> going back further, between her and Jerry most recently it seems. She
> has dealt with sexism in this community. I saw it first hand when she
> gave the AMSAT/TAPR keynote at Hamvention a few years ago. I talk
> about that here:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ9Rch9MjjM
>
> BTW, IMO I felt there was never a threat she would sue AMSAT over
> discrimination. From talking to Michelle, she has dealt with sexism a
> lot in her career and much worse than what she reported publicly about
> AMSAT. I think she is more interested in doing things and the sexism
> was just one of the impediments she experienced related to getting
> things done. With the money she has raised recently for AMSAT I think
> she is trying to show that, and I think she succeeded. She has a lot
> of free time and abilities and has and is offering a lot to the
> community.
>
> AMSAT didn't have to hire a lawyer to get an anti-discrimination
> policy. There are dozens of open source projects, sponsored by large
> corporations, that have policies they could have adapted. It is also
> interesting that they adopted a policy after the accusations, and then
> decided hers didn't meet the definition of discrimination in the
> adopted policy. Not that that can't be done ethically, there is just a
> huge pitfall in adopting a policy after accusations have been made.
>
> I am not sure about the accusations she made, but does anyone else
> remember what I referred to in my video? Could AMSAT publicly
> acknowledge that and say it is not acceptable?
>
> With Patrick, the idea that he harassed Drew over issues with AO-92
> L-band does not seem like a reasonable description of what I know
> about that situation.
>
> As I said in the video above Drew behaved hypocritically and when
> Patrick pointed that out I thought it was courageous. There were also
> issues with Drew blocking Patrick on Twitter. That info is on
> Patrick's website.
>
> IMO the use of words like attack to describe accusations is over the
> top. It was criticism. And what threats were levied? That he would run
> for a directors seat? Attack and threat are strong words and some
> definitions use violence to describe them.
>
> I don't think Drew or others handled valid criticism well. The
> blocking of access to the email archives and then the opening due to
> the demand letter show to me that their judgement in blocking that was
> wrong, and that they actually haven't been welcoming to the new
> directors. Clayton also said in his own letter that the only power
> they have is to vote during meetings... and they only had one meeting
> in a year!
>
> The last thing I will leave you with is a quote from a blogger I
> follow that outlines how the ways we evolved make it exceptionally
> hard for anyone to deal with situations like this well:
>
> "As some evolutionary psychologists argue, our moral instincts didn’t
> evolve to help us to discern right from wrong, but to help us convince
> other humans that we’d make good additions to their clan—that we hate
> their enemies, share their affinities, and shake our heads at the same
> behaviors.
>
> That’s why having your beliefs affirmed by others feels so good, even
> when the belief is devoid of moral significance: that the Packers are
> better than the Vikings, or that your favorite movie doesn’t deserve
> its bad reviews.
>
> Enjoying this feeling doesn’t even require the belief to be true,
> which explains why people are generally uninterested in contradictory
> evidence, and why solidarity groups form around claims that the earth
> is flat, that vaccines cause autism, and that the real Paul McCartney
> died in a 1966 car crash.
>
> Because existing beliefs feel so much better than ideas we don’t yet
> believe, we all drift naturally toward the comforts of the echo
> chamber."
>
> - David Cain
>
> 73, John Brier KG4AKV
>
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 1:06 PM Russ Ramirez via AMSAT-BB
> <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
> >
> > I have been a member on/off since 2012. I have never been removed from this
> > AMSAT mailing list, but have not always been able to log into the AMSAT.org
> > web site. In spite of this, I have renewed my membership, typically at
> > Hamvention (until this year, but did so online), and made extra purchases
> > to support the work of AMSAT.
> >
> > I definitely echo the message of Hans BX2ABT. Not everyone is bad, but
> > unfortunately too many are not good either.
> >
> > When reading over each point of view of this ongoing dispute, it is not
> > very clear what started this dispute. In a statement in response to
> > allegations of financial mismanagement, Clayton wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *AMSAT's corporate records give a full accounting of all expendituresand
> > are provided to its Directors upon request, in compliance with ourgoverning
> > documents and law of the District of Columbia (D.C.) Ouroffice remains
> > closed due to COVID-19, where those documents reside.Furthermore, AMSAT
> > complies with IRS rules for 501(c)(3) disclosure ofpublic financial
> > documents, such as the Form 990 available on theAMSAT website  *
> >
> > The above statement is either wholly true, or gray, because making a
> > statement like this which is completely false would be illegal.
> >
> > Michelle, you have claimed that you (and Patrick) were denied access to
> > financial transaction records upon your written request. Can we simply
> > focus on *what* specifically started this whole thing?
> >
> > Russ Ramirez
> > K0WFS
> > _______________________________________________
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> > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
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