"These memos are ones that Jim got through unknown (and I don't particulary care to know) channels. They were internal board memo (analogus to telephone calls) and were not public. They were NOT sent to Jim.
Jim does NOT have permission to post them on his web page and I consider Jim's posting of the memos to be counter to both the written and unwritten rules of electronic communication. Enough said..."
April 10, 2000
Jim Engel's reply to Heilenmen:
So how do you think these famous McEniry E-Mails surfaced, by some unknown person climbing a pole and splicing into the wire? By sneaking in the back door and accessing a computer? Of course they were sent to me and many others, by a number of sources on the board, and you know damn well at least one of them. And I have good reason to believe that Mr. McEniry himself was the source of many of the circulating copies of these dirty little deeds.
Are you trying to tell us that with all of this circulating it is not right to bring them out in the open, where they can be dealt with in an adult manner ? Clearly you are on to something when the famous Bouvier intimidation lawyer is calling up and threatening people with all his usual mumbo jumbo.
Just which "laws of the internet" prevent one from putting a little of the light of day on despicable stuff like this? Everybody knows that this board has been a three ring circus or recrimination and manipulation from the beginning, and this has been both the cause and effect of your retreat into compulsive secrecy and stone walling.
By rights, every NAWBA board meeting should be open to any member. In retrospect, the telephone conference call has changed the very nature of this administration, creating the atmosphere of secrecy and conspiracy that is so foreign to the fundamental democratic process. The fact that you hide the minutes of the meetings for months on end exacerbates a fundamental flaw in our democratic process.
When these foolish memos first circulated, I requested to be present at a board meeting where these issues, involving me by name and reputation, could be discussed and perhaps resolved. But no, you had to form a committee to have a study to make some rules to be published six months later. You, as president, could not simply make the decision to have an involved member at the meeting and deal with the issues. Stone walling is what it is called, and it has become your only real forte.
Why don't you people set up some sort of system so that everyone on the internet could tune in and listen at each board meeting? You can go to the United States congress or the senate any time they are in session and see the open process we call democracy, yet you seek out every excuse and mechanism to embrace secrecy.
Why does Mr. McEniry not step forward, take responsibility and make a forthright apology for sending out such childish, insulting nonsense? Why do the individual members of this board not speak out for decency rather than rallying to cover up yet another fiasco?
None of this is big deal stuff. The illegal trial entry, these silly memos, the fiasco with the constitution and the rest of it does not come from complicated, well thought out plots but just compulsive, foolish actions that any normal person would think "No, that's stupid'" and move on. But compulsive stupidity has become characteristic of this board, and led to the fragmentation of the association and the dramatic drop in membership, presence and importance that is in fact your legacy to the working Bouvier.