December 28, 2006
Dear Friends and Fellow Patriots,
As another year comes to a close, Walt Ruckel, Keith Van Buskirk, and I wish to update you regarding the sad happenings at The John Birch Society. And we want to inform you of some tough decisions and some very forward looking plans we intend to advance in 2007.
The objective of our October 16, 2006 letter was to alert you to what had really happened in October 2005 when G. Vance Smith, Tom Gow, and we on the JBS Executive Committee were forced out. The overwhelmingly positive response we received from you indicates that we succeeded in getting our message clearly understood by most of you.
While the responses to our letter from hundreds of you great patriots were so positive and encouraging, there were some who drew the conclusion that this was just a turf war between out-of-control egotists. Therefore, we want to write a few lines to help those who have this concern better understand what truly happened.
Although through the years there were several attempted coups, even in the days of Robert Welch, this is the first time in our history a coup was not put down before it was consummated. You, all the JBS members, and we, your former Executive Committee members, are now the victims of a successful takeover. The subversion of the JBS was at least a year in the planning, and those of us in authority did not know it was coming until it was too late to prevent it and too late to warn you about it.
In September 2005, when we learned what was happening and attempted to stop it, we soon found that the deck was stacked and that the coup leaders had successfully lulled Jack McManus and his JBS Board of Incorporators into their camp. The mechanics for the “corporate” takeover were in place. Two JBS salaried employees — Jack McManus and Larry Waters — and a former employee and co-religionist with Jack — John Fall — were all set to pull the plug on the JBS. They did that on October 21, 2005 — eight days before these issues would have been appropriately dealt with at a Council Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Since that time every word you have received from the headquarters of the JBS has been the voice of those who have overturned the legitimate leadership and placed themselves at the head. The confusion you may have experienced comes from the fact that the takeover team controls all JBS media and has told you what they want you to believe. Now, since we have written to you, they are desperately trying to look legitimate and make you think that we, not they, are the dissenters.
As you well know, Robert Welch did not establish an organization to be run by a Board of Incorporators, or by the vote of three staff and former staff people, or by the vote of any number of people at any level. The JBS was to be strictly a monolithic system for reasons that he thoroughly explained in The Blue Book and which he repeatedly emphasized in the pages of the JBS Bulletin. Until the present takeover, the structure Mr. Welch established had been sacredly honored and upheld.
Leader replacement in the Society had always been, and should always be, decided privately by the Executive Committee of the Council. The appointment of a leader was entrusted to men who were proven leaders in the business world, men not apt to be hoodwinked by phonies or ego-driven opportunists. There was never to be any struggle for office. Leadership changes were not to be decided by popular opinion.
In violating this principle, the coup leaders not only employed unconscionable means, but their immediate ends were also unimaginably irresponsible. To gain a little temporary prestige or relieve some pressures at work these employees were willing to lop off the Society’s head and leave the Society without any day-to-day Birch leadership at its headquarters.
As we stated in the opening sentences of this letter, we have made some tough decisions in the wake of this obvious lack of leadership and outright disregard for Robert Welch and the founding principles of the Society.
Since October 2005, the three of us — Walt Ruckel, Keith Van Buskirk, and I — have served as trust officers for an endowment trust that holds a “restrictive covenant” prohibiting the present JBS leaders from mortgaging the two JBS headquarters buildings without permission from the trust. As many of you know, we the trust officers, as well as RWU, are being sued by JBS to dissolve the trust and release the restrictive covenant.
When the buildings were purchased in 1995, the JBS donors and members were assured that the buildings would not be mortgaged or sold to pay operating costs of the organization. We made certain that was the case from 1995 until we were forced out in October 2005. Further, for the past 14 months and because of the endowment trust and restrictive covenant, we have kept the present incompetent JBS leaders from squandering these assets.
We feel, by doing what we did, we have accomplished our mission. We have kept the JBS buildings from being mortgaged or sold, and we have had these many months to advise you, thousands of you, so that you can voice your opinions before any irresponsible actions to strip the Society of its building assets are taken.
On Monday, December 11, 2006, we sent a settlement proposal to the JBS lawyers for JBS consideration regarding this issue. It was a fair and equitable offer to settle. On Wednesday, December 20, 2006, and not surprisingly, our offer was flatly turned down.
From the beginning of this imbroglio, we have tried to reason with what we always understood were the “powers that be” — the Council. Sadly, the responses from this group of what should be “watchmen on the tower” have been virtually nonexistent — with the exception of the two stalwarts — G. Allen Bubolz and General Gatsis — mentioned in the enclosed letter.
On November 20, 2006, we sent a letter to that “esteemed” body. And, once again, the response from the Council was complete and absolute silence — not even a phone call. As you can see by that letter, here enclosed, we promised it would go to you if they did not respond. We hope you will take time to read it so that you can see our efforts have been sincere in trying to get the men — the Council — to act, and not just be acted upon.
Since the men on the Council have refused to act or offer any support, we have decided to bow out and turn over the job of protecting the JBS assets to the current JBS Executive Committee, Board of Directors, and members. Since the current JBS “leaders” have already nearly decimated the Society, they can now stand or fall on their own weight regarding their ability to survive financially. As Life Members and former financial contributors, we are going to continue to apply pressure, but if the JBS membership intends to preserve the building assets, they will need to do their part in keeping their present leaders on a short leash.
Today, December 28, 2006, our attorney has advised the JBS legal counsel that the trust is being turned over to the current appointees of Art and Jack on the Executive Committee of the Council, and that we will no longer have a vote in protecting those assets.
With that done, Art and Jack’s appointees will decide among themselves whether to violate the promises made to members and donors who paid for the JBS headquarters buildings that the buildings would never be mortgaged or sold to pay operations expenses.
We have decided that we are moving forward to higher ground in the freedom fight.
Under the proven leadership of Vance Smith, Tom Gow, and their team, we are going to engage the real enemies of freedom — the Insiders — with information and action programs that will initially be published in the “RWU Freedom Report.”
Robert Welch founded an organization, The John Birch Society, in a carefully thought-out manner so that it could last for decades, if not hundreds of years. The tragic changes made to the fundamental structure of the Society by those who orchestrated the coup have left the Society permanently and irreparably damaged — unless the wrongs are righted soon.
Please understand, our commitments have not changed, only our course of action. Our fundamental preference is to see the Society become, once again, a principle-centered organization led by principle-centered and capable leadership. That is by far the best outcome. However, the tactics of those currently in charge at JBS are clear and unmistakable. In order to protect the salaries of a few at the top, they will keep peeling off staff, especially Coordinators, until the JBS as we’ve known it will be completely decimated.
Rather than our just waiting for that to happen, we have decided to move forward in giving sound leadership as aggressively as time and resources will allow. By our offering positive, correct leadership, we hope that many more veteran JBS members may come to recognize the contrast and either work to fix JBS if they can or support us. But we intend to begin doing what absolutely must be done to save our country — help enlighten and give guidance to thousands of American patriots totally outside the present Birch orbit.
It is obvious to us that those presently running the JBS have what is commonly referred to as “Home-office-itis.” They have lost sight of the most important ingredient in the freedom fight — the member. There are two very important standards that any JBS leadership must be judged by (these standards were both fundamental in the thinking of Robert Welch):
1. Is The John Birch Society providing responsible, credible leadership exposing the Conspiracy’s grip on our nation? Or has it backed off into less controversial areas in an effort to become popular? In other words, are the Society’s leaders sounding the alarm or have they lost the determination and courage to rock the boat?
2. Is the emphasis on building an organization of patriots (members and Chapters) who are exposing the Conspiracy to their friends and neighbors through well-supported concerted action campaigns and who are acting as opinion molders in their communities to advocate and defend the proper role of government and the principles of freedom? Or is the emphasis on what the headquarters is doing, a magazine, or a website?
Larry McDonald in his speech “Education is the Key” described these two radically different kinds of organizations. He said The John Birch Society was the sole representative of the former, akin to a pyramid with the members serving as the base. The other, very common, marginally effective organization could be represented by an upside down pyramid where the member’s role was merely to send money to support the leadership (“fundraisers”) at the top, who would, time permitting, exercise what little real influence the organization had in Washington. Larry understood this reality from direct experience as a member of Congress.
Building a nationwide organization of active patriots is absolutely essential to defeat the Conspiracy and preserve freedom. Half-hearted efforts by uninformed Americans supporting a politician or a newsletter or spokesman for a beltway office can’t possibly do the job.
If The John Birch Society is not going to build a strong membership- and chapter-based organization established on the basic principles set forth by Robert Welch that can change the course of history, then another organization must be built that will step forward and do just that.
Regardless of the terrible upheaval at the Society caused by those now running it, the true and important work of stopping the Conspiracy and preserving our civilization still lies before us.
The days and hours we now live in are as fraught with peril and disaster as great as any time in our nation’s history. In fact, now more than ever is the time to bring thousands and tens of thousands of new people into Mr. Welch’s “epic undertaking.” We simply must, with or without The John Birch Society, move the freedom fight forward, and we hope you will participate with us in relentlessly striving to bring about — “less government, more responsibility, and with God’s help, a better world.”
Sincerely,
Wayne C. Rickert
C. Walter Ruckel
Keith Van Buskirk
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