However, 47 years later, with new members on the Board of Incorporators, this innocuous body exercised its latent legal authority. This came as a surprise to everyone except those who engineered it. Never at any time was the Board of Incorporators intended to be anything but a legal fixture for launching the JBS. [Emphasis in original.]
Mr. Fotheringham is wrong for two reasons. First, he claims that the Board of Incorporators was never “intended to be anything but a legal fixture for launching the JBS.” CLAIM #1
Second, he has misquoted and misrepresented what is actually stated in The Blue Book as to who selects the successor for the JBS leadership. CLAIM #2
Regarding the first factual error, Mr. Fotheringham would have the reader believe that this entire process by which the senior management was replaced was done in violation of Mr. Welch’s intended and long-standing established method.
For the record, John Fall, who is the last member of the Board of Incorporators to have been personally appointed to that position 35 years ago by Robert Welch himself, called JBS headquarters and stated the following facts: during the meeting in which he was offered his position, Mr. Fall recalled, Mr. Welch explained very clearly the real intent and purpose of the Board of Incorporators. The purpose of that board, according to Mr. Fall, was “to make sure that the Society would not stray from its path and that things would continue to be done as he always intended them to be done.” Mr. Fall also added that “the Board was not expected to act very often, but that it should do so only under extreme circumstances.” CLAIM #3 Concerning the recent change in leadership, Mr. Fall stated that after long deliberation he came to the conclusion that this recent change in leadership constituted one of those rare moments referred to by Robert Welch.
Mr. Fall is not alone in his assessment as to the true purpose for which the Board of Incorporators was established. In an open letter dated June 15, 2000, then-Vice President Tom Gow (and Board of Incorporators member) stated the following:
The board of incorporators retains the ultimate legal authority to step in, select a board of directors, and thereby control the organization. But it has deferred that selection on a revokable basis to the Executive Committee of the National Council, which body everyone recognizes as most familiar with the personalities and internal working matters of The John Birch Society. [Emphasis in original.]
CLAIM #4
In fact, the ultimate legal authority of the Board of Incorporators is clearly stated in the current (1993) bylaws of The John Birch Society, which were enacted with Mr. Smith at the helm.
The Board of Incorporators acted exactly as it was supposed to: it revoked the authority given to the Executive Committee and exercised its proper role to remedy a problem that the Executive Committee patently refused to address. CLAIM #5
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