TROUBLE IN PARADISE...NUMBER 2
11-18-10
This is the second in a series of emails that we have received which shows that the Rose Sanders' VOTING RIGHTS MUSEUM is in a shambles of feuds and strife and is ripe with CORRUPTION, ACCUSATIONS OF THEFT AND THREATS.
The following email from Connie Tucker, defending her daughter, Olly Taal, the interim Director of the Voting Rights Museum demonstrates that the Museum should be closed. Certainly NO MORE state funds should be used to support the Museum!
FROM: Connie Tucker
DATE: November 9, 2010
SUBJECT: Problems at the Museum
I hope this finds you all well.
Olly called me early this morning and said that she is not going in to the Museum because she is tired of the fight. She said her time here has been nothing but a fight and enough is enough. I wrote the following yesterday but she didn't want me to send it out. After her revelation this morning, I feel compelled to tell at least some of the other side of the story. I have witnessed her go through hell. Yet, the Museum is finally functioning like a museum despite the fact that she had to struggle with the bookkeeper that didn't respect her leadership from the beginning while Charles Mauldin was co-chair. In fact, Mrs. Perle, a bookkeeper, had all the power and did as she pleased. that has carried on post Charles. On a side note, while it may be critical to have Mrs. Perle continue through 2009 audit, you need to be aware that Mrs. Perle is not using modern accounting practices. She is not using Quickbook, and I expect major problems with the IMLS required audit for 2010 and if we start off without the use of Quickbook and a separate banking account for grant funds, we will have major problems with the 2011 audit.
At your last Board of Directors meeting, you made decisions that have not been respected by local board members. One decision was to give Olly full authority as the Executive Director. the other was to establish an Advisory Committee at my request for the IMLS grant. The committee members appointed include Felecia Pettway, Carolyn Varner and Major Mosteller. I do not believe Major was contacted regarding this committee's activities.In over-stepping its authority this committee has interfered and impacted Olly's ability to direct the new staff. For that matter, they are not giving Olly the opportunity to fulfill her responsibilities as the Interim Executive Director. This is not healthy for the organization and its culture. Board interference will build a culture where staff is not accountable to its management.
I had hoped the Committee would help me for IMLS related grants. To date I have not received their help. Rather than play an advisory role as they were asked to do, they have tried to make decisions about the implementation of the Project. The new Archivist developed a relationship with the Tuskegee University Archivist. Carolyn and Felecia secretly met with them about the IMLS disregarding or not understanding that IMLS required a Project Director and Olly as Interim Executive Director, is serving as Project Director of record for the grant. IMLS must be notified if there are any changes, including a replacement Project Director. As such, Olly, should be involved in all of the project elements. They held the secret meeting only a few days after the arrival of the Archivist. This was not just overstepping their authority; it was also unethical.
A training was planned at Tuskegee in digitization for the project staff. However, Carolyn and Felecia told Olly that she should not go to the training. Olly having a better understanding of the grant knew how critical it was for her to attend the training and went. Carolyn and Felecia made a big issue about Olly attending the meeting. I couldn't understand that for the life of me. It is illogical for the Project Director not to attend a training of a major project component. When a meeting was held with the Tuskegee Archivist regarding consultation on the Project, Olly asked the Tuskegee Archivist how important was it for her to attend the meeting. His response in summary was that it was very important as it provided her an opportunity to see what was required for the digitization element. Even with the Archivist stating the need for Olly to attend the training, Carolyn questioned whether the training group size was too large. It seemed as if she was trying to find any reason to justify their position that Olly should not have attended the meeting. The training group only numbered 5. You can't get much smaller than that. So their position on this was not only out of their area of responsibility, it was also illogical. Of note Olly demonstrated her knowledge of the Project, while the new Archivist lacked some understanding. The Tuskegee Archivist agreed with Olly on every single point that she made including when the NVRMI Archivist had a different view, mainly his lack of understanding of the grant. I was relieved to hear the Tuskegee Archivist say the Congressional grant application to IMLS was well written. Other points: Carolyn and Felecia arrived late once again, and their contribution to the meeting was they wanted to unveil something by March, and Felecia recommended a project staff candidate. I tried to have a meeting with the IMLS committee before writing a new proposal for the IMLS Museums of America that I submitted on November w. Felecia finally agreed to a meeting on October 11, but only arrived at the meeting after the end of the meeting when I was leaving. Carolyn arrived late. As the only idea proposed at the meeting was curriculum development, I asked Olly to study the grant guidelines and she to develop ideas that would build upon and expand the Congressional Allocation grant project, and they are described below. The delay in the meeting caused a late start with only a little less than 3 weeks to complete the proposal. IMLS recommends you allocate no less than a month of grant preparation. It caused me to really get pressed at the end. Just two more days and the proposal would have been better although I hope it is pretty good as it was submitted. A review of this proposal needs to be conducted at your retreat.
Rose is displeased with Olly because she did not record the events surrounding the White Supremacist Selma City Council President of City Council meetings, and is not attending African American history classes that she supports at Wallace Community College. Rose fails to understand that all of the video equipment at the Museum, (thousands of dollars worth of equipment) was stolen from the Museum prior to Olly's arrival, and the cameras left had missing parts that prevented their usage. Thus the Museum had no way of recording anything at the time. Rather, the Museum requested copies of the footage from the City of Selma, as it is public record. Regarding the African American History class, Olly majored in African American History and was introduced to it at a much earlier age than university level. On the other hand, Olly has participated in and supported numerous other community events. She is trying to build local partners and attends all major events in Selma, with the exception of the Unity Meetings held by Hank Sanders because she was either out of town or there were other major events that she had major responsibility for during the same time the Unity Breakfast's were held. Rose was also upset that Olly because of events that occurred during the trip to the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit during the summer. Olly went with the group to do outreach for the Museum, but once there she became a chauffeur and was only able to attend one event. Suddenly, she was told that they had to return to Selma after only being there for one full day with much of that driving the group around. So Olly didn't want to leave without attending some of the events because she wanted the Museum to benefit from her time away from the office. Olly has also refused to approve some expense reimbursements request including cost related tot he U.S. Social Forum and a few others, For all these reasons Rose has claimed Olly has bad judgment.
Rose has also implied that the project video staff is not getting anything done. She is not aware that they are in fact working. While they have not started on the VHS conversions, they are off loading and editing the video that they are now able to access thanks to getting the video off of other cameras that they can now operate. She has complained about this to me on more than one occasion. The work is proceeding.
Rose doesn't trust Olly nor does she trust Yomi, the Slavery and Civil War Director. She treats them like they have to be managed like irresponsible employees and that is the opposite of the truth. They do not see the worth of Olly and Yomi taking time to go to Spelman for a program that promoted the NVRMI. Nor does she value Olly going to a Hip Hop summit at her own expense at the African American Historical Museum and sponsored by the Black United Fund on a weekend when she is the Chair for the Hip Hop Summit for the Jubilee. Both of these trips will result in partnerships for the Museum and in the case of Spelman, tour groups from there. The lack of stability in leadership of the Museum has cost great loss. The way Angela Brown was fired was not good for the Museum. This really needs to be discussed by the board. The personnel Committee was established to do a permanent executive director search and they should commence with the search if they think Olly is unqualified. All I can say is that real progress is being made at the Museum, the filing system is operational, resources are secured, they have built a large data base, assessments are being conducted, Museum events are being planned well, the administrative staff are improving, there was an increase in tours, they are effectively using social networking and the list goes on.
The Museum is at a pivotal point in its history. It is expected with the change of leadership in the Alabama Legislature that fewer state funds will be made available to the Museum. It will have to find other revenue to continue its existence, but it needs to do more than exist. I'm sure you will agree that the Museum has the potential to become the 21st Century Museum that uses modern technologies to plan, manage and implement its programs and projects. It must be fiscally accountable, with stable and responsible leadership at the staff and board levels. It has to be transparent and ethical. The successful implementation of the Exhibit/Virtual Museum/Digitization Project, followed by the development of strong community outreach, partnership development and creation of interpretive tools about the exhibits and other voting rights history that can be used in the classroom and the community such as curriculum for 11th and 12th grades, power points, workbook/resource guide for middle schools, comic books, and skits and plays, the Museum will build its customers for on-site tours and website usage through subscriptions. I submitted a second IMLS proposal for support for all of the activities beginning with curriculum above. They build upon the Congressional Allocation grant. Regarding the Personnel Committee recommendation, it is plan to see that implementing their plan will put the directorship of the Museum in the hands of two board members and their allies. No healthy non-profit operates in this way. Part-time people cannot manage with clarity. As it is now they have been late or non-responsive on the things that they should do. The Museum needs to be operated according to acceptable and tried and tested methods of management and record keeping. With the exception of financial accounting Olly has put the Museum on good footing in this regard. The proposal to follow a team leadership approach is not the most efficient structure. This is not my opinion. According to an article called "The Typical Non-Profit Organizational Structure" in the section on Administration,"The administration [of a non-profit] is made up of the staff that oversee all programs. Nonprofit administration usually includes an executive director, or president, and office personnel. The executive director is responsible for liaising with the board and for carrying out their instructions, as well as for overseeing the people who run the programs of the nonprofit. According to a study by Texas-based consultant Convio, this type of centralized structure is the most successful for nonprofits."
You may find this article at
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/typical-non-profit-organizational-structure-4896.html
Please also find other articles on this subject. Some of them describe the very problems with some of the NVRMI board. No matter where you look you will find the same language. What is going on is not good for the NVRMI and its culture, now or in the future.
http://www.idea.org/board.html
http://www.scoreknox.org/library/serving.htm
Some of you think that I say these things because Olly is my daughter. So that you know, I had nothing to do with Olly being offered the Interim Executive Directorship. Through my approximately 30 years of directing a non-profit, I never allowed my children to benefit from any part of my work. I am not defending Olly because she is my daughter, rather because it appears to me that she is doing a good job, and the stability and work of the Museum is at risk. If the Board thinks Olly is not qualified you should fire her. No employee should be subjected to harassment as she has endured. Not for her political consciousness she could have a lawsuit, but of course she would never do that. Whatever your decision, please remember that we have an obligation to IMLS to have a Project Director. I believe it would be a big mistake to put the new Archivist in this leadership role as he doesn't know the history, he has no commitment to the Movement, he's had no management experience and he lives in Prattville and not Selma. There are other reasons that I do not feel appropriate to raise in this email.
