Rick, a CSU Northridge graduate from the school of Radio-Television-Film (RTVF) is very adept at spin doctoring and he just loved to get leaks from the CALI Board of Directors so that he could publicly twist the facts out of context and out of all proportion to reality. That ended when the one former Board member who refused to confirm or deny that he had leaked information to Von Geldern got voted out of office by his district members.
Anyway, the leaks that were going around for Rick are now coming around for Rick out of his adopted home of PICA:
1.
FRIEDMAN: The PICA Ethics and Grievance Committee met to review the complaint from Mr. Matt Garrison against Mr. Rick von Geldern. After looking at the complaint, response and our own investigation we have concluded the following:
The Committee finds Mr. von Geldern in violation of # (1) of the PICA Code of Ethics by not acting with integrity in his dealings with the PICA Association.
FRIEDMAN: This Committee also finds Mr. von Geldern in violation of # (9) of the PICA Code of Ethics by possibly injuring the reputation of another Association member by comments made on the General List serve.
The comments should have been restricted, if said at all, to the sitting president since it was solely his decision on the appointment of the legislative committee member.
FRIEDMAN: Additionally, since the president opened the vote to the BOD, it “might” have been acceptable to address it in the BOD forum or the BOD meeting, also. Instead it was addressed to all the general list serve members which was inappropriate and in violation of the Code of Ethics.
2. The Board of Directors [of PICA] met on Monday night March 14, 2011 in a special meeting. This meeting was held to discuss complaints filed against a member of PICA, violations of the ethics code of PICA, actions taken by this individual to circumvent PICA’s listserve after being placed on listserve moderate and for posting board related information on the membership listserve in violation of PICA rules. The aforementioned violations occurred over a period of time and subsequent to being warned on numerous occasions to desist and subsequent to an investigation by a sub-committee of the Ethics and Grievance Committee.
As a result of the investigations of the aforementioned violations the board voted unanimously to take the following steps.
This member has been suspended from PICA for the duration of the calendar year.
This member having been suspended was deemed no longer a member in good standing with PICA and therefore was removed from his position on the PICA board.
This member was removed from having access to all PICA’s listserves.
I realize that some members are going to be extremely upset over the action of the board however I need to relay the following information.
This board has been fielding complaints on a daily basis from PICA members regarding the conduct of this member. The board has received information from a substantial number of PICA members that have either removed themselves from membership and/or have told the board that unless action was taken against this member, they would resign from PICA themselves.
This board has been extremely patient with this member in an attempt to gain voluntarily compliance with PICA rules and regulations to no avail. This member has been through the process of progressive discipline and even after being placed on listserve moderate (a process whereupon the member can receive e-mails but outgoing e-mails must be approved by the listserve moderator) this member hijacked the PICA listserve and continued sending scathing messages through the PICA listserve.
This board has the entire PICA membership to represent and not just a few individuals that have a desire to attempt to destroy the actions of the elected board of directors.
It is our hope that PICA can return to our normal duties and begin adopting the plans of bringing educational seminars, lowering the expenditures of PICA, reporting to the members in rapid fashion and planning the future of PICA.
3. There’s always the recall vote! What was it Mr. Kessler said? 5% of the membership can force it! It wouldn’t take many votes with the membership at an all time low.
At least we’d be above board and open about it. No closed door meetings or secret votes and instead of the way Francie K of CALI fame did it we could take the vote on the list serve in public rather than “report” to the Membership that the count was overwhelmingly in favor of MCE.
So, I vote for a recall of the current officers and directors! Is there any interest out there in ousting the dishonest, the deceptive, and the disinterested?
Please vote on this list serve and bcc me. (I’d really like to see them try to shut this one down.)
