[WCUSP] Responding: Response Requested

[Marlene Santoyo]

 WILPF has had this problem regarding a shortage of funds for MANY years.
Staff is underpaid & some aspects of program  do not take place, or or not
even considered cuz we don't have the money. I have heard comments on
spending much of allocated program funds to pay for planes & airfare so
folks could better interact.   I remember when different staff persons
worked on different segments of program.   I thought it was great!
Innovative & responsive program is am inportant aspect of eneggizing &
bringing on a diversity of mebership, including racial & youth. I remember
being really excited about when Andrea went with WILPF members to Cuba,
Columbia.

WILPF will continue to have a shortage of funds (as it has for decades,
maybe generations) and alternatives in which  staff & mambers invest time &
energy until & if we actually HIRE somone, a professional fundraiser who has
experience & gets results. I have heard CJ talk  a number of times about
using not WILPF resources for other organizations. Some WILPFers were
offended & have distanced themselves because  (to be blunt) it does feel
like being bullied & "using resources" can be open for interpretation.

I and others can & will support other good work, ( be it CODEPINK or Granny
Peace Brigade Philadelphia or SUSTAIN etc. etc.
In my opinion, this will & should continue & we dont like the feeling (be it
subjective or objective) of being spoken down to regarding our personal
leaning.  I chose to become a WILPF life-time member & responded, investing
a good chunk of $ on an exciting combination of programs & individuals who
coordinated them, including but not only staff, from the executive director
on down who challenged, motivated & exchanged positive & exhilarating ideas.

When 80 other WILPF women & I first went to Cuba, I remember feeling guilty
cuz at 2AM,  we arrived at the Federacion de Mujeres & woke up the WILPF
Exec Dir., she cheerily greeted us  - that was one powerful delegation.
And, I will add that after the WILPF delegation, I stayed on in Cuba, &
visited five different Quaker Meetings around the country side. I was never
told that WILPF had to be my main priority; on the contrary I felt
supported.  Being involved with public education, unions  & the role that
Quakers might play brought to WILPF a richer more nuanced background of
experience.

Of course, youth needs to be included, and all kinds of diversity needs to
be sitting at the table where decision making takes place.  Kate Zaiden (&
the other organizations she may work with on her own dime) is young
bright, well informed, young, enegetic, works hard & interacts really well
with folks of differnt backgrounds and ages,
(a quality which I could use some work to develop.


 -----Original Message-----
From: Libby or Mort Frank [mailto:lmfrank1 at verizon.net]
Sent: 2006 December 3 Sunday 11:04 AM
To: JoanWDrake at aol.com; marlsan at cavtel.net; cjminster at gmail.com;
wcusp at wilpf.org
Cc: rbirchem at a1usa.net; afg at mcli.org; dannpowers at bellsouth.net;
marie.boroli at wilpf.ch; Brcadwallader at earthlink.net; edibal at bluewin.ch;
mduckles at uclink.berkeley.edu; susi.snyder at wilpf.ch
Subject: Re: [WCUSP] Response Requested from WCUSP/WILPF


  I agree with just about everything you wrote, Joan.

  It was at a national WILPF Board meeting in Miami, many years ago, that
the Board agreed to sell the D.C. building.
  I opposed it, but that was the same meeting when I resigned from being
WILPF national  Executive Director, so my support of Yvonne and the D.C.
office didn't much matter.

  Glad you wrote,

  Libby
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: JoanWDrake at aol.com
    To: marlsan at cavtel.net ; cjminster at gmail.com ; wcusp at wilpf.org
    Cc: rbirchem at a1usa.net ; afg at mcli.org ; dannpowers at bellsouth.net ;
marie.boroli at wilpf.ch ; Brcadwallader at earthlink.net ; edibal at bluewin.ch ;
mduckles at uclink.berkeley.edu ; susi.snyder at wilpf.ch
    Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 10:55 AM
    Subject: Re: [WCUSP] Response Requested from WCUSP/WILPF


    I agree with Marla -- WILPF cannot downsize its own operations while yet
pledging financial support to other organizations. As much as we would like
to be members of worthy causes & projects such as, in this case, the Social
Forum, our treasury must not be tapped to support others as our own
organizational operations go begging for funds. I am particularly concerned
that WILPF's Capitol Hill Legislative Office in Washington, DC, has been
shut down for more than two years, despite the fact the Yvonne Logan's
mother left a bequest to WILPF during the 1980's to purchase a building in
which to permanently locate that important program -- what ever happened to
the proceeds from the sale of the building on D Street Southeast, funded by
that bequest, in which WILPF's Legislative Office was located? There has
been very poor oversight of the US WILPF treasury through the years at the
management level and an uninformed board has had the power to make poor
financial decisions that have squandered substantial resources. It is a pity
that we have violated a major rule of economic survival by operating on our
principal rather than on our interest.


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