tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495083515551291412.post3841816499306693850..comments2011-05-10T20:23:41.333-07:00Comments on The Real ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now-the myths exposed!: InterchangeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495083515551291412.post-49377023521894290812008-07-25T17:09:00.000-07:002008-07-25T17:09:00.000-07:00I completely repsect your position.Maybe ACORN wil...I completely repsect your position.<BR/><BR/>Maybe ACORN will invite some of the thinkers back to the table that left.<BR/><BR/>Who knows?<BR/><BR/>I am very aware of the legal firewalls Wade has set up to protect every morsel of his empire. Am I wrong that the management team members that went along with his decision to cover up the embezzlement are still there?<BR/><BR/>I could go through the list but you know who they are.<BR/><BR/>As a radical, I feel strongly that ACORN needs to look to some of the more reputable GR Orgs out there and go back to the basics. That they invest in organizing.<BR/><BR/>I feel that they stop promototing green horns who called me on the phone constantly crying that they had no clue what they were doing. I watched people that had 15 people at a big meeting get promoted to HO? A true Executive Director which is really what the local HO is should have several years of waging meaningful campaigns and falling on their butts before being promoted to manage someone else. All of this was an effort to give ACORN steroids so to speak. To make ACORN look bigger than it actaully was. <BR/>What do we know about the side effects of steroids are? <BR/>Well the side effects of just expanding to be expanding has horrible side effects as well. No expansion should ever happen if we have struggliing and dying efforts literally across the county line. <BR/><BR/>ACORN organizers are so inept and unsophisticated when they have to interact with real organizers from other orgs. They are the laughing stock. They are looked at the Republican operatives see the Evangelical shock troops of the right. "We use them because they are stupid enough to be used". It will stay that way until ACORN has a true leadership development and advanced training regimine. Right now? Advanced training has been sitting in a room listening to Wade blither on and on about India and anytime he is asked a substantive question the asker is brushed off with some off hand comment. So elitist. <BR/>Unfortunately, that attitude is adopted by the other HO's as the way to do things. <BR/><BR/>I gotta go right now. <BR/><BR/>I appreciate you taking the time.0https://www.blogger.com/profile/01910204494889721070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495083515551291412.post-9929265539195562602008-07-25T09:23:00.000-07:002008-07-25T09:23:00.000-07:00Okay, wait. I think I wasn't clear about what my p...Okay, wait. I think I wasn't clear about what my point in replying was.<BR/><BR/>The only thing I was quibbling about was the legal definition of ACORN International.<BR/><BR/>I completely respect your position on ACORN and how you were treated and what you've been doing since.<BR/><BR/>I just wanted to note that the act of getting rid of Wade from ACORN International is a process that, legally, needs to flow from the structure of ACORN International. <BR/><BR/>Yes, there are several organizations that make up what people call the ACORN Family of organizations, affiliated through what is called the COUNCIL (which is another stupid acronym) which is the legal structure that binds folks together and allows for things like the pension and health plans to be capitalized and shared across the organizations.<BR/><BR/>I mean, look, SEIU Local 880 and ACORN Housing Corporation both come to YEYB too, but they are clearly separately incorporated organizations with their own Boards and staff. While the branding may be confusing on this issue, ACORN International also has a separate incorporation and Board and staff. <BR/><BR/>(I personally think the outrage here is that senior staff and leaders allowed for a situation where Wade had so much organizational power and was essentially able to pull off something like this - being fired from one ACORN, but being the Chief Org of another.)<BR/><BR/>So when ACORN websites show ACORN International, it is natural because they are part of the Family. But just like Wade was fired by the ACORN Board of Directors and not, say, the ACORN Housing Board of Directors, the legal structure of ACORN International does not allow for the ACORN Board of Directors to fire him from that post. <BR/><BR/>US ACORN members can either try to organize the votes on the AI Board to fire Wade or they can pull out of the organization and stage a fight over the name and trademark. <BR/><BR/>Or they can try to negotiate another Wade resignation.<BR/><BR/>Personally, I don't know where that fight is going.<BR/><BR/>That's all I really wanted to clarify.<BR/><BR/>And while I noted that it would be great to have some constructive criticism of what the changes are, as opposed to constant screeds against the organization without acknowledging that sometimes ACORN actually accomplishes something good (and, yes, I'm clear that it just as often creates wreckage), I did that because that kind of input from radicals is generally sorely missing from any discussion of ACORN. Such a discourse would fill a space that currently stands empty.<BR/><BR/>I'm not trying to bash you for running a bunch of sites that focus on ACORN's problems. I'm asking for some kind of vision that can challenge the new emerging staff and member leaders as they try to take ACORN into its next stage. In addition to keeping a focus on the problems of which you so eloquently and passionately speak.<BR/><BR/>In the struggle,<BR/><BR/>AnonymousAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com