Democrats Abroad Mayhem **UPDATE
**UPDATE: The meeting has been canceled due to the fact that everyone in the Executive Committee has resigned.
One of the juicy drama stories that Anna and I were following this week has been a petty squabble brought about by four people on the executive committee at the Democrats Abroad Argentina. They want to kick the chairman out.
Their reasons? He showed up late to set up computers for an event and that he’s not a good event organizer. He apparently pissed someone off because he didn’t publish an essay on the website written by one of these executive members. This essay included some words in English that sounded too much like the derogatory words used in the fights with the farmers here. The person in question would not change that one word and the essay was not published. Big surprise. Now these executive committee members are crying that their freedom of speech was repressed. But it just sounded like they didn’t care about how they come across to Argentines or Argentine-Americans who may read the article.
In order to stop this, you must go in person to Laura Atkins home at Austria 2660, 6th Floor, Recoleta on December 3rd, at 6pm. Bring your friends to stop this disaster. **Don’t show up. Nobody will be there.
Mike worked so hard to set up Democrats Abroad Argentina over the last years, and it might all fall apart if we don’t go out and vote for him. He helped us be a part of getting Obama elected, so now it’s time to help our local community organizer.
ANYWAY, HERE’S WHERE THINGS GET WIERD ON THEIR END.
Then the funniest thing happened: Meghan Doran complained specifically that Mike would not give members of the Executive Committee the power to send emails out to the mailing list of the Democrats Abroad Argentina. And now I’m receiving a slew of emails from the EC’s personal gmail accounts since a few weeks. Somehow they stole my email address from the DAA and are spamming me with the same message over and over again. I’m beginning to think that Meghan Doran was drunk while she was doing this because I received the same email from her last night at 4:13, 4:19, 4:28 and 5:18 AM. Do you think Mike maybe wanted to be able to send official statements from only one email address so that he could avoid something like this? (Is that drunk-spamming?)
I understand that this is probably her first major project since she graduated college. I understand that they worked hard to plan events for us members, and I understand that it’s a thankless job. But life is like that – once you’re outside of academia, things work differently and you don’t get a trip to South America paid for by mommy and daddy when you complete a major project.
Please let Meghan Doran and Emilia Ramirez know that it’s not nice to spam. Here are their email addresses:
meghanmd@gmail.com
memiliar@gmail.com
By the way, remember how I won the t-shirt contest for the Dems Abroad? Maria Emilia Ramirez here was the one who mismanaged the printing of the t-shirts. If it wasn’t for me speaking directly to the designers and having to redesign everything, that Buena Onda, Vote Obama t-shirt wouldn’t have been ready in time. Plus, after all the work that I did for that – she CHARGED me for an extra t-shirt that I wanted for my assistant who helped create the t-shirt. Since they marked it up so much, I’m just wondering where all the profits went…
Strategically speaking, they’re going to have a big image problem if they let Mike go, and they’re going to find it very hard to continue with their projects here because they will have lost the face of dems abroad and all the good PR that he does through his writing and his blog.
Popularity: 27% [?]
[...] Democrats Abroad Mayhem … been a petty squabble brought about by four people on the executive committee at the Democrats Abroad Argentina. They want to kick the chairman out. Their reasons? He showed up late to set up computers for an event and that he’s [. … [...]
It is unfortunate that Mike’s lies have been published all over the website while the rest of the DAA board has been adhering to a request by the DA leadership that we cease contacting members before the meeting. The multiple emails from Meghan are a result of a glitch in the membership database that has since been fixed, not some attempt by us to bombard the members with the same message. There is much more to the story about Mike other than he shows up late and so on. His actions are undermining DAA, he has repeatedly violated our bylaws and well as US law and he runs DAA like his own private feifdom to the detriment of the organization. If you will come to the meeting you will hear about it there. If you really believe in democracy, you will listen to our side of the story before you condenm us. This is not some petty fight among board members; none of us are happy about having to do this but we think it is necessary.
I don’t think a “glitch in the database” would cause her to send out various emails with slight grammatic changes in each message or subject changes, etc. Especially since it came from her gmail account, the “glitch” just doesn’t sound plausible.
Unless by “glitch in the database” you mean that someone was drunk and sending out emails at 5 AM.
And those messages sent out from Emilia and Meghan and then you contacting me here mean that you’re not adhering to the request by the DA to stop contacting members before the meeting.
Gina:
I think you need to hear from other people in addition to the Executive Committee.
For months I have worked as a volunteer and have been horrified by how Mike runs things as his own personal fiefdom. His actions have not only been unprofessional and unethical but have also undermined our goals.
Specifically, my volunteer work focused on voter registration and assisting fellow US citizens to cast their vote. The easiest and cheapest way to vote was to attend an event held at the US Embassy. We were all very busy blasting out this message every way possible. I wrote a blurb and emailed it to Mike to be included in his Sunday email. He edited my version and removed the info about date/time of the US Embassy event! When I immediately called him on this he said “I’d prefer to drive people to our events and capture their funds”! “Our” events were held in dark bars where we were not set up to best help people vote and get their ballots mailed off for free.
Another example of his fiefdom mentality for you: I helped organize a fundraiser for the Obama campaign held at the home of other expats. Mike refused to put a note out to members about this event because “none of those funds those people are raising will go to DAA”. Again: short changing an event aimed at getting Obama elected for his own gain.
Given Mike’s persuation to raise funds for DAA I was taken aback by his action that truly was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Exec Committee. Against their unanimous vote he donated what few funds had been raised for DAA to the Obama campaign in the NAME of HIS WIFE! This not only was a unilateral action against a board vote but also broke several laws!
I echo Laura’s statement above: I am hopeful that in the name of democracy many people will show up this Wednesday and have open ears to both sides. I am ALL EARS to hear what Mike has to say but he has NOT ONCE answered to the accusations that the board and I have put forward.
All of these claims of poor leadership do not even touch on the fact that Mike is drunk at most public events. He is consistantly wasted or at a minimum continually drinking even when the event is a day time voter registration gig on the campus of exchange students! Such a shame and such a bad face for DAA.
It is funny how the same people keep saying things about how Mike is a public drunk. (I have never seen him drunk in public) How Mike is a poor leader, How Mike is this and that….Yet what they don’t tell you is that the elections of DAA are in TWO MONTHS. AND IN TWO MONTHS THEY CAN ELECT A WHOLE NEW BOARD. SO how come they want to publicly humiliate the guy now and drag the name of the organization through the mud? Because in the end you are going to end up with an organization NO ONE wants to be a part of. So put that on your resumes you idiots.
Well said Deby.
Thanks Gina.
I am relieved that DA International forced everyone to resign. Super smart move on their behalf because it immediately ends all of this ugliness.
I do not think anyone on the Executive Committee nor myself are involved with DAA to put it on our resume… please! After opening and operating more than four companies both in the US and over seas I did not volunteer to help US voters to build my resume!
We pulled together to get Mike out because his actions and lies discredit the organization. We feel the need to make it clear not only to DA International but also to the public that even though we officially all work together under the DAA organization we are NOT in accordance with Mike’s ILLEGAL activities.
Deby and Gina: doesn’t it bother you that he took DAA funds and donated them in his wife’s name? Against the vote of the board and breaking several laws?
no it doesn’t bother me. as long as he donated the money – I don’t care if it was in the name of George Bush or Mickey Mouse.
and everyone keeps saying something about him breaking lots of laws – i just haven’t heard anything that sounds like he’s doing that.
you pulled together at a very inappropriate time – two months before reelections? look, if you were going to do this, the appropriate time would have been at the moment that he committed a crime, but after everything is said and done, it just makes it look like you used him for his “celebrity” and blog.
But the Executive Committe *did* do this at the moment he committed the “crime” (to use your word). As soon as he made the donation to the Obama campaign they decided his actions crossed various legal lines and they couldn’t stand by anymore and possibly be found guilty by association. Since he ignored their unanimous board vote and made the donation anyway they took the only responsible course of action that remained and went public with all of this.
Here are two specific laws/rules he broke:
1. He made a donation to the Obama campaign in his wife’s name, who is Argentine. Only US citizens are allowed to donate to political campaigns.
2. There are campaign finance laws that prohibit any Democrats Abroad chapter from donating to political campaigns. The language is very specific and if you want to read it I’m happy to forward along the exact section of the code. Hence why he made the donation in his wife’s name I suppose…
Why hasn’t Mike even once answered to these charges and instead made claims that he has no idea what the charges are that are being brought against him???
I also want to point out that I did not “pull together” with them and there was no big conspiracy plotting against Mike. I am NOT on the board or the executive committee. I am just a person who volunteered many hours during the course of the campaign. I kept my many concerns about Mike’s behavior and actions to myself and only voiced my support of the EC after they came out publicly. Until I knew that others were experiencing some of the same insults to integrity I wasn’t willing to spend my time on what in the big picture is a very small issue…. I figured he could have his fiefdom!
I strongly believe that his removal will be for the long term good for Democrats Abroad/Argentina. This organization should be about making the community of Democrats living abroad here in Argentina strong and vibrant in the off-election cycle years so that during an election cycle it is easy to mobilize people to help get our candidate elected.
Did Obama win in the end?
Boy, you ALL sound like a bunch of whiny bi****s. From both sides. Democrats abroad seemed like a good idea, but now I have no desire to ever associate myself with your organization.
And by the way Deby, someone donating funds in a different person’s name is highly illegal as it violates tax code. He can claim a tax deduction from that shit and obviously shows him using it for his own personal gain. If that is a true accusation, you should be concerned as your chairman is using group contributions for personal gain; not a very good quality and not something I would wish to be a part of.