On Sunday the board of the Atheists of Florida removed two of the officers of the board and then expelled them from the group. The individuals in question are two of the most high profile members of the Atheists of Florida, John Keiffer and Ellenbeth Wachs who were serving as President and Vice-President respectively. (see article here)
As a result of Sunday’s vote and expulsion, there have been many rumors and accusations being made. Two members of the Atheists of Florida board contest John and Ellenbeth’s version of events and are speaking out.
According to Ed “Golly” Gollobith, board chair and acting president, the vote to remove John and Ellenbeth as officers was separate and unrelated to their expulsion. The expulsion was done according to the bylaws after Sunday’s meeting. John and Ellenbeth have the right to appeal their expulsion if they want to and Ed is planning to meet with an attorney advising the board to provide John and Ellenbeth with a comprehensive list of specific reasons why they were expelled from the group so that John and Ellenbeth may defend themselves properly.
The reason they were not only removed as officers, but expelled from membership was because, according to both Ed Golly and Jim Peterson, an at large board member, John and Ellenbeth have repeatedly refused to provide documentation requested by the board regarding a number of financial transactions that have taken place over the past year.
In September, as a result of the board’s concern about the large amounts of money that were being spent, a financial oversight committee was formed. This committee was supposed to oversee and approve any transaction over $1,000.
According to Ed, the board had been asking John and Ellenbeth for documentation on some of the financial transactions that the board had previously approved so that they could account for them properly in their records. In October, Ellenbeth requested money to help pay for John’s legal costs. Because they hadn’t yet received the documentation they had requested on the previous transactions, the financial oversight committee decided to refuse any new disbursements until they received the documentation they had requested. According to Ed, Ellenbeth promised to provide the requested documentation.
When Ed, in his role as chairman of the board, prepared the original agenda for Sunday’s meeting he included an agenda item on financial accountability as several members of the board were concerned about, what Jim Peterson characterized as “certain internal financial activities did not conform to the requirements set forth in board policy.” According to Ed, Ellenbeth wrote a new agenda for the meeting, which omitted the financial accountability item, and stated in no uncertain terms that she would not be providing the documentation that the board had asked for.
As a result of this and other concerns it was decided that a vote of confidence in John and Ellenbeth’s leadership was needed. The other concerns the board members had included how the elections were being handled by John and Ellenbeth, who had apparently appointed themselves chair and vice chair of the elections committee and according to both Ed and Jim, were bypassing the rest of the elections committee entirely. John and Ellenbeth are also accused of transferring control over all the online properties (website, meetups and paypal) to themselves without board approval and despite the board already having an appointed Webmaster who was supposed to be in charge of AOF’s online presence. And finally, this past January, Ellenbeth apparently registered herself as the official contact person for the organization and changed the official address of the organization to a PO Box she had opened for just this purpose without first getting approval from the board and without notifying them that she had made this change.
At Sunday’s meeting the first item on the agenda was the vote of no confidence as it was felt that no other business could be taken care of until the board was confident in their chosen leadership. Each officer of the board, which includes the treasurer and chair, were voted for individually. John and Ellenbeth were the only officers voted out of office on 8-0 votes with one abstention. John and Ellenbeth as well as Rob Curry walked out rather then participate in this vote of no-confidence. The board voted not to allow discussion because by the time this meeting occurred, according to Jim Peterson, the “confidence and trust had broken down” between the officers and the board.
At this point, the board could have voted in a new set of officers, but decided not to since board elections were already in process and a new board is scheduled to be seated at the end of the month. Ed Golly, who is chair, is the default Acting President until the new board is seated and new officers are elected. He was quite clear that in his entire history with the Atheists of Florida he has never sought nor run for the presidency of the organization and he is not seeking it now.
Ed Golly also said that he will be convening a board meeting so that the board can decide what to do about the elections, which have essentially been thrown into disarray, not only by Sunday’s proceedings, but because, according to both Ed and Jim, John and Ellenbeth had not followed the bylaws in their handling of the election.
According to Ed, the decision to expel John and Ellenbeth from the organization took place after the board meeting in accordance with the bylaws of the organization. A board member who was particularly upset about the financial concerns the board had for which John and Ellenbeth were refusing to provide documentation, submitted a written allegation formally requesting that John and Ellenbeth be expelled. Ed Golly, who became acting President until the new board elects a new president, then appointed two board members who are not running for re-election to consider the matter of expulsion as is required by the bylaws. These board members decided to expel both John and Ellenbeth for the time being. Per the bylaws both John and Ellenbeth can appeal their expulsion to the entire board, but Ed noted that the board will probably not consider their appeal until or unless the documentation they’ve requested is provided to them.
Both Ed Golly and Jim Peterson admitted that John Keiffer and Ellenbeth have not yet seen the allegations made against them. They also said that no one is alleging that they have done anything illegal. This is simply a matter of them not providing the documentation the AOF board feels it is entitled to. Ed said he is working with an attorney to assemble the list of reasons why John and Ellenbeth were expelled so that they will be able to defend themselves against the allegations being made against them.
Ed Golly also addressed the allegations Ellenbeth Wach has been making against him. He said he is not currently planning to sell the building where he provides space to the Atheists of Florida free of charge. If he had wanted to sell it, he says he would have taken the cash offer that was made to him in the past few months. The issue of possibly selling the building to the Atheists of Florida came up earlier in the year because the other tenant in the building had left and the AOF board was considering whether it might be a good idea to purchase it outright so they could utilize the additional space. Ed said he recused himself from the discussions and from the votes regarding this because it doesn’t matter to him either way. As far as he is concerned, the Atheists of Florida can continue using the space he is providing free of charge for as long as they want.
Both Ed and Jim said they continue to hold Ellenbeth and John in high esteem for all they have done for the Atheists of Florida and Ed noted that the board has not rescinded their offer to pay the legal fees for Ellenbeth and John. He said that Ellenbeth and John stopped requesting funds be dispersed when the Financial Oversight committee started requesting documentation to support the requests.
Long story short, the Atheists of Florida board has asked for documentation on financial transactions made by John Kieffer and Ellenbeth Wachs. According to Ed, the board approved these transactions and that is not being contested. They simply want documentation so that they can properly account for the funds that were received and dispersed. They removed John and Ellenbeth as officers because John and Ellenbeth had refused to work not only with the financial oversight committee, but also with the elections committee and because they were taking actions without prior approval of the board and the board had lost confidence in them as leaders. This was within the right of the board because the board elects its own officers. The reasons for John and Ellenbeth’s expulsion will be provided to them shortly, but seem to center around the lack of documentation for the financial transactions.
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