Seed Savers, Executive Director, Kent Whealy fired!

Celtic lore before the time of Christ). SSE’s eight original heifer calves were purchased with grant money (1987-1989). When Maryanne Mott and Herman Warsh agreed to purchase Twin Valleys (1993) and to hold onto it until Seed Savers was financially able to take over the 716-acre property (2002), our intent was to develop a permanent sanctuary for SSE’s herds of Ancient White Park cattle similar to the 1,000-acre Chillingham Park on the English/Scottish border (which has existed since 1270 A.D.).

SSE’s Ancient White Park cattle have also been an important, major component during the $2,000,000 capital campaign for Twin Valleys, which I recently completed. During that campaign, the Farmland Protection Program – a joint contract that defines the permanent conservation easements between SSE, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – paid SSE $365,000 in federal funds. That contract certainly focuses on SSE’s cattle -NRCS’s Riparian Program that fenced the cattle out of 3.5 miles of coldwater streams and its EQIP Program for rotational grazing. And what about SSE members’ donations for Twin Valleys, which they thought would include hiking access to view the cattle? And what about other foundation grants approved after site visits that included the cattle? Finally, what about the extremely generous $450,000 grant from The Ceres Trust (that paid off Twin Valleys) in which the cattle played a major role?

Because of the continuity of SSE’s grants and donations over time, these current board members do not have the right to substantially change the organization’s direction (much less abandon and dismantle entire projects). I hope that all of SSE’s Listed Members will join me in demanding that SSE’s current board follow through on two decades of commitments (in grants, contracts and funding appeals) and maintain Twin Valleys as a permanent sanctuary for SSE’s herds of Ancient White Park cattle.

The timing and circumstances of my removal are particularly troubling because they coincide with seemingly dramatic amendments by the board to SSE’s Bylaws. I am deeply concerned because of what those amendments appear to signal, at least to me. At first I couldn’t understand why the board had gutted ARTICLE III – MEMBERS RIGHTS, BENEFITS AND OBLIGATIONS. The deleted language includes: “This corporation has members, who are subscribers and pay annual dues in order to receive the organization’s annual membership publications, but who are non-voting for purposes of governance. Members of the organization will receive an Annual Report that will be included in their membership publications. The Board of Directors will select an Advisory Board from the membership,

and members will be periodically surveyed for their ideas and input….. ” (That was all added at the

board’s request six years ago, so why change it again now?) SSE’s new Bylaws only say, ARTICLE III – MEMBERS “The corporation shall have no members, as “members ” are defined in Iowa Code Chapter 504. “ (Anyone interested in the other changes the board made to SSE’s Bylaws should compare the two versions in Seed Savers 2001 Harvest Edition and Seed Savers 2007 Harvest Edition)

I am quite worried that those deletions to SSE’s Bylaws mean the board believes it is no longer required to maintain SSE’s long-standing Board of Advisors (contrary to Amy Goldman’s recent statement in Seed Savers 2007 Harvest Edition) or to consider input or ideas from SSE’s members. Also, by no longer requiring the publication of SSE’s Annual Report (printed for years in each Summer Edition), the board just eliminated the only place SSE’s members would have found out about a recent, very large bequest to SSE. And the true size of that large, five-year bequest would indeed have shown up in SSE’s Annual Report next summer, because the accrual accounting procedures used by SSE’s accounting firm require that the entire amount of any multi-year bequest (or grant) has to all be recorded at the end of the year when notification occurred (the total for all five years, not just the portion received during 2007).

Although SSE’s financial statements for 2007 become public information on January 1, 2008, those revenue amounts don’t actually show up anywhere until SSE’s Form 990 is submitted to the IRS on May 15. But after May 15 anyone, not just SSE’s members, can request a copy of SSE’s Form 990 from Seed Savers office just for the price of copying. Right now, all I can tell you is that SSE’s Assets (previously slightly more than $3,000,000 after 33 years) nearly doubled during July of 2007!

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