Seed Savers, Executive Director, Kent Whealy fired!

In mid-August, Amy Goldman questioned me about why I had written a successful $75,000 grant to the 1772 Foundation. That grant – to restore the stone granary and to re-build a log shelter house – was the final piece of my successful $2,000,000 capital campaign for Twin Valleys. Instead of congratulations, Amy Goldman treated me as though I’d done something wrong. Right then I started wondering whether she was going to let me finish the one remaining year of work -1 had already put in 14 years – needed to complete all of Twin Valleys’ projects (remaining fences for the trails, log shelter house restoration, endophyte-free fescue plantings, storage tunnel for round bales, and new calving pastures/wintering areas for the cattle). About that same time, Amy Goldman started sending SSE’s staff blackberry messages from New York (short commands and orders) as though she were running everything from there. She repeatedly did that to me, and also to SSE’s other staff members (including those I supervised directly), quickly making it extremely difficult for me to do my job as Executive Director.

The only reason I was ever given for why I was fired was that I had sent Amy Goldman “unprofessional e-mails” (e-mails that I sent to the entire board to make sure they all knew what was actually going on), and that I had bought a metal storage shed “without the board’s permission,” which I thought I had been given. That building had been needed for years and would have provided more efficient storage and processing of this year’s harvest, eliminated a lot of heavy lifting for the garden crew, and provided a heated work area as the weather started freezing. The storage shed could have been used this fall and winter, but instead stands uncompleted. Once again, SSE’s garden crew had to work outside in the cold (on tables set up beside the greenhouse) to process last summer’s harvest. The mix-up about buying the storage shed was initially caused by a two-word, confusing blackberry message that Amy Goldman sent to me (she created the mess, and then used it as the main excuse for firing me). But actually, all of these are just excuses, and are certainly nothing worth ending a 33-year distinguished career.

I am also unaware of any legitimate reason for the firing of Angie Otteson who still has never received the Termination Letter required within 5-days by SSE’s Employee Manual. So Angie filed a Grievance with SSE’s Board, which Neil Hamilton didn’t answer until December 19, 2007. The reason he finally

gave Angie for her termination was “……… breaches of your duty of loyalty to SSE.” (In my opinion, that

should have read “……. breaches of your loyalty to Amy Goldman and Neil Hamilton” because Angie is

just as intensely loyal and dedicated to Seed Savers as I am.) Neil Hamilton’s justifications for the board’s actions actually included (in all seriousness) “the urgency” of “SSE’s Rolodex investigation.”

I am so disgusted by all of the two-faced rhetoric coming from Amy Goldman and Neil Hamilton, especially all of their references to “SSE’s confidential and proprietary information.” How utterly ridiculous for them to make a fuss over my personal Rolodex, when Amy Goldman has repeatedly been given privileged access to the rarest seeds in SSE’s collection (SSE’s most “proprietary information” of all) to help her create her three books. SSE’s office staff has also repeatedly helped with the research for her books (during office hours), just pleased to be able to help a major funder. Now the availability of such seeds for any future publishing depends on who controls SSE and its resources; otherwise, Amy Goldman would have to wait for the full 10-year cycle (like all of SSE’s other Listed Members) before everything in Heritage Farm’s entire collection becomes available. Finally, in my opinion, it is the height of hypocrisy for Amy Goldman to profess (in the new Seed Savers 2007 Harvest Edition) that she cares deeply about working with SSE’s Board of Advisors and about the rights of SSE’s Members, when both were just deleted from SSE’s Bylaws (which are brazenly published in the same issue).

My work on Seed Savers 2007 Harvest Edition was almost completed before I was fired, except for my introduction (which I always write last). That made it quite easy for Amy Goldman to insert her introduction instead, which contains a paragraph that has most likely puzzled and disturbed many among SSE’s membership, “The Officer position of President/Executive Director is vacant. Recently, Kent Whealy ‘s employment with Seed Savers Exchange ended. A search is underway for a new Executive Director. An ad hoc Executive Search committee, consisting of Amy Goldman, Neil Hamilton, and Diane Ott Whealy, has been formed to accomplish that task.” Having Amy Goldman, Neil Hamilton

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