Seed Savers, Executive Director, Kent Whealy fired!

and Diane Ott Whealy decide my successor is my worst nightmare! In my opinion, those three have just caused the most damage that our organization has ever suffered in its entire history, and now they’re defiantly telling SSE’s members that they’re going to choose my successor!

Actually, I’m very much afraid that Amy Goldman may be planning to put someone of her choice in as Executive Director very quickly, just to try to get past this present storm. When Gary Paul Nabhan was on SSE’s board, he used to stress that it would take a national search to replace me, probably with more than one person. Now exactly the opposite seems to be happening.

I’ve also been cut off from any transitional transfer of knowledge, which I’ve been preparing for throughout my entire career. In my opinion, the board is acting in a totally irresponsible manner (certainly not in the best interests of SSE) by willfully turning its back on expertise that it sorely lacks. I started putting Heritage Farm together 22 years ago (15 years ago for Twin Valleys), building first-class permanent facilities on both, so that all of SSE’s projects would continue beyond me. Even with everything I’ve done, I knew the transition at my retirement (which I was planning on four years from now) would be difficult, possibly taking a year or two to de-program me and to transfer all of those years of experience and knowledge (especially concerning SSE’s seed collection). Now, in an instant, those transitional opportunities have all been destroyed, to the permanent detriment of the organization.

Amy Goldman should resign from SSE’s board immediately, before she does any more damage to the organization! I also strongly believe that funders do not have the right to buy their way into a nonprofit, and then take it over and change its programs! I also want Neil Hamilton to resign, because the legal advice (or at least its approval) for these actions has largely been his (plus he is receiving funding from Amy for annual conferences at the Drake Law School). Cary Fowler should step down to prevent any questions concerning conflict of interest because of Amy Goldman’s substantial funding of the seed bank in Svalbard, Norway. I don’t know the extent of Cary Fowler and Rob Johnston and Deborah Madison’s involvement, but in my opinion this board’s collective actions prove their amazingly poor judgment, and confirm that none of them should any longer be trusted to do what is best for SSE.

I hope that SSE’s members will join me in demanding that SSE’s current Board of Directors resign and be replaced by SSE’s Board of Advisors (possibly up to 15 members). That appears to me to be the only way to protect our organization during this critical period. SSE’s Board of Advisors have always been the true guardians of the Seed Savers Exchange, and I would trust completely that large diverse group’s combined knowledge and wise guidance to always protect and guide Seed Savers and Heritage Farm and Twin Valleys. As soon as SSE’s current board resigns, a board meeting should be held where SSE’s Board of Advisors will take over as SSE’s new Board of Directors, rightfully taking back the organization (and all of its financial resources) in the name of SSE’s members. This new Board of Directors will have to create new Bylaws, based entirely (once again) on the best interests of SSE, and then set the new Bylaws in stone so that nothing like this can ever happen again.

I believe this new Board of Directors could and should take some immediate actions to protect SSE’s long-term interests and its resources, such as: 1) legally establish Twin Valleys as a “permanent sanctuary” for SSE’s herds of Ancient White Park cattle; 2) retain Arthur Schmelzer, nearby farmer who has rented portions of Twin Valleys for a decade, to take over the management of SSE’s herds of Ancient White Park cattle; 3) stop all work on SSE’s two remaining historic restorations (the 1772 Foundation grant) until there is proper supervision (certainly not Amy Goldman or Matt Barthel); 4) make sure the $80,000 remaining in the Twin Valleys Fund (even after the 1772 Foundation grant is expended) indeed gets spent on Twin Valleys’ projects; 5) and start building two endowments -$20,000,000 for SSE (for the garden staff to always maintain the seed collection) and $2,000,000 for Twin Valleys (for a manager living on-site to always look after the cattle, fences and trails).

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