More ...on confidence lost ...and confidence found

mike,
i'm just catching up on email and saw your unbelievable message. who do these folks think they are?? you are dems abroad, totally, completely. of course i insist on voting via email, especially since i'm now on staff at the herald and i work wednesdays until 10pm. but if there's a way for me to get there and report on it, i will be there!
besos grandes (with an incredulous expression on my face??)
00:35

Mike,

The email conflict over the past day, even though there was only one message from each side, hit me pretty hard. Feel free to pass this email to the "other side" if you think it might help.

I am very sorry for the troubles you are going through. I am sure that you put in many hours of uncompensated work for whatever set of reasons you may have had, but it was always clear to me that first among them was advancing the party with the American expatriate community in Argentina. From the vast distance of my location in Córdoba, I can see that you raised interest and consciousness to a level unprecedented for the party in this basically very conservative country. That is not an easy task in this country where the shadow remnants of the American community was overwhelmingly Republican or indifferent. You did get some unexpected help: One of the greatest things about W was his ability to erase indifference.

Obviously, I do not know the nature of the content of the rest of the "evidence" that they claim to have, but the act of making such a claim without providing the evidence immediately reduces it to inflammatory innuendo that is hardly appropriate to the needs of our party. The other side says that they can back up their claims. But is that really the point?

I don't think anybody can challenge my credentials as a lifelong Democrat. When I was 16, I canvassed the New York tenements for Robert Kennedy and then did the same for Paul O'Dwyer in his Senate campaign. The years went on and I was always out working for the party, frustration or not. From that time, my commitment to our party is not something anyone could call into question. And I took those basic principles into my activities as a professional economist in Argentina.

In my ten years of living in Buenos Aires, I tried through various means to get some interest going. You did it in less than two years. If there are actions that the rest of the local party leadership want to call into question, let them do it now. I am confident that the light of reason will come down in favor of your intentions and commitment. When you live in a country in almost constant crisis, you learn more profoundly the concept that life is not all good and bad or black and white. The shades of gray are what really matter.

But there is another issue that is very important to me: With a new and largely untested president coming into office at just the moment of an extremely severe economic crisis, I consider this internal bickering and questioning to be destructive to the higher cause of keeping this community organized for the future. Everyone should try to remember that the Republicans have certain advantages due to the composition of the expatriate community (including US Embassy personnel).
I hope that the bunch of you in Buenos Aires can get your dispute settled without spilling more detritus on the American community in Argentina. In the interests of our party, from Córdoba I call on you to do so.
02:18

Hello Mike,

I'm sitting here in Kabul, Afghanistan, and puzzling over the circumstances surrounding the upcoming "no confidence" vote. I would be happy to weigh in but without any particulars other than the alleged diversion of funds as outlined in the email and in the absence of an explanation from you, I'm afraid I'm completely in the dark.

My involvement with DAA has been restricted to the Obama platform meeting at Laura's place, followed by brunch with you and Alicia, and a couple of subsequent get-togethers with Laura and her husband. At no time was I aware of any subterranean rumblings.

Any enlightenment you can provide would be appreciated.
06:30

First, I have to say that I don't think I am even really a member of DAA, even though I have occassionally volunteered at events, attended nearly all of the events, and know all but one of the people on the Executive Committee (I don't know Richard Tihany). However, I do have some comments.

Does anyone have an active count of how many of the members of DAA are actually "eligible" for membership? The rules for eligibility (http://www.fotos.yanquimike.com.ar/daarbylaws.htm) clearly state that they must be residing in Argentina. This means that the vice-chair is no longer ELIGIBLE for membership herself. If voting by email is allowed, someone needs to make sure that many of those voting are still eligible members. The transitory nature of many of the people I have met down here means that someone will need to keep a very active list of who is and is not a member; although many people enjoy the DAA activities, many of those same people are really just part-time or short-term residents. Many of the people who joined the organization did so because they met you when they first got here and thought it was a pretty cool group to hang out with.

Mike, you are the face of DAA - you were on of the first people I met down here, have always been friendly, and as far as I can tell have done a good job being the spokesman for DAA.

I have heard some members (including people on the Executive committee) complain about where we have our meetings in dark, smoky bars. One important thing to note is that Drinking Liberally event (on Thursdays) is a social gathering that is in NO WAY connected to Democrats Abroad. I think many of the complaints from certain members about meeting locations have forgotten this fact because you are the face of both. Although Drinking Liberally has probably generated more memberships for DAA than anything else, the distinction needs to be made. The locations of the nomination, debate watching, and election night gatherings, all in large clubs/bars, seemed to be the only suitable venue because I don't know where else we could have had the space for 100's of people, television equipment, and a place that was willing to stay open as late as needed. It should also be pointed out that all of those establishments were smoke free, and that 99% of the people there were drinking, so it seems like that in itself is an endorsement for that type of a venue. Besides, it was probably also the only venue that was affordable.

The part about the donated funds does bug me a bit. I don't know what the motivation was for donating it in Alicia's name vs. your name vs. DAA's name was about, but in general I find the fund raising to be quite sketchy down here because campaigns are not supposed to take money from foreign citizens or entities. If DAA is hosting an event and charges a modest cover, to be in compliance with campaign finance laws, it seems that we need to keep the money paid by US citizens separate from money paid by non-US citizens, if we are going to donate it to a campaign. The same would also hold true for things like the T-shirts, buttons, stickers, etc that were being sold at the events. Granted, this would be difficult, but it is the only way we can be 100% sure that DAA is not violating those laws. It would be easy to say, "no one will ever know" if the money was partly from foreign citizens, but DAA needs to hold itself to a higher standard to be sure that everything is above ground. However, that isn't really related to why the money was in one person's name vs. another persons. I don't see how this could be considered advantageous for anyone except for the small tax break making donations allows.

Perhaps the bigger issue is that the Executive Committee was not consulted about the usage of the funds. This seems like it should have been done, as also according to the bylaws, the Treasurer should have been in charge of that money. However, I do not know about the inner-workings of the organization. For all I know they were consulted and consented, but I don't know how that can be proven at this point.

Finally, people are mentioning personal attacks when there is a disagreement. I have no idea what this entails, but it must have been kept relatively between the people involved, because I can honestly say that I have never heard Mike speak negatively about any of the other committee members (the opposite is not true however). I hope that this recall vote the Executive Committee is calling for isn't simply over a "he said, she said" type of argument.

Here is what I would propose. The membership should not ask for Mike's resignation, nor should we be voting to REMOVE someone (that doesn't seem to be how democracies work). I feel that if we are to go down this path, the best course of action would be, at the consent of the Chairman and Executive Committee, hold a special election to decide who stays and in what position.

If I was a voting member of DAA I would certainly support your candidacy to whatever position you ran for, as you have not only put in a lot of time and energy, but are also one of the few members of DAA that will actually be living down here for several years, which provides the continuity a young organization needs.
10:32

Dear Mike
Tuesday and Wednesday are imposible days for me to assit. Please let me know if you have other day. Thanks
12:51