Something Is Rotten In the City of Arlington

Let me start with what I do NOT know:

I don’t know if Howard has signed or will sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement as part of the terms of his dismissal.

I don’t know of legal action he may or may not take against Pam, the AMC, or Mensa in general – and I’m not sure he would as he really does love Mensa. On the other hand, I don’t know if there would be legal action from the AMC.

Here’s what I DO know, based on years of working closely with Howard and other staff, and several years of being Pam’s new best friend – right up until I lost the election, after which I was thrown under the bus and kept out of the loop politically:

The AMC, via the ExComm, hires an Executive Director charged with running a National Office to get stuff done the AMC wants done. They hire and fire ONLY the Exec Dir. The Exec Dir, in turn, has total control over what happens in the office. Pam had her reasons for firing Howard. While I can guess, I cannot fully know what those reasons were. But I firmly believe them to have been trumped up reasons. (Cookie has posited a plausible theory on Facebook which two separate people have told me was the cause given for his dismissal.)

The working environment in the National Office has been increasingly toxic for the last three or four years. We have lost Catherine, Mary, Julies Boone and Clark, Roger, Heather, Bryan, and now Howard. Other staff, such as Paige, have been marginalized (whether it was Paige’s decision or not). New, young, and less experienced people have been hired. Testing is down. Membership remained flat for a third year. Dues are going up. Tasks deemed important enough to be touted in the Bulletin by even the Chairman—namely the Online Compendium and Guides—are not getting done due to staff time not being allocated.  

Two other former employees besides Howard have shared stories with me about her management of the office, despite being given specific directives by Pam to “not get too friendly with Robin.” Howard has been held in high regard by many of his fellow co-workers just as he is by the membership at large. They have shared with him their concerns about Pam’s erratic and abusive management style. Simply put, he knows too much.

Pam has actively worked to keep members and AMC members in the dark. Money is being spent to hire outside consultants to take over tasks formerly done by volunteers, which further limits the exposure members have to the goings on in the National Office. During the week prior to Howard’s dismissal, the Board of Directors were kept in the dark about which staff person was on the firing line. Additionally, even Marc Lederman, Howard’s Board counterpart, was told he may not speak with Howard and threatened with possible legal ramifications if he did.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knows that Howard has long been the clear choice to replace Pam as Exec Director of Mensa. He was a threat to Pam’s job security, and became more and more so as her overall performance continued to spiral downward.

Howard is a member of Intertel, thus, he clearly qualifies to join Mensa. Already, a number of members have asked him to. He has always expressed a firm intention to join when he is no longer a staff member. He continues to express publicly that he loves Mensa in general.

Pam did consult with the ExComm, and a majority (of the five people ruling Mensa—the rest of the AMC was kept in the dark) backed her decision to dismiss Howard. All but one of the current ExComm members are running for re-election. If you don’t like that they supported Pam’s decision, then don’t vote for them, and spread the word to encourage other members to vote accordingly. Heck, start the process for recalling them.

As I said before, like it or not, Pam did have the authority to let Howard go. The only solution to reversing this action is for the ExComm to fire Pam and to replace her with a new Executive Director who will act more in line with the wishes of the membership, which in my opinion would include rehiring Howard. Of course, an even better solution would be for the ExComm to hire Howard back as Executive Director.