Beth’s goal in having this internal audit done was to give the BOD and membership confidence in the financial reporting, which quite frankly had no credibility because it was incomplete, inaccurate and misleading, and not even understood by the Board or most of the executive.

Since the presidents weren’t included in planning the audit, or approve it, given the choice of an internal or external paid audit, or even know who was chosen to do it, nor know what the audit’s mandate was, and I gather may not hear from the auditors directly, or be able to question them… what exactly do the presidents want on Sunday?

I expect timing will again necessitate a rushed viewing of some things, and a rushed verbal summary of everything chosen to be released to us. There won’t be time for each region to do their own careful analysis, or compare the new financials with what we had been given in the past to see what had changed from what we thought was the case. No review of any kind really.

And without a thorough review we are expected to vote on it. The 2022 renewal plan changes were sprung on the presidents at the last possible moment, a quick vote forced, and the VOA has lost the support of many because that process was so badly flawed. A 50+1% vote is never good enough, not nearly enough on matters of great importance, especially when so many regions are not represented in the meetings.

Now is the time for those being asked to vote to make your views known. Mine should be obvious. We’ve all been excluded from all the relevant decisions related to the audit and I will not be voting at the end of the meeting to approve it. I need a proper opportunity to review it and that appears to be denied. If the question is whether there should be a vote held, I will very gladly vote NO. Schedule the vote for a week later.

This is Beth’s audit, and the financial representations are those accountants. Let those accountants put their names to it. We all need to be very careful about what is represented as being approved by the region presidents.

Somewhere in this PR disaster we want to give membership answers to their keen concerns. Give them whatever information is available for them to make their own assessment, and to the region’s boards where they can relate whatever level of confidence they have to their members.

But if I’m correct, the crucial numbers that are going to be missing is a realistic budget plan that shows how the VOA is going to go from insolvency to stability. And for that members are going to have to wait until next year.

I’m furious because this nightmare has been mishandled at every step. The Board should have been informed of the financial crisis as soon as it was detected, not months later. The renewal plan should have been developed with the executive and region presidents, got everyone’s input and a compromise worked out rather than here it is, you have to vote on it right now! The budget should have been created similarly because what was presented was unrealistic… 1700 members? The presidents would have come up with a different number for sure. This needed to be all done before renewals opened. Have a well-thought out plan and explain it all before renewals open.

We’re doubling down on the mistakes of the past with this audit, it’s results are going to be questioned and disputed, there will be a brief and ineffective attempt to answer them as has been the case in the Membership Information & News forum, and to no one’s satisfaction because they can’t be answered accurately without exposing deceit and multiple conflicts of interests, and pointing blame at specific leaders over multiple administrations.

So what can we do to try to satisfy the membership? The VOA hasn’t announced the 2022 executive, and that needs to be done now, and I suggest our president for 2022 start being the face of VOA National. Beth has publicly taken responsibility for this financial crisis, and should step out of the lime light. Membership needs to see and hear from the 2022 national executive, to start expressing their vision for the future of the VOA, and start the process of establishing trust in the national executive.

If the financials are released to members they will expose how bad the situation is, and for how long it has been allowed to worsen. If the financials aren’t released it will be because the VOA’s region presidents have chosen to continue the VOA’s bad practices.