Not happy with how the Dechert Administration is running the KWVA? Share your ideas for improvement to the organization here. Send your suggestions to lynnita@koreanwar-educator.org.*
*Those who are pleased with the Dechert Administration have a forum to praise it in The Graybeards. (Criticisms of the Louis Dechert Administration are rarely published in The Graybeards, but that isn't because there aren't any.) Therefore, praisers need to submit their lauds to that magazine, whose editor was hired by Mr. Dechert.
Suggested Improvements - submitted by Lynnita Brown
- Restore the memberships of everyone who has been kicked out of the KWVA during the Louis Dechert Administration except Harley Coon and Ken Cook—IF either of them was involved in the disappearance of the quartermaster inventory, the loss of which affected the assets of the KWVA. If that inventory—or money in lieu of the inventory—did not turn up, they would remain non-members until it did. If either one of them can prove they weren’t involved in the disappearance of the quartermaster inventory, let them back in—unless there are other substantiated reasons for removing them from the organization.
- Remove the losing candidates from the last election who were appointed by Lou Dechert to fill “vacancies” and restore the winning candidates to their rightful places on the board--with profound aplogies for wrongly interrupting the winners' elected terms of office.
- Stop trying to kick people out of the KWVA because they speak their minds. The witch-hunt has got to stop. It is childish, petty behavior.
- Eliminate the Dechert-appointed Ethics and Grievance Committee. If persons on the committee are also persons who filed grievances against a member or members, that is conflict of interest in the supreme. (It's the foxes guarding the chicken coop.) Also, if formal complaints against Lou Dechert or other members of his administration are being ignored and tossed into File 13 without the same formal investigations that have been forced on others, the E&G Committee isn’t doing its job. Rather, it is rigged and is nothing more than a tool for Dechert to use to get rid of members he doesn't like.
- Limit expensive legal fees to the bare minimum. Run KWVA meetings without paying a lawyer to hold the president’s hand while those meetings are in session.
- Eliminate so much as the slightest hint of conflict of interest with regard to Warren Wiedhahn by removing him from the board or by removing him from anything remotely associated with the revisit program. And tell him in no uncertain terms to keep his company’s mitts off the membership address list. There are further members' questions about Mr. Wiedhahn and the KWVA that should be addressed and answered.
- Provide to each member of the KWVA executive board an itemized list (down to the last penny) of every cent spent by the Louis Dechert Administration, along with a copy of the receipt for every expenditure over $100.00. Review the material, ask questions, and be sure that each board member is satisfied that the report is comprehensive before it is officially accepted as complete. If ALL questions are not fully answered, do not sign off on the financial report.
- Post on the KWVA website a copy of every 990 form or equivalent submitted by the KWVA to the IRS for at least the last ten years the organization has been in operation. I am a firm believer in the theory that an organization that has nothing to hide HIDES NOTHING.
- If a member makes what the administration can prove is a false allegation, call that member up and talk to him or her about it. (No threats of slander or expulsion. Just TALK.) If necessary, show the proof needed that would restore that member’s faith in the leadership ability of collective or individual directors. Any member of any KWVA administration who thinks that he or she doesn’t have to provide explanations to doubting members is living in a fantasy world. “Because I said so” works great for parents, but carries little weight in a non-profit. In most cases, open discussion is usually all it really takes to resolve differences. That is called, “lines of communication.” No KWVA leader should ever be “too important” to talk to the “little people” who voted him or her into office. Don’t have the time to deal with skeptical members? Then don’t take the job. Resign and let someone else take over who IS willing to listen to those members who have concerns.
- Firmly remind Lou Dechert that he is the president of a SOCIAL organization. He is not back in command of a MILITARY unit. His title “Colonel” might buy him respect in military circles, but it doesn’t hold much water in a civil organization that was created for social purposes. In a civil organization, respect isn’t automatically given simply because one carries a title. It must be earned the old-fashioned way—by DESERVING it.
- Remove the damning comments made on the KWVA website likening non-Dechert supporters to terrorist suicide bombers, and never allow any KWVA leader to make such a disgraceful, uncalled for comment about any of its members ever again. If they do, sack them immediately.
- Make some very public apologies to some very mistreated members.
