Theos-Talk Archives (March 2006 Message tt00535)

I talked to John Scott at the Tacoma Lodge last night, Friday, to 
verify the information I posted on this list.  (John wants to join 
the list too, but must first deal with a small Yahoo challenge.)

Is there anyway to know if TSA financed the lawsuit? was my first 
question.  John recently talked to one of the complainants in the 
suit, and she told him that TSA paid for the legal action.  A sweet 
elderly lady, she denied suing John.  She had not realized that the 
papers she signed was a legal action.  As a party to the lawsuit, 
she will be called as a witness.

What is the interest of each person participating in the suit? was 
my second question.  After some discussion, John mentioned that he 
doesn't know how the five individuals were brought together, 
because, to his knowledge, some did not know each other.  The TSA 
may have gotten the complainants together.  

My (Krsanna's) observation, after reviewing a box of correspondence 
and documents associated with the suit, is that action with the TSA 
stepped up after Jeffrey Forth sent a roster of individuals the TSA 
listed as members of the Tacoma Lodge in 2005.  When John asked 
Jeffrey to remove the names of several individuals, serious foreplay 
ensued in summer 2005.

There had been serious discussion about the necessity of all Tacoma 
Lodge members belonging to the TSA in previous months.  In early 
2005, John was attempting to get along with the TSA.  His request 
that Jeffrey Forth remove names of the TSA members who did not 
belong to the Tacoma Lodge ignited the Apocalypse on his front 
porch.  (An event was staged on the Lodge's front porch that I am 
not at liberty to discuss until after the trial.)

The TSA moved forward to finance a lawsuit against the officers of 
the Lodge, he believes, at least partially based on reports given to 
the TSA by Linda, the woman sitting across from Rudy Don in the 
October 22, 2005 meeting.  Since some of those reports are 
demonstrably inaccurate, the TSA could not possibly have verified 
them.  Instead, TSA may have accepted unverified reports that were 
convenient for the TSA to pursue as a vehicle for a lawsuit.  

As an example of Linda's observational skills, John Scott said she 
once produced a set of minutes for a Lodge meeting, when she served 
as secretary pro temp for a few months, that portrayed the Tacoma 
Lodge as a Nazi organization.  Those who had been present at the 
meeting asked her where she had gotten that idea.  Linda had 
extrapolated the the notion that the Lodge is a Nazi association 
from a discusson about Hitler using the reversed swastika and rumors 
about Hitler's occult interests in which the Tacoma Lodge was not 
mentioned.  The discussion had taken place at the Lodge.

The Lodge voted to remove Linda from her pro temp secretarial 
position and later asked her to leave after she loudly and 
repeatedly disrupted meetings.  Her behavior at the 10/22/05 with 
Betty Bland prompted TSA members to guide Linda away from the 
table.  That was a mild display compared to other harrassment in 
which Linda engaged.  This Linda is undoubtedly a "disaffected" 
member that Betty Bland mentions.  

In Linda's case, the question is whether the Lodge has the right to 
revoke an individual's membership.  The TSA reserves the right to 
revoke memberships, I believe.  

Linda is potentially a fine witness for the defense at trial.  

John Scott just sent an email about the Lodge's position on 
membership, and I posted it to the list.

Best regards
Krsanna



--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Steven Levey <sallev1@...> wrote:
>
> Bart
>    
>        The problem, as I see it, re: Tacoma and the TSA, is that 
the TSA has become so politcally motivated that this is what 
determines their action regarding the existence of other Lodges. 
This really corporate behavior on the part of TSA, to me, is the 
problem. Theosophy as a philosophy and movement, standing for 
Brotherhood as it was intended by definition, is therefore being 
tarnished in this kind of trial. In other words, if Tacoma, as an 
entity in itself wants to do and be what they are, this should have 
nothing to do with TSA. Even if the Tacoma Lodge became a foolish 
and non-theosophically  oriented group of anti-HPB folks, they still 
have the right afforded to all human beings to be that. Yes, the TSA 
can write them off as no longer under the TSA umbrella, so to speak. 
But so what and how hypocrital. The TSA has shown itself to be run 
by particularly non-theosophically minded folks, and in that sense 
no longer represent theosophical thought in their own actions. Yes, 
this
>  is the thought of one student, but it is how I feel, after 
following this from the beginning.
>    
>   Steve
> 
> Bart Lidofsky <bartl@...> wrote:
>   krsanna wrote:
> > If you are interested in more information about this case, I 
suggest 
> > you do what the "Aquarian Theosophist" did. Make written 
> > inquirities. It saves much speculation.
> 
> Except that I am very much aware of the history that Rodolpho Don 
has 
> with the Theosophical Society in America. He published an early 
web page 
> (which, by the way, I frequently used as an example of an 
excellent web 
> site). John Algeo had two major problems with it, however. The 
first was 
> that it represented itself as the official website of the 
Theosophical 
> Society in America. The second was that it revealed rather 
publicly 
> certain information about the TSA which could be used to help in a 
> hostile takeover. He requested that Rodolpho put in a statement 
that his 
> site was not the official site of the TSA, and also pointed out 
that 
> posting the fiscal information was probably a bad idea, but did 
not go 
> as far as requesting its removal. Rodolpho was furious, and 
contended 
> that any member of the TSA was entitled to speak for the entire 
> organization, and posted John's rather polite letter in lieu of 
putting 
> in the simple disclaimer that John asked for. As such, I find 
Rodolpho 
> to be a highly prejudiced source.
> 
> According to Wheaton, the lawsuit has to do with financial 
> improprieties, and violation of the organization's publicly filed 
bylaws 
> on the part of its officers.
> 
> One thing that I find interesting is Rodolpho's accusation that 
Wheaton 
> intends to keep the resources for itself. I recall a time when 
Wheaton 
> had published a new version of the bylaws which would have 
property of a 
> dissolved lodge revert to Wheaton. It was pointed out that the key 
> language that required that the resources stay in the area of the 
Lodge, 
> and not be moved, was no longer there. All sorts of conspiracies 
were 
> imagined. As then chairman of the bylaws committee of the New York 
> Theosophical Society I gave John Algeo a call. According to him, 
this 
> was the first he had heard of this, that it was entirely 
unintentional, 
> and that had I called 48 hours later, there would not have been 
enough 
> time to fix the wording. As it was, there was enough time, and the 
> wording was changed. But what impressed me was that, for all the 
> complaining, there was so much faith that the leadership of the 
TSA was 
> the embodiment of evil that nobody thought to actually try to fix 
the 
> problem.
> 
> This is not to say that the TSA board has not taken numerous 
actions 
> over the years to keep its oligarchical status (notably taking the 
6 
> regional districts and combining them into 3, as well as de-
emphasizing 
> individual lodge membership in favor of member-at-large 
membership, as 
> well as setting up a pseudo "National Lodge"). But it is to say 
that I 
> will take any representation of them as the embodiment of evil 
with a 
> grain of salt.
> 
> Bart
> 
> 
> 
> 
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