X-Message-Number: 24241
From: "mike99" <>
Subject: RE:  #24230: Setting the record straight on WTA
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 19:57:34 -0600

> Message #24230
> From: Tim Freeman <>
> Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 09:33:44 -0700
> Subject: Re: [CN] discord and resignations
> References: <>
...
> If accusations are true and the World Transhumanist Foundation fails
> because the lead guy is demanding more salary for himself than the
> organization is taking in, then it will disintegrate before long and
> there will be room for another organization with a randomly chosen
> leader, and then there will be another chance for luck to work.
> Natural selection happens at the level of organizations.
>
> I suspect we have a few competent leaders leading in some of our
> organizations already, so the luck may be working out.  I haven't seen
> deliberate attempts to train leaders, though.
>
> --
> Tim Freeman
> 
> GPG public key fingerprint ECDF 46F8 3B80 BB9E 575D  7180 76DF
> FE00 34B1 5C78
>

Tim,
I'm re-posting below the same message I sent to Bruc Klein's Immortalist
Institute BBS, the ExI Chat list, and the WTA-Talk list on this topic. I am
on the WTA Board of Directors, so I am in a position to refute some
accusations, confirm others, and try to correct the many distortions that
have arrisen over this issue.


Comments on the late unpleasantness on the WTA Board from a Board Member

My name is Michael LaTorra. I was elected to the WTA Board of Directors a
couple of years ago and then re-elected. I participated in the ongoing email
discussions held on the WTA Board listserv and I attended the April 2004
Board meeting in Oxford.

Up to now I have not discussed publicly what went on in the online and
face-to-face meetings. But I think it s time that I do.


Q: What went wrong on the Board of the World Transhumanist Association?
A: Plenty.

Q: Who is responsible?
A: Everyone. Myself included.

Q: Can you describe the problems?
A: Let me start by telling you a paradoxical truth: Diversity is a strength
and diversity is a weakness. Politically, the Board consists of
libertarians, centrists, and democratic socialists. On the Board there are
many people of high intelligence, large talents and large egos. I felt
privileged to work with such a group. But it became obvious fairly quickly
that many Board members were used to getting their way and would fight
mightily to continue getting their way. The art of compromise was in
frighteningly small supply.

Q: That s awfully general. What about the specific charges that former Board
member Harvey Newstrom has made?
A: I have a lot of respect for Harvey. His expertise as a certified auditor
and security specialist is very valuable. He pointed out that our little
Board of part-time volunteer members was not consistently following Robert s
Rules of Order. And he was right. But when most of our meetings took place
via email, and without all of us having Harvey s degree of knowledge in how
to operate corporately, many errors were made. Some of those apparent errors
may have been intentional and devious ploys. Or they could have been honest
human mistakes. It s not always easy to tell one from the other.
Unfortunately, Harvey did not attend our face-to-face meeting in Oxford
where many discussions were held and significant decisions were taken. If he
had been there, perhaps some of the late unpleasantness could have been
avoided. My memory of what went on at Oxford is, of course, just one man s
fallible memory. But I would stack it up against the other fallible memories
of those present. In a situation reminiscent of the Kurosawa film
  Roshomon,  people who experienced the same events now remember them
differently.

Q: You still haven t answered those specific charges!
A: OK, let s consider some of those charges. I can t promise to remember or
respond to all of them. You can get back to me on those later if you really
want to know what I think.
1) Changes to the Board notes between the first version issued after the
Oxford meeting and the notes include in the WTA News email newsletter.
MY RESPONSE: This is a good place to begin, Kurosawa fans. As I recall the
Oxford meeting (which Harvey did not attend), we agreed that the WTA should
establish the position of Executive Director because our fundraiser, Peter
Houghton, strongly recommended that we do so. He also recommended James for
the job. James, as Secretary, was busily typing away on his laptop at the
time, taking minutes. He stopped typing to discuss this proposal with us.
James agreed that he could work part-time as our unpaid Executive Director,
but would not leave his full-time job until WTA could afford to pay him a
salary comparable to what he is currently earning. James  wife and two
children deserved at least that much support.
   Here s where it gets really interesting. James is talking, not typing.
When he goes back to typing, he fails to record our decision. This is human
error. Unfortunate, indeed, but completely understandable. But now we get
into the area where Harvey has so justly criticized us. The Board did not
entertain a formal motion, followed by a second and a vote on this matter.
We were operating on the basis of discussion, debate, and then an assessment
of the general will of the Board. In other words, consensus. That was not
the proper way to operate. It left us open to all kinds of charges and
countercharges. It also left us in the land of  Roshomon  with some Board
members saying that the Board never agreed to making James the unpaid
Executive Director while other members (including myself) remember things
differently.

2) Executive Director salary of $60,000.
MY RESPONSE: This is our goal for the future. The WTA Board never committed
itself to paying out money that we do not have. We drafted a plan to raise
money over the coming years. As part of that plan, we hope to be able to pay
that salary someday, perhaps 3 to 5 years from now. In the meantime, no one
gets paid for serving on the WTA Board. The only money we have given to
James is to reimburse his expenses for attending the Foresight Conference.
James stated his intention to go as a representative of the WTA whether we
paid his airfare and attendance fee or not. We voted to pay those expenses.
We also agreed to Jose Cordeiro s proposal that the WTA hire his fellow
Venezuelan, Mr. Ochoa, to work part-time as the assistant to our unpaid
Executive Director.

2) Selling our membership list to other organizations.
MY RESPONSE: The Wilson Quarterly published an article about the TV03
conference. Then they asked to buy our membership list so they could try to
sell magazine subscriptions to our members. The Board quickly reached a
consensus that we would not sell our membership list. However, we decided
that we might take paid advertising. If you get an ad, it will come through
us and no other organization will have your address. We will guard your
personal information to ensure your privacy. If you don t want to get ads
from us, you can opt-out. But we won t let anyone else spam you based on
information you confided to us.

3) The Board did not vote on significant issues.
MY RESPONSE: Harvey is right about this. But we have endeavored to stop
operating in this loose manner. The Board now holds regular votes on matters
of significance. Although Harvey has left the Board, he has done us a
valuable service in getting us to change our act.

4) The Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference.
MY RESPONSE: We decided to do this as a matter of consensus without a formal
vote. Another past error that we will not commit again. I was and still am
in favor of this conference and I will tell you why. Religion won t go away.
It is a human tendency that we are coming to understand better and better in
terms of cognitive science and brain structure functions. I am a
materialist, rationalist Buddhist. I will be presenting at this conference
on the topic of transhumanism, religion and spirituality, and I will use the
work of Pascal Boyer ( Religion Explained ), Michael Persinger ( The
Neuropsychology of God Beliefs ) and other scientists to explain how and why
religions and spiritual experience arise from our material brains. The WTA
is not endorsing some kooky, immaterial New Age garbage. We are endeavoring
to engage with intelligent people who come from a religious orientation and
to find areas of common interest in which we can cooperate. We do the same
with atheists. Some members of the Board do not want any entanglement with
religious people whatsoever. Those members were in the minority.

5) James Hughes holds too many positions within WTA: Secretary, Treasurer,
Executive Director and member of the Board.
MY RESPONSE: I blame myself for this as much as I blame anyone else. When
our previous Treasurer stepped down, no one else stepped forward. Finally,
James offered to take on this position. When Peter Houghton recommended that
James become Executive Director, no one else at the meeting put themselves
forward for that position. I could have done so. Or anyone else on the
Board. But the fact is that James has been willing to do the work that other
people have not. Which is worse, allowing one person to do too much or
allowing others not to do enough?

6) James has made enemies.
MY RESPONSE: This is certainly true. No one who is as prominent and
controversial as James could avoid doing that. But perhaps James has
irritated some people unnecessarily. Maybe James has done some things he
should not have done. Maybe, as Jose has asserted, James has not been a good
Buddhist. Maybe James is not God. (No, I must modify that last statement:
Not only is James definitely NOT God, but he does even BELIEVE in God.)

7) The WTA Board has hidden some of its activities
MY RESPONSE: Definitely. And with good reason, at least some of the time. A
motion was made and seconded and voted on that the Board should make all of
its deliberations public. I voted against this. I feel that honest and frank
debate would be hindered if every email we ever exchanged were to be made
public. I certainly felt this way when private emails I sent OFFLIST were
made public without my permission.
   Another vote was taken to make all Board motions and votes public. I
voted against this, too, even though I half agreed with it. I agreed that
all of our votes should be made public. But I saw no reason to publicize a
motion that failed to get the necessary second in order to be voted on.
Believe me, if you saw some of the motions that had been made (including
some that I myself have made), you would agree that these were not worthy of
the second that they deservedly failed to garner.

Q: What about the other issues?
A: Let me know what you want to hear about and I will respond to the best of
my ability.

Q: If the WTA Board is so dysfunctional, why do you continue to serve on it?
A: Have you ever changed a baby s diaper? I ve done it for each of my 3
children and believe me, I would have been happy to have someone else do it
for me. No one likes dealing with this shit. But somebody s got to do it.
And the shit I m talking about here is the primate politics that we
  wannabe  posthumans must deal with while we are still little baby
transhumanists. We are young and immature and we have made many mistakes.
But we all want the same things: High-tech life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness beyond human limits (which is my personal definition of what
transhumanism is all about). I am neither a saint nor a genius. In fact, I
think that many of you reading this are probably smarter, more knowledgeable
and more capable than I am. I would urge you to step up and run for the open
Board seats. We need you. Transhumanism needs you. But if you good folks do
not step forward, then I ll just keep on changing these diapers for you to
the best of my ability. I don t really want to do this. But I do want, both
for myself and for all of you, the opportunity to have physical immortality,
enhanced intelligence, beyond-human powers and capabilities, and more. MUCH
more!
   I will work with almost anyone to achieve these goals. I think every
member of the WTA Board has contributed something. I think Harvey
contributed quite a lot. So did Bruce. I look forward to working with them
again in the future. And I look forward to working with Nick, Giulio, Jose,
James and Mike Treder for as long as the voting membership of the WTA wants
me to serve on the Board. But if someone better comes along, please vote for
them over me! I will be a transhumanist whether I am on the Board or not.
Achieving our common goals is all that matters to me. I don t much care who
achieves the final victory, just so long as we all get to enjoy the fruits
of that victory.


Regards,

Michael LaTorra




"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes
towards slavery."
-- Jacob Bronowski

Member:
Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org
World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org
Society for Technical Communication: www.stc.org

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