Update: PDF of the letter is available here.
I seem to be one of the first few to receive Kent Whealy’s latest letter to members of the Seed Savers Exchange. I don’t see a lot of discussion about it on the Internet yet. In the past he didn’t send his letters to overseas members of the SSE, and this time international postal delivery seemed to have worked in my favor and I got it here in Amsterdam before people in North America.
Anyhow, I thought I would be one of the first to write some thoughts about it. In short it’s a 14 page letter (breaking his previous record of 8 pages), detailing his grievances with the SSE and in particular with Amy Goldman and the other board members.
I think it’s pretty fitting while we get this letter the leader of Honduras is trying to regain control of his country he lost under similar circumstances. Even though many people have problems with President Manuel Zelaya personally, he has wide spread support around the world because the coup that ousted him breaches international laws and norms. This isn’t the right way to oust a leader you don’t like.
The same applies to Kent Whealy, you don’t just cast the founder of an organization out on the street and tell him to shut up.
I am particularly repulsed at the way the SSE has attempted to silence it’s critics. If you try to discuss Kent on their Internet forum, you will surely be banned. There was at least one person I know of who was banned from the forum a few days ago, apparently in a pre-emptive strike, but in fairness he was reinstated after it was determined to be a mistake.
Kent himself has been harassed by lawyers from the SSE, a situation he compared with Monsanto suing the roughly 450 farmers who have had their crops contaminated with GM genes, then silencing them with non-disclosure agreements. When the SSE isn’t threatening him with legal action, they are offering him huge amounts of money to shut up.
The SSE shows many symptoms of an organization losing control of their objectives and purpose. Many members have commented they seem to be out of touch with what their members want. Above all else, I call on the SSE to stop trying to control what people say or think. The days are past where people appreciate this.
If there are members of the SSE management who can’t stand up to their critics, it’s time for them to step down. There isn’t anyone in the SSE’s management who is simply ‘entitled’ to be in the position they are in. If anyone exposed their own weaknesses in the course of terminating Kent Whealy’s employment, it’s time for them to leave too.
To Whom it may concern:
I am also bothered by the division and the secrecy that currently defines the SSE organization. I don’t like the changes that have been put forward in the organization by the new leadership. And I really don’t like all the money going to lawyers over this whole Whealy disagreement. Frankly, I was way more comfortable with one of us (grower, gardener, bootstrap entrepreneur) in charge of our organization than having it run by some über wealthy, trust fund heiress and her pundits.
I’m curious as to why Mr. Kent Whealy got fired in the first place for what appears to be a misunderstanding at worst. It seems to me that his years of highly successful service to the organization warranted a bit of latitude with regards to punishing him for the whole “garden shed incident”. If this isn’t a case for a proverbial slap on the wrist, I don’t know what is.
And if Mr. Whealy merely “overstepped his bounds”, why is a gag order on the table both for him and those of us making inquiries? It’s time to hear the full “official” side of the story because keeping it quiet makes me think that there is a good reason the current leaders don’t want the members talking and I have a big problem with people in charge who don’t want the rest of us to know how they got there!
Another issue I have is why Mr. Whealy is being denied access to his intellectual property (by that I mean his writings, files, speeches and photographs)? The material has already been out in the public eye so what difference does it make to the SSE to let him have it? What is he going to do: let us see it again! Considering what SSE became with Mr. Whealy at the helm, his request doesn’t seem too much to ask no matter why he was ousted. I also feel that he should be asked/begged to write the second and third decade volumes of SSE history since he is clearly the only one capable of writing about what he made happen.
Honestly, I find Mr. Whealy’s version of events much more believable than the official story put out thus far by the SSE. It is a completely disgusting way to treat someone who gave their life to an organization that benefits all mankind.
sincerely,
Sarah Kehler Ewing
B.Sc. Biology
What happened? Although I’ve ordered from SSE for a number of years, I never heard anything about the split or Whealy being fired. This is particularly alarming to me, as I’m not sure I want to throw my support to an organization with deep fault lines beginning to spread. The focus of the organization should transcend any petty personal bickering.
I serve on the board of a different notional organization and find these things to be completely counter-productive.
Can anyone help? I’ve found no answers yet.
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
All I know is what I read on the SSE website in their press releases. I have no personal contacts within the SSE, and I’m not a member anymore.
http://www.seedsavers.org/
Some months ago George de Vault, who replaced Kent Whealy, resigned and was himself replaced with Kent Whealy’s son. I’m sure this brought about more fault lines as well as some healing, but I don’t know the details.
I published this letter because I disagreed with the SSE position that demanded Kent Whealy shut up under threat of legal action. I believed Kent had the right to say these things if he wanted. It wasn’t particularly intended to be an attack on the SSE.
Whatever you decide in the end about supporting the SSE, I hope you understand they are a well funded non for profit organization. On the other hand there are a number of small seed companies that don’t have the benefit of such a high level of funding, who could also benefit from your support. Many people think the non for profit status of the SSE is unfair competition for these other smaller but equally important companies.
Consider for example:
http://www.annapolisseeds.com/
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/
http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/
http://www.seedlibrary.org/
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/
http://www.seedstrust.com/
http://www.sustainableseedco.com/
There are of course others…
Standard Operating Procedure: rich person with own agenda buys way into nonprofit organization to change it for some slimy reason not readily understood by the general public. Snoooooze…happens all the time.
I am a lifetime member of SSE. I too would like to have some details about WHY Kent Whealy was fired. I don’t know if he was holding SSE back or not. I don’t know if I wished for SSE to become a company selling seeds. Somehow there is now a division in the organization – a retail business that operates under a not-for-profit umbrella. The other part of the organization is the original grass-roots group that is saving our heirloom seed heritage. I guess I started to feel uneasy when what must have been large amounts of money was spent going elsewhere in the world gathering “heirloom” varieties that were not part of “our heirloom seed heritage”. On the one hand, it seemed like a very “logical” thing to do, but on the other hand I felt that “our” donations were not given for that purpose.
I hate to bring up one thing that has bothered me for many years. The seeds that sparked SSE were family heirlooms from Diane Ott Whealy, Kent’s wife. I remember at one of the annual “campouts” back in the 90’s seeing a “private moment” between Diane and Kent. Diane had been working extremely hard on the food for the Saturday evening meal – and the Whealey’s had smallish children at the time. Under the ramp up to the second floor of the barn the two of them were having words. I only heard a word here and there, but I remember feeling sad for Diane. It “seemed” as though Kent was not giving her “her due” so to speak. I knew nothing of their personal lives then, and I still do not. But at that moment my saddness for Diane was mostly that Kent did not seem to respect her efforts, her intelligence, or her spirit. I felt that she was being denied her due because she had the career of parenthood that kept her in Iowa while Kent freely traveled around “on behalf of SSE”. In recent years I have often wondered if there is not some element of Diane getting her due in Kent’s being removed from SSE. It seems plain vindictive to deny him access to his writings, etc. Are the creative things of his creation his or SSE’s. I am no lawyer, and, with the limited knowledge that the members have been given about the departure of Kennt, we cannot make fair and balanced decisions about how or what we should/could be feeling about the changes at SSE. I do not like the feeling I have that says to me that there is more to this than meets the eye, and that I suspect that there is a whole lot of “history” involved.
I have been following SSE since the 70’s. I have been proud to support and promote this effort. I am saddened by this acrimonious mar on the legacy of SSE.
It seems to me that the mission and the principals of the vision/mission should be center stage and not the personalities.
Let us all grow up in good tilth
t.tuffin
Does anyone know the latest on SSE? I supported them until I read Kent’s letter, but haven’t been able to find any further info. What’s going on with his lawsuit? Have members been requesting their seeds be returned?
Hi Ellen,
I hope someone else comes along with more to say, because I don’t know much myself.
What I understand about Kent’s lawsuit was that it had to do with removing his name as the author on the Garden Seed Inventory book, and on Amazon I still see him listed as the author. I suspect this means either he won, or SSE backed down.
I think only the SSE themselves know how many people requested their seeds back. I haven’t personally heard of anyone doing this, but that doesn’t really say anything.
Since Kent’s letter, the SSE has made another deposit at Svalbard.
I came across this on the Internet:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10325
In short what this report says is the costs at SSE are rising steadily, and their revenue is shrinking. These two things are a matter of public record.
Their ‘efficiency’ rating as a charity is about as low as you can get, and their overall rating (whatever this means) is low compared to other charities doing ‘similar types of work’ (whatever this means).
Most people I know don’t have a lot to do with the SSE. I think these days there are lots of alternatives, and many people are just looking elsewhere. I don’t see a lot of blogs writing about their experiences with the SSE.
If I look on Dave’s Garden:
http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/5/
I don’t see a lot of people reporting their experiences with SSE, but of those who do a very high percentage report negative or neutral experiences. Not replying to emails seems to be a common complaint, and I’ve certainly had this experience with the SSE in the past.
Does anyone else have any more concrete news?