Conflict of Interest - Lessons Learned

I had started selling my jewelry at craft shows and in home parties in 2008.  It had taken time to realize not all shows would be successful when you think the venue is worth the booth fee.  I discovered as well, I do much better at the holidays than any other time of the year, so I have limited my shows to just that.  

At one of the home shows I held, I met another psychic who was a woman.  Again, I had never met her before, so she didn't know any thing about me.  I found it interesting that her reading was very similar to that of Mark's. Both have described a man who is going to enter my life who I have known in the past.  The past, I have discovered could mean previous lives that I have lived.  I really had no interest in this "fortune teller" business until I met Mark and his readings were so on spot with what was currently happening in my life and  predicting what would happen in the future. It may take a while to present itself, but it always does.  Four years ago, he told me I would be getting a new boss and I never thought this would happen.  Two weeks ago, it did and it was due to a reorganization that he had spoke of as well.

So some days I have to be patient as I have learned all things happen in God's time and He is the only one that knows what truly lies ahead of us.  I just get a glimpse here and there to dream about and if it happens, it is like opening a present. In late 2009, Mark had told me I was surrounded by stress and tension and he hit it right on the head.

In early 2009, I was elected to the Board of Directors for a charity called Kid's Chance.  It is an organization that raises scholarship money for the children who have lost a parent to a work fatality or have suffered permanent disabilities.  I was excited about getting elected and working on the committees for fundraising.  Every year they host a golf outing, but I had ideas for other events as well and getting the word out about the organization.

The first meeting I attended, the group struggled with how to let those who qualified know of this opportunity.  I had personally handled six death claims in the four years I had been with my employer and knew of children who could utilize this money. The President suggested some one attend the National Board Meeting in West Virginia.  I had wanted to go, but the woman who sat on this Board with me, could not attend with me, so the chance was given to two others who had been on the Board for some time.

Two months later, at our meeting, these women were to report their findings of what was gathered at the meeting and share with us what other States were doing in fund raising and finding candidates for the monies we had collected.

They were at the meeting for three days, all expenses paid and all the one  could report was she had a "great time" and all that was discussed was the financials of the national organization.  Something smelled fishy.  The treasurer requested receipts for money that had been given to her for the trip and she gave feeble excuses about losing them.  I found it difficult to swallow that she had spent three days and came back with nothing to report. So did others, but no one did anything, except for me.

It bothered me that she had taken this trip and was only able to report what "fun" she had and nothing else.  I took it upon myself to do some research and called the new "President" of the National Kid's Chance Organization.  I introduced myself and requested a copy of the itinerary for the three day event.  She was more than willing to cooperate.  I asked her if a representative of Indiana was present and she stated, "she was, but she came to our national board meeting where we discussed financials, she was not invited to that portion of the  event, but I didn't see her after that."

Pretty simple. She described her to me and yes, we were talking about the same person, but only one person, not the two that supposedly traveled to this event. I asked how many people were present. Perhaps, she got lost in a crowd and could not be seen.  Less than twenty five people.  I'm thinking, if you attended a three day event, at some time, you'd be spotted in this small crowd.  She would ask others on the Board if they saw her as they did know who she was, since she interrupted their private meeting.

I got a call back a few days later and no one had seen her.  I listen, that is what I am trained to do.  She had mentioned where she had stayed, so I called the hotel.  Yes, she had checked in, but the other woman, had not and the room was registered to a man and woman.  This just gets more and more interesting! After a thorough investigation, I came to the assumption she had traveled out there on the dime of this organization, but merely for a vacation with her boyfriend.

I spoke to several others on the Board and they suggested they give her one more chance to produce receipts for the monies given to her up front.  She failed, so I took things into my own hands.  I had a meeting with five of the new board members who were willing to back me up, they agreed it was unprofessional to take monies from this charity and "vacation" on it.

I contacted this person directly with the evidence that I had collected and informed her that I would allow her the opportunity to resign, before I presented the facts to the Board.  I had written documentation from the President of the National Board supporting her non attendance.  I had a picture of the attendees taken at the conference and she was absent from it. I had enough to prove, she had scammed the organization and though she had been a Board member for years, it was time for her to step aside.

She was in charge of the golf outing and there had been questions about the handling of the money in previous years, but no one stepped up to the plate.

The problem with this organization is you have a mixture of people who sit on it that are vendors and customers, so if you are a business and you rely on this person's business outside of this organization, you don't want to risk pissing them off and losing the business. Sides are taken out of loyalty, not out of what is right and what is wrong.

I do not operate like that.  Business is business and friendships are just that. Ask anyone who does business with me.  If you do not provide the product, I don't care whether you were my best friend or my relative, I'll give you one shot to make it right and if you don't, I move the business.

She didn't take this news sitting down, she called in her favors and my phone started ringing. The first call was from the woman who chaired the Workers Compensation  Board, who also sat on Kid's Chance's Board.   She introduced herself in the capacity of the chairman of the workers compensation board in an effort to intimidate me.  She never attended the monthly Board meetings, so I was unsure of just what she knew.  I threw the facts before her, after she chewed my hide. She agreed it did appear questionable, but I had no right to investigate this?

I sat on the Board, I had every right to investigate it, but we got into a pissing match and when she refused to let me talk, I said good bye and hung up on her.  I was quite shocked, as this woman is the Chair on the Board that could make unfavorable decisions against the company I worked for.  I  made a note of the conversation and  I received another call from an attorney who sat on the Board and was employed time to time from the woman in question.  Conflict of interest repeatedly popped into my mind, but I was the new kid on the block.  She too, took a piece of my skin and chastised me for investigating this, informing me she would take issue with this at the next Board meeting and demand I step down from my position or I'd be voted off.

I have to say, it was quite alarming for me to find that people do not stand up for right from wrong.  Those who sat on the Board for a long time, were loyal to one another, but it may have been time to step aside.  I was not looking to replace any one, I was looking to make a wrong, right.

Emails among the older Board members were heating up and I was the topic of the day.  I didn't back down.  The treasurer agreed with me, that she should pay the monies back and so did many others, but I got wind of one of those emails that strayed from the private bashing I was taking for investigating this issue.

I realized that I hate politics.  I hate shallow people and I did not want to be associated with a charity that did not hold their Board members accountable for monies spent.  I resigned.  But out of it, there was a new President elected.  Rules were established that had not been previously on the book.

The whole reason they questioned my investigation was there nothing on the books "stating any one had to produce receipts for travel."  Common business sense would support, if you travel on "company" business, you should have receipts. The argument was "she took personal time" to attend and our “rules" did not outline what she was expected to do when she was in attendance.  Again, she volunteered to attend this on behalf of the organization, so if they paid her to attend and she had to take personal days, she knew this upfront.  But the attorney that was backing her firmly stated, we could not enforce some thing that was not written and we could not enforce common sense.

Leave it to an attorney to dream that one up.  I read the email. I was in shock that they would stoop to such ridiculous measures, so I resigned.  I saved them the time of holding a special meeting to force my resignation.  My efforts did not make a wrong right, but new rules were written, new codes of conduct were established and so my efforts did not go unnoticed.  But the lesson was learned, people will look the other way, make up foolish debates to save some one who is lining their pockets with cash.

So the psychic was right, some thing was happening that caused me stress and tension and it revolved around non trusting business associates.