Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Public Notice: Check to Alabama Hills Will Bounce

Today, January 14, 2015, Steve Cosner, President WHA, unilaterally emptied the checking account of the full balance of $1,552.57 from the Mt Whitney Hikers Association (WHA) and took action to close it although the WHA bylaws require two signatures to withdraw funds. The check for $1300 to the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group was purposely defunded (bounced) due to the account being closed.

On Jan 8, 2015 three members of the Board of Directors of the Mt Whitney Hikers Association submitted their resignations to Steve Cosner, President of the board. The resignations would become effective after the following board approved actions had taken place:

1. A donation to the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group in the amount of $1300 in the form of a check drawn on the account containing the funds donated by various forum members.

2. The balance of the checking account, $252.57, in the form of a check would be sent to Steve Cosner to cover WZ forum host fees for two years and any minor incidental cost of running the WZ forum.

3. The checking account would be closed.

Before this announcement was made public every effort was made to communicate with Steve requesting the funds be replaced immediately as his actions violated the WHA Bylaws.

This message is being made public so those people that made contributions to the WHA could be made aware of how their donations are being used. Since there has been no public announcement of a new Board of Directors of the WHA prior to removing the funds and closing the account, there is no oversight or ability to track how the money is used. There is no way to verify if the funds are being used for WHA business or for personal use.

Mike Condron
Treasurer WHA

For those interested in what led up to this:


WHA Board of Directors Letter of Resignation

Jan 8, 2015

Steve,

After many hours of contemplation and “discussion”, a decision has been made by the board members to resign from the Whitney Hikers Association (WHA). This decision was not made lightly, however, it is final. Below are some of the issues that contributed to the decision to resign from the WHA.

1) Due to the process to allow new users to post on the WPSMB, there is a delay until they are approved. During this wait time for approval, the new users saw a message to go to the Whitney Zone to post messages. This message was a blatant redirect of web traffic.

2) Using the administrative right to the WPSMB to gather email addresses that are confidential (not viewable to the public), to contact people to go to the WZ and post. An abuse of administrative rights.

3) Initiating administrative actions on the WPSMB that caused two innocent people to be accused of hacking the WPSMB. No actions were taken to publically clear their names of blame. A major abuse of administrative rights/ethically unacceptable to allow others to stand accused.

4) Creating and enabling a website using the front page of the WPSMB, however, the button for the Message Board was connected to the WZ message board. A blatant redirect of web traffic.

The above actions show a pattern of unethical behavior that does not align with the mission statement/philosophy of the WHA. We cannot in good conscience continue with running and maintaining the WHA. The public perception of the WHA has been damaged by the above actions.

Our personal standing among the WHA community has been compromised by association due to above listed actions. We have been asked to explain and defend the above actions which are direct conflict with our personal ethical values/standards. We can no longer defend the WHA.

Our resignation from the WHA board contains the following steps:
1) Post a message on the WZ announcing the WHA resignations
2) Settle any outstanding invoices/bills
3) After making a donation of $1,300 to the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group and sending a check to you with the remaining balance of $252.87 which will cover 1 year of annual expense, close the current WHA checking account.

Sincerely,
Shoshana Bee, Mike Condron, Barbara Cole

Hi It seems like I have a copy of some of those topics . Thanks Doug

It is a little known fact that Mike Condron underwrote the opening of the WHA account with $1,000 of his own monies ($100 of the balance was actual WHA funds). He left that 1k in the account until such monies were raised by the WHA (approx 18 mos later). His motivation for doing this was to defray the costs of maintaining an account below the minimum balance.

Mike Condron's integrity as treasurer is beyond question.

It had been agreed apon by the WHA Board that donations would be made on a yearly basis, leaving a balance enough to pay expenses for 2 years. This protocol had been followed.

My sincere apologies to the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group and the town of Lone Pine at large that they should be the unfortunate recipients of a "bum" check (as my father used to say, ALava Shalom may his soul rest in peace)

I would suggest that the only act of malice thus far was to cause a charity organization to potentially endure the humiliation of trying to pass an unfunded check through the bank.

Since my name is co-signed on the forementioned check, I take this all rather personal.

There is a reason that I did not author any of the official documentation tendering resignation, violations, etc listed above. I don't have the discipline to keep it cool, so here's my take:

This quote was placed up on the WHA Members only forum (along with Akichow's buried posts of query):

“The donation to the Alabama Hills Stewardship group has subsequently been cancelled due to the fact that it would nearly render WHA without funds to continue operating” Steve Cosner

It would nearly render WHA without funds to continue operating. Let's consider this.

1. The President of the WHA wrecks havoc with Lone Pine's Favourite Son: Doug Thompson. The subsequent crash of his website renders it impossible for potential customers to access the Hostel information.

2. The President of the WHA steals data during an unauthorized entry to WPSMB. That's your personal information, folks

3. In an effort of good will towards the community of Lone Pine,a donation was made as is customary by the WHA.

4. The President of the WHA waited A WEEK before withdrawing funds -- without notice, without authorization -- and causes the check to essentially bounce if cashed.

So now we have the Whitney Portal Store Message Board compromised and trashed & we have the town of Lone Pine screwed out of a donation in the most vulgar of methods.

Tell me, people, on God's green earth, what "good" is possibly left to do in the town of Lone Pine in the shadow of Whitney, for the Whitney Hiker's Association, named for that monument of glory?

The money has been hoarded, the posts have been buried, and every aspect of decency has been trodded apon, and still the questions remain unanswered. Akichow, of the thousands of people who have been folloing this crap, YOU have dared to stand alone and question all that has unfolded.

To you, Steve, the one whom I called friend: I trusted you. I defended you to Ernie and Ken and Mike and Barbara and Rich and MANY MORE. And then there was the proof. Funny how computer systems have layers apon layer of redundancy measures, all meant to track and retrack movements within.

I stopped more severe measures taken earlier on in this mess.

I deeply regret my moments of weakness.

Do yourselves a favour and look up what the Alabama Hills Stewardship group has planned. They were ready to go forward with an early phase pending the reciept of WHA donation. We all would have benefitted.

B

Bee, your post led me to look at the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group's website. I see that it happens that today is a volunteer work day, from 9:00 to 1:00. It doesn't seem that individuals can donate to the organization online, though.

Anyone wishing to help defray the now "cancelled" WHA check (a new term for an unfunded "Bum" check") may do so in the old fashioned snail mail method.

Alabama Hills Stewardship Group
PO Box 61 Lone Pine Ca 93545

They are certified 501c designate

Their website:

http://www.alabamahillsstewardshipgroup.org/about

Will I get a nifty T-shirt like I got from Friends of the Inyo?

I am certain that the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group will shower you with a fine coat of appreciation


PS I kept the original subject of the thread so the message does not get lost

Hi Just returned from the Hills , we worked on a section of trail that will in the future lead into the NRT from Lone Pine Campground (NRT Trail from the Portal to LP Campground) and into town .
So the big picture a trail from Lone Pine to Mexico (hint) and to Canada ,we have found the 1800's trail out of town and that will be cleaned up sometime this season.
This has been about a 15 year effort with the Forest Service and the BLM many hours of effort by all involved.

2000 the trail from the Summit of Whitney to Lone Pine was introduced by Hillary Clinton as many other historic Trails that tied the past to the future.

Tom we can get you a shirt , we can get you lots of shirts, hundreds of shirts matter of fact. We will remove the $2.00 tags and place back the designer tags. We design new shirts every year for the Alabama Hills day event.And It is cheaper to do 300+ than say 24 and we can always have "cook shirts".

I don't post a lot on these forums and usually hike on my own. Mike's one of the few folks I've had the pleasure of meeting. He's a stand-up guy.

Mike, sorry to hear about the trouble, man.

Doug, as Treasure of the the AHSG, should have received the $1,300 check from the Whitney Hikers Association by now. The delay was intended for the membership to provide input on the amount of the donation, given out by a resigned Board. I think I can speak for the group by saying that the WHA supports trail work and habitat restoration of the Alabama Hills, but this large amount wipes out the organization. In the past, the WHA donated to Inyo Search and Rescue, and many would have preferred to balance our donations between these organizations. It should all be resolved now, and we hope our donation makes a positive impact on the Alabama Hills.

Final Update

We are now at liberty to comment on events as they unfolded over the last few weeks beginning with the most influential; the two impending actions that are independent of WHA Board activity and WHA forum issues. The majority of our decisions were influenced by the existence of these impending actions.

Alabama Hills Stewardship Group:
After Steve returned the funds to the checking account the AHSG refused the donation at their BOD meeting on January 28. It was about this time we found out about the impending actions. The AHSG BOD turned down the donation due to these impending actions and Steve’s continued tie to the WHA BOD. Due to the pending actions in progress it became incumbent upon us, the WHA BOD, to remove Steve from the presidency of the WHA and from the BOD of the WHA in an effort to maintain the integrity of the WHA. At the AHSG BOD meeting held on February 10 the directors again rejected the donation. The AHSG was never involved with requesting funds from the WHA.   It should be noted that Doug Thompson was asked for a non profit that worked in the Whitney area and would use the funds to support the Whitney Area.

During this time of uncertainty we looked into donating the funds to the Inyo County SAR. This presented a new obstacle: The Inyo County SAR is affiliated with a law enforcement agency.

So, as things stood, there was a long period of time waiting for the decision of the AHSG BOD and whether or not the Inyo SAR would accept a donation if the AHSG turned it down. During the series of events outlined above we weren’t at liberty to elaborate on the majority of the questions posed nor were we able to explain most of our actions.

Since the AHSG BOD has rejected the donation the WHA BOD voted to donate the $1300.00 to the Inyo SAR. The remaining balance of $279.88 will be mailed to Steve by February 14th.

Don’t buy it? We are certain Steve will be able to fill in all the interesting details in the near future.

We have taken no joy in this. There has been a lot of lost sleep, lost work time, and wasted resources. There is no gain to be had.

Resignations Complete.

Mike Condron
Shoshana Bee
Barbara Cole