PLP Board Member Rift?

[M.E.G.]

This below copy and paste email was a forwarded from an unknown source. Can anyone confirm this information to be correct?

August
17, 2016
To
all PLP members and supporters,
The
Board of directors must inform you of the current situation
we are
experiencing. We were hoping to have solved this matter
sooner. However,
it appears this might take longer than we expected so we
must inform
you now of recent events. Here are that facts:
On
July 14, 2016, this board received resignation letters from
four of our board members:
Ray
Kender, resigned Secretary
Barry
Wetherby, resigned Director
Pat
Keene, resigned Director
Duane
Platz, resigned Recording Secretary.
On
July 21, 2016, a meeting was held at Keene Engineering,
unannounced to
us and to you as PLP members, and an election was held that
supposedly
removed the current board members and supposedly placed Ray
Kender as
interim President. It appears all resigned board members
were present.
On
July 23, 2016 Ray Kender, without any knowledge or consent
from PLP,
executed various corporate documents purporting to be an
authorized
agent of PLP, including the filing of an updated statement
of
information with the California Secretary of State
appointing himself as
an officer, director and agent of service of process. Soon
after, Mr.
Kender under the self-assumed title of “President”
presented falsified
documentation to the bank that PLP banks with, usurping our
corporate
bank account. He also changed the locks on our mailbox
withholding
access of all PLP property from your current board of
directors. Acts
that this board sees as an improper exercise of corporate
authority that
Mr. Kender did not, and does not possess.
A
501(C) (3) CORPORATION #95-4521318 & 1880483

"The current board of directors has taken steps to
ensure that the
funds of PLP are preserved by filing a corrected Statement
of
Information with the California Secretary of State.
Unfortunately,
because of Mr. Kender’s actions and our attempts to regain
access, PLP’s
bank accounts have been frozen. This jeopardizes all of our
pending
legal actions, including our lawsuit against the state over
the suction
dredge ban, our defense in deferral court of John Godfrey
(cited for
using a sluice box in a stream), and support for the
Minerals and Mining
Advisory Council (MMAC) and our newest defense of a suction
dredger
from the EPA in Idaho.”
Your
board of directors is not only fighting
for your rights, we are fighting to retain the assets from
what we see
as fraudulent and improper actions taken by former board
members. A
criminal report has been filed with the FBI to report this
alleged bank
fraud and intentional fraud on the State of California.
Your
board
is an all-volunteer board and we are proud of the progress
that PLP has
made in the past. We will continue to fight on your behalf
in the
future! We will give you updates as soon as possible.
Please
note our new mailing address:
Public
Lands for the People
23501
Burbank Bl.
Woodland
Hills ca 91364
Thank
you,
Public
Lands for the People
President,
Ron Kliewer
Vice
President, Jerry Shodall
Treasurer,
Walt Wegner
Director,
Bill Samarin
Director/
Raffle Chair, Timothy Eakin

 

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[dredgeman]

Yep it is more or less correct

 

[ratled]

It was press release from the BOD of PLP to all PLP members and supporters. It has been out for a little while now.

ratled

 

[ClaimStake]

cronyism nowadays is rampant.

 

[russau]

Yep I received that notice and Im really wondering whats going on there for 4 members to quit at the same time and this other guy go off doing this ? it really has me baffled!! I guess Walt or someone will explain whats going on and why it happened.

 

[Terry Soloman]

PLP wants to cut ties with MMAC.

The gold mining community should stop supporting BOTH of the orgs now. It is one thing to Educate politicians and the public and to be a watchdog for ALL prospectors and miners, it's another to waste money on lawyers for SOME miners. If an organization is paying for lawyers it is already corrupt.

 

[Jeff95531]

Yep I received that notice and Im really wondering whats going on there for 4 members to quit at the same time and this other guy go off doing this ? it really has me baffled!! I guess Walt or someone will explain whats going on and why it happened.

IMHO, I believe the rift was created when some PLP members decided for all to go with government over seen mining districts and went to DC supporting it. I know it didn't sit well with me and it came outta left field for most all of us.

 

[winners58]

they just sent out the e-mail blast again, so whats the real story, that many board members resigning would constitute dissolving the board,
there are special rules of dissolution of what the organization can and can't do when that happens, sounds like they are working on getting things restored,
I would like to hear what Pat Keene has to say, and Ray Kender's side, Ray Kender is pres. of prospectors club of southern California;
Prospectors Club Of Southern California - Home and facebook https://www.facebook.com/PCSCDowney/?ref=page_internal
something more is going on and the PLP board needs to come out with the whole story not just "we didn't know what was going on"

 

[jere64ca]

I would like to hear what Pat Keene has to say,

Pat wrote a letter that was released on FB last night. It tells the other side of the story and has some serious allegations. The MMAC issues seem to be a major dividing factor within the PLP BOD. It is truly sad to witness this, PLP was the first and premier grass roots organization out there that fought for the small guy. They have lost their way and what made them great since Jerry died, in my opinion. Hopefully they will get it all straightened out.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Follow the money and you'll find the real "problem."

 

[Bnugget]

AUTHENTIC LETTER FROM PAT...

To all PLP membership and friends of PLP,

I am shocked and saddened by the letter you may have received or read dated August 17, 2016 by the Rogue Board.
All of you are aware that, I am one of the Founders of Public Lands for the People (PLP) along with Barry Wetherby and Jerry Hobbs. I have also been one of the biggest supporters with my time, donations and direct funding. Many of you have seen me at the shows along with working with many of you.
I have considered all of the signers on that letter to be both friends, clients and professional competitors in the mining business for my entire career of 35 years. In the past they have given of their time, talent and in some cases their money in the support of miner's rights. We have all worked together. I thank them all for their service.
The letter that they signed neglects many important facts and long time friendships to accuse me and the other well meaning members of stealing from the organization that I started. I resent the implication and I'll fight the allegations.
First of all, Here are some of the Facts: At our board meeting on January 13, 2016. Walt wanted to step down from PLP President and become the Southern California Representative of MMAC to raise money. At the February board meeting, Walt requested a 30% commission for all the money he raises for MMAC using PLP’s, 501C-3 status. The Secretary Treasurer asked him to submit a letter to the BOD, for what he wanted to do. The board did not like the idea of 30%. We are a volunteer, non-profit organization. Walt sent a email February 17th., resigning permanently from the board of PLP, unless we agreed to his demands. He became very upset with that request and stormed out of the board meeting. Later in February, I received two phone calls from Walt, Ron, and Jerry asking me to help eliminate Guy, Scott and Barry Wetherby in which I stated,” I will have no part in the removal of these Board Members. Jerry Shodall resigned on the board meeting of February 10th., effective March 1rst. The Officers were also refusing to update the bylaws at that point as we were non compliant and haven’t been since 1997. Shortly thereafter, Guy Nesbitt and Scott Warner resigned due to the excessive bullying and harassment by Walt Wegner and Jerry Shodall.
At the Vegas gold show in February, I travelled to Vegas to attend the show with two volunteers to work at the P.L.P. booth and was informed that we were was not needed by Jerry Shodall. I felt that P.L.P. suffered financially at that show with only two working the booth.

Without proper membership notification, on March 2nd, a predetermined election was held by the BOD, and Walt was elected to the PLP Treasurer. Later, we found out the purpose of the election was to stack the board so the officers would have total control. On June 6th, I received an official PLP letter from Ron, the President, Walt and Jerry demanding a mandatory meeting with me, to strip me of my voting rights. At this meeting only Ron showed up and stated, “he did not want me to feel that the other two were ganging up on me” so he came alone at the restaurant where we met. I told Ron, “That I wanted to discuss this with Walt and Jerry personally. When I called Jerry he just cursed me out and he said, he wanted me off of the board.

The new Officers and some BOD members had conspired against us, to strip us of our authority and dignity. A ‘tribunal’ was held on June 30th for Barry Wetherby, a founder of PLP, with the three accusers, acting as judges and three others members on the phone, two of them were part of MMAC. We were told, “they had the votes to suspend or remove us at will” and Jerry Shodall stated, “we are not a democracy and the three officers run PLP and make the rules”. Barry Wetherby stated we are a democracy and the Board runs PLP for the membership.
On July 14th, Barry, Ray, Duane and myself resigned, to avoid personal liability and legal action for the way the officers were acting.
It is well known, we have had a PLP membership meeting at Keene Engineering for over 15 years. This meeting has been held on the 3rd. Thursday of the month and gets a general membership attendance of between 55 to 65 and sometimes more.
At our regular scheduled third Thursday meeting on July 21, (our once a year, Grand Raffle was scheduled to be held but was changed one week prior to be held at GPAA Headquarters in Temecula. Many members that usually attend this raffle were unaware of the raffle date change and had been changed 1 week before.
All of the signers of the August 17th letter have attended a general meeting, at one time or another. As President, Walt Wegner attended to give the PLP ‘pitch’ for over a year. Monthly membership meeting is open to all members and non- members and interested like, GPAA, PCSC, Taft Prospectors and other mining clubs.
We informed the members of recent actions taken by the rogue BOD of PLP. We told the members that the rogue BOD had withheld critical information and was not sharing the financial information about PLP’s relationship with the Minerals and Mining Advisory Council (MMAC) and potential problems with our 501-(C)3 status.
The Officers and some of the BOD members also conspired against us, to strip us of our authority and dignity.
We resigned in mass on July 14 to escape possible personal liability from their actions.
We told members that based on our experience we must remove the present BOD and Officers to preserve PLP's 501(C) 3 status. This was done according to the 1997 bylaws and in compliance with the State of California's nonprofit corporations. New elections were then held.
We informed the general membership, based on our experience, we must remove the Rogue Board and its Officers in order to preserve the tax exempt 501C(3) status. The general membership made a motion to remove the Rogue board and Officers with
cause. It was seconded and voted on. A unanimous vote upheld the motion to remove.
This was done according to the 1997 bylaws and in compliance with the State of California Corporate Codes 5222.
New election were held per the PLP bylaws.
The new BOD and Officers are planning to continue defense of outdoors users and stop supporting MMAC. MMAC jeopardizes our 501c(3) status. We believe MMAC is a great cause and hope the best for them as a separate entity.
Legal notifications were given which resulted in changing the officers names on the account and then, their legal council refiled with the State over our filing which, resulted in the bank freezing the account initiated by the bank itself. Walt had nothing to do with freezing the account.

We offered two options to settle the dispute but for unknown reason they do not want to settle
We offered through legal counsel to end the BOD dispute and to fund the formation of an entity they can, run and support the MMAC activities. We hope that they still do that and leave PLP.
With the PLP members support, PLP encourages the formation of an MMAC entity which is separate from PLP. That is what we are fighting for and will continue to insist upon, regardless of the BOD dispute outcome. All actions needs to stop to move forward in the direction of our Mission Statement.
The PLP organization needs to vote a new BOD and new Officers, as required by to our bylaws. We thank you for hearing our side.
Hopefully in our future, we can get together with all of the groups as a united front to save Prospecting and Mining in the United States. We thank you for patience and your understanding as we ar looking to move forward in the future.

Sincerely,
Patrick Keene
PLP Founder
(Pro Tem) Vice President

 

[Tuolumne]

how much money do they have frozen in the coffer?
is it a sizable sum of "peoples" contributions?

I wonder how much AMRA has collected and what they spent it on and why no volunteer board members on this site to wants to volunteer those details........ maybe they will have a rift on deciding where to spend funds now that the dredging case is behind them......

 

[jere64ca]

I wonder how much AMRA has collected and what they spent it on and why no volunteer board members on this site to wants to volunteer those details........

All non profit organizations are required to file a form 990 to the state that discloses the details you are so concerned about. You are free to look them up if you desire.

maybe they will have a rift on deciding where to spend funds now that the dredging case is behind them......

There are no rifts that I am aware of at least for now. And there are more than enough worthy causes facing the small scale mining community these days.

 

[Tuolumne]

All non profit organizations are required to file a form 990 to the state that discloses the details you are so concerned about. You are free to look them up if you desire.






There are no rifts that I am aware of at least for now. And there are more than enough worthy causes facing the small scale mining community these days.

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/99...90EZ.pdf?_ga=1.258254216.388936149.1472077848

looks like most of the money went to PLP! what a joke, why start a mining rights group if you give most of it to other orgs? orgs that now will have members going to jail and more legal fees fighting the overhaul?!

and only a few grand in gifts and donations? what about the recent raffles? one gun they give away is worth more that what they put down for "Contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts received "

Id like to see the 2015 release please

this is even more fishy.......

come on jery64 AMRA board member...... give us the true updated info please, if its that easy to pull up then just do it and be a serious about a serious subject, be transparent thats all I ask...no smoke and mirrors , if u have info offer it not "look it up" I did and you have more explaining to do

I love how they spent 2000 gallons on gas =6,000$ @ $3 per gallon, lets say they have avehicle that gets 35 gallons per mile, if they use a truck why are they wasting peoples money? thats 70,000 miles driven average car for what? 6k out of $28,000 expense. Looks like this org is a small fry in the river, cant even help much if not much is available after the expenses but hey at least all the board members get their gas payed for, thats called embezzlement........... then they give all of the rest of it to PLP and now its frozen or who knows where it went lol!

what kind of business racks up $1,000 in bank card fees? what a joke, are they pulling cash out of others ATM's?

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/99...90EZ.pdf?_ga=1.258254216.388936149.1472077848

 

[russau]

So of the BOD that resigned their position , do they still belong to PLP ? OR did they quit PLP also??

 

[Hoser John]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ratz scrambling for the benjamins John

 

[hawkeye39]

I bet the greenies and the enemies of mining are laughing their a$$'s off when reading this thread.

 

[Terry Soloman]

I bet the greenies and the enemies of mining are laughing their a$$'s off when reading this thread.

Seriously? The Greenies haven't STOPPED laughing since 2012. They know the people "leading the fight" for our mining rights don't have a clue as to how to defeat them. They also know we don't have the numbers or money to mount any serious defense of our rights. Until we get support from the mining industry, the mining equipment manufacturers, and the public at large - it's over for dredging in California, and over the next few years, everywhere else.

 

[mcordell]

I think donations are going to get slim for these guys. Shame, they do a lot of good work. Lets direct our energy in a positive way folks.