I'm not sure where to start, but will do my best. The issues pertain to a private veteran's organization, its board officers, and me.

I had been serving as the Finance Officer until recently. During my time as Finance Officer I had certain duties and responsibilities to protect the financial well-being of the organization and I took my role seriously.

A long story semi-short, the other board officers prohibited me from doing my job and have been mismanaging the organizations funds as well as providing exuberant monetary benefits to a former board member who is now an employee. This organization consists of two boards. A board that is responsible for overall general operations and one that is responsible for membership functions. The two boards consist primarily of the same people. I was in charge of the funds for the membership. Because of their mismanagement of the general funds, they needed a serious cash infusion from my side of the organization. An emergency meeting was held to discuss the transfer of funds from my side to their side. I, as the Finance Officer, requested that they provide us details as to why they need money, where it went, how much they need and why, etc. They refused to provide any of that information. I had done my research into the matter prior to that meeting and had the answers to all of the questions I was asking for the membership's benefit. However, the presiding senior board member kept silencing me and prohibited me from doing my job. There is a whole lot more to it than that and to basically sum it up, three board members were grossly negligent in their duties, willfully prevented me from doing my job, and are guilty of fraud, waste, and abuse.

I summed everything up in a 26 page letter along with a copy of each of the by-laws violated. Put simply, they were in violation of almost every single by-law the organization had. The purpose of the letter was to have the matters brought before an Executive Committee hearing which consist of the organizations past board leaders and have them review the issues contained in the letter. The letter was delivered to a fellow board member who was next in command under those cited in the letter by another member who is a friend of mine. The letter was delivered as requested at a membership meeting that I was unable to attend. The result was that the current senior board officer promptly took the letter and still has it in his possession. That was a week ago. The letter was supposed to be submitted for an Executive Hearing, but this does not appear to be happening. I have not heard one word from anyone regarding an Executive Hearing.

Within under 24 hours of them getting the letter, they changed out every single lock associated with the building to which I had access to as Finance Officer. Also, just as quickly they hired an attorney to defend them. The Executive Hearing is not a court of law, it is a way to review and resolve issues that arise within the organization and consist of members only. Now since I brought these issues to light, at least theirs anyway since they took the letter and have not forwarded to the best of my knowledge, there attorney is threatening me with Libel and defamation. For doing my job and standing up to these people, this is what I get? They appear to be silencing the contents of the letter as they had tried to silence me.


All of the information, issues, and complaints outlined/described in the letter are factual and provable and were in no way, shape, or form "made up". The main issue lies in the fact that most of the issues require the corroboration of other members to prove as they were all witnesses to the items listed in the letter. The board officers to which I cited in the letter are very powerful in the community and are very intimidating. Members are scared to speak up against them for fear of retribution. All but one of the employees are all victims in one sense or another and can provide a lot of testimony as to the truth of the issues cited, but they're all afraid of losing their jobs as well as retribution. These board officers as mentioned earlier are very powerful and very well connected. They have close relationships with some members of our state's legislature as well as local and county government officials. In fact, one of the board officers cited in the 26 page letter is an elected official for the town in which the organization is located.

I need some serious guidance on these issues? What should I do? What steps should I take? These members were clearly derelict in their duties amongst other things and are proving very detrimental to our organization. But I can't afford an attorney to fight them and the membership is too afraid to speak up. What should I do? I refuse to let them steamroll over me and get away with what they did and continue to do. They're trying to intimidate me with a lawsuit and other members told me that I