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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Apr 20, 2011 - 02:58am PT
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They did these sorts of programs with men. Using women in this role is something new.
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pk_davidson
Trad climber
Albuquerque, NM
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Apr 20, 2011 - 06:13pm PT
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I could care less about literary license used in the book 3CoT (actually not even written by GM) but the "unusual" usage of $,disproportionate percents of spent funds and the CAI involvement in book buying and sending GM around while saying they benefit from it but don't get any of his royalties or honoraium is what is troubling.
More telling for me is the 2002 incident of Hornbein and Wiltsie (& others) exitting the board apparently because GM wouldn't cough up standard accounting documents. Wiltsie claimed GM "treats CAI as his personal ATM."
However it all falls out, this is sad.
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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Apr 20, 2011 - 07:26pm PT
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Men doing good works - they are not perfect, they have educational experiences, and they will be heavily scrutinized if they make a splash. THe very type of scrutiny going on here is what precisely keeps a lot of excellent people from being public leaders. It is not for the thin-skinned or timid.
Charities receive tax breaks and other dispensations to do good works for society. In exchange, they have to disclose much information. In some cases, it is very easy for a charity to seem extremely effective because a very high percentage of their revenues go to programs. That accounting classification is part art and part science. In some arenas, it is much harder to have a stellar % going to programs. In any case, it is important that the donor gets to see how the charity will spend the money in order to determine if this is how they want their money to be used. We can look at the same information, and you may be delighted to jump on that bandwagon, and I may think a different program will be a better vehicle for my donation.
Controls within charitable organizations cost money to implement. That raises their administrative costs and reduces their contribution to programs. However, controls become very necessary to implement, particularly when growth is high. I have been part of many rapidly growing organizations. You can view this phenomena as bad management or outgrowing your infrastructure.
Given the environment in Asia, there is a lot to be said about hands on verification that the money is being used exactly as intended. Hands on verification may mean that certain projects won't be built and more money goes into administration. It does reduce shenanigans.
If you want to garner big money, you need to offer more than a tin cup to put money in. Many of the big fund raisers involve celebrities and fancy events. Is that waste or investment to bring in the big bucks?
The answer for some may be to give their money to well established charities serving as similar a mission. ANother tactic may be to make restricted donations or donate goods so that you have more control over how the money is used.
It is appropriate to look at how donor money exempt form taxes generating big tax deductions are used. CAI may need to invest in its infrastructure to earn the trust of donors. CAI and GM may have a lot to learn about how to operate appropriately.
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zeta
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Apr 20, 2011 - 07:51pm PT
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this whole situation about CAI is troubling and depressing...
but in the spirit of reminding people that small donations do make a difference, I thought I'd share some pics from a reproductive health education program that I started in north India in 2008. It initially got funding from a US-based ngo, which has since pulled out of India...but the women who lead the women's health workshops are still doing the workshops. They have no ngo funding, I figured out the cost of keeping it going--which is $2,000 US per year--and I raised the money this year through doing 3 slideshows. The folks who donated are friends and family, so they are donating based upon their trust in me. But so far, the girls have done 3 workshops, with 5 more planned for the summer.
there's a lot of good local programs going on that need small scale funding. They might not have a website, or name-recognition, but they are doing good stuff. here's some pics!
[photo[photoid=198796]id=198795]
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Gal
Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
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Apr 20, 2011 - 08:03pm PT
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That's excellent Zeta! Love it!
Men doing good works - they are not perfect, they have educational experiences, and they will be heavily scrutinized if they make a splash. THe very type of scrutiny going on here is what precisely keeps a lot of excellent people from being public leaders. While I agree-9 years of no accounting & not having to answer to anyone is not being put through over-zealous scrutiny by any means-it's utter bullshit and VERy unfortunate.
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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Apr 20, 2011 - 08:31pm PT
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I haven't done enough homework to make a judgement so I was trying to walk the line, leaving the door open that it was fast growth, going beyond the skill set of the founder that was the possibly the cause of bumps in the road.
Let's hope that the cause can be effectively served despite the frailties of a man or a new institution.
I have a long history of invovlement in helping to set up non-profits and putting in control structures. It is not always appreciated but very necessary to keep the confidence of the donors. I still see eyes rolling when we talk about documentation that the funds were used as intented, segregation of duties, self dealing, .....
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 20, 2011 - 08:45pm PT
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The road to hell, as has famously been said, is paved with good intentions. (Edit: referring to seamstress' post above, not necessarily GM and the CAI.)
Non-profits do often take a bit of educating as to things like accountability, governance, records, filings and other boring but essential things for their long-term health.
(I got #333! Does that mean I'm only half-evil, sort of a a half-FatTrad?)
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Apr 20, 2011 - 08:54pm PT
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The road to hell, as has famously been said, is paved with good intentions.
This isn't just about good intentions, it's about making $5,000,000 (the bottom of estimates of what Mortenson took in.)
It's one thing to mismanage a charity's money and it's another to have it pay millions to support your personal for-profit business.
Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh make tens of millions on their books, TV & radio shoes and speaking fees. No one cares. But they aren't pretending to be all about charity.
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Gal
Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
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Apr 20, 2011 - 08:54pm PT
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Yes, Seamstress, I bet it is the unglamorous side of non-profit. Wish someone like you could have been able to get through to GM on those issues throughout the course of the foundation. Seems like a few tried, but were not listened to and avoided.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Apr 20, 2011 - 09:52pm PT
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This part sort of bugs me:
"Krakauer is donating all the proceeds from his article to charity and the piece, which is currently available for free on byliner.com, will be sold exclusively through Amazon's Kindle Singles store for $2.99 on Wednesday evening. Bryant said the story has had roughly 20,000 downloads since it was posted Tuesday morning."
So Mark Bryant (Krakauer's former editor at Outside) has used this story to launch his Byliner site with the equivalent (through Tuesday morning) of $60,000 of free publicity, money that otherwise would have gone to charity.
This article contradicts that, listing 50,000 downloads ($150,000) through Monday:
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/culturefeed/sf-based-byliner-makes-waves-3-cups/
SF-based Byliner Makes Waves with '3 Cups of Deceit'
More about Byliner here:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/19/byliner-launches-with-a-splash-aims-to-disrupt-long-form-journalism/
Byliner Launches With A Splash, Aims To Disrupt Long-Form Journalism
I don't get the feeling they are up to anything good, rather they are just exploiting this to get attention.
Poor Krakauer can't just get a break. He's a professional writer who writes for cash. He doesn't pretend to be operating a charity.
He spends a lot of time writing an expose. He then makes it available for free download and also sells it on Amazon, donating the proceeds from charity. He doesn't have to make it available for free, but by doing so you accuse him of robbing charity. Would it make you feel better if he just left it free on the Byliner site and didn't have the charity sale on Amazon? If you think you are stealing form charity by downloading it, why don't you just buy it again from Amazon?
You're missing the bigger point that Krakauer has apparently decided to not make a penny on this book and is making it available for free with some sales that will only benefit charity.
Contrast that with Mortenson who apparently pocketed very penny from his book after his ghost-writer received his cut.
Also, I"m sure that Krakauer wrote every word in his book. It's not ghostwritten like Mortenson's.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Apr 20, 2011 - 10:13pm PT
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Agreed. I am still trying to understand the the Krakauer hate regarding *this* incident.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Apr 20, 2011 - 10:26pm PT
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I think my last post was unclear. Sorry. I'm trying to understand the hate directed toward Krakauer regarding this event.
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Gal
Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
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Apr 20, 2011 - 11:07pm PT
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"The sociopath next door" was an interesting read. And a bit disturbing.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Apr 20, 2011 - 11:20pm PT
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Thanks QITNL. I really wasn't thinking of anyone in particular when I asked the question. I do appreciate your thoughts regarding it. Thanks again-
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
WA, & NC & Idaho
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Apr 20, 2011 - 11:26pm PT
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crimpie,
I certainly don't Hate Krakauer, it takes way to much energy to hate some one.
I do think he has misrepresented some very important facts of his own, especially regarding Anatoli Boukrev and Lopsang Sherpa?
Boukrev was awarded the American Alpine Clubs highest honor for heroism, and Krakauer found a way to HOLYWOOD it up and make him the villan. There was No vilian other than greed.
Allegations of misrepresentation also surround his book into the wild.
After reading three cups of Deceit, Krakauer is likely right on, in the Three cups of tea case.
JK is a phenomenal writer, whom I respect a great deal!
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Apr 20, 2011 - 11:31pm PT
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Thanks Ezra. It is clear that some are angry at JK's portrayal of things in other books. I was curious if that was coloring their feelings toward him in the 3CoT stuff. It was a sincere question I posed because I couldn't figure out other than a dislike of JK before this what was causing the hate (maybe to strong a word - sorry) or distaste toward him. I certainly don't have all (or most if any) the answers so that is why I asked. Thanks a lot for sharing. :)
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Apr 20, 2011 - 11:39pm PT
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Cool Sullly. Thanks.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Apr 21, 2011 - 01:58am PT
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Sullly, I don't care if its McChrystal you're close to or others of his feather lower down on the chain, you're hatred seems to be prejudice based the feelings of who you you have tea and crumpets with rather then based on any facts that you can share.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Apr 21, 2011 - 11:17am PT
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Who benefits most from this expose? . . . This is all about making money.
Brilliant analysis.
Krakauer bought into GM and CAI, hosted and helped to organize some events, donated 70k of his own dough, and helped to publicize CAI because secretly, all the while, he was plotting to get rich off the deal. His plan apparently involved spending however many months researching and interviewing, writing up a story too long to sell to a magazine but too short to publish as a book, release it on the net as a $2.99 download, distribute all that revenue to charity, and then make his getaway.
I can see why you post anonymously.
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