Liberal Organizing Group Implodes In One Tumultuous Afternoon

[Blue_Tires]

WASHINGTON — The New Organizing Institute, a progressive grassroots outfit responsible for training many of the Democratic party’s digital organizers, has to be rebuilt from the ground up after a mass exodus of senior staff and employees Tuesday.
Frustrations over fundraising and the management style of Executive Director Ethan Roeder, the former top data guru for President Obama’s presidential campaigns, led senior staffers to quit and several employees to follow them out the door after the nonprofit’s board of directors refused to fire Roeder at the staff’s request. Staff who left said that layoffs followed the mass resignation, but the board denies that.
Late Tuesday night it was unclear how many paid employees remain of the 20 or so staff at NOI, and most of the senior team left for good. It’s a potentially crushing blow for the lefty group best known for its well-attended annual RootsCamp “unconference” that has become a focal point for progressive politics. Last year’s Rootscamp featured speeches by top progressives including Elizabeth Warren.
In an interview, NOI co-founder and board chair Judith Freeman said NOI will go on and promised new fundraising streams to dwindling coffers.
The events that would eventually lead to the mass exodus began Monday, when senior members of the leadership team gave the board an ultimatum in the form of a memo, according to multiple sources: either Roeder went, or they would. Staff expressed frustration about money woes that have mounted since August, when fundraising streams began to dry up.
That memo led to a chaotic Tuesday. Stories differ as to what exactly happened. Freeman said eight staffers signed the memo, and they were dismissed by the board. A staff source said seven signed the memo, seven more were “let go” and three resigned in protest. Multiple staff said resigning and dismissed staffers were told to turn in their equipment and leave the building immediately, leading to a sense of “shock” within the small progressive outfit.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/new-organizing-institute-implodes#.beYdkyK6

anybody know anything about this??

[Ford_Prefect]

1. The large number of senior staff leaving and fired is disturbing.

However it is difficult to tell from the outside whether this is an "IT management problem" or something more political. The comments cited by those who left seem to indicate there are serious political and legal issues at the heart of this.

I worry about the timing. Could someone be strategically poisoning the well of liberal organizing and funding such that only 3rd way candidates with rich clients will be able to participate in the democratic party?

[djean111]

2. Given what I have read about such things - YES. Absolutely.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that ...

a half a dozen "major" stories about "melt-downs/embarrassment among Democratic outfits, in recent days/weeks ... pure coincidence.

But that said, I do not suspect that the goal/purpose is to "well of liberal organizing and funding such that only 3rd way candidates with rich clients will be able to participate in the democratic party"; but, rather, to take advantage of liberal's "high moral standards" to poison the well for ANY Democratic candidate.

To my reckoning, 3 articles about HRC backers (that's okay because we all know that HRC is a corporatist, 3rd-way, bank owned lackey ... so says the left); 3 articles about political/ethical melt-downs among liberal organizing groups (hmmm ... could it be the left is just as corrupt/corruptible as the Koch corrupted right? ... so thinks the left); and 1 article about liberal stalwart Elizabeth Warren having took money from one of the worst offending banks that she made her liberal bones attacking? (OMG! ... says half the left ... the other half says "see?" to which the first half says, "but this is different" ... and it's on)>

Yep ... pure coincidence!

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. Posted to for later.n/t