No flames here, either. Poor Viktor's getting more then he bargained for I think...
Mike had a vision and dedication to the GGRM that the new regime totally lacks. Did Mike make bad decisions and alienate folks now and then? Sure he did. Frankly he could be an enormous pain in the @ss sometimes (can't we all, though). But everything he did was, in his mind, for the betterment of the museum and the 2472. People who really worked with the guy understood this. There was little or no guile behind Mike's actions and Mike darn near dedicated his entire life to the place. When it came to vision and commitment to a cause, Mike was unbeatable.
The new management comes from two backgrounds. The core group simply saw the museum as something they could profit off of; Mike (and later, those who had supported him) stood in the way of their social and sometimes monetary gain. The second group that makes up the new management are those who were disgruntled with Mike for one reason or another; I personally think that many of them were just jealous of the progress that Mike could motivate when he put himself to the task.
For the new management, the termination of the Hunter's Point lease was a dream come true. Anybody with half a brain could have predicted it would have happened someday; a few of the GGRM's managers seemed genuinely delighted that HP would have to be vacated. Dozens of new sites were suggested, and some some serious action was put into researching a half-dozen viable new homes by various members. All suggestions were essentially ignored. Talk about lip service.
The depths to which the museum fell after Mike was removed are unbelievable. The war stories of those of us who had to deal with these clowns could literally fill a book. I and a few friends still firmly believe that some of the board's actions regarding equipment transfers and disposal were illegal under the laws governing non-profit corporations. It is a known fact that things like the initial car auction were flat-out fixed. A certain boardmember had assured me that it would be an honest auction; I have paper evidence proving it wasn't. Another board member plainly told me once that if he was able to, he would have sold the 2472. That's the level to which some of these people wanted to see the Museum stripped to.
I find that as time goes on I get less and less concerned about the fate of the whole thing (this is the first time in a while I've gotten this worked up about it). It's just harder and harder to really care. I used to have a whole load of battleaxes to grind; now I think I'm down to just a hatchet. Anyway, many of those nitwits are getting their comeupance soon, one way or another. Regarding a certain manager in particular, you can't be that stupid and that big a dick and expect to continue to get paid by a defunct organization forever. I'm sure that as the GGRM becomes more and more integrated with PLA, more of these bad apples will drop off.
However, the GGRM experience has made me and a lot of folks I know pretty gun-shy about ever volunteering or being associated with a non-profit in this way ever again. There's a whole raft of extremely talented and dedicated people out there who may never again lend a hand, just because of how abysmally they were treated by the GGRM's new management. Equally scary is how personal some of this stuff got. I don't think some of these new managers realized how deeply they were screwing with certain folks; they were waaaay out of line in their actions. Arguments nearly came to blows dozens of times. There was an admirable level of restraint on the part of many of those were attacked by management.
Well, this time for real, 'nuff said, least by me.
m-out