AVN: Door Staying Open

In today’s Living Wisdom/AVN newsletter^[1] Meryl Dorey announced that the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) has received enough pledges and donations to keep the doors open for now. Here is an excerpt of the newsletter containing the accouncement, with commentary.

Success at last!
THANKS TO YOU ALL

If you had asked me 3 weeks ago if we would have been able to raise anywhere near the amount of money necessary to have kept the AVN going, I would have said you were dreaming! But that’s just what has happened which is a miracle – no other word for it.

Yes, it is indeed a miracle of the highest order. Worthy of canonisation. The miracle being, of course, that the AVN membership never stopped to demand you tell them how much in debt you were.

I repeat my questions:

1. What was the liability of the Australian Vaccination Network Inc. immediately prior to this donation drive?
2. Was this donation drive borne solely out of personal reasons, or was there a legal component? e.g. audit, etc.

We did not reach our goal of raising enough money to keep us going for 3 years without the need to resort to fund-raising – spending all of our time on what we do best – supporting families, informing those who want referenced data on the other side of this issue and lobbying for the preservation of free choice.

Instead, we got to three-quarters of our goal – raising more funds then we have ever raised – enough to ensure that we can not only continue, but we can be a powerful defender of informed choice within the community.

Next question: Will the 2009 Annual Statement show an expense related to “Editors Charges” as both the 2007 and 2008 statements show? If so, how much did you pay yourself?

Don’t you think that the AVN membership and supporters have a right to know how you manage the AVN, and what funds you pay yourself, before giving you money or pledging you donations?

Just over 500 of our members pledged and it is my plan to sit down over this next week, get all of their letters together and post them up on our website (don’t worry, not every donor wrote a letter – most of them just sent me their pledges). They brought tears to my eyes and made me realise that even though many times, I have felt very much alone in this role that’s chosen me, I have never been on my own – you have all been out there with me. This knowledge has made all the stress and harassment of this last year worthwhile.

The stress and harassment was of your own making. Think about the stress of the families that suffered the loss of their children, think about the stress of families that suffered watching their children battle illness in NICU. Think about the stress and harassment one family suffered not only experiencing the loss of their child, but having to contend with harassment from AVN supporters.

Your emotional begging is contemptible.

I have tried to write to everyone who pledged a donation and this morning, sent out an email to let them all know that they can now donate as the AVN is in a position to commit to continuing its vital work. If you made a pledge and didn’t get that email, it means that I did not see your initial pledge but you are now officially notified that the pledge can indeed be donated.

If you did not pledge or donate – please consider sending in a donation now as it certainly is not too late. Click here to go to our website to make an instant donation using your credit card or Paypal. Read the information in the box below entitled How Can I Donate to the AVN for details on other ways in which you can donate to our organisation.

I suggest, that in the interest of truth and honesty, that your emails to people who donated and pledged also contain the true financial standing of the AVN prior to the donation drive. Why won’t you answer this question, Meryl?

Please also consider forwarding this email to between 5 and 10 of your friends, family or workmates. The further this goes – the more support we will have and the more people who will be aware of the AVN.

Don’t worry about that, Meryl. You can trust me to make sure that as many people as possible are made aware of the AVN. You can count on it.

The future of the AVN

Below is the outcome of the AVN Management Committee meeting regarding the restructuring of the AVN and our continuing work. There is only so much that can be accomplished in one night so we will be having fairly frequent meetings over the coming weeks and months to polish and hone our structure and the way in which we operate (including getting together to write an updated business plan), but for now, I can share the following information with you.

Membership
The AVN will continue to publish Living Wisdom magazine digitally. The cost will be $50 p/a and the magazine will be published 6 times a year. Membership and subscription are no longer separate – one price of $50 covers both the magazine and your membership with the AVN. Membership will include the same discounts and benefits that were available prior to February 2010. To join or to find out more details, please visit:

This page for information about standard membership options;

This page for information on gift subscriptions;

And this page to find out about becoming a professional member (there are several different levels of professional membership – you can read about all of them here)

The magazine itself will be quite different. These changes will see a return to our core subject of vaccination. There will still be articles on natural health, birthing, parenting and the environment, but these issues will not make up the bulk of the magazine – vaccination will.

Is it safe to say that now advertisers will be made fully aware of exactly where they are putting their money? Unlike a number of advertisers we discovered last year that had no idea their advertisements were appearing in the official publication of the AVN. Caveat emptor does apply here, but I have to ask: why did you fail to disclose the connection between Living Wisdom and the AVN?

There is a possibility that hard copy editions of Living Wisdom will also be available for an increased cost but at this point, we are investigating our options since the cost of printing short runs (under 1,000 copies) is very high and only about 100 members took up the hard copy option before when it was offered.

Support
For 17 years, our telephone and email support has been free to anyone who has requested it. We regularly field questions from dozens of individuals each week and support them with information upon request.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these people – we estimate between 80 and 90% – are not members of the AVN and never become members.

This huge demand has put an enormous strain on our organisation both through the time it takes to answer these calls and emails and via the need to send information and data out to those who haven’t helped to offset the cost of the support they received.

From today for a trial period of 3 months (at which time, we will reexamine the outcome of this trial), telephone and email support in regards to vaccination questions will only be available to financial members of the AVN. A member will need to give their name on calling in for information and that information will be checked against the database to ensure that they are current financial members.

So, you are effectively stopping a service to 90% of the people you claim took advantage of it. That’s great news – nice to know that 90% of callers will not be subjected to AVN propaganda and lies.

All others will be asked to join; should they not wish to, they will be directed to our website, our blog, our facebook page, our twitter page and our email discussion list where they will be able to get support from others who are also investigating this issue as well as from those who have been helping others for some time.

What fantastic advice! Send enquiring people to forums full of the wildest, craziest conspiracy theories on the internet, and to obtain health and vaccination advice from a wide assortment of the most deluded members of the public.

Of course, anyone who is suffering an adverse reaction to a vaccine or whose child is reacting and those who cannot afford membership will be helped freely and without question.

Please provide the qualifications and experience of AVN staff/volunteers who are able to diagnose an “adverse reaction” and then provide appropriate advice, all over the phone. Simply amazing.

We just felt that it was not fair, equitable or sustainable to continue to provide this service when our resources are so limited and hope you understand and agree with this decision.

Once again, I do hope, since your resources are so limited, that the 2009 Annual Statement doesn’t show an “Editors Charge” expense. I mean, you have previously stated that “When times have been tough, I have foregone even that small payment.”^[2]

Committee and constitution
We have had 4 new people put their hands up to take on roles on the committee which is phenomenal. We have asked each one of them to provide us with a short description of who they are, why they would like to be on the AVN committee and what they hope to achieve via their involvement with our committee.

I assume this means that the AVN is not currently in debt? Committee members can be held personally liable for the debts of an organisation. They are aware of that, right?

If you have ever had any interest in helping out in a committee role, please contact me either by telephone (02 6687 1699 / 02 6687 2436) or by email – meryl@avn.org.au – and I will be very happy to explain what is involved to you.

I must hear from you before Friday though because we will be sending these CVs out to all AVN members and holding this election at a Special General Meeting to be held in April (the exact date will be announced today week).

I do look forward to reading the 2009 Annual Statement of the AVN Inc.

Our meetings are all held online so it doesn’t matter where you are located – you can even live outside of Australia as long as the time zone difference won’t be too difficult for you – but you must have been a financial member of the AVN on the 21st of February in order to stand for a committee position during this round of elections .

My role with the AVN
I have resigned as President of the AVN and will remain on as acting President until the Special General Meeting has elected a new President.

This does not mean that I am leaving the organisation – far from it! I will be working every bit as hard on these issues as I had been previously – but it is time for some new blood, new energy and new ideas. I know that you will support the new President as much as you have always supported me.

New blood? What a charming expression for an organisation that promotes death and disease in our communities by campaigning for the end of vaccination. I just hope that the new President has the gumption and integrity to run the AVN honestly – not hiding its true agenda from the general public, and not using misleading statements to confuse and frighten the general public.

I would like to take a moment to thank those who have written to me during this difficult time. You have no idea how much your words have meant to me – truly! I feel a real sense of obligation to each and every one of you to ensure that the role the AVN plays in Australian society not only continues, but expands and gets stronger. It is only because of your support that we can foresee a day when every parent will have all of the information they need to make a free and informed choice about vaccination. You have done this – every single one of you – and I am forever grateful to you!

I will still be standing for election in the role as a general committee member and plan on staying on in some way to work on the magazine, writing, lobbying and helping in whatever roles the new committee would like to see me fill.

Still expecting that “Editors Charges” payment?

Do you think the new committee will be wanting you to help the AVN in the same way you have done in the past? Like, just for an example, taking the AVN from a $88,000 profit to a $58,000- loss in one year?
And, starting a new glossy magazine when the following month you announced a possible closure of the AVN?

To my fellow committee members, I must say a very loud “thank you!” as well. It is not easy doing what we do – but we have all worked together to the best of our abilities for the purpose of ensuring that your rights are protected, your interests represented and your ability to make the best choices for your children supported.

You forgot to thank them for the $33,330- you paid yourself in 2007/2008. Oh, and what did you pay yourself for 2009?

In the next few months, with the help of our committee working together, I foresee some wonderful additions to the AVN’s already impressive range of vaccination information as well as the beginning of scientific research which we have been planning for years. None of this would have been possible without your help.

Oh yes, this scientific research that has been promised for years. What an extraordinary coincidence that this is announced when the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing is about to conduct an audit of the AVN.

Coincidence? I think not. Nice try, Meryl. I hope the powers that be see right through it. How are those Bounty Bags going, by the way? Hmmm?

I also question fund-raising for the scientific testing of anything which has already been shown to be adequately tested, and is governed by Government regulations. Still looks potentially questionable to me.

THANK YOU!

All the best,
Meryl

Footnotes:
1: received by email 22 February 2010
2: Living Wisdom/AVN E-newsletter “The Truth about the AVN Investigations” received by email 15 February 2010