30
Apr 13

NMAC Board of Directors minus one

oldhamWithout so much as a whisper the Board of Directors of the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) has one member less than it did a few weeks ago.

Frank Oldham, Jr., the former CEO/President of the failed National Association of People with AIDS, has been removed from the roster of NMAC directors.

Whatever the reason, it is highly appropriate that Oldham is no longer a member of the NMAC Board of Directors.  We still have no answers to the many questions surrounding his departure from NAPWA and it’s subsequent filing for bankruptcy, including his being listed as owing NAPWA $88,360.00 at the time of their bankruptcy filing.

 

 

 

29
Apr 13

NAPWA creditors: You’re screwed

UnknownNAPWA’s march towards oblivion progressed last Friday when the Bankruptcy Trustee filed a “Chapter 7 Trustee’s report of No Distribution”.  In other words, there are no assets to distribute to NAPWA’s creditors—not even 10 cents on the dollar.

A quick recap:  NAPWA’s bankruptcy filing reported $89,393.03 in assets.  $88,360.00 of the assets was money owed to NAPWA by Frank Oldham, Jr., NAPWA’s former President/CEO.

oldham

NAPWA’s bankruptcy filing also reported $707,028.35 in liabilities, all of which will be discharged by the bankruptcy court.  In other words, the creditors are screwed (a technical term)

The trustees report of No Distribution raises questions, once again, about the circumstances leading up to the ultimate decision of the board of trustees to file for bankruptcy.

It also raises the question once again as to why the chief staffer of NAPWA, Frank Oldham, owes the failed NAPWA over $88,000 (a debt that the trustee, through his/her “No Distribution” has obviously concluded is uncollectable.)

The NAPWA board of trustees is probably breathing a huge sigh of relief over the fact that the bankruptcy appears to be headed towards its unseemly conclusion.  Unfortunately, the fact that they failed in their fiduciary duties and allowed this to happen is a question that they seem to have avoided answering.

This whole debacle does not pass the smell test.  Something went terribly wrong.  There is, at face value, the appearance utter failure of the staff and elected leadership to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities.   Questions posed to the NAPWA leaders have gone unanswered, and in doing so have raised even more questions about their culpability in this whole mess.

As a side note, NAPWA’s website is still up and running; another disgusting example of the failure of NAPWA’s trustees.  They obviously can’t even shut down operations effectively.

 

 

 

01
Apr 13

NAPWA: turn off the lights

UnknownIt is almost two months since the National Association of People with AIDS ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy yet the NAPWA website is still up and running.  In fact, you can still “JOIN NAPWA”.

Tyler TerMeer and the NAPWA trustees need to do some final housekeeping and take down the NAPWA site.  Not only is the information outdated, the very existence of the website of the former NAPWA is a living testimony to a failed organization.  It also reminds us of the unanswered questions of the circumstances surrounding the closure and bankruptcy filing.

11
Mar 13

Finally: NMAC posts 990′s

sunshine_fullThere is no rationale basis for it to have taken so long for Paul Kawata, Executive Director of the National Minority AIDS Council, to post the agency’s IRS form 990′s on the NMAC website.

After weeks of silence from Kawata, a check of NMAC’s website reveals that sometime over the past few days the 990′s for the past three years have been added.

A sincere thank you to Paul Kawata for finally making the publicly available 990′s easily accessible on NMAC’s website.

07
Mar 13

Michael Kaplan on NAPWA reception

Untitled copyLast week we learned that the now defunct National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) was honored at AIDS United’s Positive Leadership reception that was held in conjunction with AIDSWatch 2013.

To his credit, AIDS United President/CEO Michael Kaplan responded to the concerns I expressed regarding the timing of the reception—less than 14 days after NAPWA filed for bankruptcy amid many unanswered questions.

In his response, Kaplan stated (in part)

“…In the end – I fully believe NAPWA had an important role to play and that it is sad and a disgrace to now be gone. I believe that it suffered under poor leadership and I’m sad for that.

I also want to be clear, though a picture on facebook may have said we honored NAPWA, in all my words and in all dialogue, that is not the case, we honored the important role in history that NAPWA played and the need for positive voices to move forward.

I wish I could have known all the folks who at one-time or another played a role in NAPWA, who donated, supported, organized, or got value from it. What I had is no access to NAPWA documents or their data bases, no way of knowing who to invite. Yet as we assumed their role in organizing AIDSWatch (though built the constituency for attendance out of our own e-mail list of 14,000) – I knew that those who were attending would at least want an opportunity to reflect. That effort in no way was meant to stop others from their own processes, reflections, or raising questions – and if you or anyone feels that the event we organized took away such opportunity – I sincerely offer my apologies.”

Kaplan’s response does not change my mind.  This was an ill-conceived idea and could have waited until a future date when the outstanding questions surrounding NAPWA’s closure are answered.   That said, I appreciate Michael Kaplan’s thoughtful response and look forward to an on-going dialog.

 

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