The board meeting at which Ron Lindsay’s behavior at Women in Secularism 2 will be one topic to be discussed is next week. If you are concerned about the direction CFI is taking, if you value it as an organization and want to see it improve, if you think Ron Lindsay has served the interests of CFI poorly, put it in writing and let them know now.
Now! Be constructive. Tell them what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed. This is the time to make a course correction, before the catastrophic crash.
Wait, constructive? You mean we should be better than the MRA trolls? Aw, nurtz.
And your message should be that Ron Lindsay should no longer represent CFI in any official capacity. Whether you also suggest that Lindsay be banished to Monster Island (which is technically a peninsula) is up to you.
Done.
Thanks.
I hope CFI sees fit to publish some of the letters they get, personal info redacted. Some of the reactions I’ve seen online to Lindsey’s foot-in-mouth disease have been interesting & insightful, and I suspect some of the direct letters will have valuable & interesting insights as well. And some of them will be spectacularly scathing flame-offs, so those might be fun to read too.
@Francisco
Monster Island is reserved only for grievous offenses, such as being caught out as failing gym class in the second grade when you’re being sworn in as President.
Insulting the speakers and paying attendees at a conference and then being intellectually dishonest about it? Small potatoes.
Might I suggest that if CFI is anything like the US Congress, one handwritten (or even typed) letter is worth 10,000 e-mails?
Trebuchet: I would agree, though any contact with the board is better than no contact with them.
I think Lindsay was flat out wrong. But I don’t share the opinion quoted above. An unambiguous and clearly sincere apology from him is unquestionably required. And the board needs to publicly repudiate his remarks. Lindsay needs to eat a good sized portion of crow. But I am not ready just yet to demand his resignation.
A genuine and real apology actually does go a long way, as long as it’s followed up with continued awareness and signs of progress.
I wish more people would try it.
Already done.
@dogfightwithdogma, #8:
Had Lindsay not doubled down on his message, I might agree with you. But he did. That means that either:
A. He spoke for CFI, in which case the board will affirm their faith in him — and we should stop dealing with them, because they’re awful, misogynistic people who are actively undermining the secular cause by excluding 50% of the population.
B. He did not speak for CFI, in which case he is not doing the job for which he is paid, and even actively going against the organization’s purpose even when given time to consider his actions, which means he should be fired. This isn’t a question of what the topic was, it’s a question of his job and responsibilities. If some random CFI member — even a member of their board — had expressed similar opinions while at the conference, it wouldn’t be the same at all. He was acting as their official representative and yet deliberately undermining their own event. That’s incompetence on what ought to be a job-ending level.
I think the problem is that SO many people and organizations fuck this up. I honestly have no hope or faith that they will handle it correctly, if they don’t fire him. If he stays, I only see him doing a faux apology, not understanding and just making it worse.
There’s a striking difference between how people are reacting to CFI and what steps they are taking and SFWA. People are confident and hopeful about that outcome. I think the immediate “I’m responsible for this and we will take care of it. It happened on my watch and I must own what happened.” There’s no doubt that was sincere. But Ron Lindsay? Has already doubled down. I seriously don’t see him suddenly getting the light bulb in this meeting.
Sure, he might but the frequency of how badly stuff like this is handled can’t be denied. If we’re wary and want the “extreme” measure of is his firing, it’s totally justified.