Mike Greehan escalates the conflict!

Background -- Events leading to this crisis

The League of American Bicyclists is in trouble.

Below are some of the "highlights" of the LAB leadership crisis that led to the formation of LAB Reform. These events point out the need to change the leadership of LAB and end this crisis.

1997 - Board moved LAB headquarters from Baltimore to Washington
1998 - Bylaws changed to allow appointing 4 of 12 directors
1999 - Mike Greehan appointed (not elected) to Board
2001 - Beginning of Education Program crisis
2002 - Which Way LAB distributed at Rally
2003 - The LAB Election Scandal
2003 - Adding a fifth appointed director
2003 - Sneak LAB Bylaws Changes
2003 - $47,000 LAB operating deficit, membership down 14% in 6 years
2004 - "Truce" between Board and LAB Reform
2004 - $264,197 LAB operating deficit, membership down another 10% in 2 years
2005 - Greehan threatens legal action

In December 2005, Mike Greehan threatened legal action against LAB Reform over truthful but embarrassing information we have published at labreform.org. You can read about this in the articles listed below.

In March, 2006, Greehan claimed he had not threatened to "sue" us, but only "legal action". This reminds us of a recent politician who tried to dodge questions by saying: "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

Update

Since this article was written in late January, 2006 we have had private contacts with a few board members. Unfortunately, most directors are not taking this problem seriously. They seem to think that the election scandal and sneak bylaws changes, which occurred three years ago, are "ancient history" that is no longer a concern.

However, most of the bylaws changes have not been rescinded and three of the directors directly responsible for these problems are still on the board. We believe that these problems still threaten the viability of the League.

We have a bit of progress to report. On Feb 1, the board announced candidates for the 2006 board election. Among the candidates allowed on the ballot are three reformers, including John Allen in Region 1, Fred Oswald in Region 4 and John Forester in Region 6.

Initially there were three candidates in Region 4 and this could have produced a split in the vote between two LCI's. Such a split might have helped elect an extremely divisive candidate. Hence, Fred Oswald withdrew from the election in favor of Jim Sheehan. Jim did win the election and is now the Region 4 director.

You can read about the "Greehan problem" in the sections below.

Threat from the LAB President
LAB Reform's answer to Greehan's lawyer
LAB Reform's message to LAB Board
News Release about Greehan threat
(We are not making this available so long as there is no further escalation.)
A second Greehan letter
LAB Reform's answer to 2'nd Greehan letter
Resolving the crisis

Please join us and help restore the BikeLeague to members.

See www.labreform.org to join LAB Reform.

Webmasters: Please link to LAB Reform.

© Copyright 2006 LAB Reform. Material may be copied with attribution.
For comments, questions, contact fredoswald_AT_yahoo.com.
Last Revised 10/ 2/06