It’s been a few weeks since my original post on Oct 26th addressing the issues of Witch Councils, specifically the mysterious goings on with the newly formed (though some would say reformed) US American Council of Witches.  It’s been interesting to see how much more has happened, and how many more red flags have been raised, in the little time that’s passed since the last post.  On this coming Tuesday, November 15th, we’re going to be spending the first hour of the show talking about what’s going on now.  We’re also going to be joined by a now ex-council member who was apparently kicked out of the group for asking too many questions.  Here are the new details that we have heard, gathered, and observed.

When I posted my original post I did receive a response from someone named Sara Evens who was responding for the Council.  I chose not to approve the comment for one simple reason; the comment was the same form cut and paste response that the Council has been posting to blogs and Facebook pages where questions have been raised.

We realize there has been many questions about the Council and different names
appearing. Please realize that we are in a stage of reformation, and are following
an outline that every council member has agreed upon. We ask for your patience and understanding while we work to bring you a complete illustration of what is going on, and what will go on in the future. We are aware of your questions and concerns, and we will address these in due time.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Please send all questions to: [email protected]

I seriously think these people are missing the boat big time.  There is a desperate need for answers and instead of giving any publicly they are just saying “send us an email”, and from our own experience with the show attempting to ask questions and get one-on-one contact, it’s pretty much a waste of time.  While we understand that they are probably being inundated with questions and emails right now, they also claim to have a team of volunteers helping reply to messages.  It took several weeks for us to get our email answered and it was answered in a very unprofessional manner (using the words “email addy” rather than “email address”, along with other “net lingo” just screams to a lack of professionalism).  They claimed that Kaye Berry, who we were trying to reach, never got our email and that we can just email the Council directly with our questions.  Well, how about you, the Council, who are responding to this email, answer our questions!  No, instead we’re just asked to send another email.  Runaround 101!

So, I never let that blog comment go through because it wasn’t a response and it wasn’t adding to the conversation.  It is a passive aggressive attempt to brush off the questions being posed.  We get it, you’re really good at that.

**FYI…all screen shots below can be clicked to view full size.**

What’s going on now…
Christopher Penczak came and went as a member.
In the last few weeks we’ve had some other contacts and seen some other really interesting things transpire.  The night that I posted my original blog I went back to their Facebook page only to find that Christopher Penczak had suddenly been named as a member of the Council.  As a student of Christopher’s I was really surprised about that knowing how busy he is these days, especially since he had taken a lot of personal time during this year while dealing with the illness and death of his Mother.  But within a week he had withdrawn from the Council.  Devin was able to get in touch with Christopher prior to his stepping down to talk to him and it was clear that Christopher wasn’t prepared to deal with all that was going on and all that they were apparently expecting from him, and so he departed.  The thing that I found interesting, and again extremely unprofessional, was that rather than create a short announcement about his decision to leave, they just cut and pasted his private email to their Facebook page to share with the world (which a few days later they removed).

This was kind of a big deal.  In the Pagan community we tend to look toward the associations that our teachers, leaders, and elders keep and we often feel that if they are supporting someone or something then it’s worth our support and attention as well.  When Christopher was added to their Facebook page it gained some attention because he is considered a well respected leader within the community.  So when he decided that this was something that was just more than he was comfortable taking on, it again left the group with a big hole since now they were down another well known person from the community.

People are asking questions and getting censored.  Especially if you asked about an article they shared from WitchVox about Witch Wars.
This is probably one of the biggest concerns here.  I had first noticed a few weeks ago that one of the other pages, on the American Council of Pagans page, that some comments were being deleted.  Then it started to happen on the US Council page.  Sometimes questions, sometimes comments that seemed to show a lack of certainty about what the group was doing.  And then there would be what would seem like routine cleaning out of the page.  Posts and whole conversations deleted.  At the time I had commented on how that seemed really kind of…inappropriate (read “shady”).  But, in response to the questions, they had said they were in need of a break and that they were asking people to email them and just be patient (and thus began the seemingly never-ending “email us your questions” response).

Then just two days ago, on November 11th, someone from the Council posted a link to an article on WitchVox from 1998 about Witch Wars with the comment “nuff said” (see image below, click to see it full size).

The comment that you see here seems to refers to the fact that there is a comment in the article with the words “nuff said” that refers to self appointed and community appointed leaders who use their self-appointed importance, ego, and power to control elements of the community.  So it was sort of a weird thing to post on a page like that with no explanation.  Devin saw it and commented asking why they posted this (click to see larger).

Then shortly there after both the comments were removed and instead we’re again greeted with the “email your questions to us” comment.  Within a few minutes we realized that Devin was banned from the page.  He saw his comment was deleted and tried to comment again but he wasn’t able to post at all.  I knew he was banned from the page at that point because I still had the ability to comment and I’m not even a “fan” of the page.  Important to note too is that for a while now they have revoked the ability for anyone to post to the group’s wall with new content.

A little while after that Chas Bogan came on and posted as well, asking what the purpose of this post was.

And once again his post was deleted and he was also banned from the page and was no longer able to post.  Then someone else came along and posted a very appropriate comment, again trying to understand why this link was posted.

 

And not too long after this comment was also removed and at some point within the next handful of hours the whole article was deleted.  As of Sunday evening at 8:11pm EST this was the latest post on the page.

And if you look at the comments with this Phase I/Phase II stuff..again, no answering questions publicly, just send an email.  But at least the comments are still there (for now).

Again, why can’t we just all hear the answers to the questions?  It would certainly help cut back on what seems to be a huge amount of email that they get if everyone that has the same question could just get their answers right there on the page.

But honestly, this is a little more progress that we’ve seen so far!  Now we know a little bit about what supposedly is going to be going on but why not answer that question?  It’s perfectly legit, especially if people are going to email about getting involved. But oh, what do you know!  A little under an hour later, that question is, as all question are, removed.

So I guess we shouldn’t start singing “Kumbaya” just yet.

So, what’s going on that I need to care about then?
The issue of people asking questions and not getting answers and instead being censored is a big deal.  The fact that questions can’t be asked with answers given, in public for all the see, is truly a problem for any community organization.  When an organization decides to go public it needs to be ready to answer the questions of the public.  And when you’re an organization that is trying to represent a segment of the public, you need to address that part of the public first and foremost! Especially when you have a public forum like Facebook as your only web presence! Just deleting people’s questions and saying “send us an email” doesn’t cut it.  It makes it seem like you have something to hide!

And just a note about donations…
One of the things that has been a real sticking point in this whole thing has been the question of funds.  Originally they said that the donation button had been removed until after their break and their “reforming” period.  However there is still a donation button, alive and active, on Kaye Berry’s website (at least as of 1pm EST on November 14th).  When you click on that link and go to the Paypal donation page you can see plain as day you will see that the donation is labeled as for the US American Council of Witches but the name at the top of the page which denotes who the money goes to is Mother Nature’s Emporium, one of Kaye Berry’s many businesses.

Why is that a big deal?  Because if you’re a 501(c)3 organization, or an organization trying to get 501(c)3 status, funds raised and donated to your group must be kept in separate accounts with their own tracking and records.  To do anything else could constitute fraud.  So it has to make you wonder why the organization doesn’t have its own PayPal account with the funds going to its own bank account (which is also must have as a 501(c)3).

This is soooo super important to understand…
Neither Devin nor I are trying to bully anyone.  Someone on my Facebook page essentially equated our inquiries to bullying and and “lynch mob mentality”, basically saying we’re trying to force someone to answer questions before they were ready to.   That is not at all what we are trying to do!!  We are not trying to bully anyone, we are only trying to get some answers while helping to paint a full picture for the community.  So far there are many things about the Council that should be leading folks to ask some questions before throwing full support behind them.  But sometimes we Pagans can be a little too trusting of other Pagans.  When we see an individual or a group working under the banner of Paganism, especially when they are talking about doing work for the betterment of the Pagan community, we often throw out support behind it blindly because naturally we all want to see our community grow and thrive!  However, speaking from personal experience, I can say that sometimes there are things going on behind the scenes, ego’s being stroked and people being scammed, that you don’t see unless you look really closely.  And it behooves us, especially as a minority spiritual community, to do our research before attaching ourselves to groups and causes.

So again, please understand that we are in no way trying to bully anyone, we are in no way launching personal attacks against anyone involved in the Council, and we are in no way trying to prevent people from supporting them or becoming involved.  We believe in the great potential of the things this group could do and the things that they say they would like to achieve.  We would love nothing more to be proven wrong about the things that we have started to think about this group.  Personally I would like to be proven wrong and instead be given solid, valid reasons to support the Council!

We have now said all we’re going to say about this…for now.
Last night Devin and I crafted together an email to Kaye Berry and the Council with a series of the important questions, about both the Council’s formation and it’s handling of funds and donations, as well as who exactly Ms. Berry is since she is relatively unknown to the greater Pagan community.  You can find the email on The Modern Witch blog since we have shared it with the world in order to maintain our own integrity and transparency.   

The email went to Ms. Berry, the Council email address, and all exiting and known Council members.  Ms. Berry replied in minutes with an unprofessional knee-jerk reaction and the followed that up with a reply saying that she would provide an official response once her lawyers took a look at it.  We look forward to hearing from Ms. Berry, her attorneys, and the Council.  Once we have her answers we will be sharing them, unedited, on The Modern Witch blog.  Tomorrow night on The Modern Witch show we have a former state rep for the Council joining us to share her experience, and our regularly scheduled guest, Storm Faerywolf, will also be weighing in on the subject.

After that we leave it in the hands for Kaye Berry and the Council to step up and address the questions and concerns of the Pagan community.  If they don’t respond you really have to wonder why.  We’ll also leave it up to all of you to do your own looking at that point unless something else really big happens or we’re contacted again by anyone with major information.  Like I said we’re not trying to convince people not to get involved or not to support them but rather to be fully aware of what it is that you’re getting behind.  It’s your choice to see or turn a blind eye.