I’ve been a dues-paying member of
Indiana NAMI since December 2019, which also makes me a member of Indianapolis
and national NAMI. I had planned on
attending Indiana NAMI’s Leadership Summit on June 17, 2023, its first live
meeting since Covid. However, I was
unable to get the day off work. So I
e-mailed Barb Thompson, Indiana NAMI’s Executive Director, on June 6 informing
her I would not be at the meeting, and thus would not be able to “confront” her
(my word; I meant verbally, of course) for ignoring all my earlier e-mails to
her raising issues about the Circle City and other Clubhouses (a most
inadequate “mental health recovery resource” I’d participated in), as well as
Indiana and Indianapolis NAMI, numerous e-mails to Ms. Thompson she never had
the courtesy and respect for me ever to respond. For which I properly felt miffed. Well, this time Ms. Thompson “responded,”
sort of. She took my June 6 e-mail as
“harassment,” reported it to Indiana NAMI’s Board of Directors, which acted on
her complaint that very day, and, sure enough, later that day I received a copy
of a letter written to me by the Indiana NAMI Board of Directors, dated that
very June 6, informing me that henceforth I was “barred from attending any
forthcoming NAMI Indiana in-person or virtual events, [Emphasis added—GF]
specifically including the leadership conference. If you trespass, appropriate steps will be
taken, no matter how much NAMI Indiana would regret the need. Additionally, you are barred from contacting
NAMI board of directors, staff, or members and from appearing at NAMI Indiana’s
offices.” However, I was not removed
from being a member of Indiana NAMI or any other NAMI body! I simply could not attend or participate in
any “forthcoming NAMI…events” indefinitely, nor could I contact NAMI in any
way. A perfect Catch-22 statement from
Indiana NAMI’s Board of Directors!
Further, the Board accused me of
stating “publicly” (I did so only by an e-mail to Ms. Thompson, not through any
other forum. I didn’t even tell personal
friends of it) that while I would “confront” (the Board of Directors did get
that right) Ms. Thompson, I would do so, I allegedly stated (which I didn’t) I
would do so for “her behavior” (which is false; I did not use those words,
which in the Board’s letter to me were put in quotation marks as though I’d
stated them verbatim), when I was only going to confront Ms. Thompson on
refusing to honor me by responding to at least one of my several e-mails to
her! Anyway, I had e-mailed Ms. Thompson
on June 6 precisely to inform her I would not be attending the June 17 Leadership
Summit, as I’d earlier planned, because I—was scheduled to work instead! All of which was clearly stated in plain
English!
As to the original e-mails sent Ms.
Thompson, which uttered specific complaints against the Clubhouse system (of
which I was a member, by the way, though a deliberately inactive one) and the
speech given on the Clubhouse system by one of its leaders back in 2019 (a
speech I said at the time, in a private online chat, I though was nothing but
empty public-relations fluff), for which I was barred by Ms. Thompson at that
2019 virtual meeting, and my $40 registration fee confiscated, I registered my
obvious dissatisfaction, for which I had every right. Indiana NAMI’s Board of Directors didn’t see
it that way, however, as the Board wrote me on June 6, “The various individuals
you contacted heard your complaints and responded to you their disagreement;
they consider the matters closed.” While
Ms. Thompson did have what she euphemistically called a “conversation” over the
phone with me about the Clubhouse, and I did receive one very condescending
e-mail from one David Binet of national NAMI, it is simply not proper for only
one party to a dispute to render the matters “closed! As the old saying goes, “It takes two to
tango,” two parties to a dispute to decide if the matters are closed. Obviously, on my part, they were not. However, I will give Indiana NAMI’s Board
credit for doing one thing properly: it sent me a check by mail for the $40
improperly confiscated from me, which was the only thing the Board did
appropriately.
I mentioned above that while I was
barred from participating as a fully dues-paid member of NAMI (which I was, and
still am, until the end of November 2023), my NAMI membership was not
rescinded—I was simply suspended in midair, held in a state of limbo, by the
Board of Directors. I was soon made
aware of this when I received unsolicited e-mails from Indiana NAMI asking me
if I’d like to volunteer for certain NAMI activities (from which “forthcoming”
NAMI activities I was indefinitely barred), would like to vote for NAMI
officeholders, and would even like to attend the Indiana NAMI State
Convention! Yes, Indiana NAMI directly
asked me if I’d like to participate in “forthcoming” NAMI activities I was
barred from attending—and no, you can’t make this shit up! I noted this discrepancy once again in an
e-mail to Ms. Thompson (which I was at least technically barred from sending),
but once again, as per usual, I received no response. This, the personal slighting of me by
Indianapolis NAMI’s former Executive Director, the degradingly condescending
e-mail mentioned above by national NAMI’s David Binet, and the deliberate and
ongoing slights and insults from Ms. Thompson and the Indiana NAMI Board of
Directors has made me seriously rethink my NAMI membership; so, most likely, in
fact, 99% assuredly, I will not be renewing my NAMI membership when it expires
the last day of November 2023.
On my “Politically Incorrect
Leftist” BlogSpot blog, I specifically criticized both the Circle Clubhouse,
and implicitly the Clubhouse system, in blogs on April 18 and May 12, 2023, and
specifically criticized all levels of NAMI, Indianapolis, Indiana, and
national, in a blog also on May 12. I
stand by these criticisms 100%, and according to the letter I received from
Indiana NAMI’s Board of Directors, these blogs caused consternation within
NAMI. Well, tough beanies! Free speech is free speech, and if I’m wrong,
let the Clubhouse system and NAMI prove me wrong! As for me, I proudly refer all interested
readers to my blogs, where the articles I’m referencing are very easy to find.
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