Note: All bold or red or underlined type has been added and is not in the original.
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Note: The following is very significant because it shows that when Robert Welch, himself, decided to step down and turn over leadership of the JBS to a successor, he did so by working with the Executive Committee and the COUNCIL to do so. Nowhere is any participation or input from a Board of Incorporators mentioned. He also would not even announce the leadership changes to the members until the Council had approved.
No. 289 April, 1983
A VERY PLEASANT ASSIGNMENT
by
Robert Welch
In light of the recent and extensive coverage by the press of developments
concerning the leadership of this crusade, it seemed important for me to
address these matters in the Bulletin. We had intended to do so anyway, but
that assignment would have been given to someone else had the press not
seen fit to enter this picture so dramatically. Because many newspapers
covered the story, frequently under front-page headlines which inferred that
your Founder had "quit" or "resigned" from the Society, it seemed necessary
for me to take the lead here and thus put a quick end to such absurdities.
For many months, the other members of the Executive Committee of the
COUNCIL and I had discussed matters having to do with the future
leadership of the Society. Realizing the heavy burdens upon my time and
energy, all of us recognized the need to bring younger men into the picture.
(After all, at one hundred and nine, what would you expect!)
At its meeting in January of this year, the Executive Committee agreed on
a proposal which we felt made a lot of sense from many standpoints.
Recognizing that one of the functions of the COUNCIL was to select my
successor, the Executive Committee decided to present its recommendation
to that body of leading Americanists at a special meeting arranged for that
purpose.
So on the evening of March 11, one day before our COUNCIL Dinner was
to be held in Los Angeles, members of the COUNCIL met in executive
session. The recommendation was presented and, after some discussion, the
COUNCIL voted unanimously to accept it or, more precisely, to designate the
following new officers of the Society.
Founder and Chairman Emeritus
Robert Welch
Chairman
Hon. Lawrence P. McDonald, M.D.
President
Thomas N. Hill
We should point out that it was terribly important not to advise anyone of
the recommendation of the Executive Committee until the full COUNCIL had
an opportunity to review and consider it on March 11. At the regularly
scheduled meeting of the COUNCIL the following day, this decision was
announced to some seventy-five guests and members of our staff. And at the
COUNCIL Dinner that evening, with Mr. Wm. J. Grede, Chairman of our
Executive Committee, presiding as Master of Ceremonies, the new officers
were introduced and offered remarks of their own.
The press, having learned of these developments soon after our Dinner,
got in touch with us. We responded with the following statement which we
had prepared ahead of time just in case we were contacted.
MARCH 12, 1983
At its quarterly meeting in Los Angeles, the COUNCIL of The John Birch
Society, acting on the recommendation of Robert Welch and the Executive
Committee of that body, announced several key leadership appointments.
Effective immediately, the Honorable Lawrence P. McDonald, M.D., will serve
as Chairman of the Society. Mr. Thomas N. Hill has been appointed President
of the organization. Robert Welch, Founder of the twenty-five-year-old
Society, will serve as Chairman Emeritus. These appointments were made
with the unanimous consent and approval of the COUNCIL. Following the
meeting, some 1,000 members of the Society attended the annual COUNCIL
Dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel.
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Confidential Report No. 1 December 19, 1958
Incorporation of THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY under Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts, with all of the powers given to nonprofit corporations by that Chapter, is now under way. I have obtained signatures from all seven of the incorporators required by law, the first meeting of incorporators is being held this afternoon, and the attorney says we can expect our charter by next Wednesday, December 24.
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February 1962 Bulletin:
Now I certainly have no martyr complex, and of course I am not the indispensable man. The time will certainly come when somebody has to take my place in the leadership of the Society. We are looking ahead and planning now, against that need for a Successor, as well as we can. But for me voluntarily to turn over these many and heavy reins of leadership to anybody else, at the present time and under the circumstances indicated above, would be nothing less than a betrayal on my part of the well understood compact between our members and myself. The Society is young, and strong, and very healthy. But its real work and growth and influence are all ahead of it. This Society, which began as my dream, has now become the dream, and even the central purpose in life, of thousands of the best, the most truly religious (each in his own faith), the most courageous, the most honorable, the most responsible, and the most respected men and women in our country. And if the Comsymps think that, with all of the pride I feel in the quality and character of our membership, I am going to be beguiled into abandoning such a dedicated body of the finest and most purposeful people on earth into the dissensions and frustrations which would follow my withdrawal, they are -- for once -- simply wasting their time.
We have a COUNCIL, consisting of extremely able and truly wonderful men. We certainly need all of the constantly increasing help these men can supply in determining the course and shaping the policies of the Society. They offer advice and suggestions on the positive side -as, just for an illustration, in the case of our formal statement about the UN invasion of Katanga, given to the press at our last meeting. They offer criticisms and objections on the negative side. I am glad to listen, and frequently to be overruled in my views or proposals. With regard to the one, by far, most important single matter which has recurrently been before the COUNCIL for months, I personally have been in firm disagreement with the wishes of a majority. But I respect their judgment so much that I have abided by those wishes. We have an Executive Committee with which I meet regularly every month. One of its duties is to review these bulletins with me in advance of publication. If they object to any or all of these paragraphs you will never see what I have written here. Their advice has caused me to discard some proposed projects, modify others, and add still others which I had not planned.
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February 1962 Bulletin:
At any rate, while most of our members have not even been aware of the fact, there has been considerable argument going on, over the whole theme, for many months. By last June the proposal that I should be patriotic enough to step aside and let somebody else take over actual leadership of the Society, so as to give it a new "image" not affected by the smears against myself, began to be tossed on the table for discussion at meetings of the Executive Committee. It was given a more thorough airing at the full meeting of the COUNCIL in September. And I understand that it would have been brought up again at the December COUNCIL meeting if we had not had present a number of distinguished guests.
A preponderant majority of the members of our COUNCIL, however, have realized from the very beginning that the proposal was unrealistic.
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