Prior to taking a holiday-hiatus, I had written several times about an ongoing conflict that was brewing inside the Explorers Club. The gist of the story, which you can read about here, here, and here, was that some members of the club, particularly those on the prestigious Flag and Honors Committee, were dissatisfied with the leadership of the organization, with EC President Lorie Karnath receiving the brunt of the criticism. I won't rehash the entire story again, but would urge you to check out the links above to get the full background.Today, EC club member Mikael Strandberg, who I coincidently wrote about yesterday, has written a message of support for the club, and President Karnath, on his blog. In an effort to offer a fair look at both sides of the controversy, and because I respect Mikael greatly, I wanted to share a link to what he wrote and some of his thoughts on the current leadership at the EC.
In the post, Strandberg talks about his first impressions of the Explorers Club (they weren't good), and how those impressions changed after he became a member. He also talks about Karnath getting elected as President and all of the positive things she has done for the EC since she took over. He feels that Lorie has helped raise the level of awareness of the club internationally and has gone to great efforts to improve the financial status of the organization as well. Mikael goes on to share an internal e-mail from Barry Moss that went out to members of the British Chapter of the EC. That note gives a different perspective on some of the happenings inside the club and accuses Karnath's critics of trying to keep the club "more insular, conservative and New York centric." He also says that they are undermining the club's integrity and hurting its reputation as a whole.
If you've been following this ongoing saga, which has been picked-up and documented by several other media outlets, you'll want to read Mikael's post as well, as it does provide a different perspective on some of the things that we've already heard.
