AKA Sorority Lawsuit Heats Up

I grew up in a house festooned with Pink and Green. My Mother is a 60+ year Soror, who sadly has succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. She doesn’t remember even her son much of the time – but enjoys being visited. However, two things impressed me about the sincerity and dedication of the AKA Sorors…

AKA Sisters, Litho.

First, I recently had to move my Mother from one Senior Center to a different type of nursing home due to a bad fall, wherein she fractured her hip. Things happened so quickly I didn’t have time to do anything to prepare her new room, in which she would be confined for the next 6 weeks. She was quite upset that she was in a new place, and repeated to me over and over – “This isn’t my house”. In her old room I had hung a litho of an AKA meeting she had bought years ago, and her precious pink and green AKA pillows. As soon as I transferred these things to her new room, her mood immediately brightened – smiling for the first time since the accident.

Second, her Sorority Sisters still look in on her at least once a month. She usually doesn’t recognize them, but nonetheless is buoyed by their visits and attention. Over the past 5 years, they have been as consistent and dedicated as my Mother’s Church – in some cases more so.

So, the news of the issues in the Sorority are noteworthy to this guy.

As I reported earlier, a group of Sorors have filed lawsuit against the current Sorority President for misappropriation of funds. They allege that she has given herself a $375,000 salary in what had historically been an unpaid position, and utilized an organization credit card to purchase numerous personal items.

The next major step in the Lawsuit will be a meeting August 22, 2009  in Philadelphia at The Legendary Blue Horizon where the attorneys and plaintiffs in the lawsuit have scheduled a meeting to answer questions and give an update on the suit. The plaintiffs have also created a website – Friends of the Weeping Ivy,  providing updates, a method to donate for legal expenses, and a forum where other Sorors may go for updates and ask questions or make comments.

Now – I don’t have an opinion on who may be in the right here, nor is it my place to insert one – however, the evidence as included in the 2007 Income Tax filing is pretty damning – 2007 Tax Exempt Form 990 where on page 3 of the Federal Statements Section, it does show $375,000 being paid to Barbara McKinzie. Assuming this is true, this would be an extraordinary salary for the head of a individual funded non-profit of this size – by nearly a factor of 2, especially if not combined with some sort of performance/bonus metric.

Sad days… Indeed.