My email to Adrienne O’Keeffe, editor of the Meadview News and COM board member:

Hi Adrienne,

Please distribute this email to the COM board and provide me with Gladys Burk’s email address.

Thanks, Christine

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Dear COM board members:

In 2012 the COM board voted to refuse all advertising from me and everyone who is associated with me. COM subsequently refused my advertisements as well as my roommate’s and the ads I submitted for the Lake Mead Community Association, (LMCA), a 501(c)3 non profit organization, dedicated to improving the health of Meadview Area residents. Some of our many activities:

  • LMCA assists residents with starting and improving their gardens and has monthly gardening club meetings.
  • Christine opened her farmstand at Canyon’s End so that gardeners can sell their extra plants and produce and residents can purchase locally grown fresh fruit and veggies.
  • Christine has been purchasing fresh and often organic fruit and veggies for sale at the farmstand, usually at cost to LMCA members.
  • LMCA arranges for the delivery of the Azure Standard co-op orders from Kingman to the farmstand.
  • LMCA distributes educational materials such as FREE DVDs exposing the dangers of genetically modified food.

Adrienne O’Keeffe advised me last year that our advertisements in the Meadview News were refused because I am “against the MCA.” This is of course false, as I am only against the ILLEGAL MCA rules and procedures and I want the MCA to be more open to the community and to eliminate ridiculous restrictions such as not allowing members in Unit 7 (in the middle of the desert!) to have chickens while members in town can have chickens, goats, horses, etc.

Regardless, my issues with the MCA are COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT when it comes to my advertising in the Meadview News, the COM bi-weekly newsletter.

  1. The MCA is NOT a community organization, but a private home owner organization and COM’s support of the MCA ‘s exclusionary policies is a violation of the COM bylaws.
  2. COM’s discrimination against me and persons associated with me is a violation of its bylaws.

Adrienne O’Keefe stated in her 10/7/12 email to me (posted at https://highdesertdirt.com/blog/2012/10/07/the-com-board-voted-against-healthy-food-and-gardening-and-refuses-to-run-our-ads/):

“… COM is an over-arching organization for the community and, as such, will work for the benefit of all groups within its core. …”

Clearly, COM should be supporting the Lake Mead Community Organization.

It is NOT COM’s purpose to discriminate against individuals because board members or their family members suffer embarrassment due to my publication of their illegal activities. Let’s look at reality:

Thomas O’Keeffe was ousted from the MCA board not just because of my efforts, but many MCA members demanded the resignation of the entire MCA board. In the end, we won and every elected MCA board member resigned. Due to my publications, the MCA had to refund the illegal late fees implemented by the ousted board.

So please get over it and start acting like responsible adults!

COM should be SUPPORTING my efforts to make the MCA activities open to the COMMUNITY!!!

I have advised COM President Gladys Burk that I am prepared to submit my request to the IRS to have the COM nonprofit status revoked as it is not an acceptable practice for a nonprofit to discriminate against individuals or organizations. I will do whatever it takes to get COM into compliance with its articles, bylaws and IRS regulations, just as I’ve been working to get the MCA to comply with its articles, bylaws and state law.

Please read this letter to the COM board at the next meeting and have the current COM board vote on whether to accept my ads, my associates’ ads and the LMCA ads.

Should the COM board vote to continue to refuse my ads, please provide me with a copy of the current COM articles, bylaws, financial statements and minutes for the last year.

Sincerely,

Christine Baker
christine@highdesert.com

c: copy posted at [this URL]

I’d hate to have to complain to the IRS, but I suppose it’s better than suing COM and the COM board members who vote to refuse my ads?

Update 5/17/16: I have yet to send my complaint with the IRS. One of these days I’ll have a few hundred hours to get back to this, file regulatory complaints and maybe even file a lawsuit. Planted 25 fruit trees this spring and have a lot going on.