If you are one of those who have not had your email, text, voicemail of other outreach replied to, my apologies.
As the photo below suggests, there are dozens of voice messages – plus the others – that are yet to be addressed. If you are in that group of as yet unreturned calls, kindly understand.
There were calls into the night. Some came from voices I’ve never heard on the phone before, or from names who I might know, but who would not ordinarily call.
While some called or messaged to tweak this or that fact unrelated to the meat of the core topic, or to try to get me to reveal a source (sorry, when you have on a journalistic hat, we don’t do that), one – only one so far – has said something like the following message.
Defending MHI CEO Dick Jennison, and taking out parts that might reveal the source, one person emailed to say that Jennison in that writer’s option “…is MHI’s best President ever...“
Others see it differently. The two words most commonly used from most every caller or message so far? “Thank you...”
If you’ve missed the article/OpEds that sparked this outpouring of commentary, here they are in reverse order of the time they were published:
The balance of this post you are reading now is already drafted. Each one of the headlined topics will be covered.
But for fairness, we are awaiting a formal clarification on something that was attributed to MHI – which by way of disclosure, came to me indirectly, not directly from them – regarding alleged steps they propose to take on the light of the above articles. One might politely call those, threats.
Depending on their reply, or lack of a reply, we will tackle updates to the above in 2 Hats, 2 Phones, 2 Faces, 2 Standards, 2 Words and 2 Threats. But again, we want to be fair, so we’re going to give them an opportunity to confirm or deny what others say came from them to me.
New Revelations…
Beyond 2 Threats, what we will say for now is that there have been numerous other revelations and allegations that came in as a result of the calls and messages to the Masthead blog on MHProNews. The response has strongly underscored the validity of the concerns spotlighted in the 3 links above.
So the plan is to update this post, likely this evening. Please check back for the added details then, thank you…
And as a programming note, the new Featured Articles on MHProNews will be going live Monday evening or Tuesday by noon. New newsmakers, pros, mover and shaker interviews and videos plus other articles as the beat goes on.
Here is the promised, evening update.
Where The Buck Stops…
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Let’s apply Teddy Roosevelt’s principle from former U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt, to MHI. Instead of country, read association.
First, it was President Harry Truman who famously said, “the buck stops here.” So doesn’t Dick Jennison bear any responsibility for missteps, and missed opportunities?
If he is truly MHI’s best president ever, why are we constantly coming up short in DC?
We are not going to say that Dick Jennison is lacking in skills, and he has his supporters. But we are told of presidents past who are said to have commanded different skills; who pulled more pros together, who worked with staff better, etc..
At a MHEC meeting a few years ago, a state executive director in an opening meeting turned to then president Thayer Long, and softely said, “Thayer, with all due respect, you are not getting the job done.” It was not long afterwards, that Thayer left, apparently on his own accord.
Let’s be candid. MH is a tough gig, and MHI has had its challenges. There is nothing personal or no unjust slam in reviewing elements of a person’s performance, and seeing if it measures up to the needs, is there?
Two hats, two standards, one Denial
After a number of callers and messages spoke of a plan within MHI to allegedly retailiate for publishing the three stories above, we were told by MHI that no plan exists to do so. That’s as it should be, as members must have the right to question and challenge if need be leadership, for the good of the organization and it’s goals. That’s a takeaway from Teddy Roosevelt’s quote.
There is more to say, but we have raised the warning flags about what’s happening inside MHI enough for now. Let people watch, observe and see where the current paths lead us; or let us encourage leaders to re-evaluate what has happened and why. We’ll hold our peace on other revelations, as needed, for a later date.
Hopefully, corrections will come and publishing more on this topic won’t be necessary. Once more, the initial report which we stand by, and others are confirming, is linked here.
Let’s push forward to the pressing items, and navigate the challenges – internal and external – that keep us from achieving success for industry pros and for millions of negatively impacted MH home owners.
The new February issue of all new featured articles, videos and interviews will be live Monday night, or by noon Tuesday. Stay tuned. ##
