Corina’s reply to this email was a personal attack against me sent to every member of the group suggesting that I was stealing money from the group. She claimed that I was not being “Financially Transparent.” I have learned that the claim of lack of financial transparency causes many people to withdraw, even if there is no truth to the claim. This was an unlikely claim as this Self Inquiry Meetup was only a small social group with at very most tens of dollars handled.
When Ben ran the Meetup, after most meetings he would pass around a cardboard box to partially compensate him for the Meetup dues. Since he was paying monthly, these dues were $18 every month, for which I think that Ben collected a little more than it actually cost him. For my part, I was happy to give him the little extra money in compensation for the time it took him to organize the Meetup.
When I took over the group, I ran it with the expectation that I would not be compensated at all. I chose to pay the Meetup dues every six months, a fee of $72 twice a year, bringing down my monthly cost to only $12. For the first few meetings when I ran the group, Corina asked me how the group was being paid for and I told her that I was covering it.
At some point shortly after I restarted the group, there was a need to renegotiate the use of our meeting space. Corina said that she would take this on, and I was happy to let her handle it. As part of this negotiation, we had to move to a new meeting room, and there was some paperwork that needed to be signed. Apparently in that paperwork there was a requirement that we not collect money from group members if we were not paying for the meeting space. Since Corina handled this paperwork, I was not aware of this clause.
One evening after the meeting Corina again asked me how the group was being paid for. I again told her that I was paying for it, and she went on to say that this wasn’t fair and I should, “bring a box to collect money.” At the end of that meeting, she suggested that everyone make donations to pay for the Meetup site. I didn’t ask for the money, and at the same time I didn’t refuse it appreciating some compensation for the money I was putting out. Starting that first night, all of the money that I collected went into an envelope that I kept in my wallet, and I tried to keep track of who was contributing by writing their names on the outside of the envelope. The truth is I did not always know everyone’s name to write down this information. What I can say is that in the three meetings where Corina suggested I receive money, I collected a total of $43, which did not even cover six months of Meetup fees.
After one meeting Corina asked me how much money I had collected. At that moment we were eating dinner after the meeting, and I hadn’t added up how much money was in the envelope. I told her I didn’t know, but that I would check. What I didn’t realize was that my lack of ability to instantly account for all of the money that I had received would give Corina ammunition to personally attack me, destroy our relationship with our meeting space, and alienate every group member. Corrina had successfully set me up, and then she pulled the trigger.
In Corina’s email to the group, she claimed that she denied me access to the meeting space, when what actually happened is that our agreement with the meeting space had ended and that no one could use that space while it was being renovated. As proof of this point, Corina stated that she would now be meeting in another location. If she had control of the meeting space, why wouldn’t she continue meeting there?
What Corina did was to contact the organization where we were meeting and tell them that I had been charging members to be part of the group. This was a lie. I at no point did I ask for money. After three meetings, Corina suggested that group members give me money to reimburse me for what I was already paying to Meetup. I was not charging anyone to be part of the group, and the only reason that I collected any money was that Corina said it was unfair that I was paying for the Meetup fees myself.
Corina, also wrote to the group members that I had never had money, I think her idea comes from my not ordering main courses at the restaurant that we ate at after the group meetings. I do well enough running my own business. The reason I did not order main courses is because they disagreed with some of my dietary restrictions, and I did not want to be sick afterwards.
Corina also claims that I can no longer use the phrase Self Inquiry as coined by Art Ticknor. First, the phrase Self Inquiry was not coined by Art, but was coined by the late Richard Rose. Next, no one can copyright a name, and I am as free to use the name as anyone else. Finally, speaking with the head of the TAT foundation, a group who regularly hold national Self Inquiry meetings, he told me that every group was completely independent and that I was welcome to continue using the name.