The Rational Recovery® Hostile Takeover
Attempt
By David L. Trippel, Chairman, Board of Advisors,
Rational Recovery Self-Help Network, also
Secretary and Board Member, Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Self Help Network, Inc. (aka, SMART Recovery)
(Reprinted from The Journal of Rational
Recovery, Sept. - Oct., 1994)
In the last fifteen months, Rational Recovery® has experienced
an internal hostile takeover attempt that has proved unsuccessful.
First a nuisance and then a threat, it caused a considerable
diversion of the efforts of many people, including my own.
I hope that as I report the facts as I see them, this article
may clear the air of any malignant fallout.
By the toss of a coin at the Board of Directors meeting
September of '93 in Boston, I became Secretary of the new,
internationally known, Rational Recovery Self-help Network,
Inc. The toss was to break a tie vote that had just occurred
for that office. I can't remember what I called when the
coin was spinning in the air but guessing it right was one
of those times I can look back and thank my lucky stars.
Winning that toss landed me in the Executive Committee consisting
of the five officers of the RRSN Board. Major luck! The
Board was made up of 15 people (14 present) whom Jack Trimpey
had selected over the years to assist and advise him in
expanding RR operations. I have vivid memories of winning
that toss, exchanging gazes with the other four officers
(who had been shooed into their positions), and then feeling
the significance of holding office. Oddly, I felt sort of
like the Midwest farmer with straw in his hair who'd just
moved into town.
The importance of the moment impressed me deeply. Because
of Jack's savvy over the years, Rational Recovery is becoming
a household word, and I looked forward to an exciting period
of growth in RR. With Jack at the helm as executive director
and the board as crew, the nonprofit RRSN, Inc., was going
to make some healthy waves across the sea of addictions
and recovery. Unfortunately, as you will see, the nonprofit
RRSN was still-born. Gestation was badly influenced by board
membership, and RRSN aborted exactly eleven months later
with the help of a wise majority of the Board of 21 Directors
(6 new members had been elected). Everyone on the board
bailed out together, although some swam West (to Rational
Recovery) and some swam East (to ports unspecified).
It wasn't until July of this year that I fully realized
how deeply I had become lodged in the musculature of the
executive committee's hostile takeover plans, and I still
wasn't 100% sure where its brain (or heart) was located.
But I did know I was being bounced around a lot before I
decided to stop acting like an ignoramus. I finally took
my turn flexing my own muscles by taking a stand against
a board out of control. Now I am using the media to present
my experiences, and to flush out misunderstandings. I use
the term hostile takeover,
even though it occurred coincidentally with other developments.
Several events took place within the last year that added
to the hostile takeover's strength.
The first was in Boston, on September 18,
1993, the first board meeting of RRSN, Inc.'s Board of Directors.
Joe Gerstein, M.D., newly-elected President, motioned that
the full board affirm a licensing agreement that allowed
the RRSN board to use the name Rational Recovery in perpetuity
for $1 payment to RRS. The board did so affirm that agreement
which had been written and signed four days earlier on Sept.
14, by Jack Trimpey for RRS, Inc. and his attorney, who
was acting in two capacities regarding the agreement. First,
acting as Jack Trimpey's personal attorney and agent, he
wrote it for Jack and advised him to sign it. Second, Jack's
attorney signed it for RRSN, Inc. acting as its Secretary
four days before I was elected to that position. This dual
relationship fatally flawed the agreement.
Unfortunately, just hours before Joe motioned the board
to affirm the agreement, it became known to the board that
the Trimpeys and their attorney (whose wife was employed
at RR-Residential in California) had been experiencing a
serious conflict. Inexperienced board members were not in
a position to quickly deduce that there might be a problem
with the license agreement's efficacy, although in hindsight
it's obvious.
Within the first few weeks following the RRSN board meeting
Jack petitioned some members by phone and letter, myself
included, asking that the board agree to a different license
agreement, and that we rescind the agreement of dubious
origins. I telephoned several Executive Committee members
about Jack's request; they told me they believed it would
be foolish to do. This became the first overt stand-off
between the embryonic nonprofit and its parent corporation,
Rational Recovery Systems, Inc. It happened less than one
month after the board's official formation.
For the next nine months the only significant activity within
the board of directors was that done ostensibly by Joe Gerstein,
president, and Phil Tate, my assistant secretary, as follow-through
on Jack's assignment to the Executive Committee: to appoint
a new Executive Director to replace Jack. This assignment
resulted in a motion by the newest board member, Vice President
Tom Horvath, and was approved immediately before Joe moved
to affirm the dubious license agreement. Horvath had claimed
to bring considerable board membership experience to RRSN,
and with that self-description, was selected vice-president.
The work of Tate and Gerstein proceeded, and through what
appeared to be a process of elimination the field had narrowed
to a single candidate, a man who would be opening an Ohio
branch office of a Northbrook, Illinois, association management
company if he got appointed to the RRSN, Inc. Executive
Directorship. In mid-July Gerstein, Tate, the treasurer
Peter Bishop, an Advisor Rich Dowling, and I met the candidate
on his turf in Northbrook for a mutual discovery session.
V.P. Tom Horvath didn't attend.
By this time, unknown to me, Jack Trimpey had become aware
of the Executive Committee's intention to direct the well-recognized
RR service mark away from its steady movement toward AVRT
and the structural model of addiction. If the licensing
agreement was not challenged, it would shortly become an
irreversible reality. It had appeared to me (and to Jack
and others independently), that some board members affiliated
with the Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy in New York
were quite interested in seeing RRSN align itself closely
with the Institute by having common board members, conferences,
data bases, etc. An intrinsic part of this alignment would
be to come up with ways and means of eliminating aspects
of AVRT alien to RET purity and to effectively fold RRSN
into the Institute as its offspring.
At the July, 1993, discovery session in Northbrook (to which
the Trimpeys were not invited), the single "key internal
issue" stated by the candidate about to replace Jack
was that, "Trimpey is a harmful influence to RR instead
of one who uses a therapeutic approach to helping people."
Upon hearing this, my hair stood on end (and the straw fell
out). I could see that if this man believed what he was
saying, he was dangerous; if he was just mouthing what he
had been told by others on the search committee, then he
was an opportunist. In either case I knew Jack and RR were
headed for trouble. All the pieces of the puzzle were falling
into place.
An important part of this whole story was taking place in
Diamond Springs, CA, at RR-Residential, during the latter
part of 1993. A well-orchestrated scheme to take over Rational
Recovery was unfolding, using the strategy of damaging the
reputation of Jack Trimpey and shutting down RR-Residential.
Rumor-spreading began after sour employees at RR-Residential
made reports to State program inspectors. When the 12-stepping
inspectors arrived, they requested certain cases by name,
and found the "documentation" they expected to
find. But in California, when licensed programs have no
clients, the license is automatically void. "RR-Residential"
no longer existed, because for some time participants had
been assigned to outpatient status in AVRT: The Course.
Jack, in order to end further unwarranted intrusion by the
state, simply pointed out that the program and its license
were dissolved, thus turning back the license to state.
This was reported in the local paper, "RR surrenders
license," along with bizarre complaints by the former
employee who most probably (obviously) had initiated the
angry complaints to the state.
Since then, a national malice-mail campaign, beginning with
a mailing to the RRSN Executive Committee, has continued,
consisting of clippings of that story and more recently
various obscene materials. Continued false reports to the
state and surprise appearances by state inspectors continued
for another six months, until May, 1994, even though no
residential program had existed for nearly a year and the
house had been rented to a family. The 12-stepping inspectors
wanted their man, Trimpey, and they were determined to "get"
him. I feel fairly certain the people involved were aware
of the Executive Committee's dubious goals, and vice-versa.
It was as if the rumor mongers were riding shotgun on the
Executive Committee wagon, charging into Lotus, Ca, to nab
the network and its good name. But because of the integrity
of Rational Recovery, the rumors have not stuck.
I happen to be in a position to personally dispute the negative
rumors about Trimpey and the program he operated in beautiful
Diamond Springs. I spent a month living and training at
RR Residential just weeks before the time employees began
turning against RR. The heart of the RR-Residential program,
AVRT: The Course, is a wonderfully innovative, focused,
program with close attention to participants' rights, safety,
and overall well-being.
Jack Trimpey is not only an excellent REBT therapist and
a consummate AVRT educator, but also one of the most professionally
responsible and ethical people I know. That's why he's accomplished
so much! I was not fooled by negative accounts mailed anonymously
across the nation to RR people like myself. I had just been
there, and knew the truth to be totally different. The executive
committee, however, saw the adverse developments as an opportunity.
In July, the Trimpeys threatened the RRSN Board of directors
with a legal complaint for using the service mark Rational
Recovery under a license agreement that had been obtained
using unethical means. The complaint spelled out for the
board the salient difficulties Jack and Lois had experienced
with their attorney and why it was necessary for the Board
to rescind the agreement. The Executive Committee of RRSN,
Inc., consisting of the five officers, which includes me
as the Secretary, stood its ground and refused to budge,
believing that without the ability to use the name Rational
Recovery much could be lost, especially to those attempting
to redirect the RR paradigm by removing the Trimpeys' influence.
(There is a simple word for this.)
I accommodated the other four Committee members' desires
by voting with them in their maneuvering to retain the license
agreement during several official meetings, the one here
in Northbrook, and several by conference call in late July
and early August. There was virtually no acknowledged communication
taking place with Jack due to legal posturing. Things were
getting tense "in River City."
The committee finally voted to fire Jack Trimpey as RRSN's
Executive Director, and retain a lawyer to address the complaint
using $5000 of some members' personal funds. The president
and vice president recruited their secretaries to locate
as many RR group coordinator addresses as possible from
a list the Trimpeys distributed to enhance intergroup communications.
They planned a mass mailing - a clean sweep of the network.
Jack disregarded the letter of termination by the Executive
Committee. They over-reached; a full board voted him in,
and a full board vote would have to vote him out. (Strangely,
he is still a board member and executive director of the
Maryland corporation he sued, formerly known as RRSN, Inc.)
The committee then voted to draft a letter to be sent to
all RR group coordinators, advisors, volunteers, etc. stating
that going with Rational Recovery Systems, Inc. could be
dangerous. That did it; I would take no more of it!
With the approval of a majority of the members of the full
board of directors of RRSN, Inc., I made an expensive decision
to act swiftly. I informed the other four committee members
on August 10th that a majority of the 21-member board had
agreed to a statement I had prepared, "I vote that
the RRSN board or any sub-group thereof not initiate a mass
mailing, unless all board members have been fully informed
to their satisfaction and vote for such a communication."
This temporarily put a halt to the committee's move to politicize
the dispute. I then informed the other four on the committee
that I had also received a call from a majority of board
members for a special emergency meeting of the full board
solely to vote upon the issue of rescission of the bogus
license agreement.
On August 17, 1994, the full board of 21 directors, during
a 90-minute telephone conference call, reviewed the legal
complaint and confidential materials submitted along with
it. They recognized the inappropriateness of the disputed
licensing agreement, acknowledged that Jack's rights were
being abused, and acted accordingly. Addressing the minority
faction against him, Jack urged that there be a unanimous
vote, pointing out that everyone's interests would be served
that way. The board voted unanimously to rescind the license
agreement and to rename itself temporarily the Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Self-Help Network, Inc. The renegade executive
committee had been ousted from Rational Recovery, by unanimous
vote, and Rational Recovery was now safely back in the fold
of Jack and Lois in Lotus, CA. Or was it?
Since that Special Meeting of the Board, several board members,
disgusted at the conduct of the executive committee and
wanting no part of the new organization, have resigned.
I've been excluded from virtually all ADASN discussion,
even though I'm its elected secretary and carry some serious
responsibilities in that role. I hear that ADASN is searching
for a better name, while it continues to raid local RR projects
and hijack the Rational Recovery movement. Even though a
majority of the board had expressed strong opinions against
a mailing that would create political divisions within the
network, former RRSN President Joe Gerstein, M.D., has used
the RR Local Projects List, trustingly given out as an aid
to intergroup communications and referral, to send ADASN's
propaganda nationwide and recruit RR Coordinators into their
organization. A recent three page letter, from "The
Office of The President," included my resume as ADASN
secretary, to convey that I am in support of their chicanery.
ADASN is a small group of professional people grasping for
control of something that isn't theirs - Rational Recovery.
I can hardly find words to express my disdain for the behavior
of the group of professionals who are attempting to take
over the vital service organization that was founded, created,
and is being very well managed by Jack and Lois Trimpey.
As I stated in the beginning of this article, RR leadership
rightly resides with the Trimpeys. If one in disagreement,
one may attempt to change it, resign, go elsewhere, or start
something new. But this is the wrong field for crude politics
and hostile takeovers!
In our capitalist society, there is a natural tendency for
newly discovered "markets" to be tapped as quickly
as possible to take advantage of a market's potential, seemingly
a win-win situation. We have the most attractive product
on the market of recovery ideas, AVRT. I believe Rational
Recovery is successful because of grass roots attraction
toward its efficient, no-nonsense, approach to recovery
based on concepts of health rather than disease. Now that
we are freeing ourselves from the self-interest of a few,
that will continue to be the case - in spades!
