The General Executive Council of the Sons of Confederate Veterans met on October 11 and made a number of significant decisions on financial and personnel matters:

1. They approved $3,825.00 for Kirk Lyons’ Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC) in the forlorn hope that Lyon’s "national origin" argument in a pending legal case might somehow prevail. They also approved a $10,000.00 lump sum payment to the SLRC "for past consultations and other services rendered." This is the same $10,000 gift to the SLRC that got so much discussion before the Asheville convention. At that time, the money was to be a grant, pure and simple. There was no mention of past services rendered. (Don’t we have accountants that keep track of this kind of thing?) CIC Wilson decided not to bring the matter up for a vote at the convention because he knew the measure would be defeated. Now, at Wilson’s insistence, the GEC has given Lyons the money without the membership’s approval.

2. The GEC was told that one the SCV’s Field Representative is pretty much paying his own salary. This is being accomplished by the rep putting the bite on well-to-do camp members as he makes his rounds at meetings. The other rep is $10,000 short in his salary-generating efforts. Perhaps the mysterious benefactor that CIC Wilson alluded to when he announced the Field Representative program will make-up the difference.

3. The budget committee’s report to the GEC contained a warning of "possible red ink this year."

4. In personnel matters, the GEC upheld CIC Wilson’s firing of ANV Commander Charles Hawks and approved Chris Sullivan to fill the position until the next election.

5. The GEC took no action on a formal request by Save the SCV supporters to make a decision regarding suspended camps and individuals in North Carolina. Save the SCV’s position is that since CIC Wilson failed to have the suspensions sustained at the next convention (as required by the constitution), the camps and individuals should be reinstated. Apparently, the GEC doesn’t care to tackle that issue. We at Save the SCV will request a statement from the GEC as to the status of our memberships.

6. Perhaps the most revealing part of the meeting was an attempt by CIC Wilson to have the GEC approve an "emergency convention" that would take place before the regularly scheduled convention next August. It seems that the idea was to declare some kind of dire circumstance (Save the SCV for instance?), hold the convention somewhere in North or South Carolina where the radicals are strongest and moderates would have the furthest to travel, then pack the convention with Wilson/Lyons hardcore radicals to intimidate the opposition. Then, the Wilson gang could "clear up some matters" as one GEC observer put it. No doubt, Save the SCV would top the list of matters to be cleared up. In a close vote, the GEC refused to allow Wilson to get away with such a self-serving manipulation of long-standing procedures. A Wilson end-run maneuver on the issue is rumored.

7. There was a discussion about the next issue of the Confederate Veteran magazine. Like the rest of us, the GEC is anxiously waiting to see the CIC’s official, printed version of the report he delivered at the Asheville convention. (Oddly enough, the report wasn’t included in the last issue of the Confederate Veteran.) Those who attended the convention will recall that there was some concern that the convention’s vote to accept the report would later be reinterpreted by the Wilson/Lyons faction as an affirmation of all actions taken by the CIC. The intent of the convention was clear: an acceptance of the CIC’s report as having been filed in compliance with established procedures, nothing more.

Some compatriots have predicted that the Wilson-spin will likely be that in accepting the report the convention approved of the CIC’s mass suspensions in North Carolina, thus terminating those memberships effective in early August (or perhaps retroactively to the January suspension dates). The problem is that none of the compatriots at the convention thought they were voting on the North Carolinians’ status. No post-convention reports in camp or division newsletters or on websites mentioned that the North Carolinians (mostly Save the SCV supporters) had been expelled, and no North Carolina compatriots were notified that their SCV memberships had been terminated or their camp charters permanently revoked. A comparison of tape recordings taken at the convention with the CIC’s printed version of his report might prove to be interesting in this matter.

Yet to be discussed by the General Executive Council are the charges of constitutional misconduct that have been brought against CIC Wilson. His tactics and proposals at this GEC meeting further indicate that he is willing to circumvent the membership, manipulate procedures, and play fast and loose with the money to achieve his goals. At some point, the GEC will have to decide which is the law: the SCV constitution or Ron Wilson.