Dont Believe In Rumors About Wrad As We Are Almost 20 Years Old!

From: HLO/WRAD - Oct 20, 2004

DONT BELIEVE IN RUMORS ABOUT WRAD AS WE ARE ALMOST 20 YEARS OLD NOW!

The WRAD Board of Directors has recently received a copy of a "flyer" that has been distributed around the d/hh community in Southern California. We are shocked about this matter because someone is unfairly attacking and defaming the WRAD organization and causing great misunderstandings. We do not know why this is happening, but this situation needs to be clarified right now.

Twenty years ago, our organization began with a wonderful group of people in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, with a group called SCRAD. About a year later, since the group was so hugely successful in its efforts to serve the d/hh community, the group split into two groups -- one in Los Angeles and the other in Orange County, California. And shortly thereafter, a new group was formed in Northern California. And then more groups formed, and people from other states and even other countries began asking us how they could affiliate with us. At that time, we realized that there was great interest in our kinds of programs, services, events and activities all over the world. The name of our MASTER corporation was changed to WRAD, officially, with the "W" representing the word "World."

ALL of the existing groups were placed properly and legally under the WRAD IRS tax exemption, as wholly-owned subsidiary groups. WRAD has owned all of those groups for many years. All of those groups, under IRS regulations, are not "separate" and they must all follow the WRAD, Inc. Master Corporation regulations at all times.

This is a different situation than all other organizations in the d/hh community. All of the other groups are "separate" groups. None of them operate subsidiary groups under IRS regulations. WRAD is unique -- and this is why WRAD has been so successful and why we have been able to provide so much to the d/hh community for the past 20 years, and now going into the future.

The SCRAD subsidiary group had become inactive a few years ago, because the SCRAD President, Darryl Quan, who had served the subsidiary group admirably and very professionally for more than 10 years, decided that it was time to leave his position, and there was no remaining SCRAD Board at the time he resigned. Thus, under WRAD procedures, the Master Corporation took over temporary management of the SCRAD subsidiary, since WRAD has always owned the SCRAD subsidiary.

We need to have someone to have full training in WRAD procedures required for a President or a full training on a subsidiary Board of Directors to become the next SCRAD President.

We also need to have the required procedures for setting up the nominating committee to hold a public election for a new SCRAD Board of Directors.

There were people who tried to interfere with our organization, or to violate our procedures, or to ignore the rights of other people in our community, and we certainly will never "give away money" to a person who apparently wishes to pursue his own individual agenda that isn't part of the WRAD philosophy -- which has been the central philosophy of WRAD for more than 20 years.

There have been some people in the past years who have tried to "use" many nonprofit groups to get "free money" for themselves. Some of these people even tried to steal from the budgets of state-funded agencies for deaf and hard of hearing people. WE DO NOT PERMIT THIS TO HAPPEN IN OUR ORGANIZATION, AND WE NEVER WILL.

We must have people to follow the required rules and regulations of the WRAD organization in regard to the SCRAD subsidiary so therefore we will not permit anyone to continue with our organization who did not follow our rules and regulations. We are strict about it.

We told some people to set up their own organizations if they wanted to do so, and that we WOULD NOT permit them to use our organization for their own personal purposes. We have told this to everyone who has tried to attack or use our organization. We do this because people have trusted us for now 20 years, and we have never violated that trust.

There are some people that are doing everything possible to INTERFERE WITH our WRAD organization and its events, programs, activities, meetings, gatherings, and services.

We have proof that some people interfered with our recent Magic Mountain event; some people have been going to our meeting events spreading untrue rumors about the WRAD organization; and now, with this recent "flyer" we received, they are trying to tell the d/hh community that their apparently "new" group (which has not yet been proved to be a nonprofit group) is the "successor" to our wholly-owned SCRAD subsidiary.

This group and their "friends" are misleading you if they talk to you about WRAD or SCRAD, and we cannot tolerate this -- neither can you!

There is a website in the general community known as "GuideStar." It lists ALL of the actual 501(c)(3) nonprofit groups and organizations for the entire United States. It gets ALL of its information directly from the IRS records. It tells THE TRUTH to the public, and to you.

Go to http://www.guidestar.org . There is a Search Box on the homepage in the upper left. Type the word "WRAD" in the search box. You will be able to see for yourself that WRAD is a verified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Then go back to the homepage and type "SCRAD" into the search box. You will see that SCRAD is, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, a wholly-owned subsidiary group of the WRAD organization. It still is. It always will be.

Now, there is another website that is available to check to see if an organization is a NONPROFIT entity in the State of California. It is the California Attorney General's website for their Charitable section.

Go to the website at http://www.ag.ca.gov/charities . You will see a link on the left side of the page named "Chartities Search." Every nonprofit organization in the State of California, BY LAW, is listed on the Charities Search. Type in the word "WRAD" in the charities search box. You WILL find WRAD.

WRAD has NEVER lied to anyone in the d/hh community for more than 20 years. We have NEVER deliberately or intentionally interfered with any other organization's events, programs, meetings, services or activities. We have never tried to get "free money" for any of our Board Member's pockets -- in fact, all of OUR Board Members have donated thousands of dollars of the value of their time, energy, effort and even their money to the WRAD organization to give good times to people in our d/hh community. ALL of our Board Members are verified professionals who have worked in the real world for many years, and who have extensive professional resumes.

We also have many large binders FULL of proof of our dedication to the d/hh community and several thousand events, programs, services, and other assistance that we have provided to the d/hh community for many past years.

We are appalled by people in the d/hh community who have tried for the past several years to destroy the WRAD organization -- the only organization that has respected the past, lived in the PRESENT, and which provides information, knowledge, education, services, and much more to those who look forward to the future of the new d/hh community and all of its new possibilities.

We will continue to STAND FIRM against people who try to use us, and who try to use YOU, to get personal benefits and personal money for themselves.

We will continue to STAND FIRM against anyone who tries to lie to the d/hh community.

We will continue to STAND FIRM against anyone -- deaf, hard of hearing or hearing -- who tries to "use" our organization, OR ANY organization, for improper purposes.

We will continue to preserve the dignity and respect of all of the kind, gentle, loving and caring people we have met in the d/hh community for the past 20 years, and those who we will meet in the future. We STAND FIRM against anyone who tries to mislead, manipulate or otherwise disrupt the calm and peaceful lives of anyone involved in the d/hh community.

We hope to see you all at the WRAD Halloween Party on October 30th, where we will, as in the past, again celebrate each other and the wonderful creativity of the accomplished visual artists and actors in our community.

We will also have a booth at Deaf Expo in Anaheim and hope for you to visit it so you can talk to us about WRAD and SCRAD. We will have a sign up sheet for you to sign up to join different committees of our organization. Ofcourse we would love to have the SCRAD subsidiary group get rolling again with new events, programs, activities, meetings, gatherings, and services like we did for the past 20 years.

Best regards,
Bruce Gross, CEO, WRAD, Inc., on behalf of the WRAD Board of Directors