Lorna Dietz Gangs (Pun Intended) Up on Venerable NaFFAA Co-founder Ernie Gange by Calling Him a “Troll”

M s. Lorna Dietz, the erstwhile self-proclaimed “NaFFAA Online Coordinator,” is actually lobbying Engr. Ed Navarra to appoint her as the Communications Director, if not the Public-relations Director, of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA). Mr. Navarra is the NaFFAA’s newly-elected national chairman.

Ms. Dietz was actually running the federation from the Daly City, California-office of Greg “Lagareng Hapon” Macabenta, the predecessor of Mr. Navarra. She is Mr. Macabenta’s Girl Friday for the now-moribund Filipinas Magazine.

In reality, Ms. Dietz allegedly wants also Chairman Navarra to approve the launching of the NaFFAA’s version of a “DREAM Act.” The DREAM is the acronym for “Dietz’s Redemption for the Embarrassed Allies of Menor.”

The Menorgate Gang managed the 2002 NaFFAA national convention in San Jose, CA, in August 2002, for which its co-chairman, Ben Menor, was sued by the City of San Jose for diverting funds earmarked for a senior-citizen community center to fund it (NaFFAA convention). Mr. Menor was also charged with criminal fraud by the Santa Clara District Attorney for the same action. Both suits resulted in plea-bargain agreements, after Mr. Menor pleaded “No contest” (the equivalent of a guilty plea in legal parlance). Atty. Rodel Rodis was Mr. Menor’s co-chair and Ms. Dietz was the de-facto head of the Host Committee for the 2002 NaFFAA convention.

The grant of $100,000 for the said 2002 San Jose convention given by the Wells Fargo Bank Foundation disappeared, as per Romeo P. Marquez’s exposé entitled, Is NaFFAA a Spent “Milking Cow” and/or the “Fil-Am Version of the SS Titanic?”

It appears that Ms. Dietz wants to have another racket for the NaFFAA even if she does not play tennis. She wants second chances for her and her fellow NaFFAA clique members, especially Ben Menor. The Northern California-based gang members want to be appointed again as national executive officers (NEOs) as part of a redemption process – even if they have been exposed by this writer and by Romy Marquez, Tito Cortez and other reporters as “crooks.”

“Smoking Gun” Found

T his writer reported about the scams committed by the Menorgate Gang, to wit: “The ‘Smoking Gun’ also contained these auditor’s notes about the 2002 NaFFAA convention in San Jose in August 2002:

“Charges which appear quite high     

a. labels & stickers   $7,134.75 

b. souvenir program   $4,330.00 

c. miscel charges - balloons, markers   $1,234.90 

d. banners   $1,360.70  . . .”

More dishonest Dietztails, oops, details of the 2002 convention expenses can be found by clicking on this link, “Dietzcoveries:” Sex, Lies and NaFFAAgate

Imagine the Menorgate Gang spending $7,134.75 for “labels & stickers” (euphemism for name tags) for just 140 delegates.

Editor’s Note: Please read more of Ms. Lorna’s Dietzcoveries’ Adventures in Lorna Dietz Fears Lynch Mob in Chicago and a New NaFFAA Century Club (Part II of “’Dietzcoveries’ Series”)

T hen as the self-anointed “Public-relations” practitioner, Ms. Lorna sent yesterday this e-mail to the NaFFAA e-lists, excluding the venerable Apo Ernie Gange, the Philippine-American pundit of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Gange, a NaFFAA co-founder and former NaFFAA state chair for Pennsylvania, almost became an angry “Ganges Khan” when this writer forwarded to him Ms. Dietz’s e-mail.

H ere is a reproduction of Ms. Dietz’s e-mail (with this writer highlighting the text in blue color her reference to Mr. Gange as a “troll”):

QUOTE.

Sent: Thu, Dec 9, 2010 12:55 am
Subject: NaFFAA Business/Online Communications - Here is a sample of the daily newsletter based on twitter: hashtag #naffaa * NO to creating another yahoogroup

Hello, NaFFAA folks: 

Imagine if all regions participated by tweeting with the hashtag #naffaa about their regional activities. I'm sharing my other projects, based on #gmapinoytv and #gmalifetv

Look at these tweets, for instance:

Building #Community at Seasons Marketplace at Landess, #Milpitas, #California.http://bit.ly/gMwDyF #naffaa #gmapinoytv #gmalifetv #Filipino

‎#California: #Filipina #American Chief Justice-Elect Tani Cantil-Sakauye is ready.http://bit.ly/hPuQgE #naffaa #gmapinoytv #gmalifetv

___

I've been experimenting with this daily newsletter for the last couple of months.

When anyone in the regions is ready to try this out, please email me. 

For the Online Communications programs to work, everyone needs to be committed to change. CHANGE is truly the answer to moving forward. It means getting out of our comfort zones. Technology is one of the factors that is going to keep NaFFAA moving forward --- toward progress.

The updates come out once every 24 hours, about 7:00 pm Central time.

Here are the samples:

http://paper.li/tag/naffaa

http://paper.li/tag/gmapinoytv

http://paper.li/tag/gmalifetv

There needs to be many people using the hashtag #naffaa for this to work. You see, since this is an open territory, any of our critics can do the same thing. And it will show up in the newsletters. The good news is that we can complain and they can get kicked out of Twitter.

We do have a Twitter account. @NaFFAAVoices.

The daily newsletter is titled NaFFAA Voices for Empowerment; BUT we're not using it until there is a buy-in from all the regions. This one is more controlled than #naffaa.

___

For the NaFFAA National Board members:

Please note that I am not in favor of using yahoogroups as our means of internal communications because it has been proven time and time again in the last 12 years that it is not secure. Why do you think there is a NaFFAA_Forum@yahoogroups.com that has members that keep bashing NaFFAA?

While migrating to a new format, such as a private blog for internal business, I am open to using both yahoogroup and private blog. 

I thought about this aspect for the past 24 hours before I decided that I needed to voice my opinion --- for NaFFAA's sake, not my ego. If I don't speak up, then I wouldn't have done my job: Give you the best professional advice. I even asked for validation from my webhost-blogger sister in the Philippines re: my own recommendation.

The first board meeting on Nov. 21, 2010 did have the voting members agreeing to try out a private blog, which is more secure. Only invited email addresses can enter the blog. People can be dis-invited also... It's all about NaFFAA business, no external factors and douche bags allowed. Videos, photos, documents (scribd.com format) can be embedded. Any new person being brought in can quickly understand the history and background of an operational procedure, catch up on the minutes of past board meeting, etc. Every posting (just like in gmail or googlegroups) has a comment thread so you never miss a comment in the discussion. UNLIKE YAHOO! For members to forward content into an email, they have to literally copy/paste the content off of the private blog. That's how secure it is... No forwarding!

Through all these past 12 years, douche-bags within and outside NaFFAA have been able to get a hold of our confidential emails, pitting members against each other, because of the yahoogroups' hackable nature (forwarding emails to anyone). Remember all the phishing (the Nigeria emails) that yahoo email addresses get? Aurora Cudal can testify to this. 

Do you remember when I replied to one email thread with the words, "Confidential," and someone from Region 1 (you know who you are; I have deleted him from any of the email threads, and in the future, I will keep deleting this person until you know who it is) replied and included all HIS yahoogroups plus other journalists? He wanted to prove that I was the "bad person," not knowing that I was the designated "pit bull" for this situation. Yes, internet trolls exist within the organization --- and it's time to confront them or else our good work will be all in vein... We are, after all, volunteers! Committed volunteers for the good...

We're supposed to be bringing YP's into the fold, and if we, ourselves, cannot CHANGE, what has E-2010 brought about then?

If there is no buy-in re: new knowledge/new technology to help make our advocacy work and management easier and more efficient --- then I don't think I should be your NaFFAA Online Coordinator. So please consider what I just said very carefully. My energy is worthwhile going to where my talents and skills are most needed. I'm happy to disappear into the sunset... 

Like Ben Menor once told me: "Don't complain unless you don't have enough to do." 

Someone in the NaFFAA decision-making power base is complaining about NOT wanting to use a private blog because of (a) "I'm not comfortable with it," (b) the "fear of the unknown" and, (c) having to learn something new. 

So, I'm bringing this out in the open. 

A very sympathetic NaFFAA board member recommended to me that they could try out the private blog in their region with my guidance --- and then bring the results to the National NaFFAA Board. I agreed.

On the FLIPSIDE: Do I have to keep proving myself over and over again? Do you think I would have gone out of my way to make sure we would live-stream the E-2010 if I didn't think outside the box? (You can tell I'm really disappointed, right? This is my ego talking, on survivor mode.)

Where to, NaFFAA Board? I cannot tell you what to do BUT I can certainly give you prudent advice.

Ed, as our National Chair, I know you mean well, but I am reiterating that I do not want to join your new yahoogroup. Yet you subscribed me. Please unsubscribe me. Thank you.

Forgive me for being so up-front about this matter --- but I guess you know by now that I will always stand by my truth, especially when I have proof. 

If this simple matter of Online Communications is an issue with the decision-makers, can you imagine what the difficult issues will be like? Please remember that stubbornness (especially when someone perceives that another person is telling them what to do) can be a virtue or a curse. It is your perception that matters.

Thank you for listening.

Yours in NaFFAA,

Lorna

UNQUOTE.

E ditor’s Note: The paragraphs highlighted in yellow color were reproduced just as they appeared in Ms. Dietz’s original e-mail.

(To be continued . . .)