A rather odd twist today. Seems that the James Randi Educational Foundation has closed its LA doors and moved all operations to Virginia (I didn’t know they had an office in Virginia). Perhaps more telling is that DJ Groethe is not longer President of JREF.
This moved gets mixed reaction from me. I was very unhappy with DJ presidency at JREF (especially after how previous staff members, such as Jeff Wagg and Alison Smith were just kind of tossed aside). I also didn’t like the direction they seemed to be taking, which was less about their core mission and more about, well, whatever DJ was doing which seemed to be alienating a fair number of skeptics.
So I really am not sorry to see him go. At the same time it seems that the JREF consists entirely of James Randi, who is 86 years old and not in the best of health. Given that it is stated as a ‘financial decision’ I hope that that the JREF isn’t fading away.
What was the problem with Groethe? I thought he was a really great interviewer, insightful, level headed, the sort of interviewer that actually gets meaningful discussion out of guests. But I guess that has little bearing on how he’d run an organization, and I don’t keep up with the operations of the JREF.
It’d be funny and sort of appropriate if Banachek ended up running the JREF. He’s into skeptical outreach and I think he and Randi are friends, and he’s a good public speaker. Keep it in the magician line.
Groethe had a habit of making enemies out of people who really just had some basic disagreements with him. His biggest flaw was ‘unpersoning’ people who had put a lot of effort into helping the JREF before he became President. His attitude was very much ‘my way or the highway’. He removed most of the people who were doing a good job and replaced them with people who were essentially ‘his’. Those people are all gone now. He also is the one behind the closing of the Ft. Lauderdale office and setting up HQ in LA (why?). That caused some serious financial issues.
Under previous persons, it was more transparent what was going on. Phil Plait was President and was very personable. Jeff Wagg was in charge of operations and is one of the nicest people you might meet. Alison Smith kept the challenge running smoothly. Since DJ, I really have no idea what the JREF is doing except moving their offices around.