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Tammy Synovec's avatar

I became the Lead Volunteer Minister for Santa Barbara Org in 2005. Linda McCarthy was the ED at the time (she was SO) and she raised money from parishioners in 2004 to send me to the Freewinds for VM training. The training was fluff about how the VFP (valuable final product) was to "help people" but really it was all about selling VM booklets to get people into the Org.

I can tell you that the IAS only paid for the very large tent and the SCN cross sticker that went on the side of the VM van that we had to "procure" ourselves. That large tent went up twice, one time to practice putting it up and another time at the fairgrounds when the wind almost upended the tent which could have led to fatalities. I still have nightmares about it. Most venues were 10x10 spaces, although you could get 10x20 spaces if you paid for 2 spaces. The smaller tent attachments were 16 x 16. So, the only thing the IAS paid for was the tent and it could not be used. Beckett and Cleve told me we should purchase a 10x10 tent. I raised the money for that too. Oh, and that sticker had to be peeled off the van because the sun made it brittle. I had to raise money to get new lettering put on the side of the van.

I got our local parishioners to pay the $16K for the van. I still have the list of donations made.

I was expected to get the tent up every weekend, but as Linda McCarthy can attest, there weren't that many fruit or beach festivals. I'd get the tent up about once or twice a month during spring, summer, fall, rarely winter. I had to fundraise for all of these events, to get gas money, to do repairs on the van that always seemed to break down (it got trashed when a team took it to NOLA after Katrina). Often, I'd just pay for the gas myself because I hated fundraising. The Treas Sec helped me out on getting people to donate for van repairs.

I also raised money to send about 8 VM's to Sri Lanka and Banda Ache after the tsunami in 2004. The IAS only showed up to take photos. As an aside, Heber Jentzsch went to Sri Lanka, and he looked healthy then.

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Frank's avatar

When I was FSO Staff in 2010, during the IAS time, there was a push to donate, even among staff members. There was always someone who would push you to donate. You had to call friends and family to make donations (I never called anyone). At the time, my salary was $35 a week. This also happened on Miscavige's birthday; you had to give him a gift. I didn't agree. Tom De Vocht knows these things very well because years earlier, he was an exec at CMO Flag.

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