The Wardman Wire

I’ve held this over from last Friday. Last week we had some more people posting the SPCK case, and also the Trustees who resigned from the Society of Saint Stephen the Great in October 2007.

Follow these links to get up to speed quickly:

• Quick Intro for Press - effectively a FAQ.
• Introductory Guide to the Dave Walker Case

Still more people taking an interest in SPCK

I’ve updated the “who’s posting” list with another three sites who have been covering the J Mark Brewer Cease and Desist notice to Dave Walker. Here are the latest.

1. [Update:15/08/2008 AM] Ecshopq - Support the Lambeth 1: Dave Walker/SSG/SPCK
2. [Update:15/08/2008 AM] Cease and Desist - ‘Cease and desist’ demand from Mark Brewer A complete set of reposts of the material taken down by Dave Walker.
3. [Update:15/08/2008 AM] Five Public Opinions - Things they’d have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City XXIV

Words of J Mark Brewer

I do not consent and object to you invading my personal privacy by maintaining web pages about me, SSG, SSGCT, ENC Management, my brother, my wife, or my family. (Sent from a work email address).

I made clear why I think that Mr Brewer is a public figure last week, and why it is entirely appropriate for his actions to be scrutinised.

Here - just to drive home the point - are “Meet Mark Brewer” web pages from a political campaign showing Mr Brewer “maintaining his personal privacy” by including a snapshot of his entire family on:

• The front page of his campaign website for election to Congress in 2000.
• The front page of the News Room section of the website, i.e., the part specifically aimed at Journalists.

Creditor of the Week

Since the Full Set of documents associated with the attempt to take the British Charity SSG into bankruptcy in Houston, at least two creditors have been paid after having their cases highlighted.

So there will be a “Creditor of the Week” featured over at the SSG SPCK News Blog each Monday.

SPCK News

There has been an important development in the last week. The Bishop of Gloucester and Simon Kingston - who resigned as Trustees of the Society of Saint Stephen the Great (the organisation that took over the SPCK book chain) have issued a statement describing their involvement:

Before the transfer of the bookshops in October 2006, the Bookshops had been losing considerable sums of money for a number of years, and SPCK could no longer afford such continuing losses. To give an idea of the level, the loss made by the bookshops in the year ending April 2006 was over £800,000. SPCK had been selling its historical capital year on year to keep them going, and could no longer afford to do so.

A possible deal with Wesley Owen had attracted much adverse comment and publicity, largely on the grounds of breadth of stockholding, and had fallen through.

We had sent out two requests for help for the shops, with a disappointing result. Though we might have found other partners to take over one or two of the shops, it was clear that there would have to be many closures. This we hoped to avoid.

At the time of transfer, public concern centred on the question of theological breadth of stock. SPCK’s agreement with Saint Stephen the Great (SSG) sought to address this by spelling it out. SSG said that they were happy to agree formally to maintain a multi-denominational stockholding and also the stocking of books taking both sides of controversial issues.

They said that they intended not only to keep open all twenty-three shops, but to invest in improving them, and even to expand the chain…

Read it all at Phil Groom’s SPCK News site, or download as a PDF (50k) from the Wardman Wire publications page.

Key Links

Articles

• Quick Intro for Press - effectively a FAQ.
• Introductory Guide to the Dave Walker Case
• Who’s posting and supporting
• Campaign Resources - Cartoons, Badges, Social Media etc.

Dave Walker Reposts - 1-75

• The whole enchilada (PDF, 2Mb).

Other Sites

• SPCK/SSG News and Notes Blog (Phil Groom)

Feeds

• Wardman Wire RSS Feed.
• Wardman Wire Dave Walker category Feed.