Would the membership still be a determining factor that way?
The membership is a factor, not only because of the political support, but also because of the financial support that’s necessary. The loss is something we will recoup, but we’ve had staff layoffs and the transition doing that [creating two corporations] was more difficult than anticipated. In hindsight, it would have been easier had we done it more slowly. But we’re through it now and don’t want to get rid of the (C) (4) [corporation] .
You mentioned the staff layoffs. Do you ever recover staff [members] when something like that happens?
People who have been laid off usually go on with their lives and find something else to do. They generally aren’t available to come back–I really can’t think of somebody who we hired back.
Do you tend to hire within a network? Are there ways to tap a broader cross section of people than only activists?
I’d say since the late ’80s that the hiring we’ve done has been publicly advertised. We’ve tried to open it up by running ads in newspapers when there are openings. With the hiring of the executive director and the conservation director, we looked at Ken Rait for either position. It really wasn’t an open process at that point, but that’s because they [ONRC1s board] had gone through this whole process for months in looking for an executive director.
