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December 20, 2005
Orrin Woodward Takes Wikipedia To Court
By QBlog in TEAM
Quixtar leader Orrin Woodward's motivational organization, Team of Destiny (now called "The TEAM"), appears to be upset about a recent addition to the open source reference phenomenon known as Wikipedia.
On November 27, 2005, I noticed that the Team of Destiny tool business had been added to Wikipedia. Nine days later, on December 6, 2005, the U.S. District Court of Florida issued a subpoena to the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia's parent organization) demanding specific information related to Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady and the Team of Destiny.
The Wikimedia subpoena (pdf obtained from PACER) demands that various records to be mailed to Woodward's lawyer, Thomas A. Kuiper.
You are commanded to produce and permit inspection and copying of the following documents or objects at the place, date, and time specified below (list documents or objects):
Any and all records submitted to Wikipedia.com and/or Wikimedia Foundation from January 1, 2002 to the present time concerning the terms "Team of Destiny", "Team", "Orrin Woodward" and/or "Chris Brady" including but not limited to: all records, documentation, emails, and/or electronic information, and correspondence.
I'll point out a few interesting items from this subpoena.
- This subpoena is issued as a result of the Team of Destiny v. Scott Larsen lawsuit filed March 15, 2004, in the state of Michigan.
- It appears that Woodward and his TEAM believe that Scott Larsen is somehow responsible for the Wikipedia entry, therefore violating some sort of settlement agreement.
- The subpoena demands records back to 2002. Why? The TOD v. Larsen suit wasn't filed until 2004 and was dismissed in 2005. It looks like Team of Destiny wants information not relevant to the case. Wonder if the EFF would find that curious?
- The term "Team of Destiny" and "Team" are pretty common terms. I bet lots of wikipedians have used those terms since January 1, 2002. Guess what sports fans, Thomas A. Kuiper and his client could be poring over your personal information (possibly IP addresses, posting history, searches, etc.) if Wikipedia complies with the subpoena. How do you feel about that? Read that subpoena again, very carefully. Notice the open-ended nature of the demand for information?
- Shortly after the Team of Destiny entry appeared in Wikipedia, a Request For Deletion debate emerged. The deletion request was denied.
So, what does all this mean? I don't know but it's interesting that Team of Destiny seems to be mixing it up with Wikipedia. This could get interesting.
UPDATE: The Wikipedia community has taken notice of Team of Destiny's subpoena and suggested that the report be added to the Signpost or Newsroom.
Additionally, a comment by Fennec points out that all the documents Team of Destiny wants are publicly available.
I say, just ship them a copy of http://download.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/en/pages_full.xml.bz2That's a superset of the records they want. It'll be easy to query, as well.
Amazing. If I didn't know better I'd say Orrin Woodward wants to get as many people investigating his motivational group as possible.
Comments
Orrin is so fun :)
If TEAM is so great, why is Orrin so paranoid about people saying negative things in cyberspace? Also, if TEAM is so great, shouldn't there be much more positive info in cyberspace than negative?
Of course we all know TEAM is just Amway stacking pt 2 and that it will eventually collapse just like all the other old Amway groups that used to stack.
Lookie here.. your tool money at work, TEAM IBOs! Mouhahahahahahah
There was a story in the news recently where someone played a practical joke on a well known journalist and made a Wikipedia entry linking him to the JFK and RFK assassinations. Wikipedia has since tightened its rules for starting an entry, but anyone can still edit existing entries. Maybe Woodward is trying to capitolize on this and keep critical information off of the site.
man, orrin never seem to ever update his photo album on his website
its been years now and the album is labled "coming soon"
guess he's too busy with all his blogs and lawsuits
I say, just ship them a copy of
http://download.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/pages_full.xml.bz2
That's a superset of the records they want. I'll be easy to query, as well.
Also, if TEAM is so great, shouldn't there be much more positive info in cyberspace than negative?
Doug, Doug... please... good news travels like a brick. I guess if perhaps that brick were to strick someone in the head we would hear about it.
Doug, Doug... please... good news travels like a brick. I guess if perhaps that brick were to strick someone in the head we would hear about it.>>
With all due respect, David, there is plenty of "brick" news flying around on Microsoft, IBM, P&G... Bad news too, and more tittilating, but good news doesn't always fly around like a brick... Nice try at justification, though.
If you would like to be educated about TEAM, the Quixtar website has a section where you can be contacted by an IBO in your area. The open meeting on Tuesday nights are free for guests. This is a great way to learn more information about the system and learn all you can about what TEAM really is. Be sure to have a list of questions you want to ask the IBO so that you don't forget them when meeting with him/her.
Well I have been a member on the team now for 8 months and the things I have heard from orin and chris come from the heart they are in the bussiness of helping others, it does not take a brain to have an oppinion only a mouth, you can trust what some folks write in a blog or you can get the info from the right source, all it takes to succeed in this is to put your mind to it and actually do something.
If you dont know anything about the team or its organization, then you shouldnt be ranting about them on your little website
Hey, Elizabeth ... you said: "Be sure to have a list of questions you want to ask the IBO so that you don't forget them when meeting with him/her."
We were IBO's ... for 3 months. Asked a lot of questions. Sometimes ... we didn't even get an acknowledgement for the questions we asked. There were too many *holes* in the info and discrepencies in the "System" (like Laurie Woodward speaking at a Major Function in March of this year about being retired from her job for 13 years). HEY ... wait a cotton-pickin' minute! We thought TEAM (or TOD) had only been around since 1999. SO ... what was Orrin doing BEFORE TOD/Team? Guess what? AMWAY! Yep, that's right ... but no one ... not even out sponsor ... would answer us. We had to go digging. They also wouldn't tell my husband at a Men's Leadership meeting what association Larry VanBuskirk had with Orrin prior to TEAM. My husband asked, and the two he asked got a "deer-in-the-headlights" look and didn't say a word. SO ... he asked again, because there are so many references on System to Larry and Orrin working together before TEAM. They just told him, "yep, Larry is pretty much part of the CORE Team." Guess what ... AMWAY. Larrry & Marcie, Orrin & Laurie, Chris & Terry ... all part of Bill Britt's LOS Tree in AMWAY. They won't tell you THAT! They also instructed us to tell potential sign-ups that this IS NOT IN ANY WAY Quixtar. ??? We weren't comfortable with being instructed to LIE. We also did the UNTHINKABLE and questioned our Upline. We even went above our Upline to our Platinum to ask questions. They answered our questions with questions (as they are TRAINED by the System to do). We dropped the whole business like a HOT POTATO. If it smells like fish ... then it probably is. Too many things just didn't add up.
Don't be fooled!
Thankful to have seen the light sooner than later.
I for one am very glad and proud of my association with the old Amway business and what it did for my family, but more than that I am excited about my future with TEAM and Quixtar. I have never been lied to nor mislead and have not done it to others. This business is simply a vehicle to be operated correctly or incorrectly. I have heard of immature people making juvinile mistakes when building any type of business. The person is at fault, not the vehicle. In an accident the police never cite the car, they cite the driver. Don't let immature people steal your opportunity with bathroom blog talk.
Best wishes for your success in 2007.
If you guys would read all the information out there you would know "yes" Orrin was in Amway why do you think he came up with The TEAM because he wasn't completely satified with Amway. He thought there was a better way and he figured it out. The only way this business does not work is if you sit back and expect everyone else to do the work for you. So all of you out there dogging this business should keep you mouths shut until you know all the facts. If you don't get on system this is the stuff that happens to you. If your not on system your not able to build the business because system is your building stones. This is the most moral, ethical, and bibical business that you will ever find. Orrin and Chris and the rest of the team care about everyone in this business otherwise they would have retired and could care less if anyone else makes it. Plus with Dateline NBC, that is the most unreliable source to get information from with all the schemes they have been involved with. The truck explosion and now the thing with nascar. Very unreliable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It really erks me that there are people out there that will criticise this business without knowing a thing about it. I would like to know what is your plan then to get your dreams and live the way you want to instead of a pay check determining what kind of life you have!! We'll see who succeeds and who doesn't. Its not going to be me stuck in a 40 hour a week job.
I went to a meeting and it was one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Kind of gave me an eery feeling.Worshipping the almighty dollar.Also, Orrin Woodward went to the U of M. That's reason enough to not trust him. Word around the campfire is that Orrin and Chris Brady are lovers.
Raymar,
I'd like to clear up some misconceptions. Both Orrin and Chris went to GMI in Flint. Chris got his masters from Carnegie Mellon and Orrin was at UM for a brief time pursuing his Masters. He stopped that program once he saw the potential of this business. As far as worshipping money... These guys have enough of it that now they rarely have to think about it let alone worship it. I know both Orrin and Chris and they are certainly worthy of trust. However I am not inclined to trust any man that sits around the campfire discussing whether or not two other guys are gay... Talk about an eery feeling. Sorry to disappoint you and your fellow campfire weinie warmers... but those two are straight as an arrow!
Okay
So some people online are telling us that there are discrepancies and contradictory matters within TEAM and some other people are trying to tell them they're wrong. Isn't this attempt to prove something like "giving a haircut over the phone?" We (as TEAM members have been told to "love on our team" and not ever trod on them yes? Then why not carry it over to the confronting publicity that this sort of site carries? Take these with a grain of salt because we know what we know, and they "don't know what they don't know." Remember the trend that we're setting and that we are guaranteed that objections will arise. Remember your dreams and our goals together. Keep on and love on 'em. Shalom >
Orrin & Laurie Woodward are people of integrity!!!! Because of them I have not had to work for over 2 years. Thank God for bringing the TEAM in to our lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wikipedia was the first place I went to find out more relatively independant information about TEAM. One of the things they emphasize in the meeting is being skeptical ... so, being skeptical, I wanted to find out what people were thinking about it ... not people who were involved with it, but other people.
As was noted above ... nothing was on Wikipedia. Not Team, not Team Destiny, not Chris Brady, not Orrin Woodward. If these are the organizers and operators of a 1 Billion company / industry / organization, you'd think that there'd be something about them, but there isn't. With the high profile speakers they say they have had attend their conferences, wouldn't those people want to be able to name drop and say that they were asked by the one of the top 6 internet companies (as stated during the meeting last night), to speak? Or is it, to them, just a speaking engagement, or more importantly, a cheque ... not an endorsement of their product.
Let's take Microsoft ... it's a company that has had blame and annoyance heaped on it ... but if you go to Wikipedia, it's there. They're large enough and powerful enough to be able to exclude themselves from Wikipedia if they want to ... but they don't, even if their reputation, in some quarters, is tarnished. Why? Because they'd rather be known on all sides and let the consumer decide, than only be known through their portals, their speakers, their information.
It has been said that the system of monarchial rule opperated best under deception and misinterpretation, which is why it is, in more ways than one, incompatible with an open information system as we have in most democracies. Businesses that fail to open their doors or books to critics, are simply not to be trusted.
DTD:
Just to let you know that you can search the term TEAM (make sure it is capitalized since it stands for Together Each Achieves More) in the Wikipedia site. You will find a link for TEAM and once you click on it there will be a secondary link labeled: a U.S. multi-level marketing company. Click on it and you get a lot of information on Team
No need to worry. According to Wikipedia, Orrin Woodward hasnt done enough to be noteable and warrant a wikipedia entry himself.
Posted by: Mevi | December 20, 2005 5:26 AM