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May 23, 2006
Jody Victor and Deb
By QBlog in A/QMOs
Background
Years ago her grandfather, Walter Bass, worked closely with Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel as they built Ja-Ri Corporation (a precursor to Amway) into a regional success story. Bass then joined men like Joe Victor and Fred Hansen to become one of the original members of the American Way Association.
Her mother, Phyllis Chesebro (daughter of Walter Bass), was the Executive Administrator to the AWA Board of Directors and currently heads the first Quixtar business to span four generations.
She ran one of the largest and most successful tool-free Amway (and later Quixtar) businesses for several years before moving on to embrace other endeavors.
Her name is Deb.
Free Speech
Deb has become quite active at a couple of online discussion groups where her personal experience and historical knowledge of Quixtar (and Amway) operations has proved quite valuable. She, like Rich DeVos in 1983, has been outspoken about some of the problems she's witnessed inside and outside the business.
Apologies and Retractions
Deb recently made a mistake. Scott Larsen, a vocal Quixtar critic, posted some comments about Jody Victor (son of Joe Victor) on the Quixtar BLOG Discussion Forum. It turns out that those comments may have contained factual errors and Deb, participating in the discussion, contributed to the apparent inaccuracies.
When it was clear that Larsen had "retracted" his comments from his AmQuix.info site Deb decided to "simply 'let a dead dog lie'" and did not modify her public comments. That was her mistake.
"Lawsuit-Threatening Letter"
On May 3, 2006, Deb received a "lawsuit-threatening letter" from Jody Victor's lawyer, Mr. Abraham. She didn't receive a phone call, personal note or even an email from the man whose father apparently worked side-by-side with her grandfather. Deb responded to the letter with a public note of her own:
Dear Mr Abraham,
I received your lawsuit-threatening letter today (May 3, 2006); and as you demanded on behalf of Jody and Kathy Victor - I have removed any defamatory statements I may have made regarding Jody Victor's qualification at the Crown pin level. I sincerely apologise to all of you.
You say that Jody acheived qualification as a Crown in August of 1981 by sponsoring 20 Direct Distributor Legs (25% level for at least 3 consecutive months) during Amway's 1980-'81 Fiscal Year. There had been a question regarding this, and you have cleared it up.
I did not respond to Scott Larsen's retraction, assuming that I would simply "let a dead dog lie". I realize now that I should have altered my responses to him at that time, also. So now your letter, and my editing of my comments, will bring the entire subject to the fore. For that I am sorry, but unable to prevent happening.
This has been done well before the deadline of May 10, 2006 - after which the Victors said they would "take any and all legal action available". And I am making this known publicly - since you and your clients "continue to monitor Qblog and other web sites". I only wish to present the facts as you offered them.
Sincerely,
Deb
Question
I'm just wondering why Jody Victor didn't just give Deb a call before getting the lawyers involved? I sent an email to Victor asking this very question but he's not responded.
UPDATE: The copywriter for the IBOAI should be fired! This convoluted, comma-crazed sentence seems to be saying that Phyllis Chesebro was the first AWA Board president:
Phyllis Chesebro, daughter of Walter Bass, the first AWA Board president, now heads the family business, the first to span four generations.
What a mess! And I didn't add any commas. That's four commas in a 22-word sentence. Almost 20 percent of the sentence is commas! Maybe the copywriter was getting paid per comma?
So, I updated my comment about Phyllis Chesebro per Deb's input and I also updated my comments about Walter Bass. These aren't retractions, they're clarifications to the IBOAI site because frankly the person writing the IBOAI copy is overpaid.
I also added a few other clarifications including a link to Scott Larsen's retraction page.
Comments
Another inquiring mind wants to know.
I find it interesting that in the 50s/60s, Deb's aunt, a female (obviously) was the first AWA president. But now, the IBOAI is very segregated by sex. When I checked their website, every single member of every single committee but one is male. And the only female committee members belong to the Marketing Advisory Committee, composed entirely of women.
What's up with that??!! I thought we were supposed to be progressing and not going back in time.
insider>Is it possible to get some info on the "the largest and most successful tool-free Amway businesses for several years"? Obviously this doesn't include the leg with britt/yager. Given all the claims around that the B/Y leg is the biggest in A/Q, wouldn't the fact it uses tools and the other two didn't be evidence in support of tools? Or were either or both the other two legs "tool free" and comparable in size to the "tool" leg? Inquiring minds need to know ;-)
rara>I think a better indicator of success would be the profitability of the rank and file IBO and perhaps the retention rate rather than the size of the legs.
Rara, I wrote about that in my blog. It's under the Holy 1950's Mentality Batman! post.
why didn't Jody Victor just give Deb a call before getting the lawyers involved?
I think it's because he's just a dink.
Rocket, what would you do if you have lots of power and money...
I dunno man, a single phone call. Any one can pull up Deb's number in few minutes.
If that doesn't resolve "defamation", then legal action. At least to the ppl like Deb who, with her family served corporate so long.
I still don't understand.
Imran! How do you know I don't have lots of power and money?
I think it's pretty funny that Amquix "leaders" talk about how awful it is that we live in such a society that people don't solve their own problems, and are always whining and blaming someone else.
In a nutshell, people don't depend on themselves, they rely on systems in place to look after them.
Looks like old Jody Victor doesn't have the jam to make these phone calls himself to ask that misrepresentations don't get made about him.
I can just hear it now, "What, someone said something incorrect about me? That's it, I'm calling my lawyer".
There's a real man for you. I stand by my opinion that (or is it Jodi?)
Yeah, it could havebeen fixed with a phone call. I guess they like the power?
I'm just wondering why Deb didn't just give Jody Victor a call before posting defamatory statements on the Internet? Or did she...?
Why should Mr. Victor call Deb about the "lawsuit-threatening letter" from his lawyer? I simply don't understand.
By the way, it would be interesting to see that "lawsuit-threatening letter". Anyone have a copy? Just to let readers decide if it is really complete of threats... Seeing all the defamatory statements made by Quixtar critics (Larsen, Deb & Co.) and all the apologies they are now forced to publish to avoid the lawsuits, I doubt whether there was any truth at all posted by these persons.
DYK,
From what I understand, the so-called defamatory comments were as a result of an error in Amway's own literature. They were not concocted out of thin air.
If Amway literature stated something, why would anyone call up Jody Victor or any other big pin to verify?
And as someone else has pointed out, if after all the "lying" critics have posted, all Mr. Victor could point to was an error that originated from Amway's misprint, that speaks volumes.
Hooboy... I spend some time goofing off - and now look what I've got...LOL!!
Gotta set the record straight:
Walter Bass was the first President of the Board of Directors for the Amway Distributor's Association (ADA). Held that for 12 years.
Phyllis Chesebro (his daughter/my Mom) was the Executive Administrator to the ADA Board of Directors.
Don't fuss at QBlog for not getting it straight - I've never really written all this down in one logical spot to use for reference.
Love to all!
Deb
Okay, I guess I was wrong about the first female president of the IBOAI, but I have a question for Deb. Have there ever been any female IBOAI members not on the marketing committee?
Rara,
I know of at least one: Beverly Johnson.
Her name has changed since her divorce from Leif (which was a mess breaking up their business), but she was a strong force (still is) in the business and held her own with the men on the board.
Can't recall any others.
Rara - I have a picture of the first ADA Board - and there were 3 women on it. One of them was a dear friend of ours named Eleanor Tietsma; I'm not sure who the other two were, off the top of my head.
I suspect women regularly served until the Board became the pawn of the AMO Kingpins??
Deb
Deb, thanks for the info. The IBOAI needs to realize it's the 21st century. There are women CEOs and high powered executives nowadays, for goodness' sakes. I suppose it's because the wives are all of the Stepford kind. Oh well.
Speaking of deceptive, doesn't the claim of being the 'most successful tool-free Quixtar business' leave out a some critical information, such as the fact that it is only an Emerald whose biggest leg went C/A WITH a tool system?
here, are, some, commas, for, you,
The quote is "one of the largest and most successful tool-free Amway (and later Quixtar) businesses."
My critique was not of the "one of the largest" claim, but rather the "tool-free" claim. Its not a fair description if the largest, and only one of 3, platinum leg is not "tool-free."
You are a loser
Is it possible to get some info on the "the largest and most successful tool-free Amway businesses for several years"? Obviously this doesn't include the leg with britt/yager. Given all the claims around that the B/Y leg is the biggest in A/Q, wouldn't the fact it uses tools and the other two didn't be evidence in support of tools? Or were either or both the other two legs "tool free" and comparable in size to the "tool" leg? Inquiring minds need to know ;-)
Posted by: insider | May 23, 2006 7:16 PM