To the residents of Winchester, Virginia: Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Charles Mark Willix and I reside in the small Georgia town of Rockmart, about an hour West of Atlanta. I have been a fan of Winchester's most famous resident for most of my nearly 30 years and I've visited your fair city many times in pursuit of all things Patsy Cline and each visit has brought welcoming warmth from the citizens I've encountered in your town. In recent years I have been active as a fan supporting Celebrating Patsy Cline, Inc., the organization that was formed some 10 years ago to establish a museum for Patsy Cline in her hometown of Winchester. In recent months the momentum surrounding this seemingly stalled effort took on new life under the newly appointed President of CPC, Inc., Mr. Philip L. Martin. Mr. Martin's leadership brought forth great milestones in the progress towards a permanent home for Patsy Cline in Winchester. In just 8 months in office Mr. Martin successfully led the effort to have Patsy's childhood home placed on the Virginia Register of Historic Places and just this month the home at 608 S. Kent Street received the honor of being placed on the National Register of Historic Places as well. These honors are not bestowed liberally and it was the campaign begun and led by Mr. Martin that brought about these very honorable distinctions. These successes I've described coupled with the many other accomplishments achieved under Mr. Martin's astute leadership brought pride to many in Winchester. Enough pride in fact that the Winchester City Council saw fit to add it's financial backing to help establish the museum to the tune of $100,000. It seemed for a time that Winchester, Virginia was paying long overdue respect to their favorite daughter. Due to this new found momentum I was inclined to further support Celebrating Patsy Cline, Inc. and volunteered to head up the Membership Committee. In the short month or so that I've been leading the Membership effort I've been disturbed by the seeming lack of involvement by members of the CPC Board of Directors. It came as a great shock and saddened me deeply when I learned last week that one individual on the Board led an effort of a small few to seek the removal of Mr. Martin as President of the Board. This individual was able to mislead a few members of the Board into believing that Mr. Martin no longer shared the same vision for the future of CPC and the museum effort. It is astonishing to me that other Board members allowed themselves to be swayed by erroneous information delivered by this one Board member. A letter was sent to Mr. Martin's office asking for his immediate removal from the Board and from his position of President. The letter was signed by "The Board" as if discussion and a full vote by Board members had taken place. This is simply not true. Most Board members were unaware of this action and were blindsided just as myself and many other Patsy Cline fans and friends were. As of November 30, Mr. Martin was removed from the Board and his position as President based solely on inaccurate information provided by the one Board member that led the effort. In response to this at least one other Board member has resigned and I have resigned my position as Membership Chair effective immediately. It pained me deeply to submit my resignation to an organization to which I have donated countless time and my own money. I too was duped into believing that the Board of Directors had a vision and truly had Patsy Cline's interest and in fact the interest of Winchester at heart when they committed to this endeavour. I feel foolish to have followed those who expressed a clear desire to honor and perpetuate the memory of my favorite entertainer when they so clearly do not. You may be asking yourself what the point of this letter is or what it should mean to you as a citizen of Winchester. I'll tell you, Your tax dollars were used by your elected officials to support this effort. I dare say that those elected officials who voted to help finance the museum were acting in what they believed was the best interest of Winchester in relation to the city's history and future tourism dollars. Indeed the investment of your tax dollars was almost certainly pledged to CPC with the anticipation that the city would be rewarded with a return on their investment as long as the museum thrived in Winchester. I feel strongly that the current leadership under the Board of Directors of CPC is ill equipped to properly manage and distribute this money or in fact any other public or private contributions they may have received or will receive in the future. The actions by a few on the Board demonstrate the most severe lack of management skills and leadership I've ever witnessed in my 10 years working with various non-profit organizations. Having been granted 501(c)3 non-profit status by the federal government, CPC is now accountable to all of its contributors, including the tax payers of Winchester. I would urge you to consider carefully how the money pledged by the city council will be spent in the future. I know if I were a resident of your city I would be extremely disturbed by the misguided management of an organization that actively sought and received tax dollars to fund an effort that for the past 10 years has been continually sabotaged by the very people who now claim to be working privately to progress their very public goal. My sincere gratitude for your time. Always a Patsy Cline Fan, C. Mark Willix Rockmart, Georgia

A Letter Sent To the Editor of The Winchester Star On December 1, 2005







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