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This is an effort most probably doomed to failure, but maybe could clarify a few things seemingly causing unnecessary heat:

1) release of financial info: it's usually done with NO NAMES attached, but with real numbers; many franchising companies, for instance, provide real reporting identified ONLY with length of franchise, years/months reported, region/market, and type and size of surrounding community (big city, small town, rural environment). The records are genuine but have been expurgated of personal identifiers. I think that people here got the mistaken impression that I, and others, wanted to see published figures with names attached - not so, and of course that would be ridiculous even to consider, especially if documents were to be uploaded to the net.

Since release of such data (w/out personal identifiers) is not particuarly unusual in many business environments, I think that I, and others, were taken aback by the strong reactions. Seeing the commission figures at the back of Applause is interesting but tells only a small part of the financial story in a business like this.

2) unfair dealing and "cheating" among directors and DIQs: look, how much this does or doesn't happen is clearly open to question, but the fact that it DOES happen is hardly in dispute. Someone once tried to buy a Starter Kit for me (on her dime), whether or not I would ever go forward (wasn't then and had not been, an MK customer, btw), just to qualify for something or other (car, 30 team members, whatever) by a certain date, and she came right out and said she would consider it a favor if she could just use my name - and that event goes back years. Another consultant tried to strongarm me into the company more recently, but still some years back, and told some whoppers about the company and the product - I wasn't a customer, didn't really care at the time about MK's ethics, so paid little attention. But I did have the experiences.

Recently I was recruited still not being a customer, but not pushed into it, although there does seem to be a dearth of solid information, or rather, an abundance of slightly shifting information: it shifts right after you sign up, lol.

Laura, for one, but not the only one by a long shot, has clearly been REALLY INJURED by her experience with MK: instead of attacking, first, her credibility and motives, then, her personal psychological state, why not listen to what happened to her, and if you (we) all care about the company, work to be a part of the solution to the problems she highlights and details?

3) the image/dress code thing: to me, this one is a no-brainer: where it works, stick to it; where it doesn't, be flexible.

4) the selling structure, the "MLM issue," et al: revamping the selling structure to move it away from an MLM pattern will probably happen, and it probably should. Other structural changes may follow: the business/regulatory environment changes, smart companies change with it; really smart companies keep a step ahead and change in anticipation. MK will try to keep what they think works and they'll change the rest; if they're found to be, at some point, not regs compliant, they'll have to change until they are. There's not much room or use for emotion in that, as far as I can see. Ms Woolf brought her suit, she's so entitled, as is everyone under our system: the jury found in her favor after having heard the facts, and having weighed them according to the judge's instructions on the applicable law; therefore we can at least suspect that the case had some merit. The lower court outcome may well be upheld on appeal.

5) this discussion: everyone should have an equal footing here: Laura's experience and Wendy's experience and Stephanie's experience, and that of Mary, and Rebekah, and even newcomers like myself, are all, simultaneously, equally truthful, real life experiences; and, taken together, form a mosaic that begins to depict MK - warts and all. That's what this board is for, I would think, for a truthful, full discussion, not to serve as a plasma screen showing the same image continously, an image chosen to reveal MK from one perspective only.

But I could be wrong about that.

Bunny W - 12 Feb 2004

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