Copyright 2010 Brady Barrows
When I read the scathing review [1] of the Journal of the Rosacea Research & Development Institute [2] by David Pascoe and had recently been told personally by David not to mention the NRS or the RRDi on any of his web sites [3] there was no other recourse other than to defend my position by publishing this apology on my own web site. David and I go back about ten years emailing each other in the annals of online rosacea history and if you search for my posts on his Yahoo Rosacea Support Group [4] you will find I was tolerated for some time before I wasn’t allowed to post any more and was graciously banned in 2007. For those of you who have no idea why David doesn’t tolerate me and writes such a scathing review of the journal that I have been working on for over two years as a volunteer this might prove interesting to know our history and why he wrote such a horrible review of the journal that not only myself, but many others tirelessly worked on as volunteers for many hours over a long period of time. If you think it is easy to put a rosacea journal together, why not try it yourself sometime and see if you can do better than we did.
Or another possibility is to organize a non profit organization and do it like the NRS which pays its staff through independent contractors. [5] That way you could sponsor some rosacea research and spend 60% of the donated funds on the independent contractors. You could get a lot more done if the staff was paid since volunteering isn’t for everyone. Which would be more difficult to run? A non profit that pays its staff or a non profit with volunteers? Does David Pascoe have any experience running a non profit with volunteers? If so, was it a smooth operation with no glitches? Was it a perfect non profit organization for rosacea that is supposed to be without any flaws and worthy of donating to?
David Pascoe has a history with putting together a non profit organization with volunteers. [6] David has first hand information on how it is difficult for volunteers to work together. How David gained this experience and how he organized a non profit came about in 2004 when a historic chat organized by Warren Stuart brought some principal rosacea internet personalities together to form a non profit organization because the current state of non profit organizations for rosacea was wanting. These rosacea sufferers wanted to do something about the current direction and spending of the NRS and felt that it could be done better. Or as the description published next to David’s photo says, “It was his frustration with official treatments that lead to the creation of the Rosacea Support Group. It is a natural progression to now continue, and be a part of, a foundation dedicated to much-needed rosacea research.” [7]
The enthusiasm for this non profit was intense. While I was one of the principals in this movement the private discussions of some with David Pascoe changed this movement into two camps. One was led by David Pascoe who formed the RRF [8] and the other group formed the RRDi [9]. By the end of 2005 the RRF dissolved due to a problem amongst the board of directors after raising $18K in donations and subsequently gave 89% of these donations to the NRS. How did David accomplish raising $18K in donations. David is an excellent webmaster and has created not only his own web sites on rosacea but also a yahoo group and an open source forum attracting thousands of rosaceans who follow his editorials and news on rosacea. On his advertising promotion to potential sponsors his experience on how to attract visitors is impressive. [10] That is how David was able to convince rosacea sufferers to donate to the RRF in a very short time and then turn over most of it to the NRS and shut the RRF down. David is able to convince people that if you donate to who he says it will be the best thing you can do for rosacea. He is very convincing. He can also convince you that the RRDi is not worth anything. Why would David want to criticize and lambaste the RRDi?
The RRDi continued to plug along with scanty donations [11] and with a few volunteers. It can be a challenge to organize and raise volunteers who will continue with a project. However over a two year period I came up with the idea of publishing a journal with the volunteers in the RRDi MAC [12] asking them if they would contribute an article for our journal. Some were too busy to volunteer but a few did indeed respond. It took a long time to receive these articles. We organized a team of proof readers. Of the total number of volunteers who began proof reading on this project which was eleven, only three stuck it out and worked through the entire project. Joanne Whitehead, Ph.D., was the editor in chief who organized the layout and worked tirelessly for many hours.
During the past few years while directing the RRDi I personally contacted David and asked him to join the RRDi and take over as director. David declined. I asked Warren Stuart, the assistant director of the RRDi to contact David and ask David to join the RRDi and take over the direction. I know that David is very good at what he does and I wanted the RRDi to succeed. Surely if he was on board he would make the RRDi succeed. Warren reported back that David declined. Twice he was offered the position to take over the leadership of the RRDi. Some on the RRDi board thought I was crazy to offer this to David, but I knew that if he did it would be for the best interests of the RRDi. Look what he did by raising $18K in so short a time! Surely he would be wonderful for the job! David knows how to drive traffic to his web site and attract sponsors. [10] Alas, David doesn’t want to volunteer or help the RRDi, but instead, has chosen to castigate the Journal of the RRDi.
Why do you think he would be so cruel to the efforts of all these volunteers who contributed unselfishly to the production of this journal? Nevertheless, the RRDi will continue to plug along as it has for the past six years and we will continue to devote volunteer hours to fulfill the mission statement of the RRDi despite the criticism of David Pascoe. For more information on this topic read the article, Is Rosacea a ‘Complicated Diagnosis Path’ and Mysterious Disorder?.
Sources
[1] RRDi journal Issue 1 Review: an unfortunate mix
[3] Digital Davo’s Galderma Editorial
[4] Search Yahoo RS Group ‘brady barrows’
[5] Sam Huff, Glendale Communications Group, Inc., Park Mailing and Fulfillment, Inc.
[6] Rosacea Research Foundation
[7] RRF President – David Pascoe, BSc(Hons)
[8] See number [6]
[9] Rosacea Research & Development Institute
[10] David states, “The resources of the Rosacea Support Group are well established on the internet, approaching 100 thousand unique visitors per month. This web site receives traffic for internet users searching for information on dozens of rosacea related areas. Currently the web site has front page ranking for people searching for important rosacea search terms. For example check the following search result pages; just diagnosed with rosacea, oracea, metrogel, red face, demodex mites, eucerin, photoderm and fiancee.” Source
[11] The total donations received from 2004 through 2009 was $3547.37. More info
