By: D1566
- 11th April 2018 at 14:37Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Despite therapies points made above...by many people...the group still attracts donors and unquestioningly media attention.
Its bizarre that in the internet age, people seem almost more inclined to take something at face value despite the almost endless amount of information readily available.
By: buzzbeurling
- 16th April 2018 at 23:08Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller, the French Oiseax(sorry for mispellings). Interesting how donations are asked for searches that will take years and never be finished. Sounds like a well paid job for life. Maybe they will get a big government grant as well from various countries.
By: MFowler
- 20th April 2018 at 17:14Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
buzzbeurling said, "Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller, the French Oiseax(sorry for mispellings). Interesting how donations are asked for searches that will take years and never be finished. Sounds like a well paid job for life. Maybe they will get a big government grant as well from various countries."
buzzbeurling raises two good points, the first of which agrees with how my view of TIGHAR evolved over my 18 year membership - TIGHAR is in the business of looking for things that can't be found. Or the chance of finding them is, to quote from TIGHAR's forums, "vanishingly small." It is a business - make no mistake - regardless of whether it has the IRS' non-profit seal of approval. It is the only job Gillespie has had for more than three decades, and he has made a very decent living at it, in a succession of houses, which have been supported and/or paid for in part by the very members he says he serves. All of this is public record.
But ... all of his many, many, projects - every single one - has been a failure. Every. Single. One. I am at a loss as to how that record can continue to inspire any level of confidence, in the general public or potential donors.
TIGHAR has gotten money from the US government, but only in small quantities, for doing historic or cultural resource surveys from an aviation history perspective - should this or that crash site be preserved?, basic things like that. TIGHAR advertises for these "contract services" the its website.
What is nominally interesting is that the person who has either done or led many of these contracted efforts is a longstanding TIGHAR member, who got their advanced degree through a TIGHAR scholarship program, which was established by a different then-TIGHAR member some years ago, and which apparently only ever awarded this one scholarship, as nothing further was mentioned ever in TIGHAR's newsletters (that I was able to find. If anyone knows otherwise, please correct). Odd, to say the least.
By: mark_pilkington
- 21st April 2018 at 11:36Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
MFowler MFowler is offline
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buzzbeurling said, "Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller, the French Oiseax(sorry for mispellings). Interesting how donations are asked for searches that will take years and never be finished. Sounds like a well paid job for life. Maybe they will get a big government grant as well from various countries."
buzzbeurling raises two good points, the first of which agrees with how my view of TIGHAR evolved over my 18 year membership - TIGHAR is in the business of looking for things that can't be found. Or the chance of finding them is, to quote from TIGHAR's forums, "vanishingly small." It is a business - make no mistake - regardless of whether it has the IRS' non-profit seal of approval. It is the only job Gillespie has had for more than three decades, and he has made a very decent living at it, in a succession of houses, which have been supported and/or paid for in part by the very members he says he serves. All of this is public record.
[/u]But ... all of his many, many, projects - every single one - has been a failure. Every. Single. One. [/u]I am at a loss as to how that record can continue to inspire any level of confidence, in the general public or potential donors.
1. The Earhart Project - @30 Years?, >$2MUSD , 9 Trips to Niku? and not 1 piece of undeniable Earhart or Electra evidence.
2. Project Maid of Harlech - @10 years? - the P38 is still sitting in the shallows on the coast of Wales - no active plan to do anything
3. Historic Preservation education and training to museums/restorers - Yet Tighar is the most derided, least respected "Aviation Heritage group" in the world
4. Project Midnight Ghost - - Nothing found of the "White Bird", and no evidence it ever made it to the US Coast let alone Maine
Projects NOT LISTED
5. Project - Glenn Miller & his Norseman- A fisherman drags up the remains of an aircraft and then drops it back into the Channel, and his description fits perfectly with Tighars next High Profile Revenue Generating Project, - even though the Norsman has a steel tube fuselage and wooden wings and hence is unlikely to remain much more than a corroded engine, let alone survive being lifted by a trawler!
6. Project - Save A Devastator - No longer in the Project Listing but still given its own section in their forum is the 20 year plan to recover one of the two Devastators sitting in the sea around the Marshall Islands - never mind that the Marshall Islands has said no to any recovery by the USN itself, and that the USN has recovered 40+ aircraft from the Great Lakes while Tighar - well they havent recovered ANYTHING!
7. Project B17 - "Lady in Waiting" /"The Agaiambo E" ( - Tighar's first intended aircraft recovery project, long before they started looking for Earhart.)
They tried to push their way into the Travis Air Museum's project and independently visited PNG in Spring 1986 to progress "the largest and most ambitious aviation archaeological operation in History"!
In the end, its the only Tighar Project Aircraft - "That has ever been recovered", although NOT by Tighar, and NOT due to anything Tighar contributed.
In 1991 in Tigar Tracks (some 6 years after its recovery survey in 1986) Tighar "gives notice to all parties" in Tighar Tracks, that it is committed to the preservation of the B-17 and will "work aggressively" to that end. It advises that the Tighar project for the recovery will be known as "Lady in Waiting" and previous references to the aircraft as "Swamp Ghost" trivialises the artefacts significance. (nothing further is done to actually recover it)
7 Projects, 30 years of collecting funds from members, the public, donors etc, and absolutely nothing to show for it, other than the Gillespie Horse Farm, (and to be fair, an excellent online resource of Earhart historical research material.)
By: MFowler
- 21st April 2018 at 15:39Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Mark_pilkington said:
"1. The Earhart Project - @30 Years?, >$2MUSD , 9 Trips to Niku? and not 1 piece of undeniable Earhart or Electra evidence.
3. Historic Preservation education and training to museums/restorers - Yet Tighar is the most derided, least respected "Aviation Heritage group" in the world.
In fact, TIGHAR has spent more than $4.5 million on the Earhart Project just since 2008. It's not possible for the general public, looking at available IRS 990 tax returns, to figure out exactly how much TIGHAR has spent on this effort since it started in 1988, because of the way TIGHAR filed some past tax returns - for whatever reason, TIGHAR combined its costs for the Earhart Project and Project Midnight Ghost (contrary to non-profit best practices guidelines). I have their tax returns for the last 10 years, but TIGHAR doesn't post past returns on its website and the IRS doesn't keep them for very long.
TIGHAR has never released the cumulative costs for any of its projects, at least in a readily-accessible form. While Gillespie is always ready to talk about how many times TIGHAR has been to Nikumaroro, and extremely eager to talk about what it has found there, when it comes to talking about how much it has cost to find those things, well, "expeditions are expensive." Over the course of 30-odd years, it is basically very difficult and time-consuming to know. At least in a way that is relatively easy for potential donors/members to figure out. Most of the data a person would need is probably on the website, buried in the back issues of newsletters or in expedition summary reports, but it is not in any way remotely transparent. Which also goes against best practices for non-profit governance.
As far as historic education and training goes, at one point TIGHAR put on semi-regular "field schools," where people could sign up for a week or so of getting dirty and sweaty while poking around old aircraft crash sites/airfields, while learning something about archaeology and aviation history and preservation. I participated in the 2005 field school. While it was fun and I learned a lot, there are financial aspects of that experience I have chosen to remain silent about.
The last field school was in 2013 and there have been no plans publicly announced for the next one. I'm not a wreck chaser or hard-core airplane nut, but I'm pretty sure there are an abundance of crash sites in the continental US that TIGHAR could use. I know of at least one in my state, that I told TIGHAR about for possible field school use. Nothing came of it. While Gillespie talks about helping individual kids with school reports, or sometimes working with an entire classroom full for a special effort, is that really enough to meet the educational mission its non-profit status was granted for? Not my call.
The only other thing education-related I know of is TIGHAR's self-published "Guide to Aviation Historic Preservation Terminology" which first came out in 1991. This is TIGHAR's - basically, Gillespie's - opinion of how various aircraft should be categorized and labeled.
To my knowledge, no other museum, group or entity has accepted these definitions as a standard. So it assembled some terms and even had a meeting with a number of aviation-related entities about the topic. Kudos to TIGHAR ... but that was almost 30 years ago. What has it done since?
By: MFowler
- 23rd June 2018 at 14:52Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thinking more on TIGHAR's self-professed educational mission, it's hard to quantify what exactly that is for one very simple reason - the information, by and large, isn't there.
No yearly summary of how many school classes/individual students/other scholars TIGHAR worked with in any capacity. No summaries of classroom activities participated in or lesson plans developed as a result of those activities. No publications, other than the never-ending stream of "research bulletins," and there is never a year-end summary about what was learned from all of that. No annual report of any kind, for that matter ... from an organization that has a six-figure budget and has been in business for more than 30 years.
It is equally difficult to tease out any information about how much TIGHAR has spent on educational activities by studying its IRS 990 forms. Although there are some specific entries for "courses in aviation archaeology and research" and "courses and gatherings," that totals a little over $122,000 since 2001. If that is truly all that TIGHAR has spent on such activities, it's only a fraction of the $7.49 million raised during that time period.
By: MFowler
- 2nd July 2018 at 16:41Permalink- Edited 13th November 2018 at 22:59
TIGHAR’s 2016 IRS 990 tax form has come out, and it makes for interesting reading – a number of new items and expenditures, each of which raises more questions, it seems to me, than it answers. Some highlights:
1) Gillespie’s salary dropped dramatically – down 51 percent from last year’s – to $83,124, the first time it has dropped to five figures since 2003. Thrasher is once again claiming a salary, $8,500, although that had stopped for a while “due to tax reasons.”
2) The total salary for both, $91,624, is the second-lowest percentage of salary compared to total income since 2001. This, although the tax form showed income of $633,006, the highest since 2014. Gillespie has stuck with his reduced hours, 60 per week (he had consistently been claiming 80), and Thrasher is now claiming 30 hours a week on TIGHAR business; at her salary, that works out to not even $5.50 an hour, so the salary claimed makes little sense. It seems to be almost a randomly-chosen number.
3) New this year is a “management fee” of $5,900 that TIGHAR is paying to an unspecified outside entity to do something on its behalf. The only other time a management fee has appeared was in 2015, for $192. I am at a loss as to what TIGHAR has to pay someone else almost $6,000 to do.
4) Also new this year, Gillespie and Thrasher each loaned themselves almost $20,000 from TIGHAR. The “Executive Committee Draw Account” was not approved by the board and there is no written agreement governing its use, according to the 990 form. What Gillespie and Thrasher need an apparently unrestricted $38,195 for isn’'t discussed anywhere. Although it’s not unusual for non-profits to loan officers money, it is unusual when it’s for something as open-ended as a “draw account,” especially if the board didn'’t approve it. Although it should be noted that Gillespie and Thrasher are TIGHAR’s executive committee – - he is Executive Director and Secretary and she is President and Treasurer, and they technically didn’'t have to get anyone’'s approval, at the very least it looks questionable as to why they felt the need to do this.
5) The rent that Gillespie and Thrasher charge TIGHAR to use part of their home for an office was the highest it has ever been, $43,329. They have been paid more than $276,000 for rent since 2001.
I have to wonder if some of these changes have to do with outside parties asking hard questions about how TIGHAR does business; for example, suddenly dropping claimed hours of work by 25 percent. But then they turn around and loan themselves almost $40,000 from the organization they themselves are the sole officers of. Something’'s not computing.
By: MFowler
- 20th July 2018 at 23:40Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
J Boyle said, "It will be interesting to see if they get a lot of UK media attention and £/€ from their Miller campaign."
Indeed. Since the December 2017 announcement, and initial typical-TIGHAR flurry of stories aimed at igniting media interest, there has been basically nothing. The TIGHAR forums are quiet (moribund would be a better description) and there hasn't been a lengthy and/or wordy newsletter article, either.
I don't know if Gillespie's very public trashing efforts of the British efforts with regards to the Earhart search had anything to do with that ...
By: MFowler
- 24th July 2018 at 00:11Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
With TIGHAR's pending unveiling of a "new" analysis of the alleged Earhart post-loss radio signals scheduled for tomorrow, it's instructive to remember a few things about how Gillespie operates.
Since 2000, TIGHAR has spent almost $8.3 million, an average of about $488,000 per year according to its IRS tax forms.
Gillespie and Thrasher have been paid almost $2.3 million in that same time period - in other words, about one-fourth of all the money spent ended up in their pockets.
Rent charged to TIGHAR is another $276,000, more money directly to Gillespie and Thrasher.
It has not recovered a single aircraft.
It has not recovered a single verified piece of a historic aircraft.
It has never successfully completed any of its many projects/operations/efforts, although I suppose you could consider Operation Sepulcher a success because it didn't find anything.
By: J Boyle
- 26th July 2018 at 07:19Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
At least RG conceded to the Washington Post that there needed to be more data to support his theory.
That's uncharacteristically modest of him, he usually says the case is closed or they're 99% sure....
He still sticks to his island story, probably without telling the Post that there was no sign of the aircraft a few days later when the Navy searches the island. Where did it go? Very convenient, that massive storm the Navy has no appearing record of. :)
Wonder if he told them his researcher who said the bones were here was the same guy who authenticated the Bigfoot film?
Like politicians, he seems to only tell you the things that bolster his argument. Hardly robust scientific methodology.
By: MFowler
- 9th August 2018 at 00:31Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
J Boyle said, "Like politicians, he seems to only tell you the things that bolster his argument. Hardly robust scientific methodology."
Very true. Gillespie's defense against this charge is to point to the sheer volume of Earhart material on TIGHAR's website ... and leave it up to us poor time-pressed and overworked individuals to wade through all of it on our own. Not ideal. While Gillespie loves to write, and loves to write long stories on specific subjects, he has never been a fan of comprehensive summaries or bullet points to make things quick and easy to understand. It is always focused on his argument, using his facts, presented his way, to support his conclusions.
By: MFowler
- 14th August 2018 at 13:27Permalink- Edited 15th November 2020 at 21:30
Looking at TIGHAR's 2016 tax form, another thing really struck me - all of a sudden, for the first time ever, Gillespie is really, really serious about trying to explain and justify himself.
Looking at the forms since 2000 reveals a striking tread. Section III of the Internal Revenue Service form requires non-profits to give a thumbnail description of what they do and then summarize their major activities and how much they spend on them as a way to justify their tax-exempt status. Look at how TIGHAR's have evolved:
2000
“What is the organization’s primary exempt purpose?” BLANK“Describe exempt purpose achievements in a clear and concise manner.” a) Projects - Research & expenditions (sic) for aircraft remains Earhardt (sic) 8 WORDS Midnight Ghost b) Courses and gatherings in aviation archeology (sic) & research 2005 “What is the organization’s primary exempt purpose?” Promoting responsible avaiation (sic) archeology (sic) and historic preservation. 7 WORDS “Describe exempt purpose achievements in a clear and concise manner.” a) Projects – Research & expenditions (sic) for aircraft remains Earhardt (sic) 8 WORDS Midnight Ghost b) Courses and gatherings in aviation archeology (sic) & research 2010 “Briefly describe the organization’s mission.” To promote responsible aviation archaeology and historic preservation. 8 WORDS “Describe exempt purpose achievements for each of the organization’s three largest program services by expenses.” a) The Earhart Project – Ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937, including field work, analysis, research and writing, with the ultimate objective of recovery of the aircraft for an unrelated museum. 34 WORDS b) To Save A Devastator – 21 WORDS c) Maid of Harlech – 18 WORDS 2015 “Briefly describe the organization’s mission.” To promote responsible aviation archaeology and historic preservation. 8 WORDS “Describe exempt purpose achievements for each of the organization’s three largest program services by expenses.” a) The Earhart Project – Ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937, including field work, analysis, research and writing, with the ultimate objective of recovery of the aircraft for an unrelated museum. 34 WORDS b) To Save A Devastator – 21 WORDS 2016 “Briefly describe the organization’s mission.” To educate the general public, and especially young people, in how to use the scientific method of inquiry to solve problems. 21 WORDS “Describe the organization’s program service accomplishments for each of its three largest program services, as measured by expenses.” a) The Earhart Project – Ongoing investigation (since 1988) into the 1937 disappearance of pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan. The investigation includes archaeological search and recovery expeditions, archival research and data analysis. To date, the project has been successful in establishing, to a greater than 99% degree of certainty, that the missing fliers died on the uninhabited Pacific island of Nikumaroro. Educational outreach includes publication of books, the publication of scientific papers and articles in the organization’s journal TIGHAR Tracks, postings and video presentations on social media describing the research results and methodology. Open-source historical research via 98 WORDS b) Glenn Miller Investigation – 93 WORDS c) Project Midnight Ghost – 96 WORDS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We've gone from an eight-word mission statement in 2005 to a 21-word statement for 2016, an almost three-fold increase. The Earhart Project description has ballooned from eight words in 2000 to NINETY-EIGHT in 2016, a more than 12-fold increase. Wow. The project descriptions have similarly expanded exponentially. Not to mention Project Midnight Ghost disappearing from the 990s in 2008, before suddenly reappearing in 2016. An odd inconsistency.
But the main thing, to me, is the tone of the descriptions - suddenly it is all about "education" and "outreach," primarily with "young people." There is no talk of aviation, aircraft recovery or putting things in museums. It is all education, education, education ... which, of course, is a valid tax-exempt purpose. 'Research' trips to the South Pacific to grub around in the coral rubble, not so much. Something made Gillespie dramatically change his tune in these official government documents, and in the space of one year, to make TIGHAR all about "education" and "young people".
After my 25-plus years of dealing with various federal regulatory agencies, I can think of only a few things that would cause such an abrupt, and obvious, change of direction.
By: MFowler
- 21st September 2018 at 23:49Permalink- Edited 21st September 2018 at 23:54
Something else odd as cropped up at TIGHAR - for the first time I can recall (meaning the last 20 years), TIGHAR is inviting its members to attend and even have input at a board meeting, in October at Gillespie's Pennsylvania farm. The public portion of the meeting will even be videotaped so it can be sent to all current members, Gillespie added.
This is a rather extraordinary about-face for Gillespie. When I asked on the TIGHAR forums in July 2016 why we didn't have an annual meeting so everyone could get to know everyone and discuss planning, upcoming activities, etc., this is what Gillespie said: "The concept is noble but the practicalities just don't work for TIGHAR. Our membership is scattered all over the U.S. and, indeed, the world. Travel is expensive in both time and dollars. The Earhart 75 Symposium in 2012 was held in Washington, DC. - a good, easy-to-get-to location in the densely populated northeast of the U.S. It was open to everyone, not just TIGHAR members. Only a little over 100 people participated. Those who were there had a terrific time but we lost our shirt financially."
So all of a sudden TIGHAR is having what amounts to an annual meeting that is not only free, but will be videotaped and made available to all members. All of a sudden Gillespie is at least going through the motions of giving members a say.
A pity I can't attend to ask a few questions ... a number of interesting ones come to mind ...
Posts: 2,024
By: D1566 - 11th April 2018 at 14:37 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Its bizarre that in the internet age, people seem almost more inclined to take something at face value despite the almost endless amount of information readily available.
Posts: 64
By: buzzbeurling - 16th April 2018 at 23:08 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller, the French Oiseax(sorry for mispellings). Interesting how donations are asked for searches that will take years and never be finished. Sounds like a well paid job for life. Maybe they will get a big government grant as well from various countries.
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 20th April 2018 at 17:14 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
buzzbeurling said, "Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller, the French Oiseax(sorry for mispellings). Interesting how donations are asked for searches that will take years and never be finished. Sounds like a well paid job for life. Maybe they will get a big government grant as well from various countries."
buzzbeurling raises two good points, the first of which agrees with how my view of TIGHAR evolved over my 18 year membership - TIGHAR is in the business of looking for things that can't be found. Or the chance of finding them is, to quote from TIGHAR's forums, "vanishingly small." It is a business - make no mistake - regardless of whether it has the IRS' non-profit seal of approval. It is the only job Gillespie has had for more than three decades, and he has made a very decent living at it, in a succession of houses, which have been supported and/or paid for in part by the very members he says he serves. All of this is public record.
But ... all of his many, many, projects - every single one - has been a failure. Every. Single. One. I am at a loss as to how that record can continue to inspire any level of confidence, in the general public or potential donors.
TIGHAR has gotten money from the US government, but only in small quantities, for doing historic or cultural resource surveys from an aviation history perspective - should this or that crash site be preserved?, basic things like that. TIGHAR advertises for these "contract services" the its website.
What is nominally interesting is that the person who has either done or led many of these contracted efforts is a longstanding TIGHAR member, who got their advanced degree through a TIGHAR scholarship program, which was established by a different then-TIGHAR member some years ago, and which apparently only ever awarded this one scholarship, as nothing further was mentioned ever in TIGHAR's newsletters (that I was able to find. If anyone knows otherwise, please correct). Odd, to say the least.
Posts: 1,910
By: mark_pilkington - 21st April 2018 at 11:36 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
https://tighar.org/Projects/projectslist.html
1. The Earhart Project - @30 Years?, >$2MUSD , 9 Trips to Niku? and not 1 piece of undeniable Earhart or Electra evidence.
2. Project Maid of Harlech - @10 years? - the P38 is still sitting in the shallows on the coast of Wales - no active plan to do anything
3. Historic Preservation education and training to museums/restorers - Yet Tighar is the most derided, least respected "Aviation Heritage group" in the world
4. Project Midnight Ghost - - Nothing found of the "White Bird", and no evidence it ever made it to the US Coast let alone Maine
Projects NOT LISTED
5. Project - Glenn Miller & his Norseman- A fisherman drags up the remains of an aircraft and then drops it back into the Channel, and his description fits perfectly with Tighars next High Profile Revenue Generating Project, - even though the Norsman has a steel tube fuselage and wooden wings and hence is unlikely to remain much more than a corroded engine, let alone survive being lifted by a trawler!
6. Project - Save A Devastator - No longer in the Project Listing but still given its own section in their forum is the 20 year plan to recover one of the two Devastators sitting in the sea around the Marshall Islands - never mind that the Marshall Islands has said no to any recovery by the USN itself, and that the USN has recovered 40+ aircraft from the Great Lakes while Tighar - well they havent recovered ANYTHING!
7. Project B17 - "Lady in Waiting" /"The Agaiambo E" ( - Tighar's first intended aircraft recovery project, long before they started looking for Earhart.)
They tried to push their way into the Travis Air Museum's project and independently visited PNG in Spring 1986 to progress "the largest and most ambitious aviation archaeological operation in History"!
In the end, its the only Tighar Project Aircraft - "That has ever been recovered", although NOT by Tighar, and NOT due to anything Tighar contributed.
Read about it here http://aviationmystery.com/index.php?topic=62.0
In 1991 in Tigar Tracks (some 6 years after its recovery survey in 1986) Tighar "gives notice to all parties" in Tighar Tracks, that it is committed to the preservation of the B-17 and will "work aggressively" to that end. It advises that the Tighar project for the recovery will be known as "Lady in Waiting" and previous references to the aircraft as "Swamp Ghost" trivialises the artefacts significance. (nothing further is done to actually recover it)
7 Projects, 30 years of collecting funds from members, the public, donors etc, and absolutely nothing to show for it, other than the Gillespie Horse Farm, (and to be fair, an excellent online resource of Earhart historical research material.)
Regards
Mark Pilkington
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 21st April 2018 at 15:39 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Mark_pilkington said:
"1. The Earhart Project - @30 Years?, >$2MUSD , 9 Trips to Niku? and not 1 piece of undeniable Earhart or Electra evidence.
3. Historic Preservation education and training to museums/restorers - Yet Tighar is the most derided, least respected "Aviation Heritage group" in the world.
In fact, TIGHAR has spent more than $4.5 million on the Earhart Project just since 2008. It's not possible for the general public, looking at available IRS 990 tax returns, to figure out exactly how much TIGHAR has spent on this effort since it started in 1988, because of the way TIGHAR filed some past tax returns - for whatever reason, TIGHAR combined its costs for the Earhart Project and Project Midnight Ghost (contrary to non-profit best practices guidelines). I have their tax returns for the last 10 years, but TIGHAR doesn't post past returns on its website and the IRS doesn't keep them for very long.
TIGHAR has never released the cumulative costs for any of its projects, at least in a readily-accessible form. While Gillespie is always ready to talk about how many times TIGHAR has been to Nikumaroro, and extremely eager to talk about what it has found there, when it comes to talking about how much it has cost to find those things, well, "expeditions are expensive." Over the course of 30-odd years, it is basically very difficult and time-consuming to know. At least in a way that is relatively easy for potential donors/members to figure out. Most of the data a person would need is probably on the website, buried in the back issues of newsletters or in expedition summary reports, but it is not in any way remotely transparent. Which also goes against best practices for non-profit governance.
As far as historic education and training goes, at one point TIGHAR put on semi-regular "field schools," where people could sign up for a week or so of getting dirty and sweaty while poking around old aircraft crash sites/airfields, while learning something about archaeology and aviation history and preservation. I participated in the 2005 field school. While it was fun and I learned a lot, there are financial aspects of that experience I have chosen to remain silent about.
The last field school was in 2013 and there have been no plans publicly announced for the next one. I'm not a wreck chaser or hard-core airplane nut, but I'm pretty sure there are an abundance of crash sites in the continental US that TIGHAR could use. I know of at least one in my state, that I told TIGHAR about for possible field school use. Nothing came of it. While Gillespie talks about helping individual kids with school reports, or sometimes working with an entire classroom full for a special effort, is that really enough to meet the educational mission its non-profit status was granted for? Not my call.
The only other thing education-related I know of is TIGHAR's self-published "Guide to Aviation Historic Preservation Terminology" which first came out in 1991. This is TIGHAR's - basically, Gillespie's - opinion of how various aircraft should be categorized and labeled.
To my knowledge, no other museum, group or entity has accepted these definitions as a standard. So it assembled some terms and even had a meeting with a number of aviation-related entities about the topic. Kudos to TIGHAR ... but that was almost 30 years ago. What has it done since?
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 23rd June 2018 at 14:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thinking more on TIGHAR's self-professed educational mission, it's hard to quantify what exactly that is for one very simple reason - the information, by and large, isn't there.
No yearly summary of how many school classes/individual students/other scholars TIGHAR worked with in any capacity. No summaries of classroom activities participated in or lesson plans developed as a result of those activities. No publications, other than the never-ending stream of "research bulletins," and there is never a year-end summary about what was learned from all of that. No annual report of any kind, for that matter ... from an organization that has a six-figure budget and has been in business for more than 30 years.
It is equally difficult to tease out any information about how much TIGHAR has spent on educational activities by studying its IRS 990 forms. Although there are some specific entries for "courses in aviation archaeology and research" and "courses and gatherings," that totals a little over $122,000 since 2001. If that is truly all that TIGHAR has spent on such activities, it's only a fraction of the $7.49 million raised during that time period.
Posts: 9,825
By: J Boyle - 23rd June 2018 at 17:13 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Let's do the math
$122,000 spent over 18 years....
$6,777 a year.
My, they really are doing something!
Posts: 107
By: Dave Hadfield - 24th June 2018 at 05:27 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It's the Fat Lady carnival scam, but they never have to produce the Fat Lady. They just say they are looking for her.
Really clever, actually.
Posts: 9,825
By: J Boyle - 24th June 2018 at 13:32 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Clever, yes.
Honest, ethical?...I'll let you decide.
It will be interesting to see if they get a lot of UK media attention and £/€ from their Miller campaign.
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 2nd July 2018 at 16:41 Permalink - Edited 13th November 2018 at 22:59
TIGHAR’s 2016 IRS 990 tax form has come out, and it makes for interesting reading – a number of new items and expenditures, each of which raises more questions, it seems to me, than it answers. Some highlights:
1) Gillespie’s salary dropped dramatically – down 51 percent from last year’s – to $83,124, the first time it has dropped to five figures since 2003. Thrasher is once again claiming a salary, $8,500, although that had stopped for a while “due to tax reasons.”
2) The total salary for both, $91,624, is the second-lowest percentage of salary compared to total income since 2001. This, although the tax form showed income of $633,006, the highest since 2014. Gillespie has stuck with his reduced hours, 60 per week (he had consistently been claiming 80), and Thrasher is now claiming 30 hours a week on TIGHAR business; at her salary, that works out to not even $5.50 an hour, so the salary claimed makes little sense. It seems to be almost a randomly-chosen number.
3) New this year is a “management fee” of $5,900 that TIGHAR is paying to an unspecified outside entity to do something on its behalf. The only other time a management fee has appeared was in 2015, for $192. I am at a loss as to what TIGHAR has to pay someone else almost $6,000 to do.
4) Also new this year, Gillespie and Thrasher each loaned themselves almost $20,000 from TIGHAR. The “Executive Committee Draw Account” was not approved by the board and there is no written agreement governing its use, according to the 990 form. What Gillespie and Thrasher need an apparently unrestricted $38,195 for isn’'t discussed anywhere. Although it’s not unusual for non-profits to loan officers money, it is unusual when it’s for something as open-ended as a “draw account,” especially if the board didn'’t approve it. Although it should be noted that Gillespie and Thrasher are TIGHAR’s executive committee – - he is Executive Director and Secretary and she is President and Treasurer, and they technically didn’'t have to get anyone’'s approval, at the very least it looks questionable as to why they felt the need to do this.
5) The rent that Gillespie and Thrasher charge TIGHAR to use part of their home for an office was the highest it has ever been, $43,329. They have been paid more than $276,000 for rent since 2001.
I have to wonder if some of these changes have to do with outside parties asking hard questions about how TIGHAR does business; for example, suddenly dropping claimed hours of work by 25 percent. But then they turn around and loan themselves almost $40,000 from the organization they themselves are the sole officers of. Something’'s not computing.
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By: Moggy C - 2nd July 2018 at 17:16 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Oh yes it is, and it smells bad.
Moggy
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 20th July 2018 at 23:40 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
J Boyle said, "It will be interesting to see if they get a lot of UK media attention and £/€ from their Miller campaign."
Indeed. Since the December 2017 announcement, and initial typical-TIGHAR flurry of stories aimed at igniting media interest, there has been basically nothing. The TIGHAR forums are quiet (moribund would be a better description) and there hasn't been a lengthy and/or wordy newsletter article, either.
I don't know if Gillespie's very public trashing efforts of the British efforts with regards to the Earhart search had anything to do with that ...
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 24th July 2018 at 00:11 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
With TIGHAR's pending unveiling of a "new" analysis of the alleged Earhart post-loss radio signals scheduled for tomorrow, it's instructive to remember a few things about how Gillespie operates.
Posts: 582
By: DH82EH - 24th July 2018 at 00:44 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
All we can hope, is that their record remains intact! :highly_amused:
Gillespie's entire M.O. is based on the fact, that there is a sucker born every minute.
Sadly, that may be enough to float this boat.
Andy
Posts: 218
By: Mahone - 25th July 2018 at 15:39 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Here's some reports on the dramatic new findings, if anyone is even vaguely interested.....
And no - they're not new, or dramatic....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/25/dozens-heard-amelia-earharts-final-chilling-pleas-for-help-researchers-say/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.64709205e719
https://www.upi.com/Study-Radio-signals-may-prove-Amelia-Earhart-crashed-on-Pacific-island/1351532450804/
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/24/amelia-earhart-birthday-distress-call/782617002/
EDIT - actually that's a little unfair. It IS quite dramatic, if you define "drama" as being an imaginative fiction that has no basis in reality.
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By: J Boyle - 26th July 2018 at 07:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
At least RG conceded to the Washington Post that there needed to be more data to support his theory.
That's uncharacteristically modest of him, he usually says the case is closed or they're 99% sure....
He still sticks to his island story, probably without telling the Post that there was no sign of the aircraft a few days later when the Navy searches the island. Where did it go? Very convenient, that massive storm the Navy has no appearing record of. :)
Wonder if he told them his researcher who said the bones were here was the same guy who authenticated the Bigfoot film?
Like politicians, he seems to only tell you the things that bolster his argument. Hardly robust scientific methodology.
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 9th August 2018 at 00:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
J Boyle said, "Like politicians, he seems to only tell you the things that bolster his argument. Hardly robust scientific methodology."
Very true. Gillespie's defense against this charge is to point to the sheer volume of Earhart material on TIGHAR's website ... and leave it up to us poor time-pressed and overworked individuals to wade through all of it on our own. Not ideal. While Gillespie loves to write, and loves to write long stories on specific subjects, he has never been a fan of comprehensive summaries or bullet points to make things quick and easy to understand. It is always focused on his argument, using his facts, presented his way, to support his conclusions.
Obfuscation is the end result.
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 14th August 2018 at 13:27 Permalink - Edited 15th November 2020 at 21:30
Looking at TIGHAR's 2016 tax form, another thing really struck me - all of a sudden, for the first time ever, Gillespie is really, really serious about trying to explain and justify himself.
Looking at the forms since 2000 reveals a striking tread. Section III of the Internal Revenue Service form requires non-profits to give a thumbnail description of what they do and then summarize their major activities and how much they spend on them as a way to justify their tax-exempt status. Look at how TIGHAR's have evolved:
2000
“What is the organization’s primary exempt purpose?” BLANK“Describe exempt purpose achievements in a clear and concise manner.” a) Projects - Research & expenditions (sic) for aircraft remains Earhardt (sic) 8 WORDS Midnight Ghost b) Courses and gatherings in aviation archeology (sic) & research 2005 “What is the organization’s primary exempt purpose?” Promoting responsible avaiation (sic) archeology (sic) and historic preservation. 7 WORDS “Describe exempt purpose achievements in a clear and concise manner.” a) Projects – Research & expenditions (sic) for aircraft remains Earhardt (sic) 8 WORDS Midnight Ghost b) Courses and gatherings in aviation archeology (sic) & research 2010 “Briefly describe the organization’s mission.” To promote responsible aviation archaeology and historic preservation. 8 WORDS “Describe exempt purpose achievements for each of the organization’s three largest program services by expenses.” a) The Earhart Project – Ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937, including field work, analysis, research and writing, with the ultimate objective of recovery of the aircraft for an unrelated museum. 34 WORDS b) To Save A Devastator – 21 WORDS c) Maid of Harlech – 18 WORDS 2015 “Briefly describe the organization’s mission.” To promote responsible aviation archaeology and historic preservation. 8 WORDS “Describe exempt purpose achievements for each of the organization’s three largest program services by expenses.” a) The Earhart Project – Ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937, including field work, analysis, research and writing, with the ultimate objective of recovery of the aircraft for an unrelated museum. 34 WORDS b) To Save A Devastator – 21 WORDS 2016 “Briefly describe the organization’s mission.” To educate the general public, and especially young people, in how to use the scientific method of inquiry to solve problems. 21 WORDS “Describe the organization’s program service accomplishments for each of its three largest program services, as measured by expenses.” a) The Earhart Project – Ongoing investigation (since 1988) into the 1937 disappearance of pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan. The investigation includes archaeological search and recovery expeditions, archival research and data analysis. To date, the project has been successful in establishing, to a greater than 99% degree of certainty, that the missing fliers died on the uninhabited Pacific island of Nikumaroro. Educational outreach includes publication of books, the publication of scientific papers and articles in the organization’s journal TIGHAR Tracks, postings and video presentations on social media describing the research results and methodology. Open-source historical research via 98 WORDS b) Glenn Miller Investigation – 93 WORDS c) Project Midnight Ghost – 96 WORDS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We've gone from an eight-word mission statement in 2005 to a 21-word statement for 2016, an almost three-fold increase. The Earhart Project description has ballooned from eight words in 2000 to NINETY-EIGHT in 2016, a more than 12-fold increase. Wow. The project descriptions have similarly expanded exponentially. Not to mention Project Midnight Ghost disappearing from the 990s in 2008, before suddenly reappearing in 2016. An odd inconsistency.
But the main thing, to me, is the tone of the descriptions - suddenly it is all about "education" and "outreach," primarily with "young people." There is no talk of aviation, aircraft recovery or putting things in museums. It is all education, education, education ... which, of course, is a valid tax-exempt purpose. 'Research' trips to the South Pacific to grub around in the coral rubble, not so much. Something made Gillespie dramatically change his tune in these official government documents, and in the space of one year, to make TIGHAR all about "education" and "young people".
After my 25-plus years of dealing with various federal regulatory agencies, I can think of only a few things that would cause such an abrupt, and obvious, change of direction.
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By: Sabrejet - 14th August 2018 at 14:54 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
An interesting observation MFowler: I can only think of one reason that this occurred: let's hope it happens soon!
Posts: 313
By: MFowler - 21st September 2018 at 23:49 Permalink - Edited 21st September 2018 at 23:54
Something else odd as cropped up at TIGHAR - for the first time I can recall (meaning the last 20 years), TIGHAR is inviting its members to attend and even have input at a board meeting, in October at Gillespie's Pennsylvania farm. The public portion of the meeting will even be videotaped so it can be sent to all current members, Gillespie added.
This is a rather extraordinary about-face for Gillespie. When I asked on the TIGHAR forums in July 2016 why we didn't have an annual meeting so everyone could get to know everyone and discuss planning, upcoming activities, etc., this is what Gillespie said: "The concept is noble but the practicalities just don't work for TIGHAR. Our membership is scattered all over the U.S. and, indeed, the world. Travel is expensive in both time and dollars. The Earhart 75 Symposium in 2012 was held in Washington, DC. - a good, easy-to-get-to location in the densely populated northeast of the U.S. It was open to everyone, not just TIGHAR members. Only a little over 100 people participated. Those who were there had a terrific time but we lost our shirt financially."
So all of a sudden TIGHAR is having what amounts to an annual meeting that is not only free, but will be videotaped and made available to all members. All of a sudden Gillespie is at least going through the motions of giving members a say.
A pity I can't attend to ask a few questions ... a number of interesting ones come to mind ...