Pageant: Help us find leaders
Miss America officials call upon ex-winners to aid search for new chiefs
ATLANTIC CITY: Trashed by emails sent by pageant officials, former Miss Americas may help choose the new leaders of the Miss America Organization.
The group said on Wednesday night that it is seeking the help of former Miss Americas and state directors to recommend the next generation of leaders for the pageant.
In emails that were published last week by the Huffington Post, pageant officials ridiculed the appearance, intellect and sex lives of former Miss Americas.
The emails included one that used a vulgar term for female genitalia to refer to past Miss America winners, one that wished that a former Miss America had died and others that speculated about how many sex partners former Miss America Mallory Hagan has had.
The ensuing uproar led to the group’s executive director, Sam Haskell; its president, Josh Randle; board chairman Lynn Weidner, and one other board member to resign.
Dan Meyers, the group’s interim board chairman, said the group wants former Miss Americas and state directors to recommend members for a search committee that would determine the organisation’s leadership structure, and choose individuals to fill those roles.
“The board wanted to have a process that was unprecedented in terms of openness, transparency and inclusion,” he said.
“Given the turbulent nature of leadership transitions, asking all the stakeholders to be a part of this process was the best way.”
Some past winners reacted nega- tively to the statement, saying the board had not reached out to them to help select new leaders.
Others said they wanted no involvement whatsoever by any current board members in seeking new leadership.
“At this time all remaining members must step aside so we can take our beloved programme back,” Miss America 1977 Dorothy Benham said.
“They have underestimated the strength, intelligence, and determination of the women who have worn the Miss America crown, as well as every young woman who is currently wearing, or has worn the local and state crown,” she added.
Jennifer Vaden Barth, a former Miss North Carolina, said the former winners want a completely new board to search for leaders, not one that supported Haskell.
“The board needs to accept responsibility for the damage they have caused,” she said late Wednesday.
“They need to step aside quickly and allow new leadership to save the Miss America programme.”
Under the plan, former Miss Americas and state directors collectively would name four people to the search committee, and the board would name a former state title holder to the panel.
These five individuals and two board members “will begin their exhaustive search in a matter of days”, the board’s statement read.
There are currently two vacancies on the 14-member board, and there will be at least two more when the resignations of Randle and Weidner become effective in a matter of weeks.