An Open Letter - Regarding SITE Santa Fe #1
 
To Whom It May Concern,
 
During the entire time I worked for SITE Santa Fe I was never (not once) asked how my supervisor was performing at her job.  Nor was I asked about my thoughts on her supervisor.  The two people who earn WAY more than anyone else at SITE Santa Fe - who engage with every aspect of the business - and have direct access to all streams of revenue - as well as all financials.
 
Which is odd... given that I was the highly praised Accounting & HR Manager, whom the Deputy Director, Clara Samayoa, called her right hand to the board members she introduced me to, as well as giving me a rave review nearly a year after joining on as a staff member.
 
I'm assuming they didn’t ask my opinion either because they did not believe Clara was accurately representing my contributions (please review my job description as well as my performance review dated 10/15/2022) OR because they did not care... how either the Deputy Director or the Philips Director were actually performing in their jobs - outside of the financial reports provided at board meetings.
 
Had anyone from a position of authority at SITE Santa Fe ever given me license to speak freely (sans retaliation) I would have stated my opinion of Clara Samayoa was as follows (had they asked prior to 10/31/2022):
 
It is my opinion that Clara Samayoa is not qualified for her role as Deputy Director of SITE Santa Fe.  I believe she has caused more HR issues than anyone else at the museum, and I believe it's a problem of attitude rather than lack of knowledge.  It's my opinion that Clara loves nothing more than power, authority, and the sense of purpose hiring and firing gives her.  However, I never saw her bring any actual solutions to the table for those she was meant to lead. 
 
When I came on board it was my mission to give people a path forward, therefore I developed SITE's very first SOP protocols.  Prior to this no one at SITE (not even Clara) understood what Standard Operating Procedures were (HR records and staff reviews prove this).  Furthermore, there wasn't even a system by which management could be held accountable.  Even after pushbacks from their lowest paid yet most highly visible staff, when they ALL demanded a meeting with management. 
 
Beyond this, I believe staff in general hold a very low opinion of Clara as a manager (but are way too scared to say anything – due to what has happened to employees who have fallen out of her good graces).
 
Which honestly doesn't shock me, as she often said and did things I would expect from a High School prom-queen-runner-up than I would the Deputy Director of a World Class art museum.  My opinion is that Clara loves to use secrets, manipulative tactics, coercion tactics and outright bullying to get what she wants.  All of this without a clear understanding of even the most basic functions of business (such as filing, benefits packages, payroll, archiving of data, POS to merchant communications, QuickBooks accounting, general tax knowledge, etc. etc. etc.). 
 
*We will discuss the depth of Ms. Samayoa’s lack of knowledge in a later letter.
 
It is my opinion that Clara hides behind front-facing efforts that have no real depth - such as her IDEA Task Force which she never prioritized enough to get HR involved - despite HR being listed in the bulk of the PLAN.  She also often scoffed in my face whenever I tried to provide my Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access ideas and comments.
 
Perhaps this is because Clara also loves to pick and choose who gets preferential treatment based on... things other than clearly articulated reasons.
 
This was apparent almost immediately.
 
I believe her tactics in the handling of staff needs and concerns is always overshadowed by the aspects of the business that benefit only a few (such as her hard-lined focus on a FULLY PAID maternity leave - while she was attempting to get pregnant.  Her focus was not on how to get part-time staff members some much needed medical coverage. No… that wasn’t even something she would allow me to talk about.
 
*Emails prove I made every attempt I could to get outside third-party medical insurance and uninsured provider information to the ENTIRE STAFF - not just the full-time staff - which Clara always seemed to give her complete attention to.
 
Despite being on staff full-time during the pandemic - a time she admits was extremely slow - Clara managed to accomplish very little in the way of improving policies, systems, protocols, staff relations, organization, or accountability.  Much of which I was able to handle while working as the ONLY accounting person in a multimillion-dollar nonprofit with multiple streams of revenue.
 
In fact, it is my opinion that Clara has intentionally withheld bonuses as well as timed raises and promotions in a way so that she can groom and support only certain employees for reasons other than job performance.  I believe she uses her position of authority at SITE Santa Fe in a way that doesn't just lack support for some staff but actually abuses staff she personally finds threatening or disagreeable.
 
She has engaged legal services for even the smallest HR issues, often inflaming situations far beyond anything they should ever have been. 
 
Again, after my year at SITE Santa Fe (and after 20+ years of experience running many forms of businesses) I must state that I believe Clara Samayoa is completely ill suited for the role she now holds.
 
I could go on - and on - but it's just not worth my time.
 
 
Louis Grachos - your review comes next.  When I feel up to describing my thoughts on you.
 
Until then... CHEERS!
 
 
Raena
 
 
*I could go into my opinion of Carla Samayoa as of now (post 10/31/2022), but that would just be self-serving.
 
 

“People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”  Edmund Burke


Somewhere not far from Breiðarmerkurjökull a man sings to the heavens, asking for answers to questions that plague him night and day.

He asks where all of the strength of man has gone, and if someday it shall return.

He asks where all of the courage went, and why now there's only selfish revenge.

He asks 'who will listen to the old stories now?  Who will see the strength in gentlemen with tender hearts and open arms?'

He wonders what will become of children raised on dreams of being the 1% - so they too can dominate their fellow man, or revenge when all hope of that is spent.

For he doesn't see the answers - that used to beat in the heart of his community - in the souls of its mothers and the gentle peace of its fathers.

His ancestors, however, do not answer, instead they can only weep with him.

As only those who built his blood can.

The answer... he hears - echoing in the beating of his heart...




X
01/29/2023

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved

Dear Marleen,

I'm addressing this to you, however please consider this open letter as being directed to the entire Board of Directors of SITE Santa Fe, as well as everyone who has or will contribute to its mission - including past, present and future staff, donators, and visitors.

In my termination letter (dated November 17, 2022), sent to me by Mr. Louis Grachos, Philips Director of SITE Santa Fe, one of the reasons listed for my immediate termination was that I made unsubstantiated claims in my email addressed to him - dated 10/31/2022.

Please note: my email to Louie was sent in response to his and Ms. Samayoa's unacceptable behavior and lack of any action to remedy that behavior.

Therefore, in response to Mr. Gracho's claim, I have put together over six pages of what I witnessed first-hand during the year I spent running SITE Santa Fe's Accounting department and while setting up a previously non-existent HR department. 

Or rather, I should clarify... I have put together six pages of what I believe is incompetence and gross incompetence demonstrated by Ms. Clara Samayoa and Mr. Louis Grachos.

Incompetence I feel strongly can be proven with just a little bit of digging.  Ya?
(My rave review, completed by Ms. Samayoa herself 10-15-2022, reinforces much of it - btw.)

Incompetence You and the board of directors never once questioned.   (We'll cover this aspect in a follow-up letter, don't you worry.)

Anyhow... as I believe it was ultimately you and the board of directors who made the decision to fire me without a single conversation while I was dealing with some pretty heavy emotional and physical health issues - cutting off my insurance just a week prior to a specialist's appointment I'd been waiting on since my herniated disc was diagnosed in the ER in mid-September, I feel it's prudent (and best for the public) if y'all become fully aware of everything I witnessed during my time there - so that y'all can become fully cognizant of just who you are championing, and the damage that unsupervised approval does - to staff and artists.

So, please be advised - beginning Monday, January 30th, I will start posting regular 'Open Letters Regarding SITE Santa FE' - which will explain in detail what I witnessed first-hand during my year at SITE Santa Fe as it's Accounting Manager and HR Administrator/Manager.  Along with what I did to try to remedy this incompetence - and the resistance those remedies often received.

We'll also discuss possible reasons for the general push-back and sometimes out-right refusal of many of my common sense upgrades.

I hope y'all get as much out of it  as I did - as I attempted to make SITE Santa Fe a competent place for people to work and show their art.

All My Best,

Raena Exe
(former Accounting & HR Manager, SITE Santa Fe.)


Ta for now!!

I’ve seen the death you cradle in your eyes
and I know that nothing can soothe its god-awful cries
 
A phantasm longed for, yet repulsed just the same
it’s the darkness that brings only loneliness and shame
 
This hunger for blood, this hunger for pain
why, it’s the demon that drives you out into the pouring rain
 
Yet there is a place where even death goes to die
 
a place where a man can face all that he’d deny
 
A darkness as natural as the roots beneath your feet
 
it's a darkness filled with the sweetest of heat
 
And here, in its womb, you’ll find a natural fit
the antithesis of death, this primordial
 
​split
 
 
Exe
 
 
05/24/2018

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved

It was a mistake to underestimate
a woman who knows what she wants

Even more so
a woman who knows what she can do

Especially to you
the unglued misconstrued
with the sauvé aptitude for platitudes

It was a mistake to take
based on title, and not on need

And this...
most will decree
showed all the signs of a heart amputee
a nominee wannabe for trophies
earned by owning
that which is not
free

And what a mistake
to assume that was me

You see
now

How it was a mistake
to hide from that
all-penetrating-light

to hang-and-hang
on this vulgar fight
in which you did delight

my little socialite
my pasty little shrew

Do you finally see

what a real woman can do?

Or would you like to see
some more
of my voodoo

showin' you
just what I think
is taboo?




Exe
08/20/2021

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved

We are the myth makers

The world weavers

The destiny dodgers

The ones armed with vision
of the collision
of hearts

Don't you see?

This is where it always starts
a brand new beat 
driving the arts

towards a new set of charts

so, let's catch our sails
cuz we don't need the details

cuz all worthwhile trails
always begin
and end
in love



Exe

10/21/2021

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved.​

She took her last breath
a sweet sip of candied wine

like yesterday was always fine

After all, this… 
well, this was the reason she’d made the climb
 
You wicked – wicked mind
 
A thousand deaths just to get to this one

A braver quest ain’t never begun

Oh… shun her if you will

Still

she’s in you now

like wool in steel
 
So, tell me, how does it feel?
 
That last gasp of who she was… 

will you recall
long after she’s in your
pause?
 
That last gasp

Just before the old her is 
finally gone

Cuz come summer…

sprawled out across the lawn

she’ll rise again

just like that pesky dawn
 
 
Exe


​01/01/2019

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved.​

He sings the old songs, knows all the old ways
for he carries 'em in his bones
like an ache

This man, our guide
as we all slowly awake

This man, this witness
this courageous speaker of truth
who brings meaning
even to the most cynical sleuth

This man, who brings good
into being
just by seeing
in others
all the reasons yet
to hope

This man, and his broader scope

who makes all things better
simply by removing the fetters
that malevolence once put
into place

And by staring evil
right in its face

This man,
and his bold, yet courageous display
of doing what's right
of bringing the light
into this
long and abysmal
night

This man, who is good
and kind
and fair

This man, whose brilliant heart
will in the end
take us all
there



Exe

​01/14/2022

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved

© Raena Exe 2023 
​*All rights reserved