Hi Doug -
This was *not* a case of the current GM trying to retain power. Conn traditionally has had a one year term, with a progressive Grand Line; nine officers, one from each district in a rotating basis. Over the last few years, the population differences in the districts compelled the GL to take a closer look at the district structure and they spent several years trying to get ideas from the Craft on how to better arrange things. The recent attempt to split the districts up more equitably was one of the touchy issues for a lot of the members.
The DGM was suspended while an investigation and trial commission could be planned. The reasons I won't make public, but unfortunately it was seen as improper by a lot of the Craft. Conn is a small state, and he was fairly well liked. Things could probably have been handled better, but there really wasn't much precedent for this. Knowing the little bit that I have been told, I don't see that he (the GM) had much of a choice, but no matter what, this wasn't going to end well. Even at the Semi-Annual Communication, what happened was wrong, but there was not any way to respolve thigns that the majority of people would have agreed would have been right.
My own opinion is that some of the brothers who were ticked off at his suspension used it as a means to stir up some bad feeling at the Grand Master, and from there, to rally some members to vote the other officers out. I stress that this is my opinion because I'm not close enough to either side to know what actually was going on.
The comment about TO was out of the blue, and I'm now wondering about the rumors I've been hearing that there is an underground TO movement that has been influencing GL politics around the US and Canada.