If there is no official acknowledgement of Area 1's resignation, it makes me wonder if he was talked into un-resigning?
It's rough when you send your resignation email and Ben reads it over the web before all of your fellow directors have had a chance to open the email. (I don't know that that occurred, but it sure could have.)
Ben may be in it for Ben, but Ben benefits from a cleaned-up organization. What's been going on in the recent past can't continue.