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Fist Fest 2010 CANCELED!?!?!?
Fist Fest 2010 was booked for
June 10-13, 2010
The host hotel, CCBC,
canceled our contract on January 28, just 2 days before the "opt-out" clause
expired. They would not and still have not given a reason why.
Even before I received
cancellation on the contract, they had entered into a new contract with Charles
Nicholson to hold Fist FFest 2010 at CCBC the same weekend. When the owner of
CCBC was asked why, his answer was "because Charles came to us and asked us to."
Here is the email that I
sent out to some of our members right after the contract cancellation that has
the information I could squeeze out of the parties involved in the less than
ethical transaction. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to obtain any other
information from them and in fact as of June 7, 2010, CCBC Resort still has not
settled accounts with us from last year and Charles Nicholson is still refusing
to return our share of the equipment. Legal proceedings are in motion against
Charles Nicholson and we will most likely have to start litigation against CCBC
Resort as well. If you attend this year's event, keep in mind that it is not
being produced by the same group that produced it last year, that the event has
been hijacked by the resort and the individual named above and that any
equipment that Charles Nicholson provides for use is most likely not his
property.
The email in it's entirety.
Gentlemen,
I'm sure most of you have received an email from Charles announcing that he is
the host for Fist Fest 2010. This is not entirely true. Richard at CCBC emailed
me a few days ago, stating that he had canceled my contract with CCBC, which was
a mere two days before the "opt-out" clause in the contract expired. When I
inquired why, I received no response. Then a couple of days later Charles sent
out a "Press Release" that he will be presenting Fist FFest 2010 at CCBC the
same weekend that I had booked. Notice the subtle difference in the title. Very
original.
After several phone calls to CCBC, Richard finally returned my call. His side of
the story is that Charles approached him about taking over the event. If you
read Charles' email and visit his website, you'll see he claims that Richard at
CCBC approached him due to "problems and shortcomings" with the 2009 event.
Richard denies this and also stated that there were no issues with the 2009
event. Richard states that Bill Freyer, the original promoter of Fist Fest, had
provided him with a letter authorizing giving the event to Charles for 2010,
even though Garry and I had produced the 2009 event, had a contract for the 2010
event and had done all of the preliminary planning and footwork.
As you may know, Bill owns an adult novelty shop in San Diego called Pleasures &
Treasures. Charles is one of his vendors. A cynical person might say that it
doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. When I called Bill to discuss this
turn of events, he advised me that he wanted nothing to do with it. He seemed to
have forgotten the private conversation he had with Garry and me in our room at
Camp Palm Springs at Fist Fest 2008, the year he decided to stop doing the event
and pass it on to someone else. Charles and I had been doing play parties in
North Hollywood and we had approached Bill about taking over Fist Fest. He had
agreed to this transaction, that Charles and I would be responsible for it.
However, the private conversation was that he wanted to make sure that Garry and
I were going to be significantly involved because he had heard too many
complaints about Charles and if Charles were going to take over the event, he
would not agree to give it to us. I'm guessing at that time, since Bill had just
started his store, a vendor relationship with Charles didn't seem that important
at that point in time.
I won't replay history for you but you all know the story that I broke our
"partnership" with Charles about a year ago. I gave Charles the full rights to
the North Hollywood play parties and, since the contract for Fist Fest 2009 was
in my name only and I had guaranteed the venue, Garry and I took responsibility
for Fist Fest. I'm sure you all remember the drama that Charles tried to create
regarding the situation and the lies and rumors he tried to spread about the
entire affair. In the process, Charles refused to return my share of the
equipment and to this day has still not returned it. He was either unable or
unwilling to continue the North Hollywood parties without my assistance, I'm not
sure what his reasons were. But the point is that he very well could have and
chose not to.
So, there's more to the back story but several of you have been emailing me and
I thought I'd give you the short version. CCBC still has not settled my account
with me from last year's Fist Fest. They collected the pass fees at the door but
have never provided an accounting of them. In the spirit of our on-going
relationship, I never pushed the issue as we had a contract and I was confident
that we would eventually settle up. Richard has promised to do so by next week.
So I have agreed to sit on this until next week. In speaking with Richard, I
somewhat get the feeling that he was coerced into this agreement by Charles, and
Bill Freyer's collusion seemed to have sealed the deal. I have asked him to
rethink his decision but I honestly wouldn't put any faith in it at this point.
The stance that the resort is taking at this point in time is that they are
still having the event so they aren't going to refund any deposits.
Of course, they are still having AN event. Just not the event that everyone who
paid a deposit was expecting. It is now being run by someone that had no
involvement with last year's event and did not do the planning for this year's
event. Like most things in our community, if I were to venture a guess, it
would be that the bottom line is money or favors. Charles always likes to remind
everyone how wealthy he is. He is wealthy, no denying that. He owns and runs a
successful adult novelty company. In that line of business, Charles has done
well and I'm sure he deserves everything that he has gained from that venture.
Isn't that the American Way? Garry and I don't have that type of means. Our
ethics have always been about bringing people together and building community,
not building our bank accounts. Charles has more financial influence than Garry
and I do. And he is not afraid to use it if he needs to in order to get his way.
He has been very bitter about my decision to stop working with him and has made
it very clear. His goal was to "win" this battle at all costs. Unfortunately,
Garry and I do not see this as a battle. If Charles needs to win, then he can
win. And the more people who support his ethics and means of business, the more
he wins and our community looses.
For those of you who have asked, I don't know what to tell you about your room
deposits. I have posed the question to Richard and hopefully he will have an
equitable solution for you when I follow up with him next week. In the meantime,
if you'd like to ask him directly, the number for the resort is 800-472-0836.
The staff will try to put you off but if you want to talk to Richard and let him
know your feelings on the situation, you'll just need to be persistent. I don't
know what effect it will have in convincing him to do the right thing and refund
deposits for those of you who do not want to participate in this new event. But
if people don't voice their views to those in Richard's position, which is
misleading their customers and forcing them to do business with someone who's
ethics don't match their own, then he and those like him will continue taking
advantage of the people who patronize their businesses.
Once Richard gets back to me and I have a final resolution on this, I'll post
all of the pertinent information on our website, as well as contact information
for all of the individuals and businesses involved in this new contract so you
can have direct access to them to resolve any problems you might encounter.
Of course, the real "telling" of the values of those involved in this, Charles,
Richard and Bill, is that all of this was done without a single phone call or
correspondence with me. If this entire transaction is as transparent as they are
trying to project, why was it all done in a "cloak and dagger" process without
one of the parties involvement? I wish I could tell you who the culprit (or
culprits) is in this transaction but the only information I have is that which
has been provided by the other three individuals. Since each of them is telling
a different version of the story, it makes it difficult to determine which are
facts and which are merely attempts at self-preservation.
Thank you for your friendship and support. We are truly fortunate individuals to
have friends like you who stand by us and are protective of us. It really is
nice to be reminded that there are still people in this community that have
maintained their sense of ethics and consideration for others.
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