[TheForge] blacksmithing and abana

[George Dixon]

Here is  a letter to the abana membership, but......
First, some weeks back, one articulate leftywriter referenced his
fellow abana board member, Clare Yellin.    Perhaps our own Mr Mudge
can enlighten us all about that exchange?

I left Ms Yellin's employ when she shut Samuel Yellin's historic shop
and sold-off its contents.  The documents regarding that transaction
are here  http://www.artist-blacksmith.org/gdm/index.htm

I was unaware of Ms Yellin's attitude problem with the deal until 3
years later when Jim Wallace, Director of the National Ornamental
Metals Museum began calling ABANA members (such as Clay Spencer) to
say the "George Dixon stole Clare Yellin's tools." ...wonder why NOMM
would go after me, all I have is a collection.......
NOMM refuses to respond by the way.....

   I have tried to end this numerous times.
   However, when Clare Yellin joined the ABANA Board in 98 (she is now
Vice President), ABANA as an institution began to be used against me.
This has escalated, signed and unsigned actions against me, by ABANA,
have been monthly at times. The latest unsigned Board email, from an
alias registered here as well, forger63 at yahoo.com, arrived on May 8,
2004.   Such an ethical bunch.....so brave with their signatures
too.....

While I appreciate the off-list emails about "getting past this"
which some have sent, what has been un-noticed is how much of 'this'
is initiated by ABANA's Board and how constant it has been.  1996 to
2004....non-stop, ask Bob Bergman or Bill Fiorini,
Bob will tell folks about the tape they burned.  Bill told us about
the bid fiasco....some of it.....let's hear the truth from them.

I am an individual, the ABANA Board is an institution.  That
institution is being and has been profoundly abused.  The National
Ornamental Metals Museum, under the direction of Jim Wallace has
played an active role with the ABANA Board against me.  Emails and
documents, now with the abana-reform group (copies I retained)
include frank exchanges of inappropriate use of those two
institutions.
Lastly, this is not just  about me. Jim Batson was run-off from ABANA
by the same clique (who was on the Board then and now?)   Who are
those who misused ABANA office for family members, bids, airfares and
business associates?  Who is giving the current conference director
the same kind of interfering nonsense I recall in 98?   Who gave Jim
McCarty's job to Rob Edwards?   Who threatened Lou Mueller with being
"Batsoned" in an inter-Board email?  No wonder abana does so little
for education, the Board is too busy playing games with their elected
offices.

Well, anyway, I'm done fighting for the right to donate my free time.
I just wanted to establish the other side of this sordid tale before
I sign off.
ABANA needs to be audited, everything from bids to conferences to
auctions, for the past 10 years...openly.....now!
Any questions, comments or cracks will be openly answered and I will
supply documentation, usually in the words of those who have lied so
much to date.  Then, ABANA, theforge et al, will be all yours.
(pop quiz: how many were registered for the 2002 abana conference
when Board Member Mudge announced, here in this forum, that space was
running out ?)
Regards,
George Dixon
Metalsmith
Letter to all abana members follows:

Hi,
As we all know all to well, there has been 'trouble' in ABANA for
some time.  While not all of  it relates to me, too much of it does.
I have tried to resolve or end the varied issues, with the small,
recurring group of 'players'; to no avail.  Until this year, I have
done so through established channels of ABANA.  It has not worked.
Indeed, trying to resolve the "last issue" has become the current
issue more than once.

By broadsiding me in the last election flier, the Candidate's
Statements in the last election were 'noticed'.  Two sitting Board
members reacted badly to a candidate who was standing for ethics and
the needed reform of the ABANA Board.  One outcome of their election
statements was that members with information were shown who to give
it to.
Around New Year, 2004, I was given an opportunity to understand just
about all of the "troubling, ABANA issues".  A past ABANA Board
member gave me 100's of ABANA documents.  Another Board member
contributed a cache of emails and ABANA expense documents.    I, in
turn, passed the entire compilation on to reform minded ABANA members
after I was kicked out of ABANA, largely by Board members named in
these documents.

My concern, regarding rebuttal, was "how to focus" all of this in the
minds of ABANA members.  I decided to turn to those named in the
Board documents for their unwitting help.......

			There is a saying about ones opposition:
"God let them understand me.  Those who do not, let me convince.
Those who I cannot convince, God, please twist their ankle so I know
them by their limp."

I decided to get the usual cast of characters to call their usual
list of associates and remind them, for me, of the sordid chain of
events of which they had been 'players' over the years and about
which they had used misinformation to sway their listeners.  Knowing,
from past experience, that these people would be ready to hit the
phones and emails if they had half of a reason, I handed each of them
a "reason and a half".

First, I offered each of them an polite opportunity to drop all of
"this", and waited for a response.  A few did respond.   To those who
did not want to drop their animus, within the context of ABANA, I
sent another communication.  In a series of personalized letters,
relating to their past actions or words within ABANA , I did my best
to let each individual bluntly know what I thought of them and what
they had for liabilities.  In an metaphorical sense, the personalized
letters "kicked 'em in their ankle", so their "limp" would be
noticeable ("The Lord helps those who help themselves.").
It has worked well to date.
Several recipients, outraged Board members, have done as projected
and loudly "limped".  Some of ABANA members, to whom they "limped",
called me and asked me to explain why I sent such a letter.
Explain I did, and do, and will.
Those who have asked me to explain go off concerned, just not
concerned with me......  (They are very cool documents to have
shared.)

I have no wish to continue this, in any manner.  (Which is why I gave
the documents away)
The membership will now get to decide to act, or to let it slide.

I do wish to address accusations made, in the context of ABANA by
ABANA Board members, about or against me:

1) Jim Wallace, and others, have asserted a variety of false stories
about how I came to own the Samuel Yellin collection.       I did not
steal nor did I extort the Samuel Yellin tools, graphics or examples
from Clare Yellin.  I was offered the tool collection, etc, when she
closed her grandfather's shop.  The paperwork is included here.  The
dates of the paperwork range from the receipt, 9-9-92, to a
certificate lauding me and my efforts in the context of "Samuel
Yellin" dated 12-21-92.  All are signed by Clare Yellin and the
laudatory certificate comes almost 4 months after the tool
transaction.......... no theft and no extortion.

2) I did not steal money from the 1998 ABANA Conference.  In fact
over $37,000 in cash and $17,000 in new equipment was turned over to
the ABANA Board by the '98 finance chairman, Lou Mueller.  The "take"
would have been larger but for the costs of accommodating an extra
700 people over our projections of 1,000 attendees.   This meant
real-time additional expenses at retail, not  the preplanned orders
and purchases in bulk and at wholesale from a year before.  The mark
of that 1998 Asheville Conference was that it expanded to accommodate
1,700 people instead of 1,000 people as planned....and no one noticed
or did without, and it still made a profit for ABANA.

The continued misrepresentation of the 1998 Asheville ABANA
Conference finances, by the ABANA Board (such as the election
statements by sitting Board members) begs the question of "what
actually happened to the cash '98 ABANA Finance Chairman, Lou
Mueller, turned over to the ABANA Board?"   Falsehoods, originating
within and repeated by ABANA's Board, damage the organization and
will cause potential future volunteers to have 2nd thoughts.

			ABANA needs an open, published, general audit
of the past decade: conferences, auctions,
			bids and contracts, airfare expenditures by
the ABANA Education Committee...everything.
         					   I encourage it to happen,
but then,  I have nothing to fear from the truth.

3) In 1998, ABANA changed from paying editors when they invoiced, to
paying editors quarterly, in advance of each issue.  In the run-up to
the 98 Asheville conference, and while battling the Board's Executive
Committee, I got behind on several Hammer's Blows.  For this I
apologized.  The 1998 ABANA Board decision was to rehire me (Nov, 14,
1998). However, Board members were swayed, by the Central Office
Contractor, against rehiring me.  She stated all of this in an email
sent after the 98 Board meeting.  The Board did not dismiss me as
editor due to anything relating to my work as editor.

4) After repeated, and now documentable provocations, within ABANA, I
lost my temper with Dorothy Steigler at the 98 ABANA auction.  I
apologized to her later that same evening.  In spite of how that
event has grown in the retelling, I will still stand by my apology to
her.  While I have come to resent how the 'retellings' now have grown
to have me sounding like a Rap song writer, I guess that is life......

5) I do not have a "woman problem".  This is a product of the
disinformation mill that goes under the name of the ABANA Board.  I
worked for and ran the forge-shop of a woman in Philadelphia for 4
years.  My publisher, now, is a woman.  I have been married to one
woman for 30 years.  Trash-talk like that is not only demeaning, it
tarnishes the elected offices of ABANA which generate it in their
emails, over their signatures.

6) "Take your meds" is another line of the same demeaning pedigree as
the  "woman problem".  It too is not true, nor does it reflect well
on the teller of the tale.  It, and too many like it, appears in
print in inter-ABANA Board email and faxes over several years.
  From the problems within the ABANA Education Committee today, to what
happened to Jim Batson in the past as well as through Jim McCarty to
me...... a small group on the ABANA Board have caused a recurring
mess.  Who was on the ABANA Board when "the Jim Batson episode"
occurred?  Who oversaw the ABANA Central Office in 1998?  Who was on
the Board when McCarty was replaced and who was on the Board when
Dixon was kicked out of ABANA?  ABANA needs what the NWBA newsletter
editor called for, regarding ABANA..."time to cleanse the temple".  I
agree!

I think you get the drift, and none of this is totally new to anyone.
The actions and statements of Directors of ABANA have been untrue,
unwarranted and unproductive.
  From their phone calls to their signed emails, 'this' could not have
the 'legs' it has had, or the effect it has had, without using the
blacksmith community of ABANA.  Misuse of elected ABANA office has
given too many people an inappropriate forum for their attempts to
exorcise personal demons or salve personal egos.  Too many other
ABANA Board members "failed to notice" the misuse of ABANA going on
during their watch.

I do not have any demands of ABANA or its Board or members.
While I believe that the ABANA Board Executive Committee's
cancelation of my advertising contract is unjust..... I imagine less
partisan Board members will prevail and that 'access' will be
restored.  I have not and do not seek compensation or retribution.
ABANA is worth reforming.
I do ask that ABANA is no longer allowed to be used against
individuals or for the benefit of Board members, their families or
their business associates.

I have only used a lawyer to write to the Board, or related people,
when they 'act badly', refuse to reply to me, and then continue to
'act badly' at my expense.  I have never sued ABANA, or anyone, not
even close......

While it is true that there will always be those who choose to act
badly, it is also true that those who do are few in number. However,
those few who 'act badly' can only have the disproportionate impact
that they have had, when other people enable them, or allow them to
use ABANA for personal agendas.

It is best if one establishes the truth before one facilitates or
forwards an untruth.
It is way past time for the ABANA blacksmith community to resolve to
end "this" now and forever.

Regards,

George Dixon, Metalsmith