[TheForge] blacksmithing and abana

[Craig Schaefer]

This is what happens when 'artists' form organizations.
I am waiting for the TV version.

Craig

George Dixon wrote:

>
> 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
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