TRF board president Becky Butler and treasurer Jane Surbeck quit on Monday.
UPDATED: Number 3 takes a dive. Crystal Jones, who was the Allen County representative member resigned yesterday.
Jane Surbeck is quoted in a local rag:
“This festival is a group effort,” Surbeck said. “Every sponsorship, every committee, everything needed to be worked on as a group. But as a general rule, you have some people who go off half-cocked and want to do their own thing and spend the money, even when you don’t have the money.”
Amazing. Now what? Who’s next? They should hire Jim Sack.
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What, they made their bed but can't lie in it? How can they fire their director then quit the next week? Sounds a little strange to me…
…Like rats from a sinking ship…
Bob, get an account at Intense Debate and I won't have to moderate every one of your comments.
Well, "they" are not the entire board. The story goes that Jane and the other person announced their resignations to the surprise of the rest of the board. Factions. Jane Surbeck is very sharp and direct. No nonsense. She has achieved much in Fort Wayne as a volunteer. If she resigned it should be seen as a protest against the way the board is being run, perhaps also concerning the firing of the ED. They will have a very tough job to raise that much money, to coordinate logistics, to produce marketing, and all the detritus that accompanies the festival. Think only of the challenge of putting on the parade.
To a degree I wonder about the saturation with the festival season. There seems to be some sort of Fest every weekend for the summer months.
@Jim, I got the same impression as well, that Jane's departure was a nail in the coffin, that she was the only one without the TRF colored glasses on.
Forgot I HAD an account…thanks for reminding me…LOL!
I logged in..lemme know if it works, OK?
I still had to approve it. Maybe the next one will go through on its own.
I could write until I'm blue in the face and it won't change a thing. The festival has become the play toy of a few privileged individuals who run it as their own private club and really don't care what the audience of sponsors think.
With 3 members of the board of directors resigning, I'd say that's a good beginning. It's a shame that those three may have been the only ones there who "got it". .
Who was the genius who decided to eliminate the phrase "Junk Food Alley" a number of years ago and replace it with "healthy food alternatives"… That was about as popular as the proverbial turd in a punchbowl. The festival board later decided to kick out the traditional, home town food vendors using food/health concerns as an excuse and bring in out-of-town-ers and their commercial operations (who would pay much more for permits). Most anyone wanting "junk food alley" that year simply traveled out to the Allen County 4H fair and found their familiar hometown food vendors and familiar prices. When the toxic levels of the rivers and the toxic levels of liability lawyers increased to dangerous levels, they sunk the Raft Race and replaced it with……nothing. "Show Us Your Tan" was politically incorrect and when it was quashed the festival replaced it with………..nothing.
And the City hasn't helped either. Allowing non-affiliated, for profit, beer tents on nearly every corner at festival time has taken away much-needed operating capitol generated by the Official beer tent. And this board of directors does nothing but hire and fire and blame executive directors (even those that never get to run a festival) and then they piss and moan in the media that sponsors won't come forward.
It's over. You killed it. You took a community event that brought diverse groups together to celebrate what was good about our city, and you're ruined it, leaving a legacy of distrust and massive debt.
And where was our highly-respected news media during all of this? They were looking the other way so as not to offend the festival board and miss those media buys and valuable promotional opportunities……
Wie gehts Herr Sack,
I submitted my resume to TRF in their last 2 search efforts for an ED. I was unsuccessful. My understanding is too many board members, too much board involvement, meaning too little success.
let me hear from you, perhaps a good glass of wine.
Doris
Fort Wayne Newspapers has agreed to another year of sponsorship, so any media attention about the problems of leadership and execution of the Festival will not see the light of day.
Now it's up to the bloggers and other new media to take up the challenge of ferreting out the truth.