Sometimes,The Truth Hurts
As the story of the dissolution of Firedance continues to unfold, some truths are becoming clearer, and they aren’t pretty.
In particular, as more details of the contract that Raven signed with Adam to “purchase” Firedance, Inc. become known, it is apparent that Raven was not completely forthcoming with the Council she had recruited about the terms of her contract with Adam. Now, please note that this writer has not laid eyes on the actual contract, due to a nondisclosure clause that would prevent us from telling you anything about it if we did read it directly. (Don’t ask us why; only Adam can explain why he did not want the terms of his contract with Raven to be public knowledge.) The information below is accurate to the best of our knowledge, based on sources who have seen the contract.
In effect, the contract that Raven signed gave her only the right to produce a festival called Firedance, and that’s all. In exchange, she agreed to take on the corporation’s debt, and to pay Adam a percentage of gross registration revenues every year that a Firedance Festival would be produced into the indefinite future. The contract did not give Raven rights to the internet domain, the yahoo discussion group, or the physical assets of Firedance, Inc. In fact, the contract explicitly retained those rights to Adam. Why did Raven represent to the Council that Adam was going to turn those things over to her? Because he told her he would. Raven chose to believe Adam’s verbal assurances, even though those were contradicted by the written contract. She chose to do this and to sign the contract against the advice of her legal advisers, because she wanted so much for the community to gather together this summer.
When it became apparent to Raven that Adam did not intend to do what she believed he told her he would, she considered that a violation of her agreement with him, and took steps to dissolve Firedance, Inc. (after offering to sell it back to him, an offer he refused). As noted earlier, in order to dissolve the corporation, Raven was required to pay off all the debt that was in the Firedance, Inc. name, primarily credit card bills to the tune of over $10,000. The status of this contract and additional claimed unpaid debt is currently under legal review, and neither this writer nor the Fire Family Council has an opinion about the legality of the contract or its dissolution. We leave it to our readers to form their own opinions about fairness.
The Council had an entirely separate reaction to this turn of events. Council members had agreed to join on the basis of Raven’s assurances that Adam was no longer involved in the festival, having sold it to her. (Many of them had earlier resigned from Firedance because of differences with Adam’s philosophy and goals for the festival.) They knew that Adam was to receive a percentage of revenues, but believed that he had turned over the discussion group, domain, and physical assets to Raven. When the Council realized that Raven had misrepresented the true state of affairs, they regrouped as a new Fire Family Council in order to pursue their original goal: to create a community-run, self-sustaining fire circle gathering. Realizing that they were essentially starting from scratch, they independently contacted Camp Cutter and made a new contract with the camp for some of the dates that were freed up by the dissolution of Firedance, Inc.
At this time Raven is not a member of the Fire Family Council or the core production team for Phoenix Fire Gathering. Even though Council members love Raven and sympathize with her original heartfelt desire to preserve Firedance for the community.
In particular, as more details of the contract that Raven signed with Adam to “purchase” Firedance, Inc. become known, it is apparent that Raven was not completely forthcoming with the Council she had recruited about the terms of her contract with Adam. Now, please note that this writer has not laid eyes on the actual contract, due to a nondisclosure clause that would prevent us from telling you anything about it if we did read it directly. (Don’t ask us why; only Adam can explain why he did not want the terms of his contract with Raven to be public knowledge.) The information below is accurate to the best of our knowledge, based on sources who have seen the contract.
In effect, the contract that Raven signed gave her only the right to produce a festival called Firedance, and that’s all. In exchange, she agreed to take on the corporation’s debt, and to pay Adam a percentage of gross registration revenues every year that a Firedance Festival would be produced into the indefinite future. The contract did not give Raven rights to the internet domain, the yahoo discussion group, or the physical assets of Firedance, Inc. In fact, the contract explicitly retained those rights to Adam. Why did Raven represent to the Council that Adam was going to turn those things over to her? Because he told her he would. Raven chose to believe Adam’s verbal assurances, even though those were contradicted by the written contract. She chose to do this and to sign the contract against the advice of her legal advisers, because she wanted so much for the community to gather together this summer.
When it became apparent to Raven that Adam did not intend to do what she believed he told her he would, she considered that a violation of her agreement with him, and took steps to dissolve Firedance, Inc. (after offering to sell it back to him, an offer he refused). As noted earlier, in order to dissolve the corporation, Raven was required to pay off all the debt that was in the Firedance, Inc. name, primarily credit card bills to the tune of over $10,000. The status of this contract and additional claimed unpaid debt is currently under legal review, and neither this writer nor the Fire Family Council has an opinion about the legality of the contract or its dissolution. We leave it to our readers to form their own opinions about fairness.
The Council had an entirely separate reaction to this turn of events. Council members had agreed to join on the basis of Raven’s assurances that Adam was no longer involved in the festival, having sold it to her. (Many of them had earlier resigned from Firedance because of differences with Adam’s philosophy and goals for the festival.) They knew that Adam was to receive a percentage of revenues, but believed that he had turned over the discussion group, domain, and physical assets to Raven. When the Council realized that Raven had misrepresented the true state of affairs, they regrouped as a new Fire Family Council in order to pursue their original goal: to create a community-run, self-sustaining fire circle gathering. Realizing that they were essentially starting from scratch, they independently contacted Camp Cutter and made a new contract with the camp for some of the dates that were freed up by the dissolution of Firedance, Inc.
At this time Raven is not a member of the Fire Family Council or the core production team for Phoenix Fire Gathering. Even though Council members love Raven and sympathize with her original heartfelt desire to preserve Firedance for the community.
posted by tempestroyal at 5/03/2006
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