Re: V-Day
Ina Centaur
As a note of reminder -- I have not been involved with this "SL V-Day" event since January, when I sent my resignation, and also subsequently, sLiterary, Inc's.
But, I will try to help as I can. I am surprised by your email and Ada's response, but I cannot speak for the group's behavior.
I believe that the "SL V-Day" group has raised a nontrivial amount through usage of the V-Day logo and propaganda et seq. They also propagated the statement that (paraphrased, as I am not inworld right now to pull up the notecards) "100% of donations would go to V-Day."
Because of schedule conflicts, I did not get to see much of their performance. However, I believe they ended up showing an original play pro bono (supposedly).
But, as per your email, I do find it questionable that they are breaking their word that they are donating to V-Day. I don't believe anyone involved is petty enough to pocket the money (but, then again, I have been completely unaware of their doing's since January). I would assume that they would be donating it to some source, if not V-Day. Thus, I would be interested in knowing to whom they are "donating" to.
I would also expect them to send a notice of apology to all of their donors. The notice should also inform the donors which party/parties the funds would actually go to.
In the event that I do not receive a notice in a timely manner or in the next two weeks, I would directly file an abuse report to Linden Lab under my developer account. Linden Lab keeps meticulous track of every single conversion to US dollars for IRS purposes. The real sources should be revealed in the end, one way or another.
Ina
James,
I wanted to be in touch following my interaction with Ada Radius (aka Judith Combs) as my understanding from her is that your group has made the collective decision not to donate V-Day's Spotlight this year. My concern with this decision is that we allowed you continuous use of our logo and Spotlight monologue after our conference call explaining our limits on the copy rights. It was in that call that we also agreed to allow your continued use of our logo in your set as well as reference to a connection with V-Day at all with the understanding that your proceeds would then be directed toward to V-Day's Spotlight. I find it incredibly offensive that Judith/Ada has not only questioned our standing as a 501c3 without clearly doing her research, but she has seen fit to contact the California Department of Justice without doing said research. Had she done so she might have found that Worth Magazine has named us one of the top non profits in the country. As a virtual organization yourself, I would have thought that your group would be the first to understand the functions of V-Day as a virtual organization as well and that the use of more than one address (being that we all work from our homes) would not be something that would so bring us into question for your accountant. I wanted to bring this matter to your attention (in case it was not something you are aware of) and also state that we will need your group on Second Life to cease any use of the V-Day name, logo or any reference whatsoever to a connection with us since there is, in reality, none. It saddens me that our efforts to work with you have resulted in this ill will, but we wish you well in your future endeavors.
Shael Norris
Director, College Campaign
718.885.9447 (voice)
WILL YOU BE IN NEW ORLEANS ON APRIL 11-12, 2008!?
Ina Centaur
issue in a timely matter.
I am also cc-ing the parties I sent the first email to... hopefully
let them take a deep breath of relief in the semi-chaos that has
ensued from this misinterpretation of miscommunication.
I am sorry. I apologize for the resultant misinterpretation (by the
masses?) of my interpretation of the miscommunication that occurred
between the SL V-Day efforts and the main V-Day event.
Again, I have not been involved in the group since January. I was
surprised the email. I saw that the matter was timely, and after a
looong day, I did my best to send it to the few parties I knew were
involved. The point was to get the right people connected.
It looks like the proper people who should be dealing with this are
all communicating again.
Best wishes -- and peace, really!
On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 1:55 PM, Shael Norris <sh...@vday.org> wrote:
> I would like to end the email strand that I understand has been fast
> making its way around the universe. I apologize for my part in the
> misunderstanding because I had forgotten that Ina has completely removed
> herself from any association with this group in Second Life. I would
> like to redirect any questions about the relationship between V-Day and
> this Second Life group to Lauren Weyland as we have been in contact
> directly and rather than having several point people, all questions and
> clarifications can be directly sent to Lauren. Once V-Day has received
> a check from this Second Life production, we will be providing a proof
> of donation letter to Lauren which can be made available to anyone that
> may have questions. Everyone please rest assured that we are well aware
> of the good intensions of your group and I can only hope that we will be
> better able to understand one another in the future.
> Thank you so much.
>
>
> Shael Norris
> Director, College Campaign
> 718.885.9447 (voice)
>
> WILL YOU BE IN NEW ORLEANS ON APRIL 11-12, 2008!?
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ina Centaur [mailto:ina.c...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 3:52 AM
> To: Ada Radius
> Cc: Shael Norris; jdw...@gmail.com; Susan Swan; Cecile Lipworth; Lauren
> Weyland; ToryLynn Long; Rekka Berchot; Calliope Delgado
> Subject: Re: V-Day
>
> It looks like this is a simple miscommunication on the Ada/Shael end,
> and that cause for alarm should be postponed (if necessary at all!).
>
> Ada/Shael: please don't propagate the silent treatment with each
> other (well, until this is solved at least)! ;-)
>
> (Although, I think you are supposed to choose a subset of charities
> to support, instead of directly donating to VDay -- iirc
> vspot.vday.org guidelines. This is the whole fiscal sponsor thing I
> was trying to explain before. But, haven't been there since January,
> so don't trust my memory on that one.)
>
> ina
>
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:30 PM, Ada Radius <adar...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Ina,
> > I didn't think so, lol.
> >
> > Of course we're going to donate to a VDay project - they have a huge
> list of charities they support at their website, and many of them
> certainly have correct state filing information that we can verify. Or,
> we may find out what the official address is for the VDay organization
> itself, that we can verify with either the New York or California
> non-profit agencies, and we can go from there. I asked the California
> Registry of Charitable Trusts (which is an agency of the CA. Department
> of Justice) if they had the correct California address for VDay (the one
> listed at the State of California website is clearly incorrect), and
> passed on the information that Shael had given me over the phone, which
> also could not be verified either with New York or California.
> >
> > I'm not trying to create difficulties. I'm a CPA; I am required to
> perform due diligence when I am entrusted with other people's money. If
> we make any changes from what we represented to the SL VDay donors,
> we'll get their input before making any final decisions. I have a
> complete list of all of the avatars who donated, with the amounts each
> donated. I'm hoping to get this wrapped up and the funds delivered
> early next week.
> > Ada
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 10:43 PM, Ina Centaur <ina.c...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Not particularly. Already suffered the slings and arrows of ___ on
> this one. Just wanted to know if not to V-Day -- whom or which party?
> Also, as mentioned in the email... I think everyone who donated deserves
> to know too. Especially if there is a substantial reason not to donate
> to V-Day?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 10:15 PM, Ada Radius <adar...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Ina - do you really want to get involved with this?
> > > > Ada