Who's going to Wonderfest

[Brother D]

Toyranch and Elizabeth (and others),

Thankyou for acknowledging that I have a right to my opinion. I would remind others that I praised the UMA display the first two years around. I gave an honest opinion of this year's set-up. As for helping out...well, to be precise I volunteered a number of times the last couple of years. and was never sent a reply. That, and the fact that no matter what you post, if you're not in the "in crowd" you generally get ignored, or very little interest, prompted me to wander away from the group to begin with (especially considering I had been a member, and regular poster, for a number of years prior to the move, and even afterwards). Yes, I did hate the move from Yahoo, because I felt Yahoo was more public, and allowed for a greater variety of people to participate (and thus reflected a less "exclusive" feel to it). The new site has always been uncomfortable for me to navigate,  and again was geared toward the "inner-circle". I really only dropped back by on a whim to give my critique of this year's display. Since I received such a vicious response (not unexpected) I won't visit or post again. Those posts I received in response pretty much prove my point. I have plenty of other  groups and extra-internet projects I am involved in. I wish all well, and will leave you with this...Uncle Forry was NEVER elitist or exclusive-- he opened his home to thousands of people over the decades, and was one of the most charming men I ever met, very unassuming and unpretentious. Peace and Blessings.

Brother D

[Elizabeth]

Posting, whether in email posts (like Yahoo) or on a board like this, is really a limiting form of communication.  As humans, we communicate with more than just words... we use body language, facial expression, vocal changes and such to convey further meaning to our words.

Brother D, it strikes me (and I certainly could be wrong) that there might be a measure of miscommunication here.  In saying that, please know that I am not being dismissive of your feelings... and again, I might be wrong.  But it feels like really this could be a misunderstanding and more of a communication snafu (however that is spelled). 

However, to be honest... I am still hurting so bad here and so exhausted (and I would guess the other folks who were there this weekend are feeling similarly), that I am concerned a day or two recovery is needed for thoughtful replies to flow... so I would sincerely urge that you not just step away from the group here, Brother D, but give folks a couple days to recuperate and recharge, and perhaps then we can begin a truly useful exchange. 

As for marginalizing people, I can only speak to my own experience...

When I first saw the exhibit at WonderFest 2007, and met the guys in person, and volunteered to help, I said, "See you at Monster Bash."  So... when I got to Monster Bash that year, around 9pm on Thursday night, I simply went in and found someone to direct me to where the group was working, walked in and said, "Give me something to do."  The guys handed me rags, cleaning solution, and pointed me to the windows, and I got to work.  When I ran out of stuff to do, they pointed me somewhere else.  Thus did the insanity begin.

As a woman, I can tell you there are MANY times I feel marginalized in this hobby. 

However, the men here in the UMA have not done that to me.

I've never heard anyone working in or around the display ever say anything about not wanting someone around.  Quite the contrary, what is generally lamented is not having more hands and help.

And, as far as message boards go... I do agree with others who have said the UMA board is one of the most civil communities you will find on-line.  I've seen some really unpleasant exchanges at most of the other horror groups on line, and there are places I will not post, because frankly I find the atmosphere too stressful.

But that is not unique to horror/sci-fi fandom...

I used to moderate a discussion board for homemakers, and you would not believe the flame wars that could be generated there over homemaking methodology, religion, immunization, breastfeeding... Halloween!

Give folks a few days to get unpacked, get their land legs back (mine feel like rubber) and catch up on home stuff and sleep, before you give up on the UMA.

Beast witches to all!
-Elizabeth

[Toy Ranch]

Our intention isn't elitist or exclusive at all, and I'm sorry you got that impression from us.  The display is a huge amount of work and whenever a member comes to us during setup or teardown of it offering help, they have plenty to do.  One of the problems with having the toy display as our convention contribution is that it's so much work we spend all weekend working on it or with it and don't have much time for anything else.  Friday I left the motel in Little Rock at 6:30am and drove 9 hours to Louisville, arriving at 3:30pm.   Then worked on the display until about 9:30 when I went to dinner for a bit, and came back and worked until midnight or so.  Then I was back up at 7 when they opened the door for setup again. 

When folks came up to talk, invariably I was interrupted by something to do for or with the display and then they'd wander off. 



As far as the Old Dark Clubhouse goes...  I don't have anything to do with it, but at the Rondo Awards ceremony (a listed event, open to anyone and everyone), David Colton invited the whole room of a couple hundred or more people to the ODC and gave out the room number over the mic. 

[Elizabeth]

As far as the Old Dark Clubhouse goes...  I don't have anything to do with it, but at the Rondo Awards ceremony (a listed event, open to anyone and everyone), David Colton invited the whole room of a couple hundred or more people to the ODC and gave out the room number over the mic. 

Yep... I went up to take a peek this year because the room number was announced at the Rondos.

It's good that Bobby raised this distinction too.

The Old Dark Clubhouse is an off-shoot of the Classic Horror Board, that sponsors the Rondos.  So... comments about that room/group should best be directed to the folks at the CHB.

Closest to our hearts here is the traveling exhibit, and how to keep that rocking.

[Kerry Gammill]

I just wanted to say how great it was to see some of you at Wonderfest. I wasn't able to arrive until Sunday afternoon due to a family event. Sorry I missed some of you, but seeing Robert, Terry, Raymond, Elizabeth and some others was wonderful. The display was fantastic. It was a particular treat to see some of those masks from the old Captain Company ads in the "flesh" for the first time. I had the Lagoon Monster mask when I was a teen but it disintegrated after a few years from the Texas heat. Too bad they didn't make those out of a little bit thicker rubber. A few more of them might still exist. I love the UMA membership kit and the disc with an unbelievable amount of great, rare hi-res photos and posters. Many thanks!

[Toy Ranch]

Something I'm not sure if we communicate well...

Terry and Raymond paid for the materials for the display out of pocket, and John Mitchell built it for us at no charge.  He also stored it, sometimes piled up in his home!) for several years.  Setup and loading takes about 12 hours.  Taking it down is much less time, 4 or 5 hours.  Jeff has it stored at his place of work in Chicago.  Terry flies in and helped Jeff load it (and Elizabeth often pitches in with this somewhere along the line too).  Then it's a 6 hour drive to Louisville for the assembly.  Raymond planned all the displays, working with Robert on the Forry memorial and Max on the Meek memorial.  Robert spoke with Joe Moe about lending the very personal items like Forry's personal copies of FM#1 and Amazing Stories #26 and the SCIFI license plate and brought wonderful items he's collected.  Raymond received a lot of that in St Louis and drove it in.  Then all the work began.  The conventions give us a place to set up, and after the first couple exhibits we added a comped room to the "rider".  They don't pay the UMA to bring the exhibit.  All money for that is raised through donations and the proceeds from various items we sell.  Richard Olsen does most of the graphics for the display, as well as the membership kit, posters, etc.  He printed them for us to sell to raise money for the display.  It's a labor of love, representing hundreds of hours of work, thousands of out-of-pocket dollars, and a gargantuan overall effort to make it happen. 

Some expect it to contain the rarest and best, but actually that's not the goal.  At the end of the packing a Wonderfest staff member walked up and struck up a conversation about Big Frankie in the exhibit.  He still has the Big Frankie he bought new at the store as a kid and never built.  He treasures it and remembers the drug store where he bought it, and the owner who invented a "layaway" plan so he could afford it over a couple months without someone else buying it.  All weekend long we hear stories like this from people who see something they remember and it brings up those wonderful memories of happy times in childhood.  That's why the exhibit exists.  That's what we get out of it.  That, and hanging out with other UMA members and con attendees...  We could fill it with stuff so rare nobody's ever seen it before, and we put a few things like that in it, but people see the stuff they remember and it makes them happy and that's what the exhibit and the UMA are all about. 

[Richard]

Yep... I went up to take a peek this year because the room number was announced at the Rondos.

It's good that Bobby raised this distinction too.

The Old Dark Clubhouse is an off-shoot of the Classic Horror Board, that sponsors the Rondos.  So... comments about that room/group should best be directed to the folks at the CHB.

Elizebeth, I was heavily involved in the genesis of the Old Dark Clubhouse. It's no more an offshoot of the CHB than it is the UMA. As to the present, I am unaware of any group sponsership of it. But I am not a member of the CHB so things may have changed. Please explain more.
The Rondo Awards are sponsered by the CHB, I believe.
Best,
Richard

[fmofmpls]

Just a very quick post to let everyone know that I'm back in one piece and still very much alive .. well, sort of.  I plan on posting later this evening with gratitude for everyone who assisted us, supported us, and apparently even ignored us.  I also look forward to addressing Brother D's post in particular.  I will say real quick, we are a lot of things alright, but we are NOT an elitist organization or community! Never have been, never will be. I can swallow almost any kind of criticism you can throw my way, but that is certainly not one of them. I know myself and the people involved with the UMA way too well to allow a comment like that to go unaddressed.

It's great to be back home, but I still feel as if I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. 

[EDITOR MFTV]

Elizebeth, I was heavily involved in the genesis of the Old Dark Clubhouse. It's no more an offshoot of the CHB than it is the UMA. As to the present, I am unaware of any group sponsership of it. But I am not a member of the CHB so things may have changed. Please explain more.
The Rondo Awards are sponsered by the CHB, I believe.
Best,
Richard

If anything the Old Dark Clubhouse is a offshoot of Richard Olson, Gary Prange, and Joe "Sorko" Schovitz, the fact that a lot of Classic Horror Film Board members frequent it is because they know where a good time can be had! But the ODCH excludes no one unless you make an a$$ of yourself there. The Rondo Awards are sponsored and paid for by David Colton, they are promoted through the CHFB which David is the founder of. I hope this clarifies things.

[Toy Ranch]

Richard, I think of the ODC in terms of the Classic Horror board, because Gary, David, and the rest of the usual suspects mostly post there.  As to it's origins being there, that's an association I made in my head, not from facts, just because it's where most of them post.  To my understanding, Gary was more or less a one man band on putting things together this year, with some support from others of course.  It really looked cool! 

I'm sorry you weren't able to make it Richard.  You were missed very much, and we talked about your absence and contributions often over the weekend.  The buttons you made for Monsters From The Vault were a huge hit!  Those who hadn't seen the Membership Kits in person were knocked out by how cool they are. 

I know Elizabeth, Raymond, Terry, Jeff and I are all bone weary and exhausted.  Heck, I forgot to mention Max's contributions earlier, and Elizabeth's husband Dave.  Probably forgot some other stuff too.   

One area in which we have been remiss is that we need to have a member get-together other than the group photo.  A dinner or something to give all UMA members a chance to hang out and spend time together without having work involved.  The nature of the exhibit is such that there is so much work we don't have much energy for anything else, but that needs to be re-thought going forward.  There are some understandably frayed feelings in this thread.  I'm not going to lock it, but if we could start over talking about Wonderfest elsewhere, maybe we could leave some of this behind.

[packy120353]

Welcome back everyone! I sure missed going and seeing my friends but there'll be others. Great job spreading MONSTER JOY .

[fmofmpls]

I went, but was not impressed this year with the UMA exhibit. A few changes, but honestly not for the best. I think the UMA has become  focused on certain "personalities" (cerain members), and has become very elitist, and thus has resulted in an every increasing decline in the interest of the UMA display. A good idea would probably be to focus less on these personalities and more on actually generating interest and completely equal discussion of the classic Univeral Monsters topic. This group was MUCH better when it was a Yahoo group.

Brother D

Ask not what the UMA can do for you, but what you can do for the UMA.

And I'm not talking about building exhibits or sending money either. 

Look, you're only going to feel as involved as you choose to get. Coming into this thread after months of being inactive, just to take a shot at the exhibit and this community, is an easy cheap shot in my opinion. Especially considering it was you Brother Damien who made no effort whatsoever in approaching any of us during the weekend. Elitist? Exactly. Had you announced yourself, we would have welcomed you with open arms. And if it was further involvement you were looking for, we would have gladly passed you a hammer. Again, you're only as involved as you wish to be. 

I wasn't even going to respond to this matter since it is mostly without merit, but there's too many wonderful people who make this all possible not to. And guess what? The majority of those people weren't even at the convention! They are the good folks who make up this entire community. The landscapers, postmen, reporters, teachers, managers, custodians, librarians, soldiers, doctors – people from all walks of life. Everyday folks who regularly contribute (and sometimes silently)  in making this one of the best monster forums found anywhere on the web.

You can criticize the exhibit all you want and I won't ever flinch, but to label this forum as one built on a few "star personalities" with an elitist flair is not only insulting, it's damn near crazy.

[michblk]

Speaking of our soldiers, has anyone heard from John Mitchell?

BK

[raycastile]

Speaking of our soldiers, has anyone heard from John Mitchell?

BK

He sent me a Facebook message Thursday asking if I had left for Louisville yet.  I replied from the hotel that I was already there.  I haven't heard back since.

[mike c]

Ask not what the UMA can do for you, but what you can do for the UMA.
...
The landscapers, postmen, reporters, teachers, managers, custodians, librarians, soldiers, doctors – people from all walks of life. Everyday folks who regularly contribute (and sometimes silently)  in making this one of the best monster forums found anywhere on the web.
You can criticize the exhibit all you want and I won't ever flinch, but to label this forum as one built on a few "star personalities" with an elitist flair is not only insulting, it's damn near crazy.

Hear! Hear!.
Terry, Bobby, et al, I'd really like to do nothing more than go back to yesterday and elect NOT to post my replies to Brother Damien; I was one of the first to respond to the Brother D post Terry has quoted here, and while I do not retract a single sensibility exhibited in my reply, I know it made some, including Brother D, upset.
I never want to stir up hard feelings, but my own passion for not only the UMA but all the things I hold dear in my life sometimes make me kneejerk, and rather than the more controlled, mature examples shown by Toy Ranch and Elizabeth, I sometimes shoot without aiming very well. Please accept my apologies, I have been a part of the negativity currently running through this thread.
I suppose I need a thicker skin.
I joined to enjoy, not to inflame.
But it's just... when someone insults others with simply baffling and unfounded 'objective criticism', and then cries foul that he was unable to express his 'opinion' (flip-flop!) it makes me upset.
And then when that person plays the victim, and in his 'final post' tries to level an Uncle Forry lesson about openness and a welcoming attitude... please don't ever do that. We ALL knew and loved him in our way, and I believe his brand of kindness is EXEMPLIFIED in the UMA. Don't ever tell a UMA soldier what Forry was about... we have known for a long time.

And so I guess all of that was at the core of my irritation.

If my passion is a symptom of an immaturity that had a part in making the UMA forum a place where some feel elitism runs rampant, I am truly sorry.

I will be going to Monsterpalooza next weekend, my first 'all-alone-go-to-the-bash' convention ever. I am SO looking forward to meeting not only fellow UMA soldiers but any and all monster lovers; I hope to represent the best the UMA is about, as well as just being myself and having a great time.
I need to remember that every time I enjoin the members of this fine forum, the same hope and easy-going attitude should apply.

But let no one think the UMA is anything less than the single most open, welcoming, unassuming classic monster board anywhere. We share knowledge, and answer the same questions we asked ourselves when we were new to things. We laugh at stupid jokes, entertain ridiculously fun fantasies, and argue useless trivial facts with gusto. We wish each other happy birthdays, happy weddings/anniversaries/baby/grandbaby births, we call each other when there are hard times. We look out for each other, whether newbies, veterans or all the equally meaningless levels in between. We surprise each other with packages of monster goodies, come to each others' aid, and delight in each others' joys, toys and scores. Should there be something MORE than this?

I'm sorry for any bad feelings. But don't insult my team.

Mike C.