- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
MAGFest is a Music and Gaming festival run by people who don't know how to run a festival and are trying to use an ostensibly 501c(3) org for personal gain. MAGFest, Inc. (A Tax-Exempt Maryland Corporation)is a annual festival held in the Washington metropolitan area that celebrates video games and video game music, per their wikipedia. Unsurprisingly, for a festival that is primarially composed of Spergs and Autists and Nerds of all failures, MAGFest has drawn it's share of drama and bullshit. No, I'm not talking about any of the times when Chris-chan visited visited - Christine even had a Panel about him one year, but it was boring by Chris-chan standards.
Today I'm talking about the strange creep and orbiters that surround MAGFest itself. MAGFest, as a Gaming-Focused convention was always... spergy. But MAGFest has had it's controversies over the years. They've fired employees and fired employees have talked shit. The latest drama threatens to engulf all that MAGFest holds dear: They've fired their Events Director and banned several of her accomplices for 3 years. The Board of Directors has issued a statement. In response, "Friends" of MAGFest have organized to... Do something. Who knows what. Protest the firings, perhaps, but mostly argue about how their special-interest group has been wronged by not being allowed to appropriate funds. The complainers have their own controversies, such as Shir/Sheva Goldberg who has a history of covering for pedos and creeps.
MAGFest had drama a few years ago when a BOD Member, Paul Good, tried to create himself a paid position as a "Community Organizer". The staff revolted and the position was withdrawn, but several employees of MAGFest Inc. were fired for their part in that revolt. Nick Martinelli and Dominic Cerquetti, both former (At the time Active) Executive Directors/Members of MAGFest staff tried to push this through. (For my take: I don't blame Paul for trying to monetize MAGFest. I do blame him for cynically going for 501c(3) status at the same time. Pick one).
The long story of recent drama begins with Debra Lenick, "Events Director" being put on a PIP (Attached Below) for talking shit publicly about the decisions of the event and the board. Thumbing her nose at the fact that this is her job and not a playground, Debra continued to talk shit publicly, among other things being part of the "Friends of MAGFest" website and letter that claims that the board had failed to protect her an all of the full-time employees from bullying. Reading between the lines, it seems like "Bullying" might be codeword for asking them to do their jobs. On December 28th, things came to a head: Deb was fired. There was much shouting.
To add to this, there's another tale of grift and misdealing: Paul Good, a member of the board, believes that he personally owns the Trademark to MAGFest and is simply licenses it out to MAGFest, Inc. the 501c(3). He might even be right. In his statement (Along with Dom Cerquetti and Dusty Peterson) he presents the move to 501c(3) as being "made primarily for financial reasons" - And seems to have said in private statements that he'll simply take it private again. This is a whole different kind of ballgame, which IANAL so can't even begin to comprehend if it's brilliant or stupid (probably the latter). This group of half the board is now refusing to do any voting; Instead playing the "Take my ball and go home" stragety unless the other half of the board resigns. Thankfully, the deciding vote can be cast by:
Paul Birtel, Magfest's Current and recently appointed Executive Director. He's not a nice guy, either. His management experience includes running a YMCA and... that's about it. He's more or less universally hated by those who work with him from MAG, which could be for any number of reasons, but probably because he's just an asshole. Unfortunately, he's also an asshole who's entirely right and within his rights. He seems to want to run MAGFest as a reputable nonprofit, while the staff saw themselves as full time partiers.
Another reddit sperg about this drama
I'm hardly unbiased: I have personal connections directly to those involved in the drama, though those bridges are burned to a crisp long before this post or this drama. Apologies for the first-post and powerleveling. I've been lurking for a while, but between the drama and the fact that MAGFest has long had the cancer of Rat Kings infesting it (I don't know if Cadence or others from MAGfest's troon squad are really connected to the Rat Kings I've seen here, but they sure seemed to name-drop a lot). I think there's lots to uncover about MAGfest's bullshit that I don't have the inclination to (mostly because it makes me so very mad). Nobody here is decent people, and all deserve the burnination.
Today I'm talking about the strange creep and orbiters that surround MAGFest itself. MAGFest, as a Gaming-Focused convention was always... spergy. But MAGFest has had it's controversies over the years. They've fired employees and fired employees have talked shit. The latest drama threatens to engulf all that MAGFest holds dear: They've fired their Events Director and banned several of her accomplices for 3 years. The Board of Directors has issued a statement. In response, "Friends" of MAGFest have organized to... Do something. Who knows what. Protest the firings, perhaps, but mostly argue about how their special-interest group has been wronged by not being allowed to appropriate funds. The complainers have their own controversies, such as Shir/Sheva Goldberg who has a history of covering for pedos and creeps.
MAGFest had drama a few years ago when a BOD Member, Paul Good, tried to create himself a paid position as a "Community Organizer". The staff revolted and the position was withdrawn, but several employees of MAGFest Inc. were fired for their part in that revolt. Nick Martinelli and Dominic Cerquetti, both former (At the time Active) Executive Directors/Members of MAGFest staff tried to push this through. (For my take: I don't blame Paul for trying to monetize MAGFest. I do blame him for cynically going for 501c(3) status at the same time. Pick one).
The long story of recent drama begins with Debra Lenick, "Events Director" being put on a PIP (Attached Below) for talking shit publicly about the decisions of the event and the board. Thumbing her nose at the fact that this is her job and not a playground, Debra continued to talk shit publicly, among other things being part of the "Friends of MAGFest" website and letter that claims that the board had failed to protect her an all of the full-time employees from bullying. Reading between the lines, it seems like "Bullying" might be codeword for asking them to do their jobs. On December 28th, things came to a head: Deb was fired. There was much shouting.
To add to this, there's another tale of grift and misdealing: Paul Good, a member of the board, believes that he personally owns the Trademark to MAGFest and is simply licenses it out to MAGFest, Inc. the 501c(3). He might even be right. In his statement (Along with Dom Cerquetti and Dusty Peterson) he presents the move to 501c(3) as being "made primarily for financial reasons" - And seems to have said in private statements that he'll simply take it private again. This is a whole different kind of ballgame, which IANAL so can't even begin to comprehend if it's brilliant or stupid (probably the latter). This group of half the board is now refusing to do any voting; Instead playing the "Take my ball and go home" stragety unless the other half of the board resigns. Thankfully, the deciding vote can be cast by:
Paul Birtel, Magfest's Current and recently appointed Executive Director. He's not a nice guy, either. His management experience includes running a YMCA and... that's about it. He's more or less universally hated by those who work with him from MAG, which could be for any number of reasons, but probably because he's just an asshole. Unfortunately, he's also an asshole who's entirely right and within his rights. He seems to want to run MAGFest as a reputable nonprofit, while the staff saw themselves as full time partiers.
Another reddit sperg about this drama
I'm hardly unbiased: I have personal connections directly to those involved in the drama, though those bridges are burned to a crisp long before this post or this drama. Apologies for the first-post and powerleveling. I've been lurking for a while, but between the drama and the fact that MAGFest has long had the cancer of Rat Kings infesting it (I don't know if Cadence or others from MAGfest's troon squad are really connected to the Rat Kings I've seen here, but they sure seemed to name-drop a lot). I think there's lots to uncover about MAGfest's bullshit that I don't have the inclination to (mostly because it makes me so very mad). Nobody here is decent people, and all deserve the burnination.
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