Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Breaking down Festivus, any helpers?
Joe, I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about. I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down. But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am. We ended up getting snowed in this morning. I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore… I hope everyone who came had a festivus! -Ian L.
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization? The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun... On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
That split is in every club. Sewing. Old computers. Toy trains. Cooking. Books. Everything. -- Will On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol. -andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
People contribute as they are able, and/or willing. All the contributions are cumulative and are/ should be appreciated. All this griping online is serving to do is discourage others from wanting to attend any events. I’m not taking away from the points made, but there is a way to ask and encourage others to contribute more, but this isn’t it. If anyone has an issue with an individual, you should take it off-line. We’re trying to become a more professional organization, so we should act like it. On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 15:55 Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
Dean is quite right. I am pretty new to this group and I’ve been trying to contribute what little I can, but the frequent passive aggressive “nobody ever helps me around this house” attitude from people really is not how you attract volunteers who are willingly giving you their time. Being a dick about it isn’t how you attract help — it certainly doesn’t make me feel like going out of my way. There’s a lot of potential here to do some awesome and really cool things, but if we can’t all pick up some courtesy and basic communication skills it will be hard to actually achieve something. Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 14, 2025, at 16:10, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: People contribute as they are able, and/or willing. All the contributions are cumulative and are/ should be appreciated. All this griping online is serving to do is discourage others from wanting to attend any events. I’m not taking away from the points made, but there is a way to ask and encourage others to contribute more, but this isn’t it.
If anyone has an issue with an individual, you should take it off-line. We’re trying to become a more professional organization, so we should act like it.
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 15:55 Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization? The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun... On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe, I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about. I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down. But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am. We ended up getting snowed in this morning. I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore… I hope everyone who came had a festivus! -Ian L.
Here is my final note on this: Volunteering is a hard and often thankless job. But we do it for the good of the community and hope that people will contribute as they can. On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 16:16 Michael schnaitter <jamie.schnaitter@gmail.com> wrote:
Dean is quite right.
I am pretty new to this group and I’ve been trying to contribute what little I can, but the frequent passive aggressive “nobody ever helps me around this house” attitude from people really is not how you attract volunteers who are willingly giving you their time. Being a dick about it isn’t how you attract help — it certainly doesn’t make me feel like going out of my way.
There’s a lot of potential here to do some awesome and really cool things, but if we can’t all pick up some courtesy and basic communication skills it will be hard to actually achieve something.
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 14, 2025, at 16:10, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: People contribute as they are able, and/or willing. All the contributions are cumulative and are/ should be appreciated. All this griping online is serving to do is discourage others from wanting to attend any events. I’m not taking away from the points made, but there is a way to ask and encourage others to contribute more, but this isn’t it.
If anyone has an issue with an individual, you should take it off-line. We’re trying to become a more professional organization, so we should act like it.
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 15:55 Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization? The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun... On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe, I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about. I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down. But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am. We ended up getting snowed in this morning. I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore… I hope everyone who came had a festivus! -Ian L.
what kind of way is that to speak of people? How incredibly rude (and frankly, childish). Think of your words before you use them. Jamie Schnaitter Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 14, 2025, at 15:56, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
I didn't see you helping Andy Thanks, Andrew Mattera
On Dec 14, 2025, at 15:56, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
Andy wasn’t in attendance yesterday. However, he has contributed very much our past events, to the community and in between to help promote VCF, as have many other others. On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 16:11 Andrew Mattera via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I didn't see you helping Andy
Thanks, Andrew Mattera
On Dec 14, 2025, at 15:56, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
Andy, calling technically minded members of the club "challenged children" is perfectly symbolic of the biggest issue this club has. Instead of talking down to us like the children you think we are, maybe you should try and take the high road and encourage this common enthusiasm. Thanks, Andrew Mattera
On Dec 14, 2025, at 15:56, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
As long as the challenged children are enabled they will just continue to act this way. We've all seen it for years and yet they still come. There is only so much you can tolerate before you tire of them. Oh, but they can replace a cap so it's ok lol.
-andy
On Dec 14, 2025, at 2:52 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ian, you were here on Friday too... But I get it, there's no fun to be had in cleaning up today, and fun is all that matters. Why would anyone want to do actual work for a volunteer organization?
The bottom line is that there is a split in the membership of this club. There's the responsible adults who get things done, and there's the kids who just want to have fun...
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 2:33 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Joe,
I get your frustration on this, but blasting the mailing list to call people out the day after the party is not the way to go about.
I’ll be honest I had zero intentions of showing up the next day, I was not a volunteer. I did not reach out to do such. I only came to attend in the allotted time on saturday, and have fun and I did. I want to thank you for those who worked to plan this event, setup, and break down.
But I agree that others were not properly informed that breakdown would happen at 9am. Many of us are over an hour away, and not everyone has a vehicle that up to the task of driving through snow and slush. You can’t fault anyone for “the roads” not being ‘bad’ because I assure you I have a picture that cannot be sent on this mailing list due to technical restrictions, that not every town was plowed by 10am.
We ended up getting snowed in this morning.
I’m going to be really honest the whole issue of a lack of communication and the constant finger pointing and blaming is one of the reasons why I rarely show up anymore…
I hope everyone who came had a festivus!
-Ian L.
You are right, I came by after work at 7pm Friday. I was there for 45 minutes, setup my machine for the next morning and saw people having fun on it when I stepped away playing Flight Sim. There’s nothing wrong with having fun and working after. The argument is here that we stated in the Town Hall to tell us when help is needed. No one thought to say “we need more volunteers for tomorrow for breaking down no one signed up” that night!? Then not even 24 hours later there’s a message lambasting the people who attended for “not showing up.” When it states “breakdown Sunday 5pm” forgive me for this, but this is the exact reaction that will drive people away. You can’t blame people who don’t know for not showing up. I’m not saying this to discount your hard work and efforts. I certainly appreciate your efforts. I understand it’s frustrating. I spent almost every weekend in 2021 and 2022 on campus helping out around the museum, I spent 2023 on the steering committee. I spent almost every VCFE since I started attending here volunteering in consignment and handling crowds. I got very burnt out, it’s stressful. Lastly, to separate by “kids and adults” is extremely disrespectful to the worth of efforts that happen on campus daily or those at events to be greater by those who of a different age groups. That is immature in itself and is not constructive discussion to be had by any organization in any capacity. Anyone saying such should rethink their response and be ashamed. -Ian L.
By "kids and adults," I was clearly referring to mentality, but nice try On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 5:06 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
You are right, I came by after work at 7pm Friday. I was there for 45 minutes, setup my machine for the next morning and saw people having fun on it when I stepped away playing Flight Sim.
There’s nothing wrong with having fun and working after. The argument is here that we stated in the Town Hall to tell us when help is needed.
No one thought to say “we need more volunteers for tomorrow for breaking down no one signed up” that night!?
Then not even 24 hours later there’s a message lambasting the people who attended for “not showing up.” When it states “breakdown Sunday 5pm” forgive me for this, but this is the exact reaction that will drive people away. You can’t blame people who don’t know for not showing up.
I’m not saying this to discount your hard work and efforts. I certainly appreciate your efforts. I understand it’s frustrating. I spent almost every weekend in 2021 and 2022 on campus helping out around the museum, I spent 2023 on the steering committee. I spent almost every VCFE since I started attending here volunteering in consignment and handling crowds. I got very burnt out, it’s stressful.
Lastly, to separate by “kids and adults” is extremely disrespectful to the worth of efforts that happen on campus daily or those at events to be greater by those who of a different age groups. That is immature in itself and is not constructive discussion to be had by any organization in any capacity. Anyone saying such should rethink their response and be ashamed.
-Ian L.
“*By "kids and adults," I was clearly referring to mentality, but nice try”* That doesn’t make your statement any less disrespectful. Can we please stop this thread now? It’s degenerating into insults and it’s extremely counterproductive. I don’t want this to turn into another incident from a few years back anybody who is here knows what I’m talking about. On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 17:13 Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
By "kids and adults," I was clearly referring to mentality, but nice try
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 5:06 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
You are right, I came by after work at 7pm Friday. I was there for 45 minutes, setup my machine for the next morning and saw people having fun on it when I stepped away playing Flight Sim.
There’s nothing wrong with having fun and working after. The argument is here that we stated in the Town Hall to tell us when help is needed.
No one thought to say “we need more volunteers for tomorrow for breaking down no one signed up” that night!?
Then not even 24 hours later there’s a message lambasting the people who attended for “not showing up.” When it states “breakdown Sunday 5pm” forgive me for this, but this is the exact reaction that will drive people away. You can’t blame people who don’t know for not showing up.
I’m not saying this to discount your hard work and efforts. I certainly appreciate your efforts. I understand it’s frustrating. I spent almost every weekend in 2021 and 2022 on campus helping out around the museum, I spent 2023 on the steering committee. I spent almost every VCFE since I started attending here volunteering in consignment and handling crowds. I got very burnt out, it’s stressful.
Lastly, to separate by “kids and adults” is extremely disrespectful to the worth of efforts that happen on campus daily or those at events to be greater by those who of a different age groups. That is immature in itself and is not constructive discussion to be had by any organization in any capacity. Anyone saying such should rethink their response and be ashamed.
-Ian L.
Yes, I am addressing everyone here I was going to send us privately to just a few, but I figured this is just easier This has got to stop. If a person is expect to be voted to a committee, they need to change their attitudes. A higher ranking official needs to step in in my opinion. Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.
On Dec 14, 2025, at 5:13 PM, Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
By "kids and adults," I was clearly referring to mentality, but nice try
On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 5:06 PM Ian Litchfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
You are right, I came by after work at 7pm Friday. I was there for 45 minutes, setup my machine for the next morning and saw people having fun on it when I stepped away playing Flight Sim.
There’s nothing wrong with having fun and working after. The argument is here that we stated in the Town Hall to tell us when help is needed.
No one thought to say “we need more volunteers for tomorrow for breaking down no one signed up” that night!?
Then not even 24 hours later there’s a message lambasting the people who attended for “not showing up.” When it states “breakdown Sunday 5pm” forgive me for this, but this is the exact reaction that will drive people away. You can’t blame people who don’t know for not showing up.
I’m not saying this to discount your hard work and efforts. I certainly appreciate your efforts. I understand it’s frustrating. I spent almost every weekend in 2021 and 2022 on campus helping out around the museum, I spent 2023 on the steering committee. I spent almost every VCFE since I started attending here volunteering in consignment and handling crowds. I got very burnt out, it’s stressful.
Lastly, to separate by “kids and adults” is extremely disrespectful to the worth of efforts that happen on campus daily or those at events to be greater by those who of a different age groups. That is immature in itself and is not constructive discussion to be had by any organization in any capacity. Anyone saying such should rethink their response and be ashamed.
-Ian L.
I didn't win, so that's irrelevant. My initial complaint is not me being a bad loser, it's legitimate and I know that it's an opinion shared by many. Members of the steering committee especially should be of the mentality that they will do the work necessary to get the reward. Some are and some aren't. If this discussion is terminated, nothing is going to change. If there can be reasonable discussion on the issue, change is possible. I was frustrated this morning and it came through in my email. I'm still frustrated. Jeff B, Jeff J, Bernie S and I all worked our asses off today to clean up after the party. Jeff B, Bill I. and I worked our asses off to set up the party. Thanks and appreciation is all well and good, but actions are what matter.
I'm sorry I couldn't help clean up, but I had to catch my flight back home to Indiana today. It seemed like a better coordination of volunteers would help avoid these pain points. I know that from running and then helping to run VCFMW since the first one, if you don't pre-arrange volunteers, you shouldn't expect anyone to be around to help. We all have busy lives, especially during the holidays. Also, I suspect that if people could stay over to help, instead of having to go back to their home a good distance away, or one of the somewhat expensive or sketchy local hotels, it would be easier to get volunteers. Not everyone can justify the expense of getting a hotel nearby just to maybe help out before/after events when they don't know if they're going to be needed. Patrick Finnegan On Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 17:41 Joseph Giliberti via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I didn't win, so that's irrelevant. My initial complaint is not me being a bad loser, it's legitimate and I know that it's an opinion shared by many. Members of the steering committee especially should be of the mentality that they will do the work necessary to get the reward. Some are and some aren't. If this discussion is terminated, nothing is going to change. If there can be reasonable discussion on the issue, change is possible. I was frustrated this morning and it came through in my email. I'm still frustrated. Jeff B, Jeff J, Bernie S and I all worked our asses off today to clean up after the party. Jeff B, Bill I. and I worked our asses off to set up the party. Thanks and appreciation is all well and good, but actions are what matter.
If this discussion is terminated, nothing is going to change. If there can be reasonable discussion on the issue, change is possible.
Let me know when you start having a reasonable discussion, because the shit you’ve been spewing is far from it. Sad part is the topic at hand is one of the main reasons I have not returned to the group with any regularity even though my wife’s health (which is why I stepped away about 3 years ago) has thankfully improved greatly. My issues on the topic are well known with many, but dude you have literally hit rock bottom and begun to dig. Time for a new discussion as it is a real problem that has only gotten worse over the years and I COMPLETELY empathize with you and understand exactly where you are coming from, but your “frustration” most certainly got the better of you. Tony Bogan
participants (11)
-
Andrew Diller -
Andrew Mattera -
Dean Notarnicola -
Dean Notarnicola -
Ian Litchfield -
Joseph Giliberti -
Michael schnaitter -
Patrick Finnegan -
Sentrytv -
Tony Bogan -
William Donzelli