HHA Updates... Here we go!

[drfrightner]

Jim/Shane,

I have tried over and over again to answer all questions. Read every post and I think between them all you should find your anwers. I can't answer them anymore clearly. This initial boards term will only last the first year. The members will vote on the second board, so in theory every single person on this board could be voted off by this time next year.

Why can't you have a vote on a board ... that is an easy answer. WE HAVE NO BYLAWS, and without any bylaws you have no process to vote, you don't have any requirements to run you have NOTHING. You must put a board in place so you can create all of these things and once they are created the bylaws will dictate everything. If we can recall the first IAHA board was not voted on either it was created by people raising their hands. This board was hand picked from a group that had all sorts of different backgrounds from say charity haunts, home haunter turned pro, to long time successful haunted house owners.

You will be happy trust me. But I can't announce a thing because I wasn't voted to be the spokeman, but the person who is will be answering those questions so give him a chance.

Remember this group is your group and soon enough you will have all the details and in the end even Shane (LOL) could be president if he meets the requirments of the bylaws, once they are established.

Right now there are SEVERAL things trying to be accomplished before Transworld such as a new website, which is something I'm working on right now. Keep an eye out.

THanks
Larry

[swampboy]

Books

Presumably the HHA publishes a financial report right? So as soon as the report for 2008 is complete it will be distributed to members right?

[drfrightner]

Yes everything will be revealed for all members...that goes without saying.

All of this is just getting set up so give it a few weeks to get things straight.

Larry

[RJ Productions]

I was also involved with another start up association years ago. This isn't out of the ordinary. It's sort of a catch 22. You need the by-laws in place to adopt the goals, elect the board, etc..... but you need the board to create the by-laws and adopt the goals!! The way Larry is attempting it is the easiest. You have one driving force (Larry) presents the needs for the association, gets like minded individuals to volunteer to help, uses those people and their individual expertises to help create the platform of which to build the organization. Then with the all the pieces in place the organization can hit the ground running.

A smaller group of like minded individuals can accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. We ended up with problems in the IAHA that could have been solved quite easily in the beginning, but once the organization was set, it became a monunental task. Some of those problems still exisit today and are now lending to it's eventual downfall. I am not being a Hanfadomus here! I'm just stating facts as they are presented. The major problem the IAHA has is trying to be the "end all, be all". It was formed as an association of "Haunted Attractions". But quickly lost it's focus because either they claim they didn't want to exclude anyone. In reality they wanted a BIG organization, assuming numbers meant representation. If you only include actual Haunt OWNERS and OPERATORS you have a very finite number. So they decided to allow people who were somehow involved such as actors or tech people, then people who were THINKING of getting into the business, then anyone who just LIKES the business.

History has shown us this was the wrong approach. It is more important to have QUALITY as opposed to pure QUANITY. This is the focus of the HHA.

So Larry is doing it the most effective way. Get the best people you can, lay the best foundation you can and you get the most secure structure possible.

[Speculo]

I will attempt to explain this with clarity.

You paid $50 to Halloween productions, a business.

For that you got a service -

A four issue subscription to Hauntworld that will be honored
A membership card with deep discounts from vendors
A directory (that has not been published yet)
A part in starting a new association. (Your membership here will work towards a membership in the new association in some powerful way TBD)

There was no board, there were no bylaws etc.
There is no more expectation of reviewing the books than you would have by purchasing a subscription to Haunted Attraction Magazine or getting a prop from Scarefactory.


$30 of that went to your magazine sub.


You are worrying how Larry misused your other $20.....?


NOW....

A true association is being created.

It is being incorporated, getting tax exempt status, forming bylaws etc.
An interm board has been formed from a diverse group of Haunt Owners that will be annouced in a matter of days. I am certain most of you will like it. Perhaps some of you will not.

Then again some people are hard to please.

Don't forget these people are working for YOU. Will you be supporting the time and effort they put into this or will you taking bricks off the foundation and throwing them even as it is being built?

This association will most likely be functional by Transworld 2009, and with elections in 2010.

Remember, without bylaws, without rules, without qualifying the membership as actual haunt owners as many of you have called for, without legal structure there is no framework to even have an election. These things must be built from scratch.

As it was previously stated the IAHA board was formed by a show of hands and took a long time to get rolling. You have to start somewhere.

When it is fully formed it will be a true association. From the day the actual association bank account opens there will be a public record and regular reports will be issued.

So there you go.

Now where do you stand?

Is your glass half empty or half full?

Are you a creator or a destroyer?


What you need to know is a group of your peers will be working very hard to create something you can be a part of, something that will elevate this industry.

Please provide input on what you would like to see this group do, now is the time.

Or we can storm the castle and demand Larry show us what he did with our $20.
By the time he finishes paying for the graphics, website, fees, tradeshow banners, etc. and turns these assets over to a board to run, he is going to wish he charged us $500 each!

I believe in this and my glass is totally full!

How about you?

Thanks!

[swampboy]

I understand what you are saying. However, you guys may want to think about it, if the previous posts were accurate. The HHA apparently has existed for some time now as fees have been collected from some according to previous posts, people claim to have membership cards and Larry has been publicly introduced as the Chairman of the organization on national television (the Fox piece). Claiming that these people who paid have no no rights and that there really is no legal entity that they paid their money to is probably not comforting. And you may not care if they are comfortable, but you only need one person with an axe to grind to cry fraud and you have a whole big bucket of crap to deal with.

Considering the volume of emails I get from this board, I know a lot of people out there just want information and want to be included. A lot of people want this to work and want to feel like it really is their association, but feel shut out. They don't post because they are afraid of being the voice of dissent and the possible repercussions. PR to the outside world is important but you guys could really benefit from a member liason or member outreach program right now if you want this to go smoothly and successful from the start. If your attitude is that people don't have the right or need to know then I'm not sure why HHA is being created. If you have actual people paying and have HHA cards it would have seemed natural to keep them posted and solicit their input on board members.

[rwrussom]

While I am not inclined to think any fraud is in the works, in fact I think the goals are very worthy, I do agree with the concern of running over the top of existing members.
I purchased my annual membership in November and it apparently expires in March, not really a year is it? This was never disclosed at any time on the website, nor is it now I believe.
More importantly to me, none of the advertised benefits seem to exist except for the magazine (which i do enjoy). The location to over 100 articles and features of haunted house information in the members only section has eluded me to date.

[graystone]

Swampboy

Well said. Ben I did not assume myself that Larry has misused any money and I really don't feel anyone else does either. HOWEVER the 20.00 per person is a hell of alot of money if there are as many members that has joined as we have been told. I don't think people wanting to have names, breakdowns on how many actual members the HHA has and where the other money is going is to much to ask for. I am sure the website, graphics, lawyers ( if any are involved) ect cost nothing is free anymore. But all some ask is to be told that.

I may be wrong I will have to go look but I purchased a subscription to HauntWorld myself. And now I am told I get it when I joined the HHA and today I recieved a letter saying my subscription has ran out. If what you say is true and if I am correct I have over paid. Either way I am not going to fuss over a 30.00 subscription. But I can see where all this is getting more and more confusing!!! it seems EVERYONE here wants to be involved in everything to make sure that this is truly something for the Industry and not another way for a couple of folks to make additional money from those who are quick to throw it out just because someone says we need something here. Yeah again it confuses me too. Right now as far as myself I don't know whats going on. I buy banner ads, I buy subscriptions to HauntWorld I buy in to HHA I buy I buy I buy. Its only right that some of us just want to know every detail. Shane and its I am still hanging in there Shane this time!

[drfrightner]

Well said Ben...

Let me explain in even more detail... I saw a vision as well did others that if we can start a REAL association we can accomplish much for this industry. Some of you believed in that end goal and you joined the association with the hope we can get this pointed in the right direction to help your business.

What has been done in that years time aside from you getthing your hauntworld magazines...

We created a website that had costs. We promoted that website NATIONWIDE through America Haunts to the tune of $54,000.00. We single handed helped raise awareness of this industry through this website and helped secure stories about this industry.

Also through this website many of your local newspapers called HHA and asked for quoates about your local attractions and we answered every single email for information. You may or may not know this already but many of your local papers got their stats on the industry from HHA even if they didn't mention it.

Additionally we created a vendor discount program which is still FAR from done. We have also been doing all of the work to keep an updated HHA data base for all the people who joined. This has now been turned over to new board members.

Hold on one second...I'm losing my breath.

Right now I just paid a bill to Brainstorm Studos for $1000.00 for the new HHA logos... now even more for things like banners, and new member cards. In addition to that I will be getting bills for the new website that is going up and artwork for that.

Hold on I'm not done...

I promised a data base on the site for members... that is a lot of work so I put all the hauntworld databases on the site for the time being. But as promised I'm working on a HHA haunt directory RIGHT NOW!

This will cost me about $4000.00 out of pocket to set this up. Keep in mind I paid about $150,000.00 for all the programming to create the programs in the first place so yeah I own the programs but it has to be set up from scratch on will require some additional programming to work. It will also require a cold fusion database hosting service which costs me every single month.

As Ben pointed out we're really talking about your $20.00... right now we have 187 people who joined HHA so far... so we are really talking about where or what did we do with the $3750.00.

If you go back though everything I've stated you will find a lot more expense than the $3750.00. Let me put it to you this way... I put my money where my mouth is folks. I wanted to see this happen so I put my money into it all year long. By the time March ROLLS around I would have about $10,000.00 into and that would not include the $54,000.00 America Haunts spent to promote the industry through the HHA website.

Sooo... what else do you want me to say? What other questions can I answer?

I think I'm done.

Now the real question is are you ready to make this work for you, your business, your future, your industry, or do you just enjoy running people over the coals. Maybe the other association or associations you've been members of have damaged your belief in what should, can or will be done but this one will not!

Today my glass is full and I'm not dumping half of it out just because some people can't past today. I'm looking into the future and the future is bright, today is bright, yesterday or last October was bright for our industry but the future is only going to be better.

That I do believe!

Larry

[drfrightner]

Shane if you have or had a regular subscription and it ran out I can only tell you your HHA subscription did NOT run out. You would be owed two more issues... and you will get them. Lastly if you have an issue with your magazine or if you don't get them or if we didn't get you what is owed to you that is a matter you should take up on a private level and send us an email and we will do our best to resolve your issues.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Here are the new banners for HHA. Please use them if you are a member or if you are support our efforts.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Here are all the new logos.

Check them out.

Larry

[Spookyfinder]

Will there be banners that say... "Proud member of the HHA... Making the world scream"... or something BESIDES join now? Something like I would love to put on our site once it's up instead of a join now banner!

Anyway, love the banners and the logos... everything is getting exciting! -Tyler

[drfrightner]

More images you may want to take a look at... HHA is a train running with no brakes. We're not stopping for the naysayers, we plan on doing everything we can to make this industry stronger!!! Get on board.

We need 1000 members, we need 2000 members. We need the WHOLE industry to jump on board here and make this successful! It will take EVERYONES SUPPORT not just a few big time haunted houses, it will take an army of haunted house owners and operators to make this a truely sucessfull organization.

It will take your support, it will take your help, it will take your idea's, it will take your involvement and it will take your money to make your industry stronger!

Here is a screen shot of the new website coming within days!

Larry

PS: All sponsors of HHA will have their logos displayed on the front page. If you have a company that is interested in sponsoring HHA please let us know. The new MEMBERS ONLY haunt directory is coming soon. ALL vendors who JOIN will have their companies listed...no vendor, no haunt will be listed unless you are a member in good standing. HHA will embark on yet another NATIONAL public relations effort and it will direct people to this website... so please be a supporter of HHA and take advantage of national media!