LTR TO SLF

[Rev. Allen M. Drago ~ Traveler]

January 13, 2004

Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries
C/O E.A. Westleigh                           
P.O. Box 240                                      
Denmark, ME 04022                        

To Members of the Board & Those who it concerns-

   This letter is in reference to the fact that we have yet to receive a letter from Silver Leaf informing us of the decision to either continue the arrangement that we have had for years or if we are to start a new arrangement to benefit all involved.
   For those of you who may be new or may not be aware of the arrangement that was started between our company & former vendor/crafter coordinator Deb Dobbs, here is the run down.  Deb would ask us to look for certain types of artisans, crafters & entertainers to bring to the faire.  We would look for them and approach them to discuss the faire.  Information we had for the faire, we would give to them while passing their information on to Deb, so she could contact them herself.  Here is a short list of things we have brought to the  faire: live steel fighting school,
The Gypsy Jugglers, F & K Trading, S & M Leather, The Corseter, Dragon Tears Glass Studio & we brought back to the faire Iron Angel Forge.  Some of these groups still participate in the faire.
   We also place flyers for Silver Leaf on our tables at every show we do.  All we ask for passing flyers out is that Silver Leaf provide flyers, speaking of which we are currently out of flyers.  Please send 500 flyers to above listed address.
   During the time of the faire of 2002 we sat down with Carl and Andy to construct a complete merchant faire packet for who ever was gong to be in charge of vendors/crafters for the next year.  We were informed that the board had never heard of said packet nor received a copy of said packet.  If the board is interested in seeing a copy of the packet please let us know.
   It was also in 2002 that we talked to then president Terry agreeing to not only do what we normally do, but to also provide a three tier mailing using a simple contact letter.  The first tier goes to addresses we have for the state of Michigan.  The second tier goes to the states surrounding Michigan.  The third tier would have gone to the states surrounding those in the second tier.  The third tier was never done because the board requested us not to do it.  There was concern over what would happen if space for parking ran out or about having too many patrons in the park for safety issues if half of all the people we sent letters to arrived for the faire.  We covered most of the costs of the mailing.
   Upon arriving for the 2003 season we found that there had been another changing of most of the head positions.  This would not have bugged us if verbal deals that had been made were kept.  Because of that we decided that we wanted a written copy of what the arrangement for next year was going to be before we left.  We had a meeting with Steven Conrad the new executive officer for 2004.  We discussed the arrangement that we have had in the past years and how it now involves the demonstrations of the blacksmith and glass studio in exchange for a vendor space.  We also spoke of how we are normally set up together for supporting each other.  We showed Steven our copy of the merchant packet made in 2002.  We explained the sections of the packets to him, he seemed interested with the packet.  We explained how the contact letter was used in the three tier mailing.  We talked about the third mailing being canceled and why.
   It was eventually agree  d upon that we, Iron Angel Forge, Dragon Tears Glass Studio & Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries, as a group would turn in our applications and if accepted together the stipulation of if any one of us screws up that all of us were out.  The basic idea of that was to exchange the cost of having Iron Angel Forge & Dragon Tears Glass Studio come out to perform demonstrations for Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries to have merchant space.  We had given our applications and tough drawing of how we wanted to be set up as a group to Steven.  We were verbally promised a letter with the decision of those in charge for the 2004 season.
   The letter that was promised by Steven had not shown up by October.  We were starting to get concerned and made several phone calls trying to figure out we had yet to receive a letter.  The only response we received was a telephone message stating that when our proposal  was brought to the attention of those in charge, they laughed.  We were, further more, requested to send in an application form with the correct amount of money.
   Because of the inability to keep one's word and continual changes over the past 2003 season we want a physical letter stating whether or not our proposal is accepted along with the reasons listed and explained as to why the applications were not accepted.  If our proposal is not accepted, what is your counter offer?  We don't wish to waste time playing "he said, she said" games or going through tons and tons of politics.  All we want is a timely written response from those in charge telling us what is going to be the out come of all of this.



Still waiting for a response,


Allen Drago

[WarMouse -Manager-]

That's really unfortunate for you and extremely unprofessional of the faire. Have you attempted contacting them since?

[Rev. Allen M. Drago ~ Traveler]

These are recorded documents note date