Question for Lars Thomas

[Keith Burns]

Just curious, maybe I missed it, Was any type of acknowledgement ever received from St. Jude Hospital for the donation made by SMC ?

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I haven't heard anything here, but the local event was posponed, due to lack of ticket sales.

Bruce

[Mark Cothren]

Local event? :confused: We were donating the proceeds from the auction in the turning forum, right?

[Keith Burns]

I haven't heard anything here, but the local event was posponed, due to lack of ticket sales.

Bruce

Bruce we had an auction here on SMC and the money raised by people bidding and then paying their money which was donated to St. Jude Hospital on behalf of SMC. Close to $3,000.00 with what Lars' company matched. What I am asking is if St. Jude ever acknowledged the donation.

[Keith Burns]

Bump..........

[Nancy Laird]

Keith, did you PM Lars to try to find out the answer? I'm curious too.

Nancy

[Lars Thomas]

Sorry, guys missed this thread. Keith, have not heard from them.

[Travis Stinson]

I'm curious also.

[Mark Cothren]

Hey Lars, I have a cousin that works at St. Jude's (corp exec). I can get ahold of her and she can track it down. If you'll either PM me the info or post it here I'll be glad to give her a call.

[Mark Cothren]

I'm on it folks... stay tuned...

[Keith Burns]

Any word yet ?

[Lars Thomas]

For a varity of reasons (that all sound like excuses) the money was sent to St Jude earlier this week. Mark has validated with his cousin the money was received. Sorry for the delay in following through with my commitment to you guys. Lars

[Mark Pruitt]

Lars (and Mark), thanks for following up on this.

[Travis Stinson]

Lars, I'm sorry but I need more of an explanation than that. :mad:
You posted on Feb 28 in the original thread that the check would be mailed that week. Keith posted his question Monday........Tuesday you haven't heard from them.........and now the check was mailed earlier this week. This stinks bad, real bad. :rolleyes: Do you realize what a lot of people did for this? Me personally, I donated a turning that went for $150 and paid for it to be shipped AND bought a turning for $100. Lots of the others did the same..........for the sole reason of raising this money for the children of St. Jude's. I'm seeing red right now to find out 2 months later that the money just got sent in after Keith brought it to your attention. I'm not even concerned about whether or not the matching funds were sent in or not at this point. Whatever reasons for matching and whatever accolades you have gotten for doing so are now worthless.

[Nancy Laird]

What Travis said!:mad: :mad: I personally spent almost $300 on this auction, and it really galls me to know that the money has been sitting somewhere, not knowing where, for two months.

If it was your company who screwed up, Lars, I think that you owe us more of an explanation than "For a varity of reasons (that all sound like excuses)"..:confused: I'm seeing red too.

Nancy

[Joe Tonich]

For a varity of reasons (that all sound like excuses) the money was sent to St Jude earlier this week. Mark has validated with his cousin the money was received. Sorry for the delay in following through with my commitment to you guys. Lars

Wow...........this has to be the biggest SNAFU I've seen in a loooong time. Sorry, but THATS the reason I give to my favorite charities directly. There's no excuse for this mess.........none. Guess being responsible isn't your strong suit. Know for sure that I'll only donate if I know the guy holding the money, or if I know the guy recommending one.

Lessee.....Auction was over 2 months ago....Keith posted Monday........You haven't heard nuthin by Tuesday........and you JUST mailed it this week......... Wow.....
Don't think there's an excuse (or reason) that could cover all that.

Hate to say it, but I'm GLAD I was not able to be involved with the auction. I'll just keep sending my $ donations personally, Thank you.

Note to the Mods.........please pull this reply if I'm out of line....but not the thread......the truth NEEDS to come out.

[Rob Bourgeois]

Well Good job.. I think(you) this effectively kills any future charity auctions on this site. I know I wont waste my time and effort on any more here if this is whats ALLOWED to happen. And it was allowed to happen since none of the mods/admins followed up on this. I hold you guys just as responsible. Its your site, you stood to gain some publicity from this...yall dropped the ball as much as Lars.

No excuse and this is simply pathetic. I am kinda glad that Nancy outbid me on EVERY single thing I bid on. ;)

[Bill Stevener]

(" Mark has validated with his cousin the money was received.") Lars

What say Ye Mark?? :confused:

Another "ENRON" :eek:

[Mark Cothren]

Yes, I have confirmation from St. Jude's that a payment in the amount of $1,432.07 was received.

I'll wait until tomorrow and see if Lars wants to give the details. If not, I'll tell you what I know.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I know, Kieth, but they had local events, too. I donated a $90.00 dollar piece to use in a silent auction.

Bruce

[Curt Fuller]

Hey Lars, I'd like to hear the variety of reasons and make my own decision as to whether they sound like excuses. Let's hear the reason and then put this behind us.

[Lars Thomas]

Vilified quick and I deserved it. Looking at it objectively, I think there are two logical conclusions someone can come to. The first is I had intent to deceive the group here and abscond with the funds (I assure you that is not the case). The second is I procrastinated in fulfilling my commitment and the posting here was a stark reminder to me that I needed to get on the ball and make it happen. I hope some of you have the latter position, but I understand why some of you are in the former camp.

Many of you have formed some very strong opinions. There probably isn’t much I can say now to change your position. However, what I can do is continue to be part of this community and overtime, perhaps you will begin to see my intentions and actions are completely aligned with the moral fabric this community has come to represent. For example, one of the winning bidders has not received his bowl yet. I told the winner bidder that he would be made whole one way or another. I said it and I meant it and more importantly I will follow it through.

You guys put in hours upon hours on your turnings while others sent their hard earned money. I apologize to you and all SMC members for taking too long to get my act together and get the funds to the designated charity.

[Mark Cothren]

Sorry, guys missed this thread. Keith, have not heard from them.

Lars, you should have just told us what was going on when you responded in this manner to Keith's question.

[Nancy Laird]

Lars, your "explanation" is all well and good; however, you also posted and told the group that your company had made a commitment to match the funds raised to make the donation to St. Jude. What happened to that?????

Inquiring minds want to know.

Nancy

[Lars Thomas]

Nancy, that's still happening. I have offered to send the matching gift form to Mark so he could forward to his cousin. Mark told me tonight he would like to stay out of the transaction.

If you'd like, PM me your email addr and I will cc you when I send it to St Jude.

[Lars Thomas]

Lars, you should have just told us what was going on when you responded in this manner to Keith's question.

You are absolutely right. That was my second mistake (the first was not sending the $$ in a timely manner.) Lars

[Jonathon Spafford]

Ok... its easy to get excited especially when alot of you donated some hard earned money and donated pieces that you worked hard to turn! The truth is that Lar's just made a mistake... I'm sure most of us have made one or two of those in our lifetimes. It really is a shame to ruin good friendships and confidence in this forum over a mistake. St. Judes got the money and I don't believe it was Lar's intention to decieve anybody. I personally enjoyed the auction and would donate both turnings and money to another one. I just hate to see people posting who are ticked off and then discourage everyone from participating in another auction. I say that we look at it as a mistake and carry on. Don't mean to step on any toes 'cause I can see where you all coming from, but it happened and it was satisfactorily settled. Don't want to see Lars leave the forum either!

[Curt Fuller]

Thanks for the explanation Lars. I vote to forgive, forget, and move on.

[Mark Pruitt]

Thanks for the explanation Lars. I vote to forgive, forget, and move on.
As one who contributed a piece to the auction, I ditto what Curt said.

[Andy Hoyt]

Saint Jude's has offered to provide a receipt (for tax deduction purposes) to each individual who purchased a piece. Sadly this does not apply to those who donated the piece in the first place.

I still have my list of who purchased what and for how much, but not their addresses; nor any applicable PayPal fee deductions.

So.... if each purchaser would PM me their address I'll make sure it gets to the responsible party at St Jude's.

Yesterday I spoke to the turner and buyer of the piece that has yet to be delivered. There are honorable reasons for this and both parties are 100% confident and comfortable with a delayed delivery. Nuff said.

Yup, Lars screwed up. But who here hasn't done that? My faith in my fellow man mandates that I look at the bigger picture; and with respect to Lars, let's not forget the abysserration he conducted last year for that school in the Chicago area. Nuff said.

[Nancy Laird]

Thanks for the explanation Lars. I vote to forgive, forget, and move on.

Ditto. Although I don't know all of the details (nor do I wish to know at this point), I think it's pretty plain that Lars has given us his mea culpa and made things right, and it's time to move on. I just hope that this hasn't soured anyone on doing another one next year--this one was too much fun!

And I think that Lars may have learned a valuable lesson about procrastination! It CAN come back to bite one in the behind!

Nancy

[Lars Thomas]

And I think that Lars may have learned a valuable lesson about procrastination! It CAN come back to bite one in the behind!

Nancy


Nancy, Thanks for understanding. For the entire two months I've had a sticky note on my monitor that sort of faded into the background. I'm keeping that note as a reminder to not only do what I say I'll do, but also when I said I would do it.

[TYLER WOOD]

Take my opinion for what it is worth, as I was unable to afford to be able to purchase anything, and was not turning at the time that this was happening. So as an honest bystander adn someone who has been on charge of things like this before, I submit my opinion.

Tyler steps on soapbox!

I truley beleive Lars just got behind in what he needed to do. Did he fail to complete his resposibility in an acceptable time alotment? Yes. Was he trying to deceive you and run with the money? No. I personally thank Lars for stepping up to the pllate to not only volunteer his time to run this, but to also step foreward when he screwed up. I think he knows he did, and is truely sorry. I think a couple of people who have posted on this message need to seriously rethink their stances on not supporting future auctions at this site, and their stance towards the person/people responsible for the snafu.

The money found it's way to the charity and no harm was done. The thing that may need to be done though is to make sure that moderators are in charge or if not stay in constant contact with the person in charge of the next auction. Putting a person in charge with no oversight is asking for troubles like this. Without having someone remind you to do something I think we can all forget to do something, or put it on the back burner longer than it should.

What I hope will happen is that people jump off Lars's back and jump on the bandwagon to help out in the next auction. There's more room on the band wagon and it makes more sence than to be upset about something. Hurting the kids by not participating in the next auction because of a mistake/oversight/procrastination is no excuse!

Tyler steps off soapbox for next person!

[Tom Sherman]

As one who participated in both facets of the auction, I have a comment or two on this matter. It is unfortunate that the funds were not delivered to St Jude's in a timely fashion however I cannot hold any malice in my heart because of it. I have been guilty my self in the past for not being the most expidient handler of obligations and for that reason cannot judge another. I prefer to focus on the good that these funds may do for some of the children at St Jude's.