Yes, it was a sad day to hear about ITS finally folding. Steve
Elsewicke, one of the original founding members with Toby Grotz had
left a couple of years before that to form his own magazine and group.
Steve recently sent out a notice stating that ITS was in bankruptcy
and urging their members to move over to his group.
Last time I heard from JW direct was pre-Christmas 1997 when he said
they were in deep straits. He said two of their helpers who had check
writing ability had abused the privilege for personal items but not
before lowering the accounts. JW said he went to the bank and had the
check writing ability of these two disabled but the damage was done.
He said he was getting all kinds of creditors calling up even then
wanting to know why they'd not been paid.
At that time, he had some kind of fly trap thingie or attractant that
he was planning to offer to people to resubscribe at $50 or so a pop.
Not sure of the price but I think it was somewhere in that range.
Anyway, got a call from Joe Champion a few weeks later (before he got
shipped off to jail) and he was bragging that he'd just transmuted
$78,000 in gold from raw materials. I asked him since he had all that
money, could he maybe donate some to Tesla, even $5,000 would help
out. Joe said he had done that a few years earlier and offered
another $5,000 if they'd let him on the Board of Directors...but the
Board voted and decided not to do it so he kept the money.
A couple of our local guys kept in touch with JW much more than I so
that was the extent of my direct information about it, but I knew he
was having problems back then.
I had thought they were given the free use of a very large warehouse
that they had permission to retrofit as they wanted, kind of like the
Exploratorium, but for some reason opted for the more public location
downtown at the Museum. Every time we went there they were working on
some section to setup a new display.
Such a shame, thanks for posting the article Theo...interesting how
those guys in Holland have more information on it that us
Americans...<G>...
---Theo Paijmans wrote:
>
> Dear list members, perhaps you've all heard this sad news, perhaps
not.
> Shocking to see the threat of another great inventor's heritage ending
> on the junk yard. Perhaps there's something we can do?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Theo Paijmans
>
> By Scott Thomsen, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
>
> Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
> Jan. 23--The International Tesla Society, an eclectic scientific group
> that
> gave straight-laced Colorado Springs a bit of a weird side, is headed
> for
> liquidation in bankruptcy court later this month.
> In its Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing Dec. 9, the group listed $71,452 in
> debts and no assets. The case is to be heard in a meeting of creditors
> Jan.
> 29 at the Colorado Springs Federal Building and Courthouse, 212 N.
> Wahsatch
> Ave.
> It appears to bring an end to the avant-garde organization that formed
> in
> 1984 to operate a museum on Bijou Street and to sponsor an annual
> symposium
> of idealistic and eccentric inventors to honor Nikola Tesla, a gifted
> inventor whose career also included some rather wacky turns.
> Tesla's innovations in alternating current changed the world, but
> whose
> other concepts -- such as how to transmit electricity without wires --
> never made it into mainstream science. A brilliant inventor, he spent
> several months experimenting in Colorado Springs in 1899.
> Hundreds of inventors, tinkerers and conspiracy theorists came to the
> Tesla
> festival each year hoping to follow in his innovative footsteps. They
> sought to create cars that run on water alone, anti-gravity devices,
> perpetual motion machines and medical cures.
> "There were a lot of flakes all the time, but also a lot of mainstream
> scientists," said Roy Stewart, the owner of Tesseract Design and
> Instrument
> in Boulder and a former society member.
> Stewart is now concerned the society's museum collection may get lost
> in
> the bankruptcy shuffle.
> The rooms in the green office building on Bijou Street once held notes
> on
> Tesla's experiments, articles about his research, signed photos and
> letters. The museum also included reproductions of the inventor's
> creations, such as a working Tesla coil -- a high voltage transformer
> Tesla
> used to create energy fields.
> Today the rooms are empty.
> Colorado Springs attorney Robert Mason, who represents the Tesla
> Society,
> said the owner of the office building locked the museum's doors last
> month.
> Workers packed and removed everything inside, according to people who
> work
> in the nearby offices. What remains is a weathered brown metal sign
> with
> chipped white letters.
> Mason said the collection is actually owned by many different people
> who
> loaned items to the museum. He said he is unsure where the collection
> is
> being kept.
> "I can't tell you where it is," Mason said. "It hasn't been sold."
> Stewart has asked the city of Colorado Springs to acquire and preserve
> the
> collection.
> "My only concern is keeping the information intact," he said. "It
> might be
> too late. I might be closing the barn door."
> Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Director Bill Holmes said he heard of
> the
> Tesla Society's bankruptcy this week and wants to learn more about the
> collection.
> "It's something we should look into," Holmes said. "They may have
> great
> stuff, maybe not."
> Mason said he did not know what led the Tesla Society into debt.
> J.W. McGinnis, president of the group, did not return phone calls from
> The
> Gazette.
> Many of the 54 organizations the Tesla Society owes money to are
> publishing
> and broadcast companies. The largest debts are $13,680 to Protocol
> Services
> of Colorado Springs and $8,850 to WWCR, an international religious and
> talk radio station, broadcasting on AM and shortwave radio from
> Nashville,
> Tenn.
> The Tesla Society operated a one-hour weekly radio program but hadn't
> paid
> its bills on time in more than a year, WWCR General Manager George
> McClintock said. "(The debt problem) was a gradual buildup over
> several
> years," he said.
> "They would never get all the way caught up" in paying bills,
> McClintock
> said. "It's unfortunate that a nonprofit organization would allow
> itself to
> get into that situation."
> Roy Thompson, president of Protocol Services, said the 3,300-member
> Tesla
> society hired his company to run its 1997 symposium at the Sheraton
> Hotel.
> "They didn't pay us a penny."
> Thompson said the group made at least $50,000 on the symposium but
> appeared
> to be juggling money constantly to pay back debts.
> Joan Grant, a former Tesla official, said she has not worked with the
> group
> for four years but was shocked to learn of its demise.
> "I'm real sorry to see this," she said. "I loved it for bringing
> awareness
> of Tesla and what he had done."
>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> To leave this list, email <listserver@dallastexas.net>
> with the body text: leave Keelynet
> list archives and on line subscription forms are at
> http://dallastexas.net/keelynet/
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com