And the largest debts are just $13k and 8k?
And only $6.82 to pay the two largest debts per member!
Dusty Rhodes wrote:
> What a sad state of affairs. Where's Ross Perot when you really need him?
> At least the museum in Yugoslavia is still in operation. Too bad there is
> not a way to make the Westinghouse family cough up some booty.
> Truly sorry,
> Dusty
>
> 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."
> >
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