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Star Wars Celebration III: Fans = Assholes(?) - Page 3

post #101 of 114
5/23/05 at 8:12pm
Holy Fucking Shit.
My wife and I belong to a Civil War Reenactment group that is considered to have very tough standards of costume authenticity, and are considered "Hard Core" reenactors ,but anybody proposing anything like the 501 charter would be considered a fucking loon.
There psuedo military terminology would send any body serving in the real world military into burst of hysterical laughter.
I think I just found the ulitmate example of people who, in the immortal words of William Shantner, need to get a life.
Remember that thread we had going for the most annoyning groups in fandom? This group just jumped to the top of the list.
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post #102 of 114
5/23/05 at 8:38pm
From the Charter:
Quote:
Article IX - Disciplinary Action

A member breaking the Legion code of conduct or behaving in an unacceptable manner or violating the tenets of this charter may face disciplinary action. This begins at the Garrison level. Any member in good standing may bring a charge against another member from their Garrison. The charge is brought to the attention of their Garrison Commander, who must then call a hearing. During the hearing both sides of the conflict are related and witnesses and evidence submitted and recorded. This process must run for at least one week after the hearing is called, after which time the Garrison Commander has the right to close the proceedings at any time at his or her discretion. Once the hearing is closed the Garrison Commander renders judgement and outlines the requirements for both parties to follow. The Garrison Commander has the option to assemble a panel of Garrison personnel to vote on a course of action or to decide for him- or herself.
You have got to be kidding me. I agree, I don't really see anything wrong if you are just dressing up for fun. The above, however, is atrocious. That's the kind of stuff that makes people hate Star Wars.
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post #103 of 114
5/23/05 at 8:55pm
What's worse is that they actually practice that crap. I personally know someone who was kicked out of the 501st after they had a tribunal (yes, a TRIAL) to decide his fate.
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post #104 of 114
5/23/05 at 9:00pm
Actually, I found it...

Quote:
...A lot of tensions were built up slowly, in small doses here and there, but the situation came to a head in August of 2003. The 501st Georgia Garrison Commander, as well as a couple of other members, repeatedly called a minority friend of mine (and a non-garrison member) a "hooker" at an event. She was in the process of creating a Zam Wessell costume and looked forward to joining our local garrison, but after hearing what was said, she dropped the project and was extremely upset and heart-broken.

I demanded an apology and it was suggested by several other "leaders" of my local garrison that I drop the issue. All that I asked was that they retract their statements; instead, they just denied it and said I was fabricating the whole story. When I promptly reminded them of how the events happened and everyone realized that it had not been a figment of my imagination, they immediately changed their story and instead tried to justify why she was in fact a "hooker" to me--this was shocking as you can well imagine.

Tensions were already frayed previously with other members of the Georgia garrison which made it much easier for the pieces to fall into place. Three of them still owed me money (under a mutual agreement) for a trip that took place many months back. They obviously never intended on paying me the money in the first place, and when I pressed the issue with two of them they simply denied the conversation and said that I was being unreasonable.

With both of the above issues being pursued, the Legion leader saw this as a great moment to jump on the bandwagon. Now that I was at odds with my local garrison, this was certainly an excellent opportunity to be rid of the fly in his ego soup. And for the local members, it became necessary for them to remove me from the 501st in order to protect their self-proclaimed good names. What a tragedy that all of this occurred over jealousy, about $75 and some racially biased name-calling.

A ridiculous rendition of a tribunal was set up and they spent days doing one sided lambasting and name calling of me and anyone who stuck up for me. Then there was a vote which I won and I was ultimately removed.

So how does that work?

The irony of it is that the Legion leader broke his own rules. He needed over 50% of his members voting for my dismissal, yet when all was tallied, the votes were less than the 50% required. It is documented that 52% were in favor of me remaining in the garrison.

So he just kicked me out.

I never even responded to the one sided conversation; there was no point. His jealousy and frustrations were incredibly obvious when he and his own supporters started making libelous statements and defaming my character while also distorting the facts for their own radical agenda. Anyone who supported me was lambasted, his/her character questioned, and ultimately assassinated. I did not respond to the "tribunal" because this sort of behavior was to be expected having been witness to it in past discussions within the legion. I have never been lured into arguments based on hearsay and unsubstantiated lies in any public board or posting group, and was not about to start doing so now.

Actual 501st Legion officers that were part of the tribunal expressed their concerns to me in private e-mails about the dictatorship direction the legion was now heading. They even called attention to the fact that the Legion CO had in fact set himself up so that he would have the final say regarding the sustenance or termination of my membership regardless of what was decided in the Tribunal, and that is exactly what happened.

It is documented that I had over the required 50% vote to remain in the legion yet I was still removed. I asked for a hearing on this [as is my right within the 501st Legion code] to decide if I was treated fairly, and have been ignored. So, you can clearly see the whole "tribunal" was a childish farce just as I suspected from the beginning.

These same legion officers also made me aware that the issues in the tribunal seemed to be over hurt feelings and jealously and not really what the leadership of the Georgia 501st Garrison had made them out to be in the first place. If they had actually wanted to solve this issue in a just way, they would have found a truly neutral party (non-legion and non-VaderPainter) to arbitrate and both sides would have had to agree to the outcome that same arbitrator came up with.

I was fully prepared to honor the decision of a neutral arbitrator, whatever the outcome. This "truly neutral" approach was suggested by me, members of the 501st Legion as well as members of my own garrison, but the 501st command staff chose to ignore our request and proceeded with their joke trial regardless.

Prior to all of this going to the Tribunal, I even gave the local garrison command my phone numbers and agreed on numerous occasions to public meetings. It was just as quickly ignored. It had been their idea originally; to rectify differences and at no time was a Tribunal ever mentioned, in fact it was flatly denied. Only after they realized that I was not afraid of them and their threats and did they stack the deck against me with this so-called Tribunal.

UPDATE: Almost all of my loyal supporters and close friends have been removed from the local 501st roster and have been forbidden to participate in any activities within the group. These same friends along with me were the only original founding members of the Georgia 501st. Sad isn’t it?
So the once great 501st Legion has in retrospect become its own worst nightmare, a Gestapo-type organization whose very leadership tries to control the speech and activities of its membership while waving the banner of a fan-based costume club.
Pretty much paints the picture, if at least from one side.
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post #105 of 114
5/24/05 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Cunningham
Actually, I found it...



Pretty much paints the picture, if at least from one side.
Once again I am appalled.
In my Civil War group we have hearings before the Board officers if club rules...mainly concering safety, a major consideration in a group the uses firearms...are seriously violated,but this kind of petty shit would not be tolerated.
What a bunch of nimrods.
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post #106 of 114
5/24/05 at 6:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Cunningham
Pretty much paints the picture, if at least from one side.
Your friend should start up a club for Rebellion re-enactors. That'd be funny.
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post #107 of 114
5/24/05 at 7:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Werbal_Kint
Your friend should start up a club for Rebellion re-enactors. That'd be funny.
We have a Rebel contingent: They are called Confederates.....
Seriously, I am not sure that we want bozos like these running around with real firearms....
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post #108 of 114
5/24/05 at 8:03pm
Someone should create a legion of Ewoks and throw rocks at these guys at cons.

What a bunch of douches.
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post #109 of 114
5/24/05 at 8:17pm
You pose a very tempting idea, Charles.
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post #110 of 114
5/24/05 at 8:36pm
Maybe the two kids in the exploding Light Sabre incident would feel right at home here....
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post #111 of 114
5/24/05 at 9:26pm
collection of Star Wars costumes

lol

EDIT: they have a picture of the 501st in there
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post #112 of 114
5/24/05 at 11:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dudalb
Maybe the two kids in the exploding Light Sabre incident would feel right at home here....
Please elaborate.
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post #113 of 114
5/25/05 at 1:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daryl Zero
Please elaborate.
http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81195
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post #114 of 114
5/25/05 at 2:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Cunningham
Oh my.

Sorry, I've been ignorign a lot of Star Wars threads for the last couple weeks.
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