Post-NPS Letter from PSi's EC
WB,

Below is a copy of the letter that the Executive Council of Poetry Slam, Inc. sent out this week. No local ramificiations at this point, but those of you who are PSi members should be aware. Further discussion and such is taking place in the SM forum in PSi's forums.

Your loyal SlamMaster,
Scott
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Each of us sincerely hopes that you found artistic value and personal benefit by attending NPS 2008. In spite of some very serious difficulties in hosting the NPS in Madison, which we tried to keep in the background to ensure your positive NPS experience, we still believe that the national poetry slam has had a profound capacity to inspire poetic excellence in all of us. Regrettably at the SlamFamily meeting the Host City Committee’s outburst opened a door which caused confusion and questions for all of us in the poetry slam community. This letter is intended to address some of that confusion.

We've never issued a statement or provided as much information about what happens behind the scenes at a PSi event before now. It may strike some of you as surprising to see it now. You should know, however, that no event to date has jeopardized PSi's very existence, and when things get to that level of complication, it's only fair that you should know why. As has been mentioned often, we are using a new business model with all PSi events. The model works for both the host city and PSI when it is adopted by both parties. Detroit used it last year for WOWPS and is using it very effectively now for the next one and it works. Charlotte is using it now for iWPS and it works. All contracts lay this relationship out, as do accompanying documents. We’ll post those documents if anyone wants to see them. They aren’t secret.

As most of you are probably aware, membership fees alone do little to sustain PSi’s fiscal health. We rely on our events to produce income to keep us vital and growing. NPS, being our largest event, has long been our greatest fiscal resource. Some of this year’s Host City’s frustration may have been from the knowledge that this NPS was running in the red. In fact, now that we can more clearly see the financial side of the event, NPS ran so deeply in the red that the continuation of PSI is in danger. One of the most significant requirements of the bylaws is that the EC conducts the day to day business of the corporation in such a manner as to ensure that it remains solvent. Despite that obligation by the EC, the Host City Committee undermined those efforts by refusing to communicate by forum, or email or phone; disregarding its contractual obligations; withholding vital information regarding prices and contracts for venues until well into the week of competition; and implementing a weak and unapproved marketing plan in the months and weeks leading up to the event. It did not become apparent to us until we arrived on site that the Host City Committee was shirking its fiduciary responsibility to the members, the corporation and the National Poetry Slam 2008.

Given the resistance of the Host City to working cooperatively with the EC, we felt that the best course of action was to get through the week as best we could with as little front channel disruption as possible and, after a full accounting had been completed, address this ugliness with the membership. We truly wanted the poets “to revel in an environment in which freedom of speech, self-determination, and pursuit of creative excellence are inalienable rights,” and to “encourage artistic expression and engage communities worldwide in the revelry of language.” Since the event carried on with as little distraction as possible from the EC, we believe you did. Hopefully this letter gives you the background necessary for you to understand what happened, but if you would like more information we will be posting a link to a detailed post mortem report on NPS 2008 to the SlamMasters Forum soon. It’s not intended to be a secret link, but we wanted SlamMasters to have access to this information first.

To the extent that we still believe that this contract is viable, the Host City is obligated to provide a full accounting of all of its income and expenditures not later than September 30. At that time we’ll be in a better position to assess PSi’s financial state. It is likely we’ll return to you with a request for whatever financial support you can find to get us down the road to next year’s National Poetry Slam, which with your generous support will be held in a location to be determined by the EC very soon.

You have our promise to continue to hold PSi, its events and its members in the highest regard. Those are the entities and ideals to which we are literally in service.

With best regards,
The Executive Council of Poetry Slam, Inc.

Chad Anderson
Delrica Andrews
Inkera
Steve Marsh
Cassie Poe
Henry Sampson
Bob Whoopeecat Stephenson
Scott Woods