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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul J. Stormberg" data-source="post: 9765546" data-attributes="member: 33042">Let me help clear up some of the details on the fiscal management and financial records of the fund. The GMF has been managed by a professional accounting firm since our inception, we have reported to the state of Wisconsin every year and remain in good standing as a non-profit. We have filed our taxes every year and remain in good standing with both the state and federal government as a non-profit. We have posted all of these documents and our loss and earnings statements to our website or they are freely available online since we are a public non-profit-you can see exactly how the money has been spent. In short we have done everything we are required to do by law and then some, to be transparent and in good standing with the State of Wisconsin and the Federal Government."No one seems to know where that money went." We do, our accounting firm does, the State of Wisconsin does, the Federal Government does, and everyone else on the planet should know too, if they took the time to look at our tax records and profit loss statements and other reporting, which is all public:[URL unfurl="true"]https://apps.dfi.wi.gov/apps/corpar/entityDetails.aspx?id=G043305[/URL][URL unfurl="true"]https://www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/tx-docs[/URL][URL unfurl="true"]https://www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/yearly-profit-loss[/URL][URL unfurl="true"]https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/300580070[/URL]From those documents you will see we have spent about $4-5k+ per year, on average and a little more these last few years, and a break down of how all funds were spent. You will also see we agreed to return a portion of a major donor's pledge ($150k plus legal expenses around facilitating the return) in 2022, when they felt the city would not grant us Library Park and therefore never allow the memorial to be completed. We remain hopeful the donor will re-engage as we go forward with the Kickstarter.There was hardly any spending in 2013 and 2021 major spending in 2022 and 2023 as we ramped up our initiatives, promotions, and city-wide festival, Dragon Days. And despite the documents saying we have a negative balance, that is just our current liabilities and total balances owed.To date the Gygax Memorial Fund has:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">dedicated a Park Bench in Gary's name in his favorite spot in his favorite park,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">successfully petitioned the City of Lake Geneva proclaim Gary's birthday, July 27th, as Gary Gygax Day,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">established the Appendix N Alcove in the Lake Geneva Public Library,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">laid the Gen Con Founder's Stone at Horticultural Hall celebrating Gary's founding of Gen Con,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">created The Adventurer's Map to Lake Geneva (<a href="http://www.tlbgames.com" target="_blank">www.TLBgames.com</a>), a walking tour map of Gary's life,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">donated a recreation of Gary's sand table in the basement of 330 Center St., the Birthplace of D&D,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">established The Wizard of Lake Geneva exhibit dedicated to Gary at the Geneva Lake Museum,</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">founded the annual Dragon Days Fantasy Festival, a citywide celebration of Lake Geneva as the birthplace of fantasy and Gary's legacy behind it (www.DragonDays.org)--last year we has 1,700 attendees--and that's 900 adults and 800 children--and this year on October 4-5, it will likely double</li> </ul>All this to help convince the City of Lake Geneva, that Gary really does deserve a memorial. Why did they need convincing? Because at one point they considered banning any memorials at all in Lake Geneva--ever--and were going to pass an ordinances to do so. Not only that but the site that Gary wanted was the absolute crown jewel of the entire city, Library Park, an emerald parkland along the picturesque shore of Lake Geneva. The deck was stacked against us but with the implementation of the initiatives above and a long PR campaign, including, many speeches, lots of travel (over 10,000 miles on my truck in one year just back and forth to Lake Geneva!) presentations to the various civic bodies, positive press in the local papers and news programs, engagement with the local tourism entities, and downright persistence, we finally achieved our goal after 16 years of effort in 2024.Of course, none of this was without cost. The maintenance and development costs of the fund over these years included: accounting fees, tax preparation fees, attorney fees, travel, convention appearances, city presentations, artists, surveyors, architects, sculpture consultants, promotional materials, advertising, domain and website management, etc. It all added up to an average of $5-6K of expenditures each year. Without those expenditures there would be no location for the memorial and thus no memorial.It took time and considerable effort but we accomplished our mission, and secured the site and design for the project. And now we can move forward with fund raising once again.</blockquote>

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