Carson Daly WAS right

It's been over a month since my last post, so I will need to make this one worth your attention. I have been gathering as much info as I can before writing on this because I am sure the DC Kickball Scout Blog Reader will dispatch a message that will lead to comments galore. Plus I like to have my facts straight before I write and when I haven't, I have been sure to write corrections. I admit here fully that I have not spoken to the DC Kickball founder about any of this because, well, I don't believe or respect him basically. Especially after what has transpired over the last few weeks.

First things first. I am still incredulous at this first story about the DC Kickball founder. About two months ago the founder of DC Kickball decided to go on a trip overseas. While he was gone he had a volunteer assist him with the spring registration for DC Kickball. As someone who has done this before I can tell you that this is no easy task. There are endless questions, teams who need to be updated, people wanting to switch teams, etc. You would think that someone who would be willing to do this while you were vacationing in a faraway land would be appreciated. Well, most of you would.

This woman also agreed to help out to run a division of DC Kickball by volunteering for the board. I call this being "in the can" for the league; it's a term of endearment from one kickball dork to another - but I digress. I refer to this as free labor, and according to the founder of DC Kickball himself, they do all the work on a day-to-day basis for the league.:

"DC Kickball relies on its players to volunteer to run the board and ref the games. The board members are the ones that make all of the major decisions (such as dates and venues) about how to spend the social budget (about $8,000). As well, the board picks and works with a charity throughout the season. In the past, we raised $4,000 for our charity in a single season."

The last two sentences of this quote are the ones that lead to the incredible part of the story. The board this DC Kickballer serves on had chosen a charity for their season and were proceeding with the plans for the season. Apparently a couple of weeks ago they were all notified that they were being fired from their volunteer positions on the board. The board's great malfeasance you ask? They actually believed the DC Kickball founder's above statement about the board being allowed to "pick" it's charity.

Remember, forced charity starts at home!

See, the founder has setup his own "charity" - his legal defense fund to help his case with the Kash guys. The founder has notified at least this particular division (and one can surmise all of them) that they MUST make his legal defense fund their "charity" for this season. When the division's board balked at this demand and explained that they had already chosen a charity and were setup to work with it, they were fired. So, the woman who helped the DC Kickball founder make money while he was off vacationing was dismissed from a position she held to help him run his league because she didn't want donations that could have helped children go toward his legal defense fund. Unreal.

I find it fascinating that a guy who likes to act like he is the greatest thing to kickball since flip cup consistently behaves in the same fashion as the league he is being sued by. In fact in some ways this is worse - the Kash guys couldn't care less what charity a division has and at least are using player dues to pay for this ridiculous lawsuit. (Please note I think they are greedy pigs too, but at least they are not asking for EXTRA money to pay for it). I guess the lesson here is to not trust this guy - even if you help him out and allow him to frolic in Asia. If you don't do what he wants he has no respect for you.

I wonder how registration is going, eh, what's her face has it

Which brings me to the latest saga in this guy's story: sponsor bars. In a previous post I have talked about the fact that DC Kickball and the Kash guys both take money from the bars they send their divisions to. The bars get a promise of a turnout by those divisions, the bar's name on the back of the division's players' shirts, and maybe some extra love (site links, parties, etc). This season DC Kickball on Sundays and Thursdays has sent certain divisions to Hamilton's Bar & Grill which is right next door to the NAKID sponsor bar, My Brother's Place. This has made things somewhat interesting on Sundays as many DC Kickballers have come over to MBP while Hamilton's has been cleared out by 7pm after games.

Probably not what Hamilton's thought it was paying for

Apparently this has not gone unnoticed by the staff and owners at Hamilton's. After one season of paying money to sponsor DC Kickball, they are apparently choosing to do business with NAKID in the fall. Not really tough to figure out, the Sunday turnout at Ham's hasn't been great and they don't have to pay NAKID a sponsorship fee. Hmm, more turnout and costs less - seems like a good business move. NAKID announced to all of it's players in it's Weekly Brew newsletter last week. We were all glad to hear it as it makes access to both bars easy for double the drinking and socializing. The DC Kickball founder was not so thrilled.

I have spoken before about how I do not like the pompous nature of the DC Kickball founder, and this post on his website's blog is a great example. The points that are particularly telling are these:

"I am forced to make the following corrections:

• Hamilton’s was told that NAKID just needed some extra space (ie: the downstairs) for a handful of teams

• Hamilton’s will remain DC Kickball’s sponsor bar for Thursday and Sunday kickball
  
• Both the District Division and the Constitution Division will have exclusive use of the upstairs "

These were all, of course, untrue and he was called out in the comments section of the blog. This is my favorite exchange:

Kristin Says: June 19th, 2007 at 03:14 PM
Well then Scott is giving us both the runaround…he said we have it next season. I think we both need to verify what’s going on in the fall…

Carter Says: June 19th, 2007 at 06:11 PM
NAKID: if you don’t have a signed sponsorship agreement, you don’t have a lot of room to talk.

Yeah, see you shouldn't go around posting pompous ass things on your blog until you have this in hand

The funny part is, of course, the DC Kickball founder was totally talking out of his ass. Her had no "signed sponsorship agreement" himself. Yet claimed all of these promises from Hamilton's - none of which he had received. In fact I spoke to the other people involved in these negotiations and there was nothing promised to DC Kickball after the spring season. And there was a discussion between Ham's and NAKID before spring season started that they would meet later to discuss a fall sponsorship. Which makes the final statement (I assume final as he has cut off all discussion via comments) on this by the DC kickball founder even more ludicrous:

"The fact of the matter is that the owner of Hamilton’s, on multiple occasions this summer and as recently as last week, assured me that DC Kickball would be coming back for the Fall."

What's clear in both of these cases is this: the DC Kickball founder chooses to, well, bend the truth to fit his own ends. Divisions can choose their own charity, as long as he would get the money. Hamilton's is his sponsor bar, except that no one ever told him that. Seems like the DC Kickball founder really does need to go to business school, as he is planning to do soon, because he sure isn't running this one the right way.

Maybe it's time to start making that list, DC Kickball founder

And even if it was true that he got jobbed by Hamilton's as he implies here: "I definitely feel like an idiot for taking Hamilton’s at their word and misinforming you all about the Fall." I'd advise him to watch a few episodes of My Name is Earl. Karma's a bitch Carter, maybe you should start treating people better.