Petition for Independence

We are the people of this community. We will speak for ourselves.

Dennis Rensink (Governor Zorgon) is the current autocrat (head of staff) of Seadog Nights and Gypsy Carnival as well as Tortuga Pirate Festival. He has frequently said the words, "For the people, by the People." He wants you to believe that that is how he sees and treats the Seadog Nation. Yet, his actions speak different words. Some examples of these actions follow. This is a petition to show that the Pirate Eventing Community will no longer stand for the way that Dennis treats the staff, volunteers and citizens of this nation.

* Dennis has been the autocrat for the entirety of the existence of these two events, and will tell you he has been successfully running this event for nearly two decades. The reality of the situation, is the staff and volunteers have made these events a success in spite of him. Nearly all other events in our community switch autocrats periodically, and it is time our events follow that example.
* He collected $4400 this year (He had to be talked down from $8000) in licensing fees, so that we were allowed to use the names of the events. He believes that all other people in the nation owe him their time and energy and that he is the only person who deserves to be paid for the countless hours of staff time, volunteer time, entertainment, etc provided by the thousands of participants in the nation. Even after taking this money from the nation, he tells people he doesn't get paid for Seadogs.

* He has not been an effective autocrat for at least the last several years. He thinks he should be allowed to run the event like a dictatorship, ignoring his staff, as well as the laws and guidelines required of events of our types.

* Dennis does not listen to the needs of the people, failing to provide basic sanitation and comforts, due to the fact that he thinks people who expect certain levels of customer service are 'entitled'. These 'entitlements' include handicap parking, ADA biffys, an adequate number of standard biffys, trash receptacles, etc. These are all issues that the current Board of Directors had to fight him on / out-vote him on.

* Many of the above instances are because he allows his personal political ideology to influence how he wants to run the events in such a way that is dangerous to the community. The staff have to fight him on these issues every year, and often have to go behind his back to fix issues, so the event is no longer in danger of being shut down by the health department, fire department, etc.

* A general lack of oversight. As of the writing of this letter, the dates of the event have not been confirmed with the Cheadle Lake Park site.

* A general lack of communication - Dennis insisted that Board meetings be proprietary, and has even gone so far as to insist that some individuals not on the board sign non-disclosure forms to prevent the dissemination of information he doesn't want to share with the public.

* Dennis chooses staff based on personal feelings rather than merit or skill level. He chooses to trust people who have stolen from the nation or done other untoward things, and chooses to ostracize those who disagree with him or point out his faults - in other words, he only wants 'yes men' on his staff, and demonizes those who are not.

* Micromanagement of staff - to the point of: They make a plan / standard operation procedure, create teams with volunteers and the autocrat goes on top of this and attempts to change what they already have in place, bottle necking event procedure and set up, destroying efficiency. This is done so frequently that staff members are designated to arrange to keep Dennis busy, so that staff can actually accomplish their jobs without his interference.

* Treats staff like indentured servants. He refuses to acknowledge the effort of other members of staff, claiming all of their effort as his own.