It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that, after much discussion with my wife and the hotel, I have decided to cancel the Monsters from the Vault Convention scheduled for November 2009 in Baltimore. With the current state of the economy and with prospects not looking good for the near future, the financial risk was just too great for us. Although the show was still a year away, the time had come for us to give the hotel a non-refundable deposit. So we looked at the market (shrinking every year) and the failures of a couple of recent shows to draw the needed audience, and we decided to cut our losses before incurring any huge ones. During the past eight months, we have been accepting payments for memberships and dealer’s tables, but to this date we’ve sold only five weekend memberships and tables to two dealers. While things might have picked up as we got closer, if they didn’t we’d be out a substantial amount of money in order to cancel at a later date, and probably even more money if the show went on with the guests and programming we had planned. Also, with the convention so close to the Christmas season we were worried that if the economy was still bad this time next year, it might cause a lot of last-minute cancellations, which would have been a killer. I know most people don’t want to commit to something so far out, but with this first venture I’d have to have had that financial commitment in advance, not just a verbal “I plan on attending” or “I’ll buy tables when the show gets closer.” I know how things come up, and everyone means well, but the bottom line is—if I commit a lot of our personal savings to finance the show and it goes south due to the economy, Marian and I will be the only ones suffering. As with most of you, our personal investments (401K, other stocks and mutual funds) have taken a beating like we’ve never seen before over the last few months, and we just can’t bring ourselves to take such a financial risk with such uncertainty at this time. We could have tried to downsize the show, and the hotel was willing to work with us on it, but I didn’t have the heart to do that—it was either going to be the way I envisioned it, or not at all. Another key consideration was that if we did suffer a huge loss with the convention, it would most likely be the end of Monsters from the Vault as a print magazine, and that’s not something I want to do at this time. As you all know, the magazine barely pays for itself, and sometimes even loses money. However, I continue to press on because I feel there’s much more to say about our genre and our readers would be disappointed if we ceased publication. I think fandom is a better place with Monsters from the Vault as a small part of it. So while I know this decision will be upsetting and disappointing to many (none more so than me), it’s the only one we could make at the end of the day and sleep soundly at night. I really don’t want to be on pins and needles for the next year (much less subject my wife to it) wondering if we’re going to lose a chunk of our savings. The risks were just too great, and I’m sure if most of you were in our position you would have made the same decision. Finally, I’d like to thank Joe “Sorko” Schovitz for his help with all the graphics (many of which you haven’t seen yet) used for the convention advertising and flyers; Tom Weaver for his help in lining up the guests; Barry Murphy, who would have been my right-hand man; all our writers who volunteered to help out any way they could; film collectors (and friends) who offered their 16mm prints; Penny Dreadful, who was going to host a live version of “Shilling Shockers”; friends and family who volunteered to be on staff; and, of course, Ron Adams and Ken and Pam Kish for their friendship, insight, and offer to help with promoting the show. (Please support their conventions, Monster Bash and Cinema Wasteland!) Also, a big thanks to those who paid for memberships and dealer’s tables; your refunds will be coming to you shortly. It will take a while for me to get over the disappointment, but once I return from my long business trip the day before Thanksgiving, I’ll be starting to work on the new issue of Monsters from the Vault, which will be out in January, followed a few months later by our Kharis Special Edition. Those two projects should help ease the pain. Thanks for hearing me out, and please post this message anywhere you see fit to help me get the word out about the cancellation. Who knows? Maybe down the road things will be better and I’ll finally realize my dream of having my own convention—or maybe not—we’ll just have to wait and see what the future brings.
