MOSCOW MARDI GRAS, INC.'S
RESPONSE TO SHELLEY RODERICK'S QUESTIONS
First of all we would like to state that the Moscow Mardi Gras Board has not received any formal correspondence or request for information from CJ's or Shelley Roderick. At our weekly meeting Tuesday night, it was brought to the attention of the Board that Shelley has been making accusations against Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. on the Vision 2020 Website. We regret that she has decided to air her personal grievances in this forum, but for the sake of those who have been confused by her continuous bombardment of our practices, we voted to answer her questions one by one. We must ask, however, that this not turn into an ongoing dialogue on Vision 2020. The people on the Mardi Gras Board are all volunteers. We have families and jobs and lives and we do not have the time nor the resources to police every comment made in this venue.
We have donated our time to help our community and to put on an event that donates thousands of dollars each year to children's charities on the Palouse; we do not have time to also argue with Shelley in this way. If she, or anyone else, has any further questions regarding what we do as a Board, or how we direct our funds, please feel free to send your questions in writing to: Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. PO Box 8104 Moscow, ID 83843. Since we do act as a Board, we will address all questions and concerns at our meetings and get a timely response back to the petitioner. Anyone is welcome to attend our meetings if they have concerns that they wish to be addressed immediately. You may contact Kathy Sprague at 892-9100 to find out when and where the next meeting will be held.
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In response to the question that someone was deliberately left out of being able to count the proceeds from last year's event, it is simply not true. It didn't happen. Every year we have used the same safe location to secure the Mardi Gras funds as the bars close that night. We have never had a "counting room," nor turned away any offer of help from Board members to help count the proceeds from the doors, sales of beads, t-shirts, etc.
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As to the question that exorbitant amounts of money are being wasted on unprofitable locations, we must say that we run Moscow Mardi Gras as a community event. We like to include as much of the community as possible and if this is offensive to anyone, it is news to us. Our events have always been profitable, and every venue contributes and is profitable in it's own way. If Mardi Gras wasn't profitable, we wouldn't have had the $20,000 to donate to children's charities this year.
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Shelley has raised the question of the Mardi Gras tickets not being numbered. Last year we decided to take her advice and number the tickets, and we found that it was a very good suggestion and have decided to continue the practice from now on.
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Question number 4 was confusing to us. Shelley has apparently mixed up the numbers from 2000 with 2001. The $7150 that Shelley referred to in question #4 was donated to charities in January of 2001. Those were the proceeds of Moscow Mardi Gras 2000. At any rate, out of 4000 tickets that were printed last year, we sold approximately 3500. With regard to the question about the article printed in the paper by Vera White, we had at the time of publication of her article earmarked $14,000 for charitable donations and we were waiting for other requests to come in and be voted on by the Board. We had a total of $20,000 to give away from the beginning, and as of last night are within $500 of the entire amount.
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Where did the money from the sales of beads go? It went into the bank account with the rest of the proceeds from Moscow Mardi Gras.
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Individual monies for tickets sold before the event at each venue were logged and counted and posted on Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. accounting books. Due to the large amount of ticket sales at the doors on the night of Mardi Gras, the monies are collected and deposited into the bank as one lump sum. Last year a total of approximately $40,000 was raised out of which came the $20,000 for charitable donations, $15,000 goes toward expenses incurred in putting the event together, and the remainder is used to get things started for next year's Moscow Mardi Gras events.
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To the question of whether we purhased a T bill and what has become of it: we use the proceeds each year to purchase a Certificate of Deposit at the bank in order to maximize our interest return. We then use that money to donate to children's charities on the Palouse, and to fund Moscow Mardi Gras for the following year.
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There has not been any instance where donations were rejected from Moscow Mardi Gras. That has simply not happened. We would be happy to collect any and all donations made in the support of Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc.
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As to Link Transportation's prices in 1998 and 1999: in 1998 half of the price of the bus service was a donation to Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. from Link Transportation; in 1999, larger buses were necessary, more expenses were incurred and the donation was not available, hence the price difference.
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As to the involvement of the ADA: the Disability Action Center in Moscow had at some point been contacted and subsequently approached the Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. Board with respect to the availability of handicap accessibility at what was then the Mardi Gras Ballroom above CJ's. A meeting was held with a representative of the Disability Action Center, the Moscow Mardi Gras Board, and the owners of CJ's. Recommendations were made to the owners of CJ's by the DAC as to how to accommodate handicapped patrons, but to our knowledge, none of these recommendations have been put into effect. While Mardi Gras funds continued to pay for a band upstairs in CJ's, it was not listed as the Ballroom on the poster in order to ensure equal opportunity access at the Ball, but it certainly didn't lessen the number of people attending Mardi Gras at that location.
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As far as making Mardi Gras a weekend long event, Jerry Schutz responded to this question thoroughly in his reply to Moscow Vision 2020. A handful of members can't do more than what we already do. More community involvement would be the only way for that to happen.
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All accounting for Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. is done in April following our yearly event. Most billings take 30 days to reach our PO Box, and the accounting is done as quickly as possible so that the money raised can be invested for the following year's expenses and donations. No scrambling needs to be done, the accounting has been done since last Spring.
As far as riding on anyone's "coattails", it should be noted that CJ's has not yet had an event which would provide any coattails to be ridden on. A statement has been made in this forum that Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. does not own the calendar, which is true, but it seems to this Board that if certain businesses choose not to participate in our community charity event and instead choose to hold their own event for their own charities, they could certainly look at the calendar and find that there are 364 other days on which our event is not being held.
In Wednesday's Lewiston Tribune, Shelley Roderick is quoted as saying that she will "go away" if the Board answers her questions. We have answered these questions in a public forum for the benefit of the public, and we will now turn our attention back to the business of planning our charitable event for our community.
We are one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the area that does not pay anyone to run it. We are simply a group of civic minded volunteers who want to show our appreciation for the wonderful community in which we live and raise our children. Our goal is and has always been to benefit our community. We had our biggest year last year and we hope to do even better this year. We are grateful to all of those who participate in Moscow Mardi Gras and we thank you for making it a fabulous success for the last 22 years and hopefully, for many years to come.
Sincerely,
Moscow Mardi Gras, Inc. Board Members
Kathy Sprague; Karri Fedale; Tim Brown; Sandy Murphy; Dauna Lyons; Pat Ruggio; Jim Ruggio; Gary Welch; Nicole Meister; Ivy Dickinson