Comments on: Mayhem at Newspapers for the Blind

By: Paul Strikwerda

Paul Strikwerda — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:59:36 +0000

Have you read the follow-up story? That might give you a clue as to why things were suddenly dropped. Consider yourself lucky, indeed!

By: Withheld

Withheld — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:55:06 +0000

I have to say I’m glad I read this. I auditioned for and got a gig with Newspapers for the Blind last year. I was told I had done a “perfect” job and then – nothing.

Not another word.

At first I was told Will May would be back in touch in a couple of days. Then, when that didn’t happen, I mailed him again, but to no avail.

To this day I have no idea why he went to the trouble to post a job, listen to auditions, and then just drop things.

Sounds like I got away lucky in the end.

By: Tweets that mention Mayhem at Newspapers for the Blind | Double Dutch -- Topsy.com

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:43:14 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mahmoud Taji, Paul Strikwerda. Paul Strikwerda said: Mayhem at Newspapers for the Blind. Founder and editor banned from posting jobs http://tinyurl.com/yfef3bm [...]

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:07:47 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

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By: Rebecca Michaels

Rebecca Michaels — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:13:01 +0000

Paul – THANK YOU so much for telling this story with such “gory” detail and for those who contributed. What a tragedy, really. I’m sorry for those affected negatively. Was there any effort to deal directly with others at the company, in order to get some sort of turn-around on this? You had mentioned the names Dr. Edward E. Boas Jr. and Noelle Mills Adler. Also, this seems a case for an attorney potentially (albeit unfortunate) for the many others unpaid.??? Not that I’m litigious but this seems a crime.

Best regards,
Rebecca Michaels
http://www.LoveThatRebecca.com

By: The Story behind the Story | Double Dutch

The Story behind the Story | Double Dutch — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:15:20 +0000

[...] voice seeker is purposely hiding his or her identity! As we have seen in the case of the founder or Newspapers for the Blind, the voice123 team responded after members had complained about the way they had been treated. Make [...]

By: Andy Boyns

Andy Boyns — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:41:51 +0000

As I mentioned on my blog (http://andyboyns.com/vo/2010/01/synergy.html), there are times when many individuals are willing to contribute to develop a cause, and this is a very positive thing. Following the “Talk about Haiti” project I contacted several VO talent about their thoughts on setting up a volunteer register, and all responded positively.

The issue which Paul raises here is an important one, as this case is where the relationship with the organisation was understood to be contractual and payment terms were understood (on the performers’ side, at least). What is sad is that the “Will May” approach raises questions about the integrity of organisations which we’d naturally want to “help” – whether as a volunteer, or by providing preferential rates.

As a community I find that professional voice artists are incredibly generous. The question is how to enable this to be chanelled into useful and deserving causes, and to avoid the sort of abuse discussed here. Furthermore, there is the dichotomy of how to balance our professional, income generating, goals with the desire to be philanthropic.

Thanks for sharing this, Paul

By: Juliette Gray

Juliette Gray — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:33:16 +0000

Hi Paul, I think you are being too kind in your wrap up to this. Also you don’t have to be certifiably “crazy” to be a sociopath or act out deviant behavior. Of course, the definition of a sociopath is that they believe what they are doing is not in any way deviant and as they never consider the effect their behavior is having on others to them what they are doing is normal. Of course many of our politicians act this way so it is not unusual. These people start to believe that they are in fact doing good. Unfortunately, most get away with a lot before the “Madoff” effect happens. Nevertheless one cannot forgive people like Bill May who are acting under the guise of respectability and people who want to do good to help people less fortunate than themselves.

Because I have worked for non-profits before I was always curious how Bill May monetized this project as the listeners did not need a password to get on the site and were therefore not paying any subscription. We all know the expression there is no such thing as a free lunch. I assumed he had people doing fund raising to pay the readers. One long conversation I had with him he told me that he had put a lot of money himself into it and he was a retired real estate tycoon from NYC. However, because the stock market was not in good shape it had proved more difficult than he anticipated, but this would not be a problem to keep going but might prevent further expansion. A couple of times he sent out e-mails saying how many listeners he had on a particular day and how things were growing by leaps and bounds and also asked me to record a PSA announcement.

So what can you say about someone like this. I threatened him with small claims court which he retorted was illegal because I was in California but if I wanted names of local lawyers here was a link. Then he got really nasty and wished me better luck in my commercial work than my non-profit work which is insulting to me as I devoted 2 years of my life working with Steven Spielberg’s foundation to get audio visual testimonies financed for survivors from the Holocaust and that project is now part of the history department at USC.

So time to move on with this – yes I think so – but if the 501C-3 corporations have to adhere to some kind of exemplary behavior and there is a way to let them know about this – maybe we should consider a petition.