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NEWS: Multiple Anime Expo Staffers Resign in Board Dispute

I can directly confirm that Lattanzio did state to a Japanese representative that he met Akira Kurosawa and when the representative stated to the CEO that Kurosawa had already passed on, he changed his story to meeting Kurosawa's brother.

Apparently right now, Lattanzio is trying to prevent a walkout by contacting the remaining assistant managers of departments without division heads and dangling the division manager job in front of them... with many of then unknowing why their division manager resigned in the first place because information flow is restricted by him.

Azunyanko wrote:

Apparently right now, Lattanzio is trying to prevent a walkout by contacting the remaining assistant managers of departments without division heads and dangling the division manager job in front of them... with many of then unknowing why their division manager resigned in the first place because information flow is restricted by him.

Little late for that, isnt it? I mean, 80%. If that doesn't qualify as a walk-out... I don't know what does.

And I can confirm that they are contacting all the Managers and Asst managers. I was with my friend when he got the call. At first, they offered him the DIv head job, and when he refused, they questioned his loyalty. He hesitated to affirm his commitment to SPJA/AX, and they "let him go".

I don't know what they are planning for this year's AX, since most of the staff are leaving. And with them, the knowledge of running the con.

Lattanzio may be a brilliant professional, able to run huge multinational organizations, but without a knowledgeable support staff to carry out his plan, good luck.

I can tell you that Lattanzio is making it really difficult for me to find a reason to goto AX this year. I cannot find the will to support an organization that treats their staff in such a manner.

I agree it sends a bad message to avail yourself of a luxury perk when your organization's facing tough times (and especially when your staff are all volunteers) but pretending it's a huge deal makes this seem like a petty, provincial complaint -- and that one incident of questionable judgement isn't worth a walkout.

But if everyone walks, doesn't that mean that they are abandoning SPJA and AX. Wouldnt it be easier to tell Lattanzio to leave?

I know he has an employment contract, but AX operates in California, which is an AT-WILL employer. He can be fired for cause- and employing these tactics to gain control is cause for "letting him go".

As a non-profit, isnt the employment contracts supposed to be made public? Can we take a look? Cause if they found a loophole to let Chase Wang go, I am sure they can find a reason to let this idiot go.

But if everyone walks, doesn't that mean that they are abandoning SPJA and AX. Wouldnt it be easier to tell Lattanzio to leave?

I know he has an employment contract, but AX operates in California, which is an AT-WILL employer. He can be fired for cause- and employing these tactics to gain control is cause for "letting him go".

As a non-profit, isnt the employment contracts supposed to be made public? Can we take a look? Cause if they found a loophole to let Chase Wang go, I am sure they can find a reason to let this idiot go.

I believe the resignations mentioned in the article were voluntary and were made after mounting tension/distrust and increasingly heated clashes with the CEO. I think many of the people who left have the hope that these resignations will put unavoidable pressure on the Board to remove Lattanzio. The phone calls to the remaining managers/staff are something different.

SevenMagpies wrote:

I believe the resignations mentioned in the article were voluntary and were made after mounting tension/distrust and increasingly heated clashes with the CEO. I think many of the people who left have the hope that these resignations will put unavoidable pressure on the Board to remove Lattanzio. The phone calls to the remaining managers/staff are something different.

Can confirm this directly... the phone calls are so shameful tactics.

As a now former member of the Staff of AX who worked directly under one of the mangers who stepped down, I feel I should say a little something.

I worked AX for 5 years, and every one of my friends had worked the convention for even longer. Our manager is also a personal friend. A number of us even lived with the guy for a while. [. . .] Over the years I had lost interest in anime in general, but still worked on staff because I am loyal to my group, and had fun working the con every year.

Now Im not going to try and pretend that I know all the details of the upper level power struggle, thats something that really does not concern or interest us lower staff members. But knowing the effects of whatever the board had on our friend and manager is enough for us to follow him away from our once beloved annual tradition.

If this is the typical structure of the con, (staffing by folks who aren't actually passionate about anime and what the con can do to help support it, but simply as a favor to key managers) it seems like the entire event could be crippled by a minor disagreement if the right people were involved. :/ Even ignoring the new CEO, this issue would have needed reform eventually.