Tucson Toyboxx Toys Teen Challenge Event

Funny I never thought of neither of your kids attending an "event" before.... I guess the timing is always wrong. I guess they are always involoved somehow even then they are not around. Glad they had a good time.

 

Thank for getting the pictures up... oh great and powerful Webmaster. Your the man..

 

Uh, OK, sure, welcome

 

LOL

 

Whoa!!! Who is the "bathrobe" handmaiden/decoy?

[image=http://www.danzelmo.com/MVC-021S.JPG]

Oi! A cloak with capris and a tank top doesn't make you a costumed character!

 

She's a friend of Cats who showed up in some kind of costume that looks like clown makeup and thrusted herself into pictures even though she is nota full member. Personally I dont think she should have been allowed to show up in any kind of costume (after all we had almost a whole meeting on what it takes to become a full meember and do costumed events) Then she tried to rip off my balcalva in front of the kids when I was taking a helmet break.

 

Wow, um. Hmmm.

That isn't cool to mess with someone in costume like that. That is why the DSG always wants "wranglers" for costumed characters so stuff like that doesn't happen. Sounds like you all might want to consider a Code of Conduct or something for events.

 

Indeed. Maybe we should re-visit the member rules and brush up on it, so this DOES NOT happen again. The DSG has some horror stories we can learn from....

 

I wanted to make sure everyone knew that Every Saturday night at the Toyboxx are costume nights, anyone showing up in any type of costume get discounts at the store, Jack advertises this fact, as Jack encourages costumes.. Also, wanted to be sure to let everyone know that Sophie asked for permission to get in a few photos to take back home as memories of her trip, and the teen challenge event, she was NOT there as a costumed member of the Fan Force, she was there as a fan, and a friend, enjoying the night, it was something that she had looked forward to ever since learning she would get the opportunity to see the group in costume.

I spoke with Sophie that night, and since as well.. about the issue of not messing with the guys while they are in costume, she understood that in the future this is not something she should ever do.. though in fact she is only here until the morning of the 8th, so she will not have a chance to visit with the fan force anymore since she will be gone before any more events take place.

 

If it was indeed a day when costumes are encouraged I can see your point Cat, and that our rules of who can participate in one of our costumed events were not violated int his instance, but I think we should create or revisit some code of conduct rules

 

OK, first of all, I was not at the event, so I have no idea what actually went on there. All of my following arguments are based on what has been said here in the thread, and what is posted on the web site. Second, I apologize right now for being a jerk and stepping on anybody's toes, but I have to clarify this, for myself if for nobody else.

First off, here are the minutes from the meeting in February (found on the fifth thread page) that define a voting member of this organization:

These do not define who or what can be at an event in which we are costumed, or who can have their photo taken with us. This only describes who can be a voting member of this organization. If we want to make rules saying who can attend a costumed event, then we are screwed. We would be shooting ourselves in the foot by doing so. If memory serves me, we do officially costumed events for very public events. If we start to limit who can attend an official TFF costumed event, we cannot do these events in costume anymore because everybody else in the world does not fall into our definition of who can attend a TFF costumed event.

SIDENOTE: This is based solely on what is written exactly on this thread. If I have misinterpreted what has been written, I apologize.

Now, it seems to me that we are attacking this Sophie person only. Looking at the web site, I found some interesting photos:

[image=http://www.danzelmo.com/P1010040.JPG]

and

[image=http://www.danzelmo.com/MVC-016S.JPG]

So, the top picture shows two other girls, and Sophie, all in three different, non-SW, costumes. If we are classifying this as a TFF officially costumed event, why are these other two girls not getting flak about not being in the proper costume, and still being in a photo. The bottom picture shows a young girl with no costume at all in one of our pictures.

SIDENOTE: I know this is one of our member's daughters. Just making a point here.

I ask again, why is only Sophie getting the flak here for not being in costume. I understand the whole messing with somebody else's costume being a problem, I agree with that being a problem. But to quote DSJ:

Why is this sentiment not being shared to the other people at the event? By targeting only Sophie for being in a non-SW costume, but not everybody else, we are being very hypocritical.

I am going to make my stand here and now, we should not even think about creating rules for who can and cannot do costumed events. The biggest reason we should not do this is Halloween. Imagine we have the rules in place I do not want to see. What are we going to say to a little boy at Reid Park in a Batman costume who wants a picture with Chewie? Are we going to tell the kid "sorry, but we voted as the TFF and because you are not in a Star Wars costume we cannot allow you to take a picture with us." This is the biggest costumed event of the year. A lot of people in the world dress up in a costume. Not everybody chooses a SW character as their costume.

What I do think we need to do at these costumed events is appoint TFF members who will be in uniform, but not in costume, to protect co

 

Tim, I think you've made some excellent points.

My concern was the quality of the costume and whether this was presented as a person who was part of the group or not. Avoiding poor quality costumes has been something that has been talked about at length in meetings because of previous experiences with other groups [i.e. - the DSG]. When the TFF goes out as part of the Event entertainment the group has set standards for quality.

Having wranglers or people who are in TFF t-shirts is of the utmost importance also because those in costumes rely on "wranglers" to keep people from messing with their costumes or trying to take a piece off of their costume. Having been at the Rock and Roll Marathon with the DSG I saw firsthand people trying to take items off of costumes.

Absolutely the TFF is there to entertain and pose for pictures with anyone and everyone. That has always been the goal of the group since the Katrina Fundraiser -- helping through our love of SW.

Again, Tim, you made a very well thought out post with excellent points.

 

Because the two girls wanted to take a picture with us to commemorate the occasion as many many others did...like the little girl.....these pics just happened to be posted on the site.


Dusty didnt know Toyboxx Toys was a place where people are encouraged to dress up for a discount of ice cream and or merchandise on certain days...

I find no fault in that aspect of the disgussion (costume) ..but to act in a way as she had is out of line... and that is what we need to disguss as Two Suns Fan Force on the up an coming meeting. Thanks Tim for youre input...you coming to the Battlefront event? we'd love to SEE you.

 

This is just my opinion and observation. I do understand the TFF is NOT a costuming group so this might even be moot.

Some very valid points but I think this was mostly due to misunderstanding. I for one didn't know that Jack (ToyBoxx) has a costume day with a discount for wearing a costume. That being stated I think the problem stemmed from the fact that some of us made assumptions based on a lack of given information.

Nobody is an official member until they fill the obligations. Pretty cut and dry. We do have many unconsumed people with us almost all of the time, without them we would not be able to function at all. Period.
That DOES NOT make them any less a TFF member but at the same time just dressing up in a costume does not grant you full voting member access either. Nor does just showing up at an even in a ?budget? costume allow you to represent the TFF.

 

Tim, unfortunatly you did get the wrong impression. Probably because your points were based solely on what was posted on this thread. Of course we would never tell a child on a non-Star Wars costume they could not have a picture. Most of us are in this group for the children's charities. Plus nothing has ever been mentioned about limiting the public to costumed events (like Halloween). My only concern was someone showing up in a sub-par costume REPRESENTING the TFF. Chris and Amber's daughter in the photo you referenced above was not actively representing the TFF (although she did help with water etc.). The girls in the photo you referenced were employees of the Toyboxx,, so no we could not (nor would we) try and limit what kind of costume they could wear, because they were not there representing us, they were working.

Plus, like Damian said, this was based on a misunderstanding. I did not hear Jack tell us at the meeting that every Saturday was a costume night where customers who showed up got discounts on ice cream. If I did I would only have an issue with my mask almost being ripped off. Here's what I thought: I thought Sophie was being allowed to come to a TFF event, and represent the TFF in a costume that was supposed to be Amidala only because she was Cat's friend. My problem was with Cat becuase I thought she was purposely lowering her standards of quality which cheapens the time,work and money we put into our costumes. Once it was fully explained to me that there was a costume day, I didn't have an issue, and told Cat to apologize to Sohpie for me if my above posts offended her. But the attempt to take apart of my costume off is the real issue (now that I know she was jsut attending not representing the TFF). I dont think I was personally attacking Sohpie. I would have had the same issue (with Cat) if say she let anyone else show up TO REPRESENT THE TFF in a poor costume. But (as said above) that was not the case and was a misundertanding.

I think we need to come up with an actual game plan in case we are harrrassed in such a way at the Halloween event. I remember several DSGers saying teens tend to try to steal their thermal detonators or punch them in the ab armor to see if it hurts.

 

oops

 

I totally agree that we need to further discuss actions to take if something happens with someone else as it did on saturday with Sophie and Dustin and the attempt to take his mask off, which was not using appropriate behavior, that being said we must consider and discuss that when you do charity events that sometimes have people with disabilities at them we should plan accordingly as sometimes it is not behavior that people with disabilities intend to display or want to display, they just have no control over it.

I should have gone into more detail in explaining Sophie's situation to the group before everyone met her... through the years that I have known and loved Sophie I have just gotten used to her situation, and I just was trying to respect her wishes to not have everyone know the ins and outs of her entire condition with respect to her privacy. Knowing that I myself get very frustrated with her at times myself and have had some instances through the years with her that were distressful and upsetting I should have gone ahead and informed everyone of her full situation, I guess I just assumed everyone would understand without my going into too much detail just because she was my friend, this was wrong and I am sorry. In any case.. to explain without going into too much detail.. when Sophie got sick in her teen years and began to have strokes several things happened.. for one she almost died several times, secondly, after the strokes she had relearn many behaviors, such as speaking, walking, such as that.. thirdly and perhaps in this case with saturday most importantly, one of the main areas of the brain affected by the strokes Sophie had were the areas of the brain that control social behavior and self control. After this time of debilitaing health Sophie missed about two years of school and had to pretty much start her life over..if you can see your way through to understanding this it is simply Sophie is a young woman in her twenties with the desires and intelligence of a twenty something yr old, but with the understanding and beliefs of life and how you behave of someone that is far younger, this being said.. her behavour on saturday was wrong, I told her then.. and I have told her since then that it was wrong.. but I just want and hope for the group to understand that it is not something that Sophie sets out to do intentionally, it is just something that she has no control over, it is something that her family, friends, and doctors have been trying through the years to help her overcome, unfortunately even her doctors are unsure if she will ever be able to get over this part of her disability.

I asked Sophie first if it was okay if I told you all this, and she said that it was, and she is very sorry that she caused Dustin and anyone else she offended any harm or misconsideration. For myself, I am sorry I did not tell all of you her details at first.. but she strives hard to be considered "normal" and she very much did not want anyone to know about the details of her condition. I just finally explained to her that I felt this was the best way to hopefully explain to everyone why some of what happened with her on saturday happened. While it does not excuse the behavior she displayed I am in hopes that everyone will understand a bit better that none of what she did was done intentionally to hurt anyone.

On a side note, as for the costume she wore, I thought everyone knew that saturdays at toyboxx were costume days, I would have told the group this.. but I assumed everyone already knew, which was why I was upset, I thought everyone already knew why Sophie had on the costume and was still angry about it, I did not realize that none of you realized it was costume day at the toyboxx, so you all have my sincere apologies for being upset. Sophie was not at the event as a costumed or voting member of the Fan Force, she was there as my friend and to enjoy the days festivities as anyone else attending was doing, I am sorry some of you misunderstood that and got the wrong impression.

While Sophie would be a l

 

Huh? Sombody forget to log off again?

 

yep!! me as usual

 

I had a great time at the event minus all the helmet carnage.

 

For what it is worth, I remember Jack mentioning Saturday night as costume night, but only that his employees would be in costume. I don't remember anything about customer discounts. This is something of a moot point, anyway.