Due to several misleading comments, I think it's time that I set the record straight here regarding our association/disassociation with Reptiles Australasia, although it's really no-one else's business except mine and the person who currently calls himself the 'CEO'.
If we choose to continue to pursue it, we have legal action pending against this person with regard to his actions, so therefore I'll only set out the basic details.
Let me just say this, despite what has been said, the concept for the new magazine was in actual fact mine. I have witnesses, as well as paperwork to prove this. How the current 'CEO' became involved and managed to gain control is part of the whole legal matter and not open for discussion with the general public. The original idea was that RA was to be a 'sister' magazine to Scales & Tails Australia, catering to the other part of the market. It was intended that it would contain the talks from the Symposium that would be held each year, along with scientific articles, and herp photography, and we were going to publish it bi-monthly, in the off month to that of Scales & Tails Australia. It was later decided to make it quarterly instead.
In the early part of 2011, I started speaking with quite a few of my peers in the hobby about our plans, and they too were eagerly awaiting the release of our new magazine. The original release date was set for April 2011. Just to set the record straight further, the layout of the new RA magazine and the very first issue was originally put together by a team made up of the Scales & Tails Australia team (myself, Troy, Denver, Romana, Paula and Jamie) with the addition of the current self appointed 'CEO' of RA. This then became the new RA team. We had the first issue originally down as due for release in April 2011, but this date kept having to be pushed back further and further for different reasons. Jamie (who we had appointed as the editor of the new mag), will verify all this as fact as well because we were both working on it consistently during the early part of 2011...... By the time that the current 'CEO' and Jamie actually flew up to Ipswich for a 'pre release' meeting with Troy, Romana, Paula, and myself in May 2011, just prior to sending the new mag to print, (I was in discussions with a printing company in Brisbane at the time), Romana had it all completed and it just needed a few final bits of tweaking.
It was during this time though that things started to go pear shaped. We were starting to smell a rat and noticing a lot of inconsistencies. We began asking certain relevant questions which weren't being answered to our satisfaction, and things weren't quite adding up the way that they should have been and we were really starting to get nervous!
Bottom line is that, because I was too trusting and naive, and didn't listen to Troy & Denver's advice, the new magazine that was to be the Scales & Tails 'sister' magazine was taken out from under me. For legal reasons, I'm not going into any more details as to how this was done, but in hindsight, thank goodness it was! Otherwise it would have become a worse nightmare for us than it already is.
What's that saying about laying down with dogs....... you get fleas..... well I've learnt my lesson. The only people that I will ever be in any sort of business with from now on will be my own family.
Hopefully this will clear up this matter once and for all.
Cheers
Joy
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