An email came out about the former president of CAPS (Comics art professional society. an NPO Founded by Sergio Aragonés.) This is why CAPS is Dissolving. Dear CAPS member,I’m writing this to inform you of something you should know about recent events affecting CAPS. Christie Shinn did not resign as President; she was removed by the board, her membership was revoked, and legal action is proceeding.In February of 2023, CAPS was offered a free booth at the LatinX convention in Modesto, which was held the weekend of March 16. The Board agreed to pay for a hotel room for the members who would work the booth, and a room was booked. The hotel then informed us that the attendees would need to bring the CAPS debit card with them in order to check out. A letter was written to the hotel giving Christie authorization to use the card for the hotel room and she was given the card. After the convention, the card was not immediately returned, but since CAPS was not meeting in person or spending any money, it was not a concern. In August of this year, it was discovered that the bank balance was significantly lower than it should have been. Upon examination, we Iearned that Christie had used the debit card for unauthorized purchases totaling $10,500. These charges included paying her home utility bills, car insurance, $3500 at restaurants, $1000 in Uber & Lyft charges, as well as airfare and hotel for Fan Expo Toronto, where she was not representing CAPS. She also frequently bought meals and drinks for numerous people at several other conventions where CAPS did not have a table. There were also over $1300 in ATM withdrawals.Cont-
>>147145007The board called a meeting to confront Christie about the charges. We met at the Coral Cafe on August 21, and Christie immediately admitted misusing the card. The board decided that the least destructive course of action was to allow her to repay the funds and avoid a public scandal. She agreed to make monthly payments of $500 until the debt was repaid, would resign as President and would quietly exit CAPS. She wrote a check for the first payment. The Board wrote up an agreement to document the repayment plan and sent it to Christie to sign. She never signed the agreement. When the second payment came due, Christie chose to instead threaten legal action for our allegedly violating the confidentiality agreement that she had never signed. We have spoken to attorneys and researched our options. If we chose to sue her, we would likely spend the remainder of the CAPS bank account pursuing the case. We chose another option. On November 25, a report was filed with the Burbank Police Department for theft. This is now a criminal case.We will continue to send updates as it moves forward.This sequence of events is not the only reason CAPS is ending; that has been a long time coming, and was suggested as early as 2018. Most of the concerns that CAPS was created to address have been rendered moot by changes in the industry and advances in technology, and the Board finally accepted that its time has passed. This situation merely accelerated the decision.Con-
>>147145007>After the convention, the card was not immediately returned, but since CAPS was not meeting in person or spending any money, it was not a concern.Yeah that was a mistake
>>147145016We had decided to keep the case quiet until there was some action from the police department to report, and also we didn’t want the issue hanging over our final meeting, but we did honestly answer questions from members who asked. Now it seems word has spread outside of CAPS. Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool has reached out to ask about rumors he’s heard, and Mike Wellman, whom some of you know, will be talking about CAPS and Christie in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) online session tomorrow morning. Wellman has been a target of harassment from Christie for several years, including being portrayed as a vilified character in her “Demon Bitch” comics. We understand that this is a lot to take in and we are willing to answer questions. Being that the money taken belonged to CAPS and therefore to all its members, we do want to apologize for not bringing the matter to all members' attention sooner, but our reason, as mentioned previously, was the intent to keep this matter quiet. And for that, we ask for your understanding. Despite our disappointment in this turn of events, we thank you for your time in reading this.Jim MacQuarrieFor the CAPS Board
>>147145017What is Crazy is that their head of treasury didn't even notice for a a whole entire year? What the fuck was he doing? You had one job!
