As some of you have seen, there has been a lot of trouble on www.thehighroad.org

If you’ve been following this little internet soap-opera on some of the other boards, let me just say that either way, you’re not getting the whole story, regardless of who you’re listening too.

I’ve been a moderator at THR since it was founded. I was the 5^th person to register. I feel like I put a lot of time into making the board what it eventually turned in to. Over the last few years I’ve not been nearly as active, but owning your own business, writing books, teaching, and working 70 hours a week does that to you. 

A few months ago it was discovered that THR was worth a significant amount of money. We were the largest gun board that didn’t have any advertising on it. A company approached us with an offer.  And then everything went to hell.

There was an ownership dispute between the founder, Oleg Volk, and the guy who did the technical heavy lifting, Derek Zeanah. This went on for a few months in private. Attempts at mediation by some of the mod staff, myself included, failed.

Oleg then decided to take the fight public. Which was the breaking point for me. The value of THR isn’t in any physical assets or a domain name, it is in the community. That’s what brings us to where we are right now.

I’m not picking a side in this fight. Effective yesterday, I resigned as a moderator at THR. Trust me when I say that as an insider that this isn’t quite as black and white as you may think it is. I do believe Oleg is the owner of THR, but that Derek deserved just compensation for his efforts. I can’t support either side when I think both of them aren’t making good decisions.  I’ve been friends with Oleg for many years, and I’ve always respected Derek. I’m good friends with many of the staff at THR, and it sucks to have friends pick sides.

I’m going to miss THR. It was the best forum on the web. Ironically, as I look at my best friends in real life, I originally met over half of them on TFL or THR. I’ll remain a member over there, but I have no idea how this drama is going to play out or if it will survive what’s coming. My company has a web forum at www.fbmg.yuku.com I’ve offered it as a hookup place for members at THR should anything bad happen suddenly.

This whole thing has left me sad, and a frankly, a little pissed off. I expected better from some people, and I was let down.    

Ever since Cabelas opened in Lehi, Utah, I have taught their CCW classes. I’ve taught well over 2,000 people there, most of those for free, and they have never once had a single complaint about my class. In fact, every bit of feedback they’ve ever gotten has been positive.

But once again, in the corporate world, being good doesn’t necessarily get you rewarded.  I was recently notified that Cabela’s Corporate has instructed the locals that they will be using a new instructor.

So looks like I’m done teaching at Cabelas, through no fault of my own. Somebody in Nebraska, or wherever, said use this other dude. I have no idea who he is, or how good of an instructor he is.  Apparently he thinks he’s pretty good, because he costs a bunch more.

My class was $40.  His is $75.  His includes finger prints and photos.  Mine included optional finger prints, photos, notarization, and delivery to BCI for an additional $20.  So thanks to the help of Dr. Dave Gardner (notary and finger printer extraordinaire) who has been helping me for the last few months, you got more services for less.

Also, I taught anyone in the military, Active, Reserve, or Guard for free. I taught anyone who worked at any Utah school for free, teachers, admin, I don’t care if you’re the janitor, work in a school, free CCW.  And finally, I taught any student of any Utah college or university for free. 

I’m told the new guy might possibly offer a small discount for military. 

I put my money where my mouth is. I’ve taught over $20,000 worth of free CCW classes to military, students, and teachers in the last year. And one of the primary reasons I was able to get away with that was because I had a really large classroom to work with.  It takes me 5 hours to teach a few people in their kitchen or a room full of 50 people.

I’ll still keep teaching those groups for free, because I’m stubborn like that, but right now I’m limited to teaching at my shop in Draper. For those of you that have been in some of the bigger classes I taught there, keep in mind that usually half the people in the room weren’t paying anything.

In the past I just told students to refer their friends to Cabelas to get into a class.  Can’t do that anymore, so please contact me at FBMG for your CCW instruction. 

If you were planning on going to Cabelas for your class, especially if you were in one of the free groups, be sure to let them know your opinion of their new arrangement.   

http://www.iscifi.tv/podcast/2008/09/28/monster-hunter-international/

I haven’t watched this yet, so I don’t know how dumb I sound. I was interviewed at Mountaincon about my book.

Our annual machine gun shoot is coming up really soon.  http://www.fbmg.yuku.com/topic/810/t/Details-of-the-FBMG-Machinegun-shoot.html

Come and check it out.  It will be awesome. 

Also, we will be picking the winning ticket for the Breast Cancer Charity AR that day too. If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, we will still be doing those up until the afternoon of the 4th.

I saw this online today.