09/01/2025
Good morning, Pug People!
Some of you who know me more personally may have seen over the past few months that things in my personal life have been flipped on its head. My career has taken a sharp left turn with a new position at my company, taking on a whole new field within my industry, and with it significantly more responsibility. I've also begun working with a high school marching band in central PA as an instructor, which is 3 days per week on top of my full time job.
With the new position in my career, I have been given the autonomy to create a new platform that will be used by all departments within my facility, and with its current predicted trajectory, my creation may over the next few years be implemented at facilities in the company around the country. I've already been booked to go to a conference in California because of my project, with another one being looked at in the Spring, and as things take off, they're predicting I'll likely be sent around to facilities from coast to coast to help get my platform implemented.
So now, unfortunately, I must make the difficult announcement that effective October 1st, I will be officially stepping down from running PugFest Inc to focus on my career and all the opportunities that it has in store. The 3 years since it's inception have been great, despite the obstacles. But I have to put my future first, and I would be doing a disservice to you all and to the people I work with who took the chance on promoting me by splitting my time and focus.
This now leaves PugFest Inc in a situation: if by October 1st a successor has not stepped up to take over the organization, PugFest Inc will face dissolution. Right now, we have not met the minimum financial goals that were needed to continue on with further events, and this will likely lead to me having to cover that debt out of my own pocket. The deadline to the Tip Board Raffle was August 31st, and we fell drastically short on that goal, leaving me no choice but to refund the tickets to those who participated. This is going to leave the organization between $300-400 in debt after everything has settled. If there is no successor to step in and take over, what few assets we have will be sold to help cover the debt, and when the annual paperwork is filed at the end of the year, the organization will be folded with the state.
I hope you all understand and support this decision. If someone does decide to take over, I will be happy to help in the transition in any way I can.
Thank you for all of the support throughout the years.
Craig
