Elton Rivas Quits One Spark

[Tacachale]

http://jacksonville.com/breaking-news/2016-01-11/story/one-spark-founder-and-ceo-elton-rivas-resigns

One Spark was always smoke and mirrors. This is not surprising at all.  That ship is sinking fast.

not saying I disagree....but just curious...what positive contributions do you make to the city MMR?

In my younger years, quite many, actually.  I wont divulge which ones, because that would identify me.  I know everyone will say I won't divulge which ones because I dont have any and, hey, I don't really care what a bunch of names on a message board think of me. 

Plus, this is just the weakest bullshit there is.  You can't have a critical opinion of someone or thing unless you have engaged in exactly the same things they have, at an equivalent level? So, no doctor can criticize the mayor, because he has never been a mayor? No successful lawyer can have an opinion on the Jags because he hasn't been a football player? No.

Regardless of my accomplishments, I can credibly say One Spark was a sham. Sorry I didn't buy the snake oil they were always selling.

If you really didn't care "what a bunch of names on a message board" think of you, you wouldn't get so defensive when people ask you this.

You act as if people react to you because you're just expressing a critical opinion. Not really. They react like this because you voice (almost uniformly negative) opinions about everything with an air like you know more about running events, or businesses, or virtually everything, than the people who are actually out there. Maybe you do, but when you haven't said, people don't have a reason to believe you.

[thelakelander]

Rivas said his resignation from One Spark came in two pieces.

On Thursday, he sent a memo detailing his thoughts for a plan of action for One Spark.

The next day, he said, came a conversation with Rummell and a board member.

Rivas said they "collectively recognized we were not in alignment" and mutually agreed to go in a different direction.

He said he was asked to resign as CEO (which he did), but stay on as a board member.

Rivas said after "a bunch of consideration" over the weekend, he decided to resign as a board member, as well.

Asked if he received a severance from One Spark, Rivas said, "I resigned free and clear of any sort of things along those lines."

He leaves One Spark with a heart full of memories.

One is the launch of the Kickstarter campaign to fund the inaugural festival. He said the team wanted him to be the one to push the button to officially launch the effort, so he did that while on a plane, 35,000 feet in the air.

The Kickstarter campaign exceeded its $90,000 goal, bringing in pledges of $106,689.

Another memory is the annual tradition of walking the festival's footprint the night before opening day. He started doing that in 2013 with his girlfriend, who became his wife almost two months ago.

"It was a little bit of calm before the storm," Rivas said of the annual walk.

He'll be at One Spark this year, too, to continue showing his support for the creators.

Rivas said he appreciates that so many people have reached out the last day or so to show their support.

He has no plans to leave Jacksonville, but is "wide open" to opportunities. He'll begin reaching out to his network in the near future, he said.

But first, he'll celebrate his 35th birthday today, with his new wife and a slice of cake.

Full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=546836

[TheCat]

^ I was just about to post this article.

It reads like one spark as a festival is mostly gone and they are transforming the organization into some sort of venture capital group.

[TheCat]

The fallout from the resignation of One Spark co-founder and CEO Elton Rivas continues to unfold as a member of the organization's board of directors has quit the group that runs the annual crowdfunding festival in downtown Jacksonville.
Rena Coughlin resigned from the board of directors Monday, One Spark officials confirmed. She could not be reached for comment.

The development follows the resignations of two One Spark staff members Monday after the announcement Rivas was resigning at the request of the board.

"Rena helped the One Spark board organize and focus our nonprofit governance structure and we are thankful for the time, commitment and service she gave to the organization over the past several months," One Spark board member Michael Munz said in a statement. "She was a great asset and we look forward to continuing to work with her to make Jacksonville great."
Coughlin is active in Jacksonville non-profit activism and management. She also was part of the transition team for Mayor Lenny Curry following the 2015 municipal elections.

She is the CEO of the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida. That organization agreed to join forces with One Spark when the crowfunding group announced major changes for the festival in the summer, including reducing the geographic area and the number of creator projects from about 500 to a scheduled 300 for 2016.

Coughlin was optimistic in September about the future of the One Spark event and organizational structure.

"I was really interested in making sure the organization had the governance and the infrastructure it needed to get it to the next level of development," she said then.

"Organizations that start off organically focused on this terrific mission sometimes escalate ahead of the infrastructure that they need to support it," Coughlin said. "This is the next stage where you stop and put the brakes on. ... We are making investment in the internal workings of the organization as well. ..."

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2016-01-12/story/one-spark-board-member-steps-down-wake-rivas-resignation-ceo

[Downtown Osprey]

Such a shame. I can say, 20-somethings really enjoyed this festival. It had a certain energy that I for one haven't seen in Jax.

[Noone]

http://jacksonville.com/breaking-news/2016-01-11/story/one-spark-founder-and-ceo-elton-rivas-resigns

One Spark was always smoke and mirrors. This is not surprising at all.  That ship is sinking fast.

+1

[TimmyB]

I've been reading this thread with great interest and maybe my comments belong in a different thread. If that's the case, I apologize up front. 

The reason I've found it interesting is, I've been trying to figure out exactly what One Spark is/was.  What really got me going, though, was the comparison to Art Prize in Grand Rapids, which is my hometown.  I then began to think about all the discussions that this forum has had about DT Jax being what it is.  Well...

Thirty years ago, you could walk into DT GR at 6:00 in the evening and hit a golf ball in any direction without too much fear of hitting a human being, at least not one that held a job.  Pretty much like much of what has been said of DT Jax, currently.  What changed?  The $$$ invested by a couple of local billionaires named DeVos and Van Andel.  They were tired of seeing the city deteriorate, and they took matters into their own hands.  They bought up old hotels and renovated them into 5-star places.  They built an arena for sports and concerts.  They plowed money into public facilities, allowing the city to have a massive convention center with a wonderful performance hall.  No surprise that Art Prize is the vision of one of their lineage!  It wasn't designed to be profitable; it was designed to make GR an even more "world class" city, to get people to come and experience it.  The transformation of this city has been nothing short of astonishing, and Art Prize is but one small piece of the puzzle. 

It seems that Jax is waiting for city hall or Shad Khan or someone to do something.  Grand Rapids had the good fortune (no pun intended) of having two LOCAL guys who made it big and loved their city enough to do something about it.  Does Jacksonville have anyone with local roots with this kind of vision, with this kind of love for his / her city?  It really is going to take someone like this, by the sounds of it.

[Tacachale]

^Peter Rummell is the guy who finances One Spark, and various other things like The District development. There are others, but I don't know that any city can rely on just a couple of guys with money to revitalize their downtowns. In Grand Rapids, the success has come after years of planning and vision across the spectrum, not so much the DeVos's, Meijers, etc doing it all on their own.

[ProjectMaximus]

The reason I've found it interesting is, I've been trying to figure out exactly what One Spark is/was.  What really got me going, though, was the comparison to Art Prize in Grand Rapids, which is my hometown.  I then began to think about all the discussions that this forum has had about DT Jax being what it is.  Well...

I am pretty sure Art Prize was one of the inspirations behind One Spark. The founder of Art Prize came to speak at the Cultural Council Awards Luncheon in Jax one year (probably 2010 or 2011) and then before long we started hearing rumblings of some world's festival here in Jax.

It seems that Jax is waiting for city hall or Shad Khan or someone to do something.  Grand Rapids had the good fortune (no pun intended) of having two LOCAL guys who made it big and loved their city enough to do something about it.  Does Jacksonville have anyone with local roots with this kind of vision, with this kind of love for his / her city? 

Homegrown? We've just got Fred Durst and Tim Tebow. j/k...also Laveranues Coles. We can count on them

[Noone]

I've been reading this thread with great interest and maybe my comments belong in a different thread. If that's the case, I apologize up front. 

The reason I've found it interesting is, I've been trying to figure out exactly what One Spark is/was.  What really got me going, though, was the comparison to Art Prize in Grand Rapids, which is my hometown.  I then began to think about all the discussions that this forum has had about DT Jax being what it is.  Well...

Thirty years ago, you could walk into DT GR at 6:00 in the evening and hit a golf ball in any direction without too much fear of hitting a human being, at least not one that held a job.  Pretty much like much of what has been said of DT Jax, currently.  What changed?  The $$$ invested by a couple of local billionaires named DeVos and Van Andel.  They were tired of seeing the city deteriorate, and they took matters into their own hands.  They bought up old hotels and renovated them into 5-star places.  They built an arena for sports and concerts.  They plowed money into public facilities, allowing the city to have a massive convention center with a wonderful performance hall.  No surprise that Art Prize is the vision of one of their lineage!  It wasn't designed to be profitable; it was designed to make GR an even more "world class" city, to get people to come and experience it.  The transformation of this city has been nothing short of astonishing, and Art Prize is but one small piece of the puzzle. 

It seems that Jax is waiting for city hall or Shad Khan or someone to do something.  Grand Rapids had the good fortune (no pun intended) of having two LOCAL guys who made it big and loved their city enough to do something about it.  Does Jacksonville have anyone with local roots with this kind of vision, with this kind of love for his / her city?  It really is going to take someone like this, by the sounds of it.

Great Post. Gives me an idea for Fish Prize. Downtown

[JoeSampsonFL]

Chris Byers was the name Elton listed but Chris Carter was the name in the TU.

Why would Elton send this email first thing Monday AM?

Why didn't the organization send it like they did when Joe Sampson or the rest of the crew was released?  Were they planning to but this was a "preemptive" move by Rivas?  Doubt we'll ever really know and I doubt Elton will ever return to this city.

Hubris. Smugness.  Like rain on a welding day.

Chris Byers is the finance guy who's been around since 2014 as a contractor from ICX Group turned (I believe) employee in mid to late 2015. Chris Carter is new, and will be running One Spark Ventures, which was just announced by Peter. Hope that helps...

To clarify, I wasn't released. I decided to resign as executive director in December 2014 (see: https://onespark.com/blog/statement-on-departure-of-joe-sampson), and my resignation was not at their request. Generally unwilling to go much further into it than that as I still care deeply for One Spark and truly hope the organization finds success in its new model, but I thought that was worth clearing up.

[whyisjohngalt]

Sorry, Joe.  I assumed you resigned in a similar fashion as Rivas.  i was wrong and I apologize.

Why do you think Elton would send that directly Monday AM instead of through One Spark channels like you did?

[TheCat]

Chris Byers was the name Elton listed but Chris Carter was the name in the TU.

Why would Elton send this email first thing Monday AM?

Why didn't the organization send it like they did when Joe Sampson or the rest of the crew was released?  Were they planning to but this was a "preemptive" move by Rivas?  Doubt we'll ever really know and I doubt Elton will ever return to this city.

Hubris. Smugness.  Like rain on a welding day.

Chris Byers is the finance guy who's been around since 2014 as a contractor from ICX Group turned (I believe) employee in mid to late 2015. Chris Carter is new, and will be running One Spark Ventures, which was just announced by Peter. Hope that helps...

To clarify, I wasn't released. I decided to resign as executive director in December 2014 (see: https://onespark.com/blog/statement-on-departure-of-joe-sampson), and my resignation was not at their request. Generally unwilling to go much further into it than that as I still care deeply for One Spark and truly hope the organization finds success in its new model, but I thought that was worth clearing up.

What is the new model?

[TimmyB]

^Peter Rummell is the guy who finances One Spark, and various other things like The District development. There are others, but I don't know that any city can rely on just a couple of guys with money to revitalize their downtowns. In Grand Rapids, the success has come after years of planning and vision across the spectrum, not so much the DeVos's, Meijers, etc doing it all on their own.

I don't mean to imply that they did it on their own.  What I AM saying is, if they hadn't started the initiative by buying the decrepit Pantlind Hotel and turning it into the Amway Grand Plaza, and then kept plowing money into the DT area, none of the others would have followed.  Once people and government realized DT was coming back, it was an easy sell.  Trust me, I am not aligned with the DeVos family in any way, especially when they are trying to put me out of a job every chance they get. 

[thelakelander]

^Time will tell if the group of developers/individuals (ex. Coley, Atkins, Rummell, Khan, etc.) trying to get various projects off the ground, will play a similar role.