I’d been a graphic designer for over 20 years and a web designer for over 10 years. As a side project, I became involved in a newly established non-profit art museum. I started out offering free services and eventually became a board member.
This project had been going on for over a year with no real traction. I came along, designed logos and posters, built a website, organized internal communications, and started pushing for local events to build a groundswell.
After organizing a couple successful events, I started to tire of the internal arguments. The board meetings always included the president and vice-president yelling at each other for 30-45 minutes at a time.
Finally, at one meeting, the president handed out paperwork for the board to sign stating that all physical work done for the organization by the signing member was property of the organization. Since I was the only person to do any tangible work, this was obviously directed at me. That, coupled with the fighting, told me that my work there was finished. I discretely avoided signing the document, went home, and drafted a resignation email to all the board members. I was very polite and noted that I would continue on in my duties for one month so that they could find an appropriate replacement, as the work I did was rather technical. At that time, I would turn over all artwork to the new graphics/website person.
One week later, the president called me and asked where the files were. I responded that she didn’t have anyone that could read the files and that I had stated in my email when I would turn them over.
One week after that, the president called me and, slightly more vehemently, demanded the files. She was very insistent so I told her that I would make a DVD copy for her, but that I was on my way to a client meeting and that I would be unavailable to do it that day. Fifteen minutes later I get another call that I couldn’t answer at the time because I was driving. It was her lawyer.
Obviously, this infuriated me. I just wanted to be done with this. When I returned, I copied everything I had onto a DVD and drove immediately to the president’s house and slipped the disk through her mail slot. I figured I was done.
The next day I had an email from the lawyer threatening to sue me for the art files. I politely responded that I had never been paid, I had never signed off on any of the artwork, so I still owned everything and that if she would like to send me a summons, I will be happy to show up… or she could just apologize for trying to intimidate me and we could work this out calmly. The lawyer apologized and replied that the disk was “blank.”
Me: It was a DVD-Rom. You put it in a CD drive.
I never heard back after that.
