Last year the Cub Scouts did their first haunted house fund raiser. We had been talking about it for a few years, but last year was the first time it all came together.
I was put in charge of it all. I wrote a script and planned out how I wanted it to be and really had a lot of ideas of what I envisioned
Well the Cub Master's brother in-law and his brother had been doing yard haunts and were willing to help us in the set-up and loan us some stuff. I also thought they had said they would light the whole thing for us.
Well two nights before we were suppose to run this thing, the walls are set up and I had spent all my free time the last week working on getting it together. Well the brother in-law and his brother decided that there is not enough stuff in it and basically muscled they way into trying to take it over. They just started to pull out prop after prop and just throw it anywhere, ignoring my designs and the over all theme I was going for.
There was also a big issue on gore. We were targetign grade school kid and families with this one and I very much felt a wall of decapitated heads was NOT the kind of thing for thsi haunted house. it did not fit with the theme or the storyline, it was out of place as to where ti was and it was I felt too much for what we were trying for. And I felt this way about a lot of other stuff they did.
Also, when we asked the about helping with the lighting the same night, they acted as if it had never been mentioned before, but they would willing to help us wit that. It ended up that what they had and what they did was not very impressive and I could have done that myself. I had been under the impression that they had better lighting equipment than what they used.
Anyway, the next day I came back to the set up and decided to take down all of what I felt was too gory and did not fit with the theme. I was in charge and this was suppose to be my vision.
Well the brothers didn't like that very much and get upset. They started to threaten to take all their props and supplies. It was got a little nasty. The rest of the parents in the Pack however sided with me and they were able to help clam things down in an manner that more or less settled the issue, taking some control away from me. That ended up being a good thing, even though there was one room that didn't work for me since it was way off theme (Basically a black light room for the sake of having a black light room and using props that would work in that room, even if they had nothing to do with the theme of the rest of the castle).
In the end it all worked out well and we made a lot of money off it. We got a lot of compliments and even the brother went through and ended up admitting it was not that bad
So the lesson on this was dealing with ego. When you get a lot of creative people together working on such a project, you need to make sure they are all on the same page and that they know who has the final say.
I am ready this year and have a better idea of what we can and need to do, as well as a better idea of just what I have access to. If the brothers wish to be involved, since we will most likely still be using some of their supplies since we have stored their stuff for them all year long, I will make sure from the get go that they understand that they do need to work with me and not try to take control.
I hope that was not too much of a rant.
