UPDATE to Dr. Piazza's personal message to you with answers to most asked questions about FS changes (January 23, 2022)
From: "Ignatius Piazza" <[email protected]>
Date: January 24, 2022 at 1:04:26 PM PST
To: "[[email protected]]" <[[email protected]]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
[Dr. Ignatius Piazza]
My Personal Message to YOU with Answers to the Most Asked Questions Regarding the Restructuring of Front Sight and the Changes in Your Membership
Monday, January 24, 2022
Dear [member],
First I would like to thank the members, who upon receiving the email announcing Front Sight’s restructure, www.FrontSight.com/Restructure immediately paid for their annual or monthly Membership Maintenance Fees and sent me an email outlining their understanding and support of the difficult decisions I had to make in restructuring Front Sight’s policies, procedures, services, benefits and fees. Yes, they were initially shocked at the email too, and did not like the fact that the changes had to be made, but they understood why and demonstrated their loyalty and support for Front Sight by immediately paying their Membership Maintenance Fees. It is only in challenging times that we really learn who our true friends, allies, and supporters are. These are challenging times that we will overcome, and our most loyal and supportive members are demonstrating who they are. My sincere thanks and gratitude for your kind words and support.
Second, I would like to sincerely apologize to any member who felt I was blaming them for the reason why I was forced to make such difficult decisions in restructuring Front Sight. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love our members and their families. It warms my heart to see our members and their families attending courses at Front Sight. And it breaks my heart to have to make these extremely difficult changes to ensure Front Sight will operate successfully for generations to come. The reference to members was to demonstrate I had done everything I could to inform members of the need for their participation in the fight against the criminals attempting to steal Front Sight, and my dismay and disappointment when we did not have enough members participate to overcome such a challenging situation.
Who do I blame for our challenging situation? I blame the unscrupulous people who conned us into a deal that they never had the intention or ability to fulfill. After years of stealing our money, when we confronted them on their crimes, they then filed a fraudulent foreclosure action against us to cover their tracks and steal the property from us. Front Sight was supposed to be completed in 2016 based on their assurances in 2012. By 2018, after giving them more than enough time to complete their promises, I had no choice but to file a lawsuit against them for their crimes against us, and they responded by filing their fraudulent foreclosure action. As I explain at www.FrontSight.com/Restructure, I have been fighting this legal battle for 4 years, but it seems like 64018 years! We should have won this lawsuit two years ago. We have proved they lied to us over 30 times to get us into the deal, we have proved over $100,000 was stolen from us, we have proved they lied to the Court, we have proved they breached our contract, and we have proved they repeatedly and egregiously violated the rules of discovery. We have also proved we have told the truth, were never in default, and used every dollar we were provided in an appropriate manner. For reasons unknown to my legal team, we have not been able to win this case, in this court, with all the evidence we have provided.
And I blame myself, for violating my own, original policy of building Front Sight with cash flow only. That is the way I started Front Sight and I should have continued it, building Front Sight a million dollars at a time. The problem I faced is after we had completed most of what you see at Front Sight, the next step was not a million dollar step, but rather a 10 million or 20 million dollar step and for that need, I became vulnerable to the con of a "We can provide all the money you need at 6% interest, that we will source from our vast network of foreign investors." Even after the attorneys and people I relied on had done their due diligence on this slick con man, and were conned as well into advising me to accept his deal, I should never have agreed to this. It is the worst decision I have ever made. Although the result of this mess has forced me to restructure Front Sight and in doing so, create the fees I am asking you to pay, it has personally cost me MILLIONS of dollars in legal costs, and even more, TENS of millions of dollars, in damages. Believe me, I have paid a steep price for my mistake. What is worse than the monetary loss however, is the loss of confidence and good will it has caused with Front Sight’s members as the project has languished for all the years I have been fighting the unscrupulous people attempting to steal Front Sight. I promise I will make this up to you, as I outline below.
So where do we go from here?
We must restructure Front Sight to ensure Front Sight’s successful operation for generations to come. As I outlined in the email posted at www.FrontSight.com/Restructure I was forced to make very tough decisions, in fact the toughest decisions I have ever made in my life, to restructure how Front Sight operates. Those decisions affected you, my members and that is what made it so tough for me, and why I waited as long as I could to make those decisions. And I am so sorry that I had to make those decisions, but they had to be made to ensure Front Sight’s ongoing and successful operation.
However, in the decisions I made, that created the monthly membership fees and the daily use fees that have never been charged in the past, I tried my best to offset the actual cost of the new fees by providing you with equal or greater benefits you could use now, and in the future to recover the costs. After reviewing all the comments and emails I received, from those loyal and supportive members who immediately paid their monthly or annual membership fees and those members who have not yet done so, I realized there is still some confusion on my good intentions, and the way the changes are explained. So please let me clarify the most common confusions, and also let me try to correct some of the issues that members brought to my attention so I can make this up to you now, and in the future.
1. Credits/Patronage Points converting into the new FS Bucks and FS Coin. This change created the most confusion and angst of all the changes. Let me explain: Through their purchases, Front Sight members had received matching credits to use to pay their background checks, membership transfer fees, use toward purchases in the pro shop, and special offers I planned on creating in the future, most significantly when Front Sight Resort was completed and running like a well-oiled machine. When I began offering members the opportunity to purchase credit multiplier offers, the credits began doubling, tripling, quadrupling, 10Xing, 100Xing etc. This created a MASSIVE number of credits that quite frankly members would never be able to use in a hundred years, other than a special offer I contemplated when the resort was completed that would allow them to trade all their credits back in and receive benefits relative to the other members who did the same thing. This was something the members, especially the top purchasing members, had a great time with and competed with each other to see who could amass the most credits. The credits became more of a unit or measure rather than a credit because there was no way these credits could ever be used in a thousand years. When I made the tough decision to restructure Front Sight, I wanted to fix this by making it more manageable and real for members, while also providing an Exchange in Abundance to THANK members for their past support and their support of the restructure. So this is what I did to thank you for your past support and your support of the restructure:
2. I refunded into every member's F$ Bucks account, who had purchased the credit multiplier offers, the full amount of their credit multiplier purchases so they would have that money available to pay the new daily course fees. There would never be any real cost to them for the daily course fees because they had the F$ Bucks to do so from the refund of their past credit multiplier offers. The F$ Bucks also allow them to now purchase ammunition, food and beverage, and full use in the pro shop which the old Credits/Patronage Points were never allowed to do. The F$ Bucks can also be used to pay criminal background checks and membership transfer fees if a member wished to pay them for a new member. I did ALL of this to give you F$ Bucks to pay the new fee structure so it would not need to come out of new cash from you.
3. Rather than have the massive number of Credits/Patronage Points in members' accounts that were unmanageable and would never be used for anything other than a special offer I contemplated when the resort was completed, I REPLACED Credits/Patronage Points with the new, Front Sight Coin by doing the following calculation: I took EVERY DOLLAR a member had spent with Front Sight on memberships, upgrades, multipliers, special offers, etc. and divided it by 100. This placed the FS Coin at a REAL value of $100 per coin. I then placed those FS Coins in the members' accounts. This change is for the better as it makes the FS Coin the new unit, the new yardstick so to speak of a member's participation and it has REAL value. It can be used for special offers NOW and in the future. If you had a million credits or more in your account from purchasing credit multipliers, it had no real value for you to use now and its only value of its full use was in the distant future. So I REFUNDED you that money you paid for credit multipliers, which removed how you amassed the millions of inflated credits, but now you have that money back to use for the new fees, purchasing ammo, food, and pro shop supplies etc. Then I essentially DOUBLE REFUNDED you by taking EVERYTHING you have spent on our offers and converted it to the new and real, FS Coin that you can use NOW on special offers I create in the near future as well as special offers I provide when the resort is completed. You have not lost anything, you have been doubly refunded and the FS Coin is the new unit, the new yardstick of your participation. And for those top members who were always jockeying for the bragging rights of who had the "most" I will tell you that the member who has spent the most with us has over 5,000 FS Coins and the members who have the least, have a single FS Coin that I placed in EVERY members account as an additional show of my good faith to them, even though they were likely given a membership, never purchased anything from us and probably have not attended a course with us yet. Understand that if your account shows 1 FS coin, it is not $1; it is 1 COIN and that coin has a $100 value. The Front Sight computers are still chugging away making these changes but by tomorrow or the next day you should see the full benefit of how I DOUBLE REFUNDED you so you have F$ Bucks to pay for the new daily fees AND I cleaned up the unreal and inflated Credit/Patronage Points into manageable and real-value FS Coins that are now the new unit of your participation and can be used NOW and in the future on special offers I will be providing starting in February.
4. As you can see above, with the DOUBLE REFUND I did for all members, I really did my best to return your money so you could use it for the daily fees Front Sight must charge. I hope you see my intentions were not only to accomplish that, but also reward you for your past purchases through the double refund. The next issue is the monthly membership fees that Front Sight must now charge. I hated having to make this change because I knew it will cause hardship on families attending Front Sight where the husband, wife, and all the kids have memberships. Believe me, I LOVE seeing families training at Front Sight. I LOVE training the next generation of responsible gun owners to have skills that exceed law enforcement and military standards. Unfortunately, and regrettably, due to the reasons I have already explained, Front Sight must now charge a monthly or annual membership fee. If you go to Membership Maintenance Fee to pay your membership maintenance fees you will see that when you pay the annual fee of $500, I will place $500 in F$ Bucks into your account and add 5 (five) FS Coins to your account. This is another DOUBLE REFUND into your account to more than offset the costs of the annual fee. Use the $500 in F$ Bucks to pay for the ammunition at your next course since, as a new benefit in the restructure, I now allow F$ Bucks to pay for things you could never pay for with credits, such as ammunition, full value in the pro shop, as well as food and beverage.
5. I fully understand that even though I am providing you with an immediate DOUBLE REFUND when you pay the new, annual membership maintenance fees, this still creates a hardship on some of our Front Sight families. I am sincerely sorry for this. Under the difficult circumstance we face, for the reasons outlined above, I have no choice but to make these changes. However, I want you to understand, and I request, that if each and every member of your family is unable to take advantage of all the double refunds I have provided to offset the new daily fees and new monthly membership fees, please choose ONE member of your family TODAY to continue as a member of Front Sight and pay the Membership Maintenance Fee. To show my good faith and to prove my statement that I LOVE seeing families training at Front Sight, I have committed to providing 3-4 Front Sight Family Weeks at Front Sight during each year that active members can bring their families to attend with them and the immediate family members of the active member will not have to pay the Course Fee, Facility Fee, or Staff Support Fee. We will run these Family Weeks during good weather months and around school holidays to make it easy for you all to attend. Of course, I would rather see all your family members as Front Sight members but I understand if that is not possible. Because I still want to see your family training at Front Sight, even with the changes I was forced to make as part of our restructure, please choose ONE member of your family TODAY to continue as an active member of Front Sight and pay the Membership Maintenance Fee so you can bring your family with you to the Front Sight Family Weeks.
6. The next issue that I want to fix for you and any of your immediate family members; spouse, sons, or daughters who cannot continue as members is what to do with their F$ Bucks and FS Coins, and any TBD Memberships or TBD Certificates they may have accumulated in their accounts. Again, I would rather see them continue as members but if they absolutely, positively cannot afford to continue, even with all the DOUBLE REFUNDING I am doing to offset their costs, I am going to do the following to once again show my good faith to you in this challenging situation we are in, and prove my intentions have always been to be fair with you and when I can, MORE than fair. If a spouse, son, or daughter cannot continue as a member, I will transfer all of their F$ Bucks, FS Coins, TBD Memberships and TBD Certificates to the family member who continues with Front Sight. This way your family loses nothing, even if they cannot continue as members. Please choose at least ONE member of your family TODAY to continue as an active member of Front Sight and pay the Membership Maintenance Fee. If your other family members cannot continue, their membership assets will be transferred in the active member's account so your family loses nothing.
7. In wrestling with the very difficult decisions I had to make in restructuring Front Sight, I contemplated not making any changes for the existing members and only making these changes for new members. Unfortunately, this was not financially feasible under the challenging circumstances we are facing, as I have already outlined. HOWEVER, what I did do with the DOUBLE REFUNDS to provide F$ Bucks to pay your daily fees and the $500 in F$ Bucks and five FS Coins when you pay your annual Membership Maintenance Fee and transferring all the assets from any of your immediate family member who are not able to continue as members, and committing to the Front Sight Family Weekends where your immediate family can train without paying a Course Fee, Facility Fee, or Staff Support Fee is essentially the same thing as not making any changes for the current members. Why? Because I am providing you with more than enough F$ Bucks to pay for and offset the new daily fees. I'm allowing your immediate family members to continue to train during Family weeks with no Course Fee, Facility Fee, or Staff Support Fee. And I'm transferring the membership assets of your immediate family members who cannot continue to be members into your account. New members coming into Front Sight will never have any of these benefits. This is just for you, to once again thank you for your support of the difficult decisions I had to make to ensure Front Sight’s successful operation for generations.
8. I know many of the members who purchased private training are upset with the changes in private training. I understand. As part of the restructure I had no choice but to make the changes to private training that were made. However, when I refunded all your purchases and gave your FS Coins for every $100 that you spent, I refunded your private training membership or private training supplement. I also had already upgraded your membership and all your TBD membership to a higher-level membership or given you more TBD memberships earlier through my Year End Holiday Gift. Private Training is available to all members now, with a daily fee for the private training that is significantly less than the non-member fee. Plus, you have F$ Bucks that I have placed in your account from all the other refunds and double refunds I have given you that you can use for years for your personal private training. I understand it is not as good as it was before for many members, but I have refunded your original purchase through the FS Coins I placed in your account and I have provided F$ Bucks for you to use to pay the fee for your private training. I did my best to be as fair as I could in these changes and appreciate your understanding on this difficult decision I had to make. UPDATE: Members, who in the last two days since I released the Restructure, have already paid their Membership Maintenance Fee and are now scheduling PRIVATE TRAINING. These members are still allowed to bring guests with them. Their guests DO NOT pay the non-member rate of $3,000 per day, but instead pay the Private Training per day rate that is the same rate as the member who brought them as a guest. The member may also use their F$ Bucks to pay for their guest's Private Training, but the guest will be responsible for paying the Facility Fee, Staff Support Fee, and Insurance Fee, totaling $75 per day. As an example, a Knight member's guest will pay $400 per day for Private Training. The Knight member, can use their F$ Bucks to pay the fee if they wish to do so. The guest must pay the Facility Fee, Staff Support Fee and Insurance Fee, totaling $75 per day.
9. Another issue I need to address is the decision to simply refund into your F$ Bucks account the wholesale cost of the free bonus guns, books, DVD's, swords, shields etc. The reasons for this decision are many. The biggest reason is it just became too difficult to get the items in the quantity and quality that was needed. Whether it was COVID supply chain issues or the difficulty in getting any guns during the forever running gun buying frenzy, or seeing swords and shields finally arrive after years of waiting for them, only to be damaged, rusted, and nowhere near the quality of the prototype we approved, we decided to simply refund into your F$ Bucks account the wholesale value of what they cost us. When we do finally get these specialty bonus items in stock to the quality and quantity we require, we will place them in the pro shop and you can purchase them with the F$ Bucks we refunded to you, or we may offer them as a special offer so you can use your FS Coins for them. They are not lost, just deferred until we can get what we need in a quality and quantity that is appropriate for you as Front Sight members.
10. So what is my personal request of you, after sharing this message with you to clarify my good intentions for you, even when faced with the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make? My request is that you understand the reasons I had to make the decisions I made, forgive me for any upset I may have caused you as I am very sorry for it, support the decisions I had to make for the greater good of the entire Front Sight organization, and continue on with Front Sight as a loyal and supportive member by paying your Membership Maintenance Fee today.
The changes in Front Sight’s restructure are needed immediately to overcome the challenging circumstance we face as an organization in fighting against unscrupulous people attempting to steal Front Sight. I promise, with your participation and support, we will overcome this challenge and ensure Front Sight’s success for generations to come. I understand this situation is upsetting to you. It has upset me as well. I promise I will make up for any of the upset as we move forward, and I can once again return to exchanging in abundance with you in Front Sight’s normal course of business.
Thank you for your continued, loyal support of the greatest firearms training organization and firearms training facility in the world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ignatius Piazza
Founder and Director
Front Sight Firearms Training Institute
#1 Front Sight Road
Pahrump, NV 89061
1.800.987.7719
Front Sight Firearms Training Institute is committed to the best email practices and has been accredited by the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy as meeting the requirements for listing in their SuretyMail IADB Email Accreditation Program. Our IADB registration number is 2007043000543. For more information see http://www.SuretyMail.com
MARK AS SPAM
If you received this newsletter in error or don't want to receive emails from us, please click here to unsubscribe.
This Email Newsletter was sent on 1/24/2022 1:04:26 PM.