Thursday, January 5, 2012

TechMaine files for Ch. 7 bankruptcy

By Rodney H. Brown

After disbanding in October, TechMaine, the technology industry trade group in the Pine Tree State, has completely thrown in the towel, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Initially reported in the Bangor Daily News, the trade group filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Dec. 28 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Maine. Originally founded as – and still officially known as, according to the Chapter 7 documents – the Maine Software Developers Association, TechMaine showed that it had only $1,300 in value of property, mostly in the form of computer equipment, and owed just shy of $20,000 to creditors.

The TechMaine board decided in October that it couldn’t financially function with membership dues alone, particularly after seeing its roster decline by 20 percent in recent years, and disbanded the organization. That move happened just a few months after TechMaine named a new executive director, John Spritz, a former director of marketing at Walch Education and the principle in John Spritz Marketing, a Portland-based consultancy. 

Spritz replaced long-time executive director Joe Kumiszcza, who stepped down in April after running the organization for 13 years. Kumiszcza, a Mass High Tech All-Star in 2004, joined TechMaine in 1997.

Most of the amount owed by TechMaine is owed to Kumiszcza, according to the filing – more than $16,000 for “amounts owed under terms of severance agreement and for reimbursement of health insurance and other expenses of Debtor.”