Can/ will MCVO help VOI attendees ?

[SylvanSRT]

What a great way to use our surplus of funds to help local members attend the VOI 10 right here in the D ! I know the club is in very good financial shape and in light of our economy locally this might really help out some us reduce the expense of attending. As you can see it is being done elsewhere.

What a way to give back to the the members ! !

http://forums.viperclub.org/general...35-kc-vca-giving-10-000-members-voi-10-a.html

 

[ZESTY]

Mike
I think that it is ironic that you knew we were having a board meeting last night and you chose not to bring your idea to the meeting yet you felt it it worthy enough to publish.

Jess

 

[SylvanSRT]

Actually I did not know/or remember that the meeting was last night(yes i know they are (published/scheduled), but with other family(watching my 6 1/2 yr old daughter) because my wife had other obligations didn't even realize that the meeting was last night. But I did happen to see the other post(linked above) THIS (thurs, April 10) morning.

I sense a tone (even in your writing, by saying it's "ironic") that you feel I have some sort of hidden adgenda, Your are WRONG. I have always made it perfectly clear that I think that the local club hesitates/resists spending money on US(you, I and other local members). The MCVO is not a for profit company and should spend OUR money on US the members, this issue should not be a struggle at every event and meeting. Spend our money on our members, VERY SIMPLE ! !

 

[GTSnake]

It's kinda like not driving your car and letting it sit in the garage. You're saving it for the next guy but you don't get to enjoy it yourself.

Why can't we spend a little and save a little?

 

[GR8_ASP]

Note: all board members knew of this prior to the board meeting. In fact emails were exchanged on the topic. Now those are facts and indeed ironic given the tone exhibited above.

I missed the first hour of the board meeting and asked repeatedly (after the meeting concluded) if this topic was discussed prior to my arrival. At this moment I am still unaware.however, I am clear that it was not included in the 2008 budget as it was created, discussed, argued and hashed/rehashed.

 

[Carmaker]

We have attended a few of the board meetings recently and if I am not mistaken the subsidizing of events had been brought up at least once. If I recall someone mentioned that many of the events do have a subsidy thus reducing the cost to members who attend. I thought some of the discussion was around the idea of reporting out how much the club actually does spend on the members' subsidies.

 

[SylvanSRT]

In a PM sent to me by a former member


Quote:
Originally Posted by FE 065
Be my guest !


Quote:
Originally Posted by SylvanSRT
do i have permission to post/copy your reply to that thread ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by FE 065
Not being a VCA member, I can't post in the Motor City regional forum

Quote:
Originally Posted by SylvanSRT
i would love to see your thoughts put into the public area of the forum. So some of our esteemed leadership can see that some members(or ex-members) have chose not to re-up for said reasons. thx

Quote:
Originally Posted by FE 065
I too had wondered why there was such a surplus of funds in the club-which is one reason I haven't rejoined.

I forget what we paid for the pre-Dream Cruise meet that was ruined by the power blackout a few years ago.

Instead of a refund offer all we got was a little dash plaque..


Nuts

 

[Viper Mind]

SylvanSRT,

I have been a VCA member for ten years and appointed board member of the MCVO for the past year. I have attended every board meeting since being appointed to position. I have to tell you that this board as a whole, desires to put MCVO club member money to use on it's members. Many, many events are subsidized, whether it be with money, merchandise or often both.

The board meets every month and sometimes more often for special circumstances such as budget or special events. Members are encouraged to attend and many do. Your input is valuable and needed to drive home viewpoints.

The elected officials of MCVO; Mike, Jess, Bruce and Anne outwardly look for ways to provide members with the best possible club experience. They do a great job of seeing that the club has fun events, gatherings, cruises ...Things to do with our Vipers. The appointed members of the board are there to support in many different capacities...We are a team and above all, this entire group has the best interests of the club at heart.

As a fellow MCVO member, I want to see the club wisely spend on it's members too. The surplus that you mention was not necessarily a result of this board, but this board has certainly turned its attention to the matter. I believe there will be a plan put in place for just that purpose.

I hope to see you at a board meeting soon, but if you cannot make it, just send one of the board members a note. I am certain it will be included at the next meeting.

Take Care,
Zach

 

[Steve 00RT/10]

Being what I consider an 'active' member of this club, I'm going to put a little different spin on this subject. I'm all for spending money on our members. As a point of fact, I'll pretty much bet nobody in our club travels further or does more with their car(s) than we do......79,000 miles to date. Road tracks, autocrosses, cross country trips, superchargers........the whole deal. Typically, we make several Viper trips to club events in Detroit every year.. That's a 1000 mile round trip for us. We are satisfied with the way monies are spent even though we miss several of the subsidized events due to distance. Is the system perfect? No. there's always room for improvement in any organization. New ideas are always welcome. The subject of how much is spent as opposed to fund balance has been discussed a fair amount the last year or so. I believe it is being addressed properly, and in a prudent well thought out manner.

We've driven to two far away VOIs and I do think that everyone should get to one for the experience. However; IMO....club monies should not be used to defray individual costs for the VOI. If you want to go -- go. I could end up wrong, but I think there could be many less MCVO people attending this event than either the brunch or wine tour to name a couple. Cost / September timing thing with school....always an issue for some / schedule of events (great schedule for out of towners) could have something to do with it. Most of the venues listed for this VOI are not new things for Detroit Viper folks.......or even us in the UP. We've already done them.......and at zero or minimal cost. I'm not going to debate the VOI cost, but let's just say that we can and will do all the other MCVO events (6 as of now) we do each season for less than the cost of the VOI. It's a no brainer to me. Doing the VOI would mean we couldn't do something else....either this coming summer or next winter. Defraying the cost even a couple hundred dollars isn't nearly enough to get us there. It's also just too darn big and cumbersome. As for the fun factor---there is no difference to us between the VOIs and other well attended MCVO events. Dream Cruise Weekend and the Wine Tour come to mind. Like any car club, Viper events boil down to the people, the event itself is a side bar of sorts. I think our club monies are better spent defraying the cost of events that are more within reach of most members. Should there be more club money spent on subsidy?........possibly in some areas. Except for the VOI, I believe I would be safe in saying that there is no other MCVO club planned event that all members couldn't easily swing financially. Timing and interest are another matter. We've belonged to the MCVO for over 8 years now. Those that run the club are doing a fine job. Much selfless volunteer work and planning goes into making our club the success it is. To me, the VOI is not the be all / end all of 'Viperdom'......so to speak. Personally, I like our multiple smaller summer events much better than the huge VOIs. Whether the Viper is made any longer or not (I hope it is, but it's certainly questionable), ......... local Viper clubs all over the world will be around for a long time to come doing the same fun things every year. I believe our money is better spent subsidizing these smaller events rather than the VOI ......which only a very small portion of our club will, or would be able, to attend.

Keep in mind also that being the host club may incur some cost .....as well as lots of planning and coordination. That is undetermined at this point.

Mike, perhaps you could volunteer to help plan and man whatever local 'hosting' may come about? That would immediately get you more involved in the nuts and bolts of the operation.

This type of expenditure would be a better use of some club monies for the VOI rather than individual subsidies. All MCVO members would be eligible to attend such a thing regardless of VOI sign up.

Steve

 

[SylvanSRT]

I agree with some of your points and you do make huge efforts to attend our more local events at a great distance from your home. As far as some of the other events things need to balance out in some way, for instance the boat racing event last year cost the club $2,000 and prob had less than twenty(paid membership ie: one couple is still only one paid member) very low attendance factor and a very non-family friendly event(strongly hinted or stated that kids were not welcome) that is well over $100 per paid membership spent for not much bang for the buck for the rest of the general membership. Additionally if some of those people were a couple the cost is more near $150+ per membership. Also the Wine tour has been very popular event(though still as far as number of paid membersips in attendance still relatively small), and it slips my mind how much money this event cost the club/per membership. Honestly I dont know if in my case the local club has spent a hundred dollars on me in the 8 yrs i have been a member(though there is a good chance they have, but prob not much more !, ok thats prob exaggerated a little). Another example is the CAAP tour a yr or two ago and the spring Tech sessions of late. These events have had cost associated with attendance, BUT NO cost incured by the club to have the events. Except for some give aways that amount to not much money and the club could have purchased anyway with very minimal dent to the clubs funds

I also dont deny that people put lots of time into planning events as volunteers, BUT I really dislike the attitude(very much like the government) we know how and where to spend your money better than you do.

The MCVO is a NON-Profit organization! Basically IMO the club should only retain enough money each year to handle the cost to "float" the club expenses til the next influx of dues money is recieved. Otherwise this years money should be spent on this years members and this years activities ! !

I am just saying that there needs to be some change in how the clubs(OUR) money is spent.

 

[ZESTY]

As a member of the MVCO Board since 2001 in two different capacities, I can tell you that the board works very hard to come up with event ideas that will spur participation of the membership. We have sent out surveys and asked repeatedly at the Spring Brunch for event ideas and unfortunately receive very few suggestions. Without input, we try to schedule a wide varity of events that will hopefully interest our members enough to come out and participate in some or all of them. We review each of our events and it's success or lack of and determine if we want to keep it on the schedule or replace it with a new venue. With the exception of the Wednesday cruise nights each of our events receive some sort of subsidy; this has been a topic of discussion in our last two meetings and we are working hard right now to come up with this years subsidies. All members are invited to come to our Board meetings and join in these discussions which would then provide them with the accurate subsidy figures and cost per event. As the social director I welcome suggestions from our members for future events and help from our members in making them happen. Our goal is to make each year the best that it can be for our members and then try to make it even better the next year.

Maureen Hackney
Social Director

 

[SylvanSRT]

Thank you for the kind response Maureen, I have never questioned hard work put into events by club members including some of the board members and do appreciate it. Again though this is not about that in years since I have joined(Dec., 2000), it seem like pulling teeth at times to get the local(MCVO) to spend money. I have been to a couple of board mtgs(I plan on attending more) and at the one covering the subsidy to our track day last year it seem like quite effort to get the club to help with that event(which in the end it did), which i was a big proponent of. In the end the event was a huge success. Although the decision to help was made close to the event date, and getting the board to make that choice was tough and a close decision.

I look forward to a great new driving season and lots of good events this year, lets see what we can do about making the club more friendly and less costly to the members.

 

[ZESTY]

Again we do invite all members to attend our Board meetings and I think you would be surprised how much money is used for event subsidies for our members. Please attend our next Board meeting on May, 14th at 7pm at Kerby's Coney Island (Square Lake and Woodward) as we will be finalizing our subsidies for this year and we value our members input.

Maureen Hackney
Social Director

 

[Hisserman]

Mike --

First of all, thank you very much for helping organize what looks to be an outstanding free event for our members to go see the amazing local car collection.

Secondly, rest assured that the MCVO Board is actively working to institute an improved project budgeting program to ensure that the membership gets full benefit of their dues. As you and I have discussed, we have to balance subsidies for events with appropriate reserves to ensure that our club can continue in the face of declining membership. I think that there is a consensus that we currently have more than adequate reserves and that we need to use that extra money to encourage active participation in our full range of events.

However, the devil is in the details and it will take some careful judgement moving forward. As stated above, the Board welcomes you and any other member to attend our Board meetings and express your input. The intent is for it to be an open process.

There is a separate sub-committee of Board members and other members working on a recommended program for MCVO's role in VOI 10. They will be bringing their recommendations to the full Board for implementation. We welcome your input to that group also.

Thanks for your participation.

Bruce Heckman
Treasurer

 

[SylvanSRT]

BTW we have over 25 rsvp's to the event and probably will end up with over 50+ attendees

I do look forward to being at more board meeting in the future, but it looks like there is an event the same night as the next meeting that my daughter will actually enjoy, so I probably wont be able to get to the next mtg.