Frustrated with the VCA

[CajunViper]

You all are going to shoot yourselves in the foot if you keep asking for and demanding rights in this organization.

I read the first draft of the By-laws and voted for them also. I had the same reservations as most.

BUT it was explained to me this way.

Chrysler is in the biz of selling cars. They have to advertise those cars JRT does the adverts. They recognized early on that the Viper got people into the dealerships and they were selling cars because of the Viper's appeal.

So yes, the VCA lets Chrysler through JRT use us for their end means of making money by selling more cars.

What's the Big Deal. Who Care's.

So what do we get in return for our $100 a year and being used.

Well we get VOI's, Zone Rend. , Nice magazine, Cars to drive at the events Neon's, Viper's. Who has not felt like a KING at a VOI. When we wanted black as an option for the SRT what happened.

So I feel that Chrysler over the last 8 years of viper ownership has probably made four times as much as my Viper cost off of using me, but I say Thanks because I have probably got back half of the cost of my Viper in perks and enterainment and lots of other stuff.

So don't mess with a good thing. Leave it alone. If you want to run a car club, by a Vette. If you want to be a part of VIPER NATION stay put.

Just my two cents.
Dean

 

[pdmracing]

[

As for your regional issues, I'm not sure what your getting at...

we had a region that was basicly into cruising & nothing else. No check book,no accounting , no incorporation,no non profit status. Dr Jimmy Green ran for pres, but was questionably defeated. We started having our own events without the local clubs sanction. we organized autocrosses, drag races & track days, piggy backing with other clubs. Although our response was small, we had a good time. last year it was election time again & I ran & won. since then we have monthly meetings each month with up to 26 pople( not bad for 56 members & a huge state), Our last drag race had 22 cars & our zone rendevouse sold out last month with 104 attending. A huge improvement, but it wasnt easy. We had little or no input from national on day to day activity, but they did give us the $$ to make it happen.I did however have a lot of dealings with my zone rep Gary L. & I couldnt have done it without him.

I was a past president of the PCA, they published a quaterly handbook for regional executives on how to run an event, meeting, do taxes, dealer relations ect. This stuff is not rocket science , but it isnt as easy as it looks & people need guidance to do it wright.

 

[MR VENOM]

This is a club. Before you join you should ascertain as much information about it before making your decision. This sounds like the guy who wants his daughter in the "Boy Scouts". Also, there is a possible relation to the person who wants to change the "pledge of allegiance". If you are not happy with what you see............DON'T JOIN. That is called freedom. Further, a**holes like you, wanting change, will destroy and not be happy with the results, blaming them on your abusive uncle. Nothing is perfect; besides "mommy" might make you sell your Viper in a few months and then you can [******] along with the "Mustang" club.

 

[Bonkers]

1. In order to become a National Officer such as Treasurer, one must be elected by the National Board (i.e., not a vote among the "common" members of the club), and only those who are Directors at Large or Zone Directors may be elected into a National Officer position (i.e., no "common" member can be so elected).

This by far is my favorite thread of the month, maybe the year.

I'm not too sure how to take this limited election selection thing. On one side it really bothers me that a select group decides which among them takes the throne - on the other hand if there was a general election and [let's say] I happened to win - we may never see another membership dollar again.

I think the one in charge -should- have a working experience within the national club, but not at the expence of loosing touch with the fee-payers.

 

[joe117]

How would one go about running for club office?

Will the club give out a membership mailing list?

If not, then how could anyone reach members for campaigning.

Most clubs are run by the group in office who have been there for a long time, good or bad it is very hard to break into that circle.

Most members rubber stamp bylaw changes and even reelection of any officer who want's to remain in office.

Of course, there are many clubs where they have a hard time finding anyone to run for office.

 

[OutThere]

Isn't the problem not so much how these people are elected but how they preform once elected and a complete lack of accountability?

If you push for open elections you will get the most popular members elected, which will probably not be the individuals best suited to perform.

 

[pdmracing]

Isn't the problem not so much how these people are elected but how they preform once elected and a complete lack of accountability?

If you push for open elections you will get the most popular members elected, which will probably not be the individuals most suited to perform.

I have to agree

 

[Miles B]

I'm not a VCA member.. heck I'm not even an owner yet. But to me, it sounds like the club is doing a pretty decent job for the money, all things considered. Joe looks pretty easy to talk to, and seems like he is doing a decent job.

Only thing wrong is, noone knows what the hell is going on. I think you could correct this, and make everybody happy, by just telling them, every 3 months, what happened. Who was elected, by whom. Show the whole leadership events thing on 1 or 2 pages of the magazine. eg "This quarter, the southeast zone voted 3 to 1 to elect John Citizen Zone Director". Then everyone knows what happened. You need to make sure any member can get the financials from their region and nationally. Money always makes people wonder.

I think a decent system would be to let the region leaders elect *everything* above them. These are people that have personal regular contact with the members and care enough to know what is going on. They can assess the wishes of their local members, and represent them on the national level, without fear of non-interested members accidentally electing the first guy on the ballot. Like another guy wrote, you seem to be getting pretty good value for your $100 a year.. all you need to do is elect a decent region leader and let them lead you. I've seen clubs where you get a LOT less for $100 a year. Members just need to be kept informed of what is going on.

Hey, I'm in Australia.. when I buy a Viper, can I start an Australian Chapter? Can I elect myself region pres, zone pres, national pres? Oooooo baby... GRAND EMPEROR, SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

 

[GTS Dean]

I think a decent system would be to let the region leaders elect *everything* above them. These are people that have personal regular contact with the members and care enough to know what is going on. They can assess the wishes of their local members, and represent them on the national level, without fear of non-interested members accidentally electing the first guy on the ballot.

That's pretty much the way the Electoral Congress works for the Presidency in the US. Generally speaking, that's how Maurice and Gary got their slots. It was obvious at the meetings who was "moving the ball downfield" at home. However, this may tend to favor candidates from clubs with higher concentrations of Vipers.

 

[slaughterj]

This is a club. Before you join you should ascertain as much information about it before making your decision. This sounds like the guy who wants his daughter in the "Boy Scouts". Also, there is a possible relation to the person who wants to change the "pledge of allegiance". If you are not happy with what you see............DON'T JOIN. That is called freedom. Further, a**holes like you, wanting change, will destroy and not be happy with the results, blaming them on your abusive uncle. Nothing is perfect; besides "mommy" might make you sell your Viper in a few months and then you can [******] along with the "Mustang" club.

Who are you directing this towards? Perhaps you might have noticed that this is a civil discussion?

As for not wanting change when change seems warranted, that is a truly backward, "head in the sand" approach that, if done in America in the 1700s, the U.S. would not have been formed - you make no sense

 

[slaughterj]

From several of the previous posts, a couple of good ideas have come up - accountability and openness. Both are intertwined, and if there's more openness, everyone knows what's going on, which reduces the questions here. Additionally, that provides accountability, to the extent that people can know that everything is being properly handled. That doesn't seem like too much to ask.

 

[NCVCA]

As a member I vote to put MR VENOM on probation. The real reason is that he lacks intelligence and common sense, not to mention that if he's talking about John his "mommy" has nothing to do with it. John's owned his Viper for longer than I have and he bought it himself.

Thinking that you should exclude yourself from any group, club, or otherwise is plain stupidity. I don't agree with all the laws in the US. Does that mean I need to move MR VENOM??? HELLO? IS ANYONE IN THERE??? ENTHUSIAST???

 

[scottgf]

Beware of what happens when you let just anyone run for office.....
We just went through it here in Cal.
Cheers,

 

[phiebert]

We will be initiating new procedures which will hopefully allow the membership and the Regional Presidents know that their work and passion is appreciated.

I'm looking forward to that!

I have a couple comments on this topic and can't resist joining in. I think we need to make it clear that the club is run in a much better way than it used to be and as Joe mentioned, some "experiments" didn't work so well. But as a whole, the club isn't run poorly at all.

It seems to me that there are two major complaints.

1. From slaughterj, we need to see the financials. It sounds like we will all get a chance to see it as soon as the magazine company fills in their part.

2. There seems to be an issue with the middle management, aka zone directors and directors at large. To be honest, I think that role should be abolished too. My experience with it is hasn't been great. I don't even know my zone director even though I am a regional president. I do know that whomever was the zone director last fall asked our region for our comments on when to have the zone rendezvous. We told them we would be happy to join the event on any dates except for one certain weekend which was our largest event centered around the Indy race. And you guessed it, when the date was released the zone had chosen the same weekend as our main event.

I just assumed that they couldn't find any other weekend to have the zone event on and passed on to our members that they would have to choose between our local event and the zone event. What ended up happening is that our local event was so popular that a number of neighboring regions attended our Indy event instead of the zone event. That made the zone event so poorly attended that I was chastised for holding an event on the same weekend and drawing the members away from the zone event.

Had the regional presidents and members chosen a date together over the phone we would have avoided this problem and the zone event would have been much more heavily attended.

So what's my answer to the issues.

1. Wait for the financials and if there are other issues, raise them.
2. Remove the zone level. I like the national folks and see no evidence of ulterior motives from them. We just don't need the middle-men.

PS. Slaughterj, I have a partial solution to getting you into the national level. You can move to Western Canada and have my regional presidency job! That's a stepping stone to the big leagues!

 

[slaughterj]

PS. Slaughterj, I have a partial solution to getting you into the national level. You can move to Western Canada and have my regional presidency job! That's a stepping stone to the big leagues!

LOL! Too cold up there for me!