Member Badges and Next Magazine

[Nsane1]

Badges - We have received our "blanks" for the member cards, as well as the sign-up gift, and Angela is making the cards. We are a little delayed as we are doing a new process. In the days of old, we sent everything to a third party to make and they mailed. Now, we have a card printer, and are shipping centrally, the first year costs equal previous years, but every year after will be at a drastically reduced cost. So when we get to VOI badging, it will have paid for itself economically and by flexibility. Angela is doing these in batches now.

Magazine - Is approved, and being sent to the printer. With the service issues of the last printing, we have done an RFP with 4 printers, and selected a new printer, at a reduced cost, and due to it's proximity to the graphic artist (and relationship with him), we expect a smoother process going forward (at a reduced price).

Greg

 

[denniskgb]

i still HAVE NOT received any previuosly promised magazines ....there were threads on getting them but i am just stating i have not. i did exchange emails with responsible parties.

 

[GRANGER73]

Maybe he could print up the financial reports for the past two years.

 

[Silver04]

Whew! It's good to see that the badges took priority over the mags...

 

[canadian venom]

Whew! It's good to see that the badges took priority over the mags...

Lol less badges to print than magazines....

 

[Viper Club HQ]

Dennis, PM me your address and I will double check on your reship of the magazines on Monday when I get back to the office.

 

[Nsane1]

Magazines have been a top priority, which is why you have received (and if not, we have been shipping replacements) 4 in like 6 months.

I'm not sure on why we're making light on the ease of printing 1000ish badges, Angela has her hands full, and the printer ships the mags, and they are processing the next one, so that's their workload, not ours at this point.

As to financials, that has been responded to multiple times, the financials are in the members section, previous 2 years perhaps can be had by asking the board members of that time, if you want more detail than is available on the 990s. As stated previously, multiple times, not much can be gained by showing what the guys who no longer work here did (do you publicly disparage your former employees and leaders of your company? probably not)

You do bring up a great point on the numbers of magazines printed for this edition. This will be the highest circulation in the last 24 months, and perhaps ever, as it is the first time we will do both the 2013 members, and all the brand spanking new 2014 members (so for you new guys who have asked us where are MY magazines, well this will be your first one...)

 

[GRANGER73]

As to financials, that has been responded to multiple times, the financials are in the members section, previous 2 years perhaps can be had by asking the board members of that time, if you want more detail than is available on the 990s. As stated previously, multiple times, not much can be gained by showing what the guys who no longer work here did (do you publicly disparage your former employees and leaders of your company? probably not)

This response is unbelievable. You are refusing to provide the 990 forms as prescribed by law because you don't want to "disparage..former employees and leaders". Let me get this straight. You would rather deny a member his or her right to the clubs financial information than provide financial info that you feel might embarrass the previous board. Is that your position, or does it reflect the position of the board? You can't be serious. The VCA, like any other exempt organization is obligated by federal law to furnish copies of their tax return upon request. They are obligated to provide it to ANYONE who asks. You don't even have to be a member to request and receive a copy of the 990. Any member of John Q public is entitled. This is beyond belief. It's a sad, sad day in Viperville.

 

[denniskgb]

Dennis, PM me your address and I will double check on your reship of the magazines on Monday when I get back to the office.

pm sent thank you

 

[Nsane1]

Not at ALL! The 990s are publically available! I am not refusing to provide anything, anyone can view them on Guidestar.

My apologies for assuming everyone knew this. I was referring to data in ADDITION to the 990s

 

[GRANGER73]

Checked today. The last 990 posted is for the YE 3/31/2012.

 

[Nsane1]

Sorry, just replied to you privately, could have done that here:

So the reason we can't see the latest 990 (3/31/13) is that it has not been filed. An extension has been filed, the 990 is complete, it's just in queue for the CPA to sign-off. I have seen the completed version, but we need an approved version to post.

I could go into detail on why this happened, but I'm sure you can see that given the way the club was "transitioned" and the fact that there were no detailed financials (quickbooks), it took some extra effort in getting these complete. There ARE detailed financials now, so hopefully this kind of crap will never happen again.

As soon as the CPA signs off, I'll post it in the forums, should be any day now. Thanks for looking into it...

 

[GRANGER73]

As soon as the CPA signs off, I'll post it in the forums, should be any day now. Thanks for looking into it...

It's been well over 3 weeks now, and I still haven't seen any financial info posted. This is a complete mystery to me. We finally get a treasurer that has a financial background and if anything things are worse.

 

[canadian venom]

2 weeks ago, the "other club" said that their magazine was at the printer. I received the magazine ( all 70 pages) last week. You said that yours is at the printer a month ago and I still haven't received it.... I'm still waiting you fulfill my 2013 membership as this magazine will be my last one from 2013. I know that now the magazine is now a quarterly. Does that mean that those who renew their membership will get this one ( the last of 2013) plus 4 more? Or they'll get this one plus 3? It seems your writers/printers are gonna be busy until the end of year...

 

[Nsane1]

I guess a snarky question deserves a snarky answer right? You are comparing a club where 1 magazine took 6 months to make, with a club that did 4 in the same period with 3X the subscriber base, so I'm not entirely sure you are making a fair comparison, but you have the right to make that comparison I guess.

It is at the printer, it has the highest number of mailings (near 4k) that have ever been sent by the VCA, so these things take some time, I can only apologize about the delay, most of it was due to some group-think around our VOI insert that has been sorted. I'm not going to estimate when you will receive it that only gets me in trouble.

Granger, "if anything things are worse" is a tad out of line. As I explained to you, the delay is with the CPA, not a Treasurer. You can only imagine what it was like trying to figure out someone else's financials with little paperwork, it isn't a pretty process, and we can't just sign something that we have no faith in, and we can't ask those responsible to assist, or to take ownership of it. The only person with ANY tie to the time period is Dan, and he was a lowly director at the time. So now we are asking him, and a CPA to sign something, that they didn't ultimately decide upon. Put yourself in those shoes, what would it take for YOU to sign it? Add to that accusations of theft, IRS scrutiny, etc, that were heaped on the old team, so it's not just a rubber stamp here...

Sorry for the delay on both items...

 

[351carlo]

I guess a snarky question deserves a snarky answer right? You are comparing a club where 1 magazine took 6 months to make, with a club that did 4 in the same period with 3X the subscriber base, so I'm not entirely sure you are making a fair comparison, but you have the right to make that comparison I guess.

It is at the printer, it has the highest number of mailings (near 4k) that have ever been sent by the VCA, so these things take some time, I can only apologize about the delay, most of it was due to some group-think around our VOI insert that has been sorted. I'm not going to estimate when you will receive it that only gets me in trouble.

Granger, "if anything things are worse" is a tad out of line. As I explained to you, the delay is with the CPA, not a Treasurer. You can only imagine what it was like trying to figure out someone else's financials with little paperwork, it isn't a pretty process, and we can't just sign something that we have no faith in, and we can't ask those responsible to assist, or to take ownership of it. The only person with ANY tie to the time period is Dan, and he was a lowly director at the time. So now we are asking him, and a CPA to sign something, that they didn't ultimately decide upon. Put yourself in those shoes, what would it take for YOU to sign it? Add to that accusations of theft, IRS scrutiny, etc, that were heaped on the old team, so it's not just a rubber stamp here...

Sorry for the delay on both items...

So since the snarky answer failed to actually answer a part of the snarky question....

Will there be 4 additional magazines shipped for calendar year 2014 members, or will members of both calendar year 2013 (Who are still owed 1 magazine) and calendar year 2014 (who are now owed 4 magazines) only receive a total of 4 more magazines this year?

 

[WeaponX81]

It's been well over 3 weeks now, and I still haven't seen any financial info posted. This is a complete mystery to me. We finally get a treasurer that has a financial background and if anything things are worse.

As soon as the prior years 990 is ready I will post it. We would love to give you all the information about the 2012-2013 financial year, but the problem is those that were in charge of national at that time did not keep proper records and thus a lot of it was a complete mystery to us as well. It took a lot of hard work to try and get it into shape so it could even be filed (remember that this is something that previous administration should have done!). To be completely honest, we found things that very much upset us and had us asking the same questions you will ask. That was all in the past and as much as we would love to be able to, we can't change that. All we can do is make it much better going forward, which is what we have done.

As to things are worse comment, I really don't think so. I've posted the 2014 budget and have seen what transpired in 2013 and the corrective actions needed have been taken to put VCA onto solid ground. When Dan took over Treasurer at beginning of his national officer duties in April 2013, he really did an amazing job getting all the financials in order. He was the one that got VCA using proper accounting financial systems (QuickBooks) and has worked tirelessly to get us to a state where we can run the VCA properly. We are leaps and bounds beyond where the VCA was in regards to running the treasurery. An example, in the past administrations the financials were never disclosed even to others on the ***. When we took over the first thing we all did is go through line by line everything in the financials and I went through everything I picked up and planned for 2014 with the entire new VCA *** during our leadership meetings.

So please be patient with us as we have to deal with the mess that the other people just quit on and left for us to have to clean up.

 

[Viper X]

It's been well over 3 weeks now, and I still haven't seen any financial info posted. This is a complete mystery to me. We finally get a treasurer that has a financial background and if anything things are worse.

Granger,

We could use some help. There is plenty of work to do with every facet of managing the VCA at this time and frankly, we are a bit short handed. VOI13 COTA is coming up fast. Care to volunteer to help us with some of this stuff?

PM me if you can help.

Regards,

Dan

 

[Nsane1]

LOL, call me out anytime when it's warranted

Fair question (and sorry I missed it), simple answer: yes that is the plan, we are already working the next mag, as you might guess it's VOI centric (past VOIs, details on this one, etc.) as well as the usual club event stuff.

So since the snarky answer failed to actually answer a part of the snarky question....

Will there be 4 additional magazines shipped for calendar year 2014 members, or will members of both calendar year 2013 (Who are still owed 1 magazine) and calendar year 2014 (who are now owed 4 magazines) only receive a total of 4 more magazines this year?

 

[TowDawg]

So without placing blame on the majority of the past officers and the current people in office (we all know it was a few key people who are supposedly completely gone), what you're saying is that the things the "rabble rousers" were complaining about were true.
I commend you on working to sort it all out, but when anyone brought up how un-transparent the past "inner circle" was with the books, they were told that everything was just great and it was all on the up and up. From the mess you are currently wading through, it's looks like that definitely wasn't the truth.

 

[Nsane1]

Dawg-

Suffice it to say that had reason to complain; however as a board of directors, they should have acted like a board "normally" acts. Lucas is right, there are things that the current board would never have stood for. Food for thought, ~80% of the same board of pre 9/13 made the decisions in 2010 that manifested themselves in these "issues" of 2012/2013, so for them to have whined so loudly is strange, since it was their policies that caused the things that we wouldn't have liked to see (and it's not just 1 issue, there were a multiplicity of issues that you will see).

So all we can tell you is that we've learned from these things, and have put proper controls (and people, no supposedly, these people are OUT, and you can't even mention their names around Lucas) in place, so this kind of crap never happens again. Yes me and Lucas are pretty pissed (as lowly regional officers from 2009+, with zero Board of Director involvement the entire time we were regional officers, as our "Director" was particularly "un-director-like") we feel very taken advantage of by those in power. So this topic gets me emotional, but at the same time, we need to work through it, stay tuned, things are gonna get interesting.

 

[SSSSIC]

Any updates to the Members Badges?

 

[GRANGER73]

Wow. Just asked a follow up question. Was told to expect financials "any day now" and that was 3 weeks ago. Weapon's post would have been much better served as an informative statement (prior to post) rather than a reactionary statement (after the post). Nevertheless it was very informative. The "things are worse" comment is fair because the prior administration at least had the 990 filed by Jan-Feb of the following year. It is hard for me to conceive a situation that could cause such a delay in offering the report. (Except for one). Look, if I'm the only one concerned with the financials, then by all means, take your time.

 

[canadian venom]

I guess a snarky question deserves a snarky answer right? You are comparing a club where 1 magazine took 6 months to make, with a club that did 4 in the same period with 3X the subscriber base, so I'm not entirely sure you are making a fair comparison, but you have the right to make that comparison I guess.

It is at the printer, it has the highest number of mailings (near 4k) that have ever been sent by the VCA, so these things take some time, I can only apologize about the delay, most of it was due to some group-think around our VOI insert that has been sorted. I'm not going to estimate when you will receive it that only gets me in trouble.

Granger, "if anything things are worse" is a tad out of line. As I explained to you, the delay is with the CPA, not a Treasurer. You can only imagine what it was like trying to figure out someone else's financials with little paperwork, it isn't a pretty process, and we can't just sign something that we have no faith in, and we can't ask those responsible to assist, or to take ownership of it. The only person with ANY tie to the time period is Dan, and he was a lowly director at the time. So now we are asking him, and a CPA to sign something, that they didn't ultimately decide upon. Put yourself in those shoes, what would it take for YOU to sign it? Add to that accusations of theft, IRS scrutiny, etc, that were heaped on the old team, so it's not just a rubber stamp here...

Sorry for the delay on both items...

What is snarky? Asking a legitimate and simple question or avoiding to answer? Is this transparency? Again, is this last issue of 2013 will be the first issue of 2014 for new members or they'll get 4 more?

 

[TowDawg]

I did not realize this when I made my post above, but just read it elsewhere. I didn't realize than Dan was the treasurer in 2013. If that was the case, then the complete disarray of the books hits pretty close to a current leader. Is the info about Dan's 2013 position correct?

I was just trying to say you took on a big undertaking to clean up a mess. Everyone knows the real issues were CM and Lee, but you jumped all over it with a chance to blame the people who left. Looks like the financials should have been kept up with by somebody still here.

 

[Nsane1]

That is incorrect, Dan was not the Treasurer in the time period in question, that honor falls on Lee Stubberfield. Again, we have to keep in mind this is a fiscal, not calendar year.

As to the snark, the poster admitted to being snarky (and come on, read it), and then I, in haste, missed part of the question, then responded to that question when called on it, but then quickly responded, I see no lack of transparency, but it's your opinion that matters. The answer is yes, 4 more mags is the plan.

Oh, I see the problem. My post is moderated. How weird is that. it's 3 posts up, but you can't see it. Oh the irony, damn computers.

This one is NOT on me, I answered his question like 12 hours ago. LOL I hope we can see the irony here...

Badges are being mailed, I haven't received mine either, but I've seen them...

Now let me unmod myself, and you can see I'm not crazy

 

[Nsane1]

Ok, now you can see I attempted to answer that a long time ago (sorry!).

Predicting the next set of questions, if not Dan who ("you were pretty quick to blame"). My intent is not to blame, only to show why it was a tad difficult to come up with these financials, and you will see these names on the 990 . Clearly there is some confusion since so many think Dan was the Treasurer (he would be responsible for the FY 13 filing.) I don't want to disparage hard working volunteers, but when you see the list perhaps it becomes clear on why this was a feat. 100% of the officers left (3 gone, 1 VOA), of the 11 "normal" directors, 2 remain at the VCA, 6-8 are VOA, (the 2 in the 6-8 might be gone altogether, it gets confusing, we know they aren't here). With 13 of the 15 board members (and ALL the officers) either out of the picture, or worse, trying to set fire to the place, do you think this was hard? Perhaps we should have posted this a long time ago, perhaps it would quell some of the "same old crooks" comments earlier. Anyway, here you go, the board from FY 2012 (which are responsible for the FY 12 filing, due 3/30/13)

MARV SPATZ
PRESIDENT

(2) CHRIS MARSHALL
VICE PRESIDENT

(3) LEE STUBBERFIELD
TREASURER

(4) BOBBY CERCHIONE
SECRETARY

(5) RANDALL ARNOLD
BOARD MEMBER

(6) DAN EVERTS
BOARD MEMBER

(7) JANNI CONE
BOARD MEMBER

(8) GARY LASHINSKY
BOARD MEMBER

(9) JAMES REYTECH
BOARD MEMBER

(10) FREDDI SPALTENSTEIN
BOARD MEMBER

(11) TONY APERIGUINI
BOARD MEMBER

(12) ADRIAN BYRD
BOARD MEMBER

(13) JIM JOHNSON
BOARD MEMBER

(14) TIM WOLLENSEN
BOARD MEMBER

(15) ALEX RISTASNOVIC
BOARD MEMBER

Now If I can predict the next question "well these guys weren't responsible for CM, etc." I can post the board members from 2010 that DID make those decisions, but you won't like it, it's much the same, and I don't think Dan was on the list... I'll look for that, it's interesting to say the least.

 

[TowDawg]

So Lee was responsible in 2012 for the filing due 3/31/13, which makes a lot of sense considering he was worthless.
If Dan was responsible since 4/1/13 for the filing due 3/31/14, that's still over a year ago. I realize a lot has happened since then and I'm not trying to cast stones at Dan. It just seems like over a year would have been enough time to figure out the books. If it's taking that long to figure out Lee and CM's screw-ups, then the club was really messed up and it's a damn good thing they're gone.

 

[Nsane1]

Yea I know these dates are confusing. Let me be clear:

Every 990 is out there but the one we are talking about. FY 2012, FY ending 3/31/13 and extended, still not complete, pending CPA approval. Not sure I said this concisely, we have had "figuring out the books" done, but given other pressures, the CPA has not signed it as of yet.

FY 2013, which would end FY 3/31/2014 is not due yet (the one to which I think you are saying Dan would be responsible, which is accurate). No reason to do something not due, when the old one is still needing to be done. Good news is we are on QB now, so that will be easy(er), but the CPA is the bottle neck now, we're not filing 13 before 12 you know?

 

[XXX BLK]

Just one example of many e-mails that I have with names attached: NSANE1 ask your board if they want to go there....and for all that don't know the reason why I left the VCA was because of Lee Stubberfield "COWARDLY" act at the end Lee gave us who were on the call his word that he was going to do the right thing for the club....Do I need to repeat what the right thing in his eyes were and feel free to ask Dan (VCA President) or ViperJohn. I spoke to them directly by phone.... It want surprise me if this get deleted because its FACTS or for some reason I won't be able to post again but we shall see....ADRIAN BYRD

We trust that this is 100% confidential, as this is NOT something we share with anybody - period. Not only would it cause us problems with outside vendors (guess who), but even some of the Chrysler dealers would probably have preferred they get these parts instead of some car club. To let the attached document get out is absolutely prohibited - indeed, it has never been shared outside of VPA and Mopar for that very reason.

Now, the largest order we ever received is attached. It represents over 1.5 MILLION parts. Did we inventory them in full? Nope. It would take two guys at least a year to count every single one of these parts - if they didn't go insane after the first week. For example, Mopar part #06100842 is a Viper-specific push nut. We received over 85 thousand of them.

What we did do is go through as many of them as possible to verify what we received - that the part number was even there. We quickly determined that, despite the header implying otherwise, none of the blue highlighted parts (column F) actually showed up. And they never did to this day. As for the rest, we have steadily verified every part number that showed up and added them to the site as we could.

We need to do a complete inventory at some point. We simply don't have the staff to do it when we are solely focused on selling and shipping orders right now. And again, most of our sales today are items we order from Mopar and then ship upon arrival so there is no "in and out" inventory. Here is an example from one of three orders yesterday: