Annual Meeting (1 Viewer)

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Oh, and where are we meeting next time, any new ideas yet? I really only go to des moines to go shopping, so all I know is the malls, costco, etc. We could meet at Barnes and Noble in WDM and sip coffee...

Or across the parking lot is Rock Bottom Brewery..... I guess it depends on the size of the gathering.

No locale as of yet, but I think it's been determined it will be in Des Moines. I know Larry had mentioned having it at his house, but when I spoke with him recently, there is a good chance he's going to be on vacation for much of the month of October, finally enjoying retirement with his new bride. So if anyone has any suggestions or want's to offer up their garage/basement/deck/living room etc for the meeting, let us know.
 
Does that mean a yes to accepting the secretary nomination as well? :grinpimp:

Do I get a scepter? Or at least a hot female Columbian intern?
 
Do I get a scepter? Or at least a hot female Columbian intern?

I'll have to contact Casey and see what we have in the club bank account in regards to the sceptor, maybe Wickett could weld some broken birf's together for you...the intern part might be hard to come by, but I'll look into it.
:grinpimp:

I know one thing for sure, you'll have nice fancy pad of yellow legal paper and sharp No. 2 pencil... :D
 
IA4WD Association

There has been some discussion of making a donation from our raffle proceeds to an organization that is in tune with expanding the wheeling opportunities in Iowa. I contacted Brent Champlin, the current President of IA4WD Association and here is the result of that discussion. Please read through it entirely and post your thoughts. Also, if you have other ideas for making a donation, please toss those out as well.

Brent,

We met back in January at a Tall Corn Cruisers meeting down at Rookies. We just got done with our event this year and are looking to take some of the funds raised and donating them to a local 4WD Association that is working to represent us all. We are going to be having our annual meeting sometime in the next month or so, and we will be deciding on what to do with the money. I see that you have a fairly decent account balance based on the last set of meeting minutes that were posted, so I'm not sure if you all are still looking for donations, etc. Also, the members would probably want to know where things stand in regards to the whole Land Use project you have all been working so hard on. I know when you came and visited with our chapter in January, we discussed becoming a member of the IA4WDA. I don't remember off hand, what the cost was for the whole chapter to join, so if you could let me know, that would be much appreciated.

If you have any questions, or want to get in touch with me, I can be reached at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Thanks,
Art Schramm
Tall Corn Cruisers-President
TLCA-Secretary

RESPONSE

Art, I appreciate your clubs interested in donating to the IA association. This year's goals were pretty steep and required a lot of money. The association wanted to pursue their 501(c)3 charitable not for profit status , pursue inactive quarries in Madison county and recruit new clubs into the association. The charitable status allows us to get donations that are a tax write off. We were hoping to get donations of land from quarry owners who did not want to spend the millions required to return the land back to it's original, pre mining, condition. Well that turned into a huge ordeal that would require an attorney on retainer to answer ongoing IRS questions and file the paperwork for us. The land acquisition project fell through as well. Originally John Buttz allegedly made contact with 2 quarry owners in Madison county and said that the quarries were exhausted and that the owners had abandoned them. John quit the association and we tried to pick up the pieces. Turns out that the land is still in use and is expected to be in use for the next 15 years. So that turned out to be a dead end. I talked to 3 different clubs about joining the association. The Tri State Stump Jumpers, Trailhogs, and the Tall Corn Cruisers. The first two were unorganized and not interested in anything formal. This year we voted to waive the $100 sign on fee and only charge the $15 per member fee. I am sure that will stay in effect for next year. Feel free to come to the November meeting and meet the other clubs and see what's going on before you make your donation or join. Also, we are having 4x4 night the 3rd Friday of each month at Ice Truck Works on Hickman. They have an RTI ramp and we hope to get more people exposed to organized off roading.

Brent Champlin
 
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$15 per member? Wouldn't that end up costing us MORE than the $100 group rate?

If we have $$ to spend in a donation I think it might be better spent at getting some exposure simultaneously? IE: If Toyota of Des Moines is going to do a Toys for tots thing this winter we could all help out by parking at different malls, using our cruisers as pickup- and using funds to buy toys as well?

Just throwing out the first thing that came to mind... I'm sure that we could come up with better ideas as a group.
 
We could also host a vehicle maintenance day at a local women's shelter or something. You know, buy oil by the gallon and basically do a oil change with fluid top up and brake/ tire inspection. . . . .
 
We could also host a vehicle maintenance day at a local women's shelter or something. You know, buy oil by the gallon and basically do a oil change with fluid top up and brake/ tire inspection. . . . .

$15 per member? Wouldn't that end up costing us MORE than the $100 group rate?

If we have $$ to spend in a donation I think it might be better spent at getting some exposure simultaneously? IE: If Toyota of Des Moines is going to do a Toys for tots thing this winter we could all help out by parking at different malls, using our cruisers as pickup- and using funds to buy toys as well?

Just throwing out the first thing that came to mind... I'm sure that we could come up with better ideas as a group.

I like your train of thought here!!! Those are a couple of GREAT ideas (one of which is being tossed around by the TLCA as a possible national thing).

As to the $15/person thing...I need to find out if everyone has to join IA4WD or if just the members that want to can join...
 
Bayou State Land Cruisers is doing a "Toys for Tots" run this year and here is their shirt design...I'm trying to figure out their plan for getting the word out, etc.

TFT_final_2.jpg
 
If you do this around the holidays it doesn't need to be overly complex. IE: put an announcement in the newspaper laying out the dates for the following (example) 2 weekends. Then, at the mall you choose- post flyers indoors (need to get permission for this) and in stores with the same schedule. On the weekend that the collection is taking place have the mall do intercom announcements of the collection once an hour during collection times.

If you get a good store manager that will allow us to set up a table inside a store or in the hallway of the mall- then we are "cold weather proof" as well. This would be ideal for me. I'm all for giving toys to the kiddies, but I don't want frost bite on my nuts either.

Obviously, Jordan Creek would be ideal- but Valley West or Merle Hay might be easier to get into.

Whichever you choose, someone needs to be calling them THIS WEEK if you choose to go this route. I bet this kind of stuff books up fast. I imagine that the mall can't do every charity asked of them, so I bet they have to pick and choose.

Actually- I bet if planned correctly we could get pretty much kick-@ss results the day after thanksgiving.
 
Second thought- if doing the toys for tots route you should really pick a mall with an actual "TOY" store. I'm not sure Jordan creek even has one. I mean- scheels and Williams Sonoma are MY idea of a toy store, but not everyone else agrees.

Toys-r-us is another option for a pick up location.
 
I like the ideas!!!!

I just contacted the local Marine Corp Toys for Tots Officer asking for details. I'd like to see us work with them and help them out where we can... I'm guessing they don't have any problems getting the boxes out and filled up, but probably need people to go out and pick the boxes up and bring them to their central depot to be sorted. Don't want to go pissing the Marine Corp off, they have real HUM-VEE's and guns!
I also sent Carla from Toyota of Des Moines a note, inquiring about their involvement in Toys for Tots.

I'll keep you all posted as to what I find out.

Maybe we need someone to step up and take the helm on this one....:grinpimp: Anyone, anyone, anyone......Bueller?
 
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I'll help out wherever I can.
 
This is the response I received from Brent Champlin, President of the IA4WDA in regards to the question of "Is it $15/person for everyone in the club, or can individuals join."

The association does not allow individual memberships so it would need to be paid for each club member. The $15 also includes membership in the Midwest Association of 4 wheel drive clubs who have insurance coverage.

Let the discussion begin... Do we join, don't join? Do we raise our dues to $25/year to become part of this organization? Or do we just continue down the path that we are currently on?
 
I, for one, have no real desire to be part of the IA4WDA. I was in a previous club and saw no real benefit from it.

If they were on a real path towards more land access it might be a different story.
 
More information from Brent Champlin, this is in response to me asking about what the $15/member/year goes towards (Figured it would be a question that someone might ask me when discussing this)

Of the $15 per person $9 pays for the Midwest dues and the remaining $6 goes towards the IA association. All of the clubs voted to raise the dues this year because originally $9 went to Midwest and $1 went to the IA assoc. There was also a vote to join United 4wd Assoc this year but that was voted down as the clubs thought the extra dues would be better spent locally since we have no public places to wheel in the state to begin with. We had a lot of high hopes for this year and really nothing exciting happened. We were planning to have a fundraiser to help pay for the tax filing but it fell through so we are hoping to do more next year.
 
What do these dues go toward? What does the membership mean to us here in Iowa? Anything? I'm all for supporting local access, but if my dues are just paying for some fat-cat's new swampers in South Dakota- how does this help me in Iowa?
 
Here is the response from the Marine Corp Toys for Tots Chairman for Des Moines.

Were always in need of support. In mid October you can log onto our website
at www.desmoinestoysfortots.com and fill out an event request sheet. Once
filled out, a Marine will contact you with further details.

1stSgt. Rodriguez
USMC
 
What do these dues go toward? What does the membership mean to us here in Iowa? Anything? I'm all for supporting local access, but if my dues are just paying for some fat-cat's new swampers in South Dakota- how does this help me in Iowa?

I can assure you that the dues are NOT going to someones new swampers in South Dakota.

Now to address the questions:

What does the membership mean? It means our club would have a voice in the IA4WDA and a vote in the association. It also means that the association would now have another club and it's members behind them. As it stands today, there is NO PUBLIC place to wheel our vehicles in Iowa. That is what the IA4WDA is working towards. Their focus is to work with clubs in Iowa to build a coalition. I think the best way to state it is, if 1 person goes and asks the state for money/land, the state would laugh. If 1 club, with a bunch of member clubs goes to the state, with a single focus, that is planned out, and asks for money/land, the chances are greater that they would pay attention.

What does dues go toward? See earlier post with breakdown of dues. #35

I'm meeting with the president of the IA4WDA next week. What I hope to get from this meeting is a history lesson of whats been done and what's been attempted so far, where things are at today, and get other questions answered as well. So if you have any questions you would like me to ask, please let me know and I'll ask them. Please keep in mind, I'm not trying to pursuade anyone either way, I'm just trying to get the facts to all of you and give you the opportunity to make an educated decision as to what we want to do as a club. I'm indifferent at this point on this subject.
 
Alright, the date is set, Sunday November 4th at 2PM will be our Annual Meeting. That seemed to be the date that worked best for most from the e-mails I received. Location is yet to be determined.
 
Hmm, well then.

I do commend you for your efforts Art, you are certainly working hard to make the club meaningful (and you are succeeding, I'd say).

I'm not saying I'll be there, just wanted to say "good job".
 

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