FG raffle rule

["N8"]

Hi guys,

Ive been super busy lately and haven't been active on the board for a while so I missed this whole discussion, and just heard about its going on's at fg this year.

Let me first thank Bob, and the bod for working hard to again create a successful Fall Gathering, and for representing our club for its better needs.

But to drop my .02 into the pot, I don't have a large opinion on the raffle, Ide say open it up to the bod, but if that didn't happen I wouldn't cry.

But the non toyota members issue touches a sore spot for me. In my opinion some of our best members are non toyota people. My best friend brendan drives a sami, and Jason please tell Russ that I hope he was speaking in haste about not showing his face again.

I can understand the allure to having an exclusive club, but I think that the things that make our club great, and in point of fact better than other clubs are more than what vehicle you drive. I think Brendan attended more trail maintenance days this year than anyone else. Earnie, about the early days of the club, I was inducted as a member before we joined the tlca, and nobody looked twice at the fact that I never drove a Landcruiser.

In the end my opinion is that our club is great because it just so happens that toyota folk are as a whole a great bunch of people, and members new and old easily form a brotherhood because of this. But also there are people like Russ and Martin, who just so happen to be on the same par as other toyota owners and I want them in my club.

This is to say I want the new guy who has wheeled with the local jeep club and wants a more respectful, friendly, and caring group of people to go off roading with to be in my club. (as long as he will reciprocate the same values)

Fall Gathering has turned into the main event, and in the past, efforts have been made to lessen the effect of having a fall gathering club and promote having a yankee toys club. But in the end fall gathering was a fun event and was embraced.

Im all for making sure that the people who are in our club are the right ones to fit it, but I don't think something as arbitrary as what make your vehicle is should be the deciding factor.

No hard feelings to anyone who see's it differently, this is my opinion and I wanted it to be voiced.

 

[rain76king]

First off thanks for all of you that were able to attend our event this year. I was happy to be a part of it and look forward to future years.

I also wanted to say thank you for all of you that have added your input.

Our Board did participate in the raffle this year without any issues.

I made the personal choice to not participate at all in buying tickets and also abstained from having friends or family do such for me. Again personal choice.

I think there has been some confusion and I thank the people who approached me to either give me their input or actually ask me what was going on directly rather than hearing it fourth or fifth hand.

We never told any of OUR members that they could not attend the FG because of the type of vehicles they drive. So some of the above comments in this thread are clearly wrong and I wanted to wait till after FG to address this thread.

I am here to listen to what you as the club want, and try my best to do what the majority wants.

My personal stance on the matter is I honestly don't care what you drive. I was a jeep guy for a number of years and find that their community is a lot like ours.
If I see a lifted truck driving down the street I give it a wave regardless of the make.
I was never out to cast away non toyota people but to protect your event and make it a larger draw for Toyota owners since we are largely a Toyota club.

Our BOD thought that you as a club would like to see a majority of the vehicles be Toyotas.
We did what we thought you as a club wanted and limited or "capped" the amount of non Toyotas.
Obviously if you have read this entire thread there has been some different thoughts on that action and I welcome your insight.

There was some Bylaw quoting above. It's important to note that I never brought bylaws into this discussion, I find it often opens a larger can of worms......

Not only do our bylaws state that you don't have to be a Toyota owner to be a member our mission statement states that as well.

In our Fall Gathering meeting we did in fact mention that our bylaws are loosely followed or enforced. I just sort of went by what the club had been doing.
We do clearly need to revisit our bylaws and go from there.
This again will more than likely be a hot topic as well but it's something that we need to address and that is important to address with our new incorporation status.

Let there be no doubt that the work continues after the Fall Gathering.
There will be more events, meetings, scheduling, trail maintenance dates and more importantly wheeling.

We will continue to do what we can to grow the club, move it forward and do what the majority of it's members want.

It's important to me to never let it become personal though.
We as individuals will never see eye to eye on everything.
Politics can become frustrating and tax friendships with the decisions that have to be made.

I believe that some raw emotion took over this thread and twisted it in all different directions but I'm glad it did and it certainly brought about some topics that need to be addressed.

I'm going to lock this thread for now for a few reasons.

One being that I would like the club to enjoy the post Fall Gathering pictures video and friendly chatter.
Two honestly being that I need more time to look into all of the above subject matter and find some resolution.

Thanks for your time and a great weekend,
Bob