I figured I would start a new thread with some of the latest developments. First, the good news from Casey Campbell, TLCA Treasurer:
************************************************
(from Casey Campbell)
Current cash balance $32,952.66. Still need to pay the Nov/Dec Toyota Trails printing invoice which should be around $6000 and a few other small invoices.
The Oct P&L is attached and I'm happy to say we are within $7 of the budget. Cost savings have helped offset the lower membership amounts. The $1410 we received from Gator helped a bunch, thank you Art, Murrah, and all the others that pitched in!!!
I'll be working on the 2010 budget in the coming weeks and will post it up well before the December meeting for comments/changes. If you have anything you'd like to see or not see in next year's budget, please let me know.
Casey
*****************************************************
So, the financial numbers look pretty good.
And then some not so good news. Mark Algazy is resigning his membership in his local California club and also resigning as a TLCA board delegate. Mark is the one who offered an FJ-40 to TLCA as a raffle truck to raise some money for TLCA. After reading this, if you have any questions, please let me know.
Evan
Here's Mark's note:
**************************************************
(from Mark Algazy)
Gentlemen [and ladies]
This evening I resigned my membership in the Los Angeles County Trail Crew. As such, I am no longer a delegate to the BOD. Please remove my name from the e-mail list as soon as possible.
My resignation served two purposes. First, it serves as a wake-up call to my club as to just how serious I consider their lapse in following the requirements of a 501[c]3 organization to maintain protection from personal liability. Secondly, it allows me to escape from watching the slow but steady disintegration of the TLCA here on BODreps. I am too appalled by the even the possibility that one of the most critical decisions of the TLCA's future, the decision to put the entire TT online in downloadable form, was made without a VOTE, to stay. I have several personal grievances as well, but they will stay that way.
As far as the raffle truck, I am sure you share with me the disappointment in the fact that the project has not moved forward. But more importantly, as I stated in the e-mail last week, I NEED to get the truck moved from my shop in order to deal with the city inspector. I donated this truck in good faith six months ago, and have waited patiently for the project to commence. But everyone's patience has a limit. Therefore, I must insist that the truck be moved by December 14th [which is exactly SIX MONTHS from the date I offered it to the TLCA]. IF the truck is not moved by that day, I will consider the TLCA to have constructively abandoned the project, and will consider the truck my own again.
I would like to share a final thought with you good folks as you continue your honest efforts to help this organization based on a common observation that history has a tendency to repeat itself.
Four years ago we were an organization of approximately the same numbers we are now. At that time, we had a conservative but stable budget, as well as $80,000 in cash reserves in 2 CD accounts. At that time, We as a BOD made the collective decision to expand and enhance our flagship publication in several successive stages. First we agreed to expand the number of pages. Then increase the number of color pages. Then increase the quality of the paper. Then the binding. Then the specific quality of the materials used on the cover. Each of these changes cost money, but we saw it as a calculated risk that the increased quality would help get more members in our big push to 4000 that occured when Erik Vogt was MSVP. The fact that the glossy magazine stroked our egos, and helped our position when a competing Toyota mag hit the market didn't hurt either. But needless to say, the 4000 drive was not sustainable, and we drained our CDs as an indirect result of our increased magazine costs.
You can call me a retrogrouch if you like, but I see TLCA.org as another manifestation of the thinking that got us into this mess. The website is an attempt to stroke our egos, an attempt to look like a 'player' on the field of club websites, and is an increasing drain on limited remaining resources. I do not expect those whos egos are being stroked by the website, or those who have benefited financially from it, to see this objectively. But I do know a good number of you on BODreps question its ability to draw and keep members the way that the magazine has. In the meantime, it has consumed a LOT of TLCA time, energy and money and has no proven return on the investment. I believe that in order to maintain the interest of a public who are quick to abandon anything that isn't constantly being refreshed, it will consume more and more time, energy and money than it does now, all the while trying to feed a public who are not only clamoring for 'more for less,' but determined to fi nd a way to get it. In my opinion, this is worse than the calculated risk we took on the magazine. Except that now we don't have the 80k to gamble with!
I would say more, but it could be percieved as getting personal, or bickering, and I do not wish to 'go there'. It has come to my attention that certain people already see me as part of the problem. That in and of itself makes it a little easier for me to step back from the TLCA now and focus more attention on all the other land use projects I am involved in.
Sincerely,
Mark Algazy, TLCA #1086
P.S. Unlike Art Schramm, I am not mad, or considering quitting TLCA.
************************************************
(from Casey Campbell)
Current cash balance $32,952.66. Still need to pay the Nov/Dec Toyota Trails printing invoice which should be around $6000 and a few other small invoices.
The Oct P&L is attached and I'm happy to say we are within $7 of the budget. Cost savings have helped offset the lower membership amounts. The $1410 we received from Gator helped a bunch, thank you Art, Murrah, and all the others that pitched in!!!
I'll be working on the 2010 budget in the coming weeks and will post it up well before the December meeting for comments/changes. If you have anything you'd like to see or not see in next year's budget, please let me know.
Casey
*****************************************************
So, the financial numbers look pretty good.
And then some not so good news. Mark Algazy is resigning his membership in his local California club and also resigning as a TLCA board delegate. Mark is the one who offered an FJ-40 to TLCA as a raffle truck to raise some money for TLCA. After reading this, if you have any questions, please let me know.
Evan
Here's Mark's note:
**************************************************
(from Mark Algazy)
Gentlemen [and ladies]
This evening I resigned my membership in the Los Angeles County Trail Crew. As such, I am no longer a delegate to the BOD. Please remove my name from the e-mail list as soon as possible.
My resignation served two purposes. First, it serves as a wake-up call to my club as to just how serious I consider their lapse in following the requirements of a 501[c]3 organization to maintain protection from personal liability. Secondly, it allows me to escape from watching the slow but steady disintegration of the TLCA here on BODreps. I am too appalled by the even the possibility that one of the most critical decisions of the TLCA's future, the decision to put the entire TT online in downloadable form, was made without a VOTE, to stay. I have several personal grievances as well, but they will stay that way.
As far as the raffle truck, I am sure you share with me the disappointment in the fact that the project has not moved forward. But more importantly, as I stated in the e-mail last week, I NEED to get the truck moved from my shop in order to deal with the city inspector. I donated this truck in good faith six months ago, and have waited patiently for the project to commence. But everyone's patience has a limit. Therefore, I must insist that the truck be moved by December 14th [which is exactly SIX MONTHS from the date I offered it to the TLCA]. IF the truck is not moved by that day, I will consider the TLCA to have constructively abandoned the project, and will consider the truck my own again.
I would like to share a final thought with you good folks as you continue your honest efforts to help this organization based on a common observation that history has a tendency to repeat itself.
Four years ago we were an organization of approximately the same numbers we are now. At that time, we had a conservative but stable budget, as well as $80,000 in cash reserves in 2 CD accounts. At that time, We as a BOD made the collective decision to expand and enhance our flagship publication in several successive stages. First we agreed to expand the number of pages. Then increase the number of color pages. Then increase the quality of the paper. Then the binding. Then the specific quality of the materials used on the cover. Each of these changes cost money, but we saw it as a calculated risk that the increased quality would help get more members in our big push to 4000 that occured when Erik Vogt was MSVP. The fact that the glossy magazine stroked our egos, and helped our position when a competing Toyota mag hit the market didn't hurt either. But needless to say, the 4000 drive was not sustainable, and we drained our CDs as an indirect result of our increased magazine costs.
You can call me a retrogrouch if you like, but I see TLCA.org as another manifestation of the thinking that got us into this mess. The website is an attempt to stroke our egos, an attempt to look like a 'player' on the field of club websites, and is an increasing drain on limited remaining resources. I do not expect those whos egos are being stroked by the website, or those who have benefited financially from it, to see this objectively. But I do know a good number of you on BODreps question its ability to draw and keep members the way that the magazine has. In the meantime, it has consumed a LOT of TLCA time, energy and money and has no proven return on the investment. I believe that in order to maintain the interest of a public who are quick to abandon anything that isn't constantly being refreshed, it will consume more and more time, energy and money than it does now, all the while trying to feed a public who are not only clamoring for 'more for less,' but determined to fi nd a way to get it. In my opinion, this is worse than the calculated risk we took on the magazine. Except that now we don't have the 80k to gamble with!
I would say more, but it could be percieved as getting personal, or bickering, and I do not wish to 'go there'. It has come to my attention that certain people already see me as part of the problem. That in and of itself makes it a little easier for me to step back from the TLCA now and focus more attention on all the other land use projects I am involved in.
Sincerely,
Mark Algazy, TLCA #1086
P.S. Unlike Art Schramm, I am not mad, or considering quitting TLCA.
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