VMOA Important announcement

[Frosty72]

Have the members ever been allowed a "vote" on anything the VMOA does?

 

[4gasem]

I never have... It'd be easy as hell to do really...

Just use the "POLL" feature to do so. Of course you'd want to email people to inform them of the vote and send them a link to the poll.

Question is though... How would I know which person is better suited for the job?

No one campaigns right?

 

[Thevmaxrider]

Have the members ever been allowed a "vote" on anything the VMOA does?

Actually, no they haven't. The expectation was/is that they would communicate with their Regional Director and the Director votes as his member's want him to. In the future we will have to modify the Bylaws and integrate voting capability into our website. The problem has always been that to ensure that there is no vote manipulation, etc. it was deemed better to have the Board of Directors vote on issues.

 

[Thevmaxrider]

At my workplace each employee had the option to have a paper copy pay stub or an electronic one. Many people saw the paper copy as a waste so they opted for an electronic copy.

Perhaps when each VMOA member renews his/her membership a choice could be presented for a paper or electronic VBoost. You may end up with significant savings in terms of paper/print and distribution depending on how many opt for an electronic copy.

Blaine

Blaine,

This idea has been floated around quite a bit. The main problem is that even if we have to print any number of magazines we still have the largest percentage of the cost still present. There are the fixed costs of editing and assembling the magazine, and if we have a printed copy we still have to pay for the setup and printing at the printers. Believe it or not the cost of the paper is very minimal, it is the fixed cost at the printers of making the printer plates that is >50% of the overall cost. Those costs do not diminish if we print fewer magazines. In fact our per unit costs will go up if we print fewer as the price point goes up from the printer as the number of magazines printed goes down. Overall we might see a small decrease in overall costs, but it would be minimal at best.

 

[Thevmaxrider]

I never have... It'd be easy as hell to do really...

Just use the "POLL" feature to do so. Of course you'd want to email people to inform them of the vote and send them a link to the poll.

Question is though... How would I know which person is better suited for the job?

No one campaigns right?

Incorrect, people campaign to the Board of Directors. Also, we do not have a "Poll" function on the current website (will be integrated into the next version of course) and our Bylaws have no provision for membership voting (again something we can modify in the future). We also do have members who do not have internet access or email addresses listed so how would we ensure that everyone got notified of an impending vote. Your Regional Director is your voice on the Board, I encourage you to contact them and voice concerns, find out who is running for what positions, and to see what the Board is up to. They should be communicating on a regular basis with the members they represent to keep them informed of the VMOA business activities. If you are having problems contacting your Regional Director by all means let me know and I will have them contact you.

 

[Rollie]

Why shouldn't candidates for office communicate on the forum their platform and / or what they are interested in keeping / changing about the club so we can let our regional director know who and what we want to keep / change ? Just askin' .

 

[davidon]

Do away with the hardcopy mag..if they want a hard copy they can just print one out themselves

 

[4gasem]

I'll be damned if I'm going to ask them... If someone sent me a link to vote or to see what each person had planned for the vmoa, I'd read it and make as educated of a vote as I can.

People not up on the whole internet thing probably won't care. If they cared they'd make a point of voting somehow.

Amazing how the VMOA looks out for it's members in some areas, but they allow a KNOWN scoundrel to advertise in their publication. Money talks... Hell! The man was kicked off the Star site for it!

Hmm...

I just don't get it I guess.

Chris

 

[Jayhawk]

Do away with the hardcopy mag..if they want a hard copy they can just print one out themselves

I've probably mentioned this before, but I agree with this. There are a few, one a good friend of mine, that is addicted to hard copy mags, but web content is where it's at today. The magazine business is dying. If a member wants a hardcopy for the bathroom biglaugh, make a .pdf available to them...maybe even an end of the year will all web content for the previous 12-months, or something.

Spendng membership dues on web content and organizing rides seems like a better idea, to me. Others' mileage may vary.

 

[Thevmaxrider]

I'll be damned if I'm going to ask them... If someone sent me a link to vote or to see what each person had planned for the vmoa, I'd read it and make as educated of a vote as I can.

People not up on the whole internet thing probably won't care. If they cared they'd make a point of voting somehow.

Amazing how the VMOA looks out for it's members in some areas, but they allow a KNOWN scoundrel to advertise in their publication. Money talks... Hell! The man was kicked off the Star site for it!

Hmm...

I just don't get it I guess.

Chris

Chris,

Your feelings on Cornell are well known. I would counter though that there are a lot of people that have the equal and opposite reaction to him that you have. Where does the VMOA draw the line? Almost every vendor will have customers that have a bad experience and handle it badly. I know that Cornell has had quite a few, so has John Furbur, and others. If the VMOA were to stop having vendors that people have not had bad experiences with then we would have 2 or 3 vendors left on our list. The thing is we do not have the pleasure of telling people who to buy from. We have a vendor liason that the members use to communicate an issue with a vendor to us and assist on behalf of our members. The VMOA does not recommend a specific vendor over any other either. It is up to the customer to do their research and find out if they want to buy from an individual or not. Personally I choose not to buy from Cornell, based on my own research and taking into account the issues others have had. I have communicated numerous times with Jon about drag racing etc., just have no urge to buy products from him.

 

[Thevmaxrider]

Why shouldn't candidates for office communicate on the forum their platform and / or what they are interested in keeping / changing about the club so we can let our regional director know who and what we want to keep / change ? Just askin' .

To be frank, this is only our 3rd election cycle. Prior to this there was no election and the positions were filled by other means (outside of my realm of experience as I was elected VP during the first election ever). We are still getting this up and going, and we understand it isn't perfect. Honestly, until this year most positions were acclaimed as there was no one running against the incumbent. This year with the President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Vendor Liason (oh and the VP spot as I am running for President and if unsuccessful I will be going back to being just a member unless the VP spot is open, which I doubt will happen) up for election is a new one for us. Last year no one asked to run for any position that I can remember with the exception of some empty Director's positions to which they were acclaimed to. Once we even know who is running, which so far we have received zero emails about, for what positions I can post it no problem. It is up to the candidates if they wish to respond. As a matter of fact I will post up my platform for President in another thread here just to let everyone, member and non-members, what I want to accomplish.

 

[4gasem]

chris,

your feelings on cornell are well known. I would counter though that there are a lot of people that have the equal and opposite reaction to him that you have. Where does the vmoa draw the line? Almost every vendor will have customers that have a bad experience and handle it badly. I know that cornell has had quite a few, so has john furbur, and others. If the vmoa were to stop having vendors that people have not had bad experiences with then we would have 2 or 3 vendors left on our list. The thing is we do not have the pleasure of telling people who to buy from. We have a vendor liason that the members use to communicate an issue with a vendor to us and assist on behalf of our members. The vmoa does not recommend a specific vendor over any other either. It is up to the customer to do their research and find out if they want to buy from an individual or not. Personally i choose not to buy from cornell, based on my own research and taking into account the issues others have had. I have communicated numerous times with jon about drag racing etc., just have no urge to buy products from him.

they change their practices!!!

The VMOA should be there to help us owners. NOT make a buck off advertising. They should have a list of certified vmax vendors. Those vendors should have to live up to a standard set by the VMOA. If not, they're left behind.

Chris

 

[Thevmaxrider]

they change their practices!!!

The VMOA should be there to help us owners. NOT make a buck off advertising. They should have a list of certified vmax vendors. Those vendors should have to live up to a standard set by the VMOA. If not, they're left behind.

Chris

I understand what you are saying, but again what do I tell the members who have had great experiences with UFO and would counter that we are excluding a good vendor. This is a no win situation for the VMOA, we need to have the advertising income to support the club, we have members who have had a bad experience, had a mediocre experience, or a great experience with a vendor. The person who had a really bad experience wants the vendor banished to the 9th plane of Hell, the mediocre experience guy could care less as long as the guy pays for his ad, and the great experience guy is ecstatic that we would deign to put an ad in the Vboost, but pissed we took money to do so. We do have a process by which a vendor is removed from our vendor list. First step is to contact the Vendor Liason. It is their job to act on your complaint and if warranted the vendor is removed from the list (I seem to remember that Jon was removed from our list for a while, but a previous Vendor Liason was convinced that he had mended his ways and put him back on the list). As for the StarVmax site, Oliver had total control over that site alone and can do whatever he wants, kind of like Buster here:biglaugh: .

 

[4gasem]

It IS a no win situation... The people that are happy with him aren't so because of his amazing service he provides. Only because they got what they bought. He's a snake in the grass and anyone that tells me different doesn't know him like I do.

I'm saying you have CERTIFIED vendors. To be that, you have to live up to a certain standard.

Chris

 

[Thevmaxrider]

It IS a no win situation... The people that are happy with him aren't so because of his amazing service he provides. Only because they got what they bought. He's a snake in the grass and anyone that tells me different doesn't know him like I do.

I'm saying you have CERTIFIED vendors. To be that, you have to live up to a certain standard.

Chris

No argument about what you think of him for sure. As for creating a Certified Vendor standard, it is something that I can bring up to the Board and discuss. Will put something together and get back to you. I will say that it probably should be held over until the elections are done so that we don't change Board members mid-stream and muck up the process.

 

[Blackmax98]

they change their practices!!!

The VMOA should be there to help us owners. NOT make a buck off advertising. They should have a list of certified vmax vendors. Those vendors should have to live up to a standard set by the VMOA. If not, they're left behind.

Chris

Chris you might like to know that Steve gets part of the advertising money taken in on top of his payment for the Vboost, That still goes on right Jimmy?

 

[4gasem]

I believe the VMOA needs to be more about helping it's members. Kind of a AAA for Vmax peeps!

Chris

I hope you're wrong Blackmax... I really do.

 

[Wizard]

Chris you might like to know that Steve gets part of the advertising money taken in on top of his payment for the Vboost, That still goes on right Jimmy?

Ok Guys... here is the truth... years ago I did get 10% of each ad placed in the magazine... the reason for this was I was doing the ad layout for the advertizers... they would send me a mock up of what they wanted along with the bits and pieces of what they wanted in the ad space the purchased. I would do the layout and graphics work & deal with the advertiser personally (Invoice and followup)... The last Issue I collected the 10% of the ad revenue was for the spring 2009 edition...

When the new contract was negotiated right after the spring '09 edition I gave up this 10% and I have not collected any monies from advertising in the VBoost Magazine since, nor will I. I did invoice two advertisers under my leaderhead for work I did for them in designing the ads they wanted inserted into the magazine... this was done in accordance with all the stipulations in my contract with the VMOA....

Are there any other questions about what and how I do my job.... I will be happy to answer them all...

 

[Thevmaxrider]

Chris you might like to know that Steve gets part of the advertising money taken in on top of his payment for the Vboost, That still goes on right Jimmy?

Things have changed a wee bit since you left. As Steve said in his post, no he does not get any funds from the advertising.

 

[Blackmax98]

Not even from add's he takes in on his own?