Paul Dubois sent this on May 11th. It's his interpretation of the state of affairs in FMCA. The information he provides is a bit negative, because "FMCA" could be replaced every where in the document with fraternal groups and clubs like "KofC", "Masons", "Elks", etc. However, I thought you might enjoy the reading. Tom
To All Northeast Area Officers and
Members
Since I was
elected to office I have tried to be open with you and have tried to the best
of my ability to keep you informed on issues in both the Northeast Area and of
happenings on the national FMCA scene.
On the Area scene the past two years have
been very difficult in putting on our rally as each year the number of dealers
displaying coaches has been dropping to the point where in 2012 we only had one
dealer with ten coaches. This is caused
by the cost of fuel and the expenses involved in displaying coaches. Motorhomes
are not selling and towables are selling so fast that they don’t need to show
them at rallies.
Our vendors have dropped off as they state
that people come to the rallies look at the products and then buy them cheaper
on the internet. Without vendors and coaches and a drop in family coaches it
has become impossible to finance the rally. In 2012 we worked with several
veterans organizations who agreed to help us with the understanding that we
would use any profits that they made for disabled veterans which we did.
Our Executive Board felt that it was
necessary to cancel the 2013 rally as we
couldn’t see any way to finance it. The plan was to wait until my
replacement was elected and new NMA officers and let them make the decision on
2014. Unfortunatly there was not a single candidate to seek the office of
Northeast Area Vice President inspite of two attempts to find a candidate. The decision has been made by the National
office with my agreement to hold off from any further attempts until after
elections in Gillette in June. Also earlier this year we sent out over 300
mailings seeking Area officers. There was not one person who expressed
interest. We currently have two vacancies from 2012.
On the National FMCA scene I have as well
as some fellow National Executive Board members have some very serious concerns
as to operation of FMCA. I will attempt to relate some of those to you and
there will be some others that at this point I am unable to discuss because
they could involve legal action. You may have read in articles written by the
President and others that everything is
going well within FMCA and we are financially sound and things are on the
rebound. And the current administration has us in the Black. Myself and some
others wish that we could agree with these statements. In 2011 the Treasurer
Wil Young and the Finance Committee became aware that we were withdrawing
between one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred twelve thousand dollars
from reserves each month to meet our bills. Members of the Executive Board
requested The President Charlie Schrenkel to call a special meeting of the
Board to discuss how we could cut expenses by 1.2 million dollars so we could
balance the budget. The president declined to call such a meeting so the only
way that we could have the meeting was to get the approval of 80% of the
Executive Board. I was asked by the Board members to try and obtain the
necessary members to agree which I was able to do. At the meeting in
Brooksville in February a motion was made to instruct Jerry Yeatts the interim
Executive Director to cut the budget by the 1.2 million dollars and report back
to us by April 15,2012. The motion passed with only the President voting NO The
Executive Director came back with the ordered cuts
Immediately after the vote a motion was
made by Charlie Schrenkel to buy $86,000 worth of Atlases. The motion was
defeated with the President voting to make the purchase and the rest of the Board
voting against the purchase.
In the last two years the Executive Board
has had a very difficult time getting timely information necessary to govern
FMCA. The Treasurer has at different times either been refused information or
had a very difficult time obtaining it as did some Board members.
In the past few years we have been hit
with some surprises that have cost us large sums of money. We learned that the
computer system that controls the entire FMCA operation including all
departments website , finances, membership and credit cards had not been
updated since 1996. This meant that we were not Federally credit card compliant
and if our system had been hacked we woud be subjected to a heavy federal fine,
responsible for all losses and required to pay for credit card monitoring for
every card holder for three years. The
money was approved by the Governing Board last year but the installation has
fallen behind and will not be completed until October and has cost us much more
than was budgeted for. When a long time
staff member left ,the President and the
wage review board approved what has called a significant severance package but
the Executive Board has been unable to determine what the amount is. We have
been told that we received a large fine because workers comp. was not paid for
a period of months. These are just a few
of the problems that this Executive Board has faced.
Although I am sure I will be admonished
for revealing this information to the officers and membership of our Area , I
feel that it is my duty to do so and I feel that the Governing Board cannot
make the right decisions if they do not have all the facts. Those of you going
to the National Convention must ask questions at the Meet the candidate forum
and the Governing Board meeting and not take no for an answer on obtaining the
necessary information.
There are two candidates for National
President Charlie Adcock current South central VP and Alan Rein current Senior
VP.
Although I consider both candidates my friends,
I feel that in order to survive FMCA needs a change in direction. Both Charlie
Adcock and his running mate for Senior Vice President Jon Walker are
experienced business men Charlie Adcock
prior to becoming Area Vice President successfully ran several
businesses and John Walker is owner of a successful Mail equipment and mail equipment
processing business. I have had discussions with both men as to what their plan
is and they have a good business plan to put in effect if elected. They have both committed to
immediately travel to the Northeast Area and meet with chapters to see how they
can help our members and are also committed to bringing A national convention to the Northeast Area.
They are both committed to operating in a open manner and keeping the members
and Governing Board updated. I will be
supporting them and look forward to helping them in our Area. I want to thank
you for your support and friendship during my term in office.
Paul DuBois
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