Hello VOA members,

This year started off challenging, but with the hard work of the VOA board and many members that stepped up to help in nearly every aspects of club operations we are finishing up stronger than ever. The journey has been a lot of work and very rewarding. I have made many new friends and they brought their talents to help the club in one of its most successful years ever. I thought it would be a good idea to share a snapshot of things that we have accomplished together to make this club stronger and more resilient in years to come.

Leadership (8 BoD + 9 Operations Committee + 4 Membership Committee + 6 Financial Committee = 27 total National meetings so far in 2022 to keep the club in-check and operating within budget)

– Regular Board of Director (BoD) meetings (8 meetings over the first 9 months) so far this year.

– The board started a membership committee which will be sending out a survey about the needs and wants of members later this year.

Financials (looking at a $40K surplus by year’s-end 2022)

– Monthly Financial Updates supplied to all regional Presidents to share with membership.

– Overall, the finance team has reduced 2022 club expenses by 29% year-over-year.

– A budget for 2022 was developed and voted on in February 2022. We have adhered to this budget and informed board members every month of any deviations from the plan.

– For 2023 we will review renewals from 1 Oct – 31 December 2022 to develop the 2023 Budget. We will finalize the budget based on 31 January 2023 membership numbers and vote on our 2023 Execution Plan the first week in February 2023.

– The VOA Store was one of largest costs to the club, with loses incurred year-over-year when you account for ordering, storing, customizing, handling, shipping, and returns. A liquidation sale earlier this year, in attempt to recover some of the expenses, cleared some inventory. Excess inventory was shipped from our store to Colorado for NVE5 at no expense. One of the Colorado members picked up the remaining merchandise at no cost to the club.

– Advertising and Sponsorship is expected to surpass $20,000 this year
.§ Hagerty signed a 3-year contract, a $10,000 per year commitment to the club.
.§ Brian Willey stepped up to be advertising director and brought in another $8,000 this year in funding with another $2,000 being worked on.

– What about that $175,000 SBA Loan? The club needed this loan for many reasons which included $100,000 in refunds to members not allowed to travel within the U.S. and international members not allowed to travel to the U.S. for NVE4 as a result of COVID restrictions. A low interest government loan was taken out with a first payment due in September 2023. This provided the club two years to cut expenses and create surpluses before the first payment is due.

– We are projecting $40,000+ surplus by 31 December 2022 which we plan to use as a safety margin against any future unforeseen circumstances.

– So, the Club is financially sound.

Membership (currently at 1,324 members and growing for 2022)

– Why did dues have to increase in 2022? Dues have not been raised since the founding of the VOA – 8 years they remained untouched. Club fees and other incidental expenses have gone up over the years. The club was built on the idea that enough sponsors and vendors would be drawn to the club based on a production Viper to offset membership costs. Since the end of Viper production, sponsorship funding dwindled, so something had to change if the club was to survive.

– We changed the method used to determine membership pricing. Expenses for running the club are 100% driven by membership dues collected. We are no longer dependent on sponsors/vendors or National Viper Events to offset membership fees. So, using a deficit spending model or using future membership dues to pay for past obligations is history.

– The board voted in August to keep membership dues in 2023 the same for another year as we continue to strive to give more back to the regions. We looked at our membership levels that we had in 2022 and are keeping the two-tier approach for another year:
….§ Standard – No printed magazine – $150 – digital only
….§ Mamba – Printed magazine – $195 – extra $45 pays for printing and shipping the four magazines this year

– Based on our current price structure, our regional payment goals:
.§ 2022 – $55/member – what we could afford based on our bills before cuts
.§ 2023 – $65/member – what we believe we can afford based on cost reductions (BoD 11 January 2023 vote, initial budget review, return to 50/50 standard split to $75 National + $75 Regional Split for 2023)
.§ 2024 – $70/member – what we believe can be achieve with continued cuts
Please note: for the 8-years (2014-2021) the VOA distributed $57.50 from a regular member and $75.00 from Mamba member back to the region. The split of regular membership vs Mamba membership was 40/60, so the average regional distribution was roughly $68.00/member. In the end we will be providing more back to the regions than ever before possible.

– Throughout 2023 we will continue to shape operations within the club to further reduce any expense that does not benefit the majority of members. Currently, Mamba members make up 70% of membership, which provides some indication of preference for a printed magazine, but we will be surveying and investigating that connection further this year.

– We understand Mamba members in 2022 may also have been members who contributed a little more just to ensure that the club would and could survive; to that we say thank you.

Website (looking at a 39% reduction in expenses year-over-year)

– The current website controls most of our financial and operational processes of the club. The website was built many years ago, and its efficiency has aged, resulting in increased server costs and difficulty in updating content. Shannon Whitehead (New Mexico President) owns a company that makes websites for very large organizations and has offered to donate his time to build a new website free of charge. This is approximately $20,000 in value being donated in creating a new website to help the club better manage operations.

– Our initial goal was to launch the new website on October 1, 2022, for renewals to be processed through the new website.

– We got to close to the October 2022 launch but lacked the testing and evaluation to feel confident enough that everything would work properly. So, the new website is delayed until January 1, 2023, allowing us to test and deploy everything properly. It should be noted that the current website uses ten separate databases (that cost the club in excess of $2,800) to allow all the site features and forums to operate. The new website will consolidate the ten separate databases down to one, at a cost of $250 per year. That alone is a 90% reduction in cost.

– Membership Section – We are integrating this section first as we are developing this area to be for members only. Membership continues to ask for value for their dues. This area will be dedicated to members. All members will have access to this area. We are working to put similar updates on the old website until the new website launches. These members-only areas include some areas like:
.§ Membership News – news feed
.§ BoD Minutes – news feed
.§ Monthly Finances – news feed
.§ Request for Information – drop box – member questions to National
.§ National Response – news feed
.§ Members Only General Comment – Forum for members only comments

– A challenge on bringing the old forums into the new website:
.§ To transfer every member and enthusiast, we must have their information transferred manually into the new website, which will be time consuming
.§ So, when we launch, we intend to have all 2022 and 2023 membership on the new website immediately to ensure a seamless transition for members.

– The new website will improve many operations of the club so that the national team can focus more on improving the membership experience. Currently, our national team members each spend countless hours per week reconciling reports, looking over algorithms, and trying to understand the nuances of a website which is programed in antiquated code. Without these efforts our website would have crashed long ago and our finances would have suffered immensely.

– Club operations consume most of our time at National, so we rely heavily on regional officers to convey the BoD information and to create that great membership experience.

– The new website will allow us to help grow membership with a more interactive user interface. The new website will be scalable / responsive on any device a member uses.

– Another benefit being planned is our website’s ability to piggyback regional websites to help smaller regions build a web presence and advertise more activities and events.

Magazine (looking at a 25% reduction in expenses year-over-year)

– Magazine costs were reduced by reducing content and through Maurice reducing his fees.

– Printing costs were reduced by getting a new printing company for the magazine. The magazine costs were reduced approximately 25% from the previous year and vendor.

– We went from non-standard paper to paper stock that is widely available

– We changed from offset printing to digital printing, which produces less waste.

– Where are my magazines? Below, I have laid out a typical magazine schedule for the club, showing scheduled dates and release dates for 2022:

.§ VQ30 SPRING 2022
..Ø Targeted Release: March 15– nationwide paper shortage and finding a new print company due to unacceptable price increases with the old vendor
..Ø Actual Hardcopy Release: April 6
..Ø Actual Digital Release: May

.§ VQ31 SUMMER 2022
..Ø Targeted Release: June 15 – unexpected delays waiting for content
..Ø Actual Hardcopy Release: August 10
..Ø Actual Digital Release: October

.§ VQ32 FALL 2022
..Ø Targeted Release: Sept 15 – completed simultaneously with VQ31, waiting 60-days from publication of last
..Ø Actual Hardcopy Release: Oct 21
..Ø Actual Digital Release: November 1 – estimated

.§ VQ33 WINTER 2022
..Ø Targeted Release: Dec 15 – final article being developed and 2022 closeout information being collected for publication – on target
..Ø Actual Hardcopy Release: Jan 11 (2023) Actual print date
..Ø Actual Digital Release: Dec 30 Actual release date (all 4 virtual Magazines provided to membership in 2022 and final magazine to start arriving to Mamba members in late January 2023)

– We should have all digital magazines posted electronically before year end with printed copies to follow.Because we are limited by the USPS mailing system and the holiday season we cannot guarantee the hardcopy to be in-hand before 1 January 2023, but we are on track to catch up.

NVE5 Event (no more cost to VOA members – all costs must be offset by attendees – reduced club liability)

– In early 2020, the Colorado/Montana/Utah/Wyoming Region was selected by the board to host NVE5.

– The region is now taking on most of the financial responsibility to limit National from financial exposure – I give the region a lot of credit.
.§ The Colorado/Montana/Utah/Wyoming Club has secured some risk mitigation funding guarantees from two private parties to potentially offset any unforeseen NVE-5 liability; this ensures little-to-no risk for the VOA.

– Registration opens October 15, 2022 for 2023 Mamba members. It opens October 22, 2022 for 2023 Standard members.

– With the exception of the $20K invested into this event by the National Club in 2020 and 2021, the National VOA relies on the remaining funding for this event to be paid for by NVE-5 participants. The National Club will not invest any more capital for this event.

– This event is expected to generate enough excess revenue, at a minimum, to replace funds invested by the National Club, making this event cost neutral for the National Club and its members.

By-laws (to be published sometime early 2023)

– We concluded that some of the financial issues developed through a lack of checks and balances in the by-laws. We pushed the board this year to publish revised by-laws. Our focus is twofold:
.§ First we need to revise by-laws to add a compliance factor.
.§ Second we need a handbook that addresses day-to-day operations to show future officers how to properly run the club. As an example:
..Ø Membership dues may change from year-to-year. This would be addressed in the handbook.
..Ø The roles of officers and accountability is more permanent and will be defined in by-laws.
..Ø Both will require BoD approval to implement, so National officers can not just change what is in the handbook to benefit them.

– We also want to make sure that national by-laws and regional by-laws are in alignment.

– Everything is staying the same as far as each region being on the board and everyone having a vote. National is not looking to gain more control over the regions.

Spirit of Viper Program (no cost – just a great new addition!)

– The Spirit of Viper Program was an inspiration of Roy Sjoberg and Brian Willey to recognize the people that built the Dodge Viper. Brian Willey has spent hundreds of hours collecting stories from the team to keep that history alive.

– We are currently building the Spirit of Viper website that will be hosted on our new website. The board has seen a preview of this new website and some of its content.

– This website is being worked on in the background – I will be excited when it launches.

The objective of this letter is to clarify much of the misinformation or miscommunication that members may be hearing from various sources and forums I have been hearing about as of late.

If you have questions or concerns please reach out to our national team who would be more than happy to talk to you about the events of the last year and all the progress we have been making.
I thank you for your continued support!

Mike Kuchavik Sr.
VOA National President