January 4 2022 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

[Shannon Whitehead]

#577754

Thx for sharing Bruce. Again, most, if not all folks, just want the Club to succeed on behalf of the Membership and in honor of the Viper marque.

[Shannon Whitehead]

#577757

Bruce H. said:
The VOA Secretary, Ed Massena, prepared these meeting minutes from the BOD meeting on Jan 4, 2022.

The BOD region presidents are required to review and approve meeting minutes before they become official, which they have now done. Please see the attached below. Thank you.

VOA-Meeting-Minutes-Jan-4-2021-2-1.pdf

Bruce

Thanks for the update. Two questions and they will be short
1. Where did the historical come from stating that the membership is normally a 60/40 split being Mamba/regular respectively. I think someone stated in the board meeting late in 2021 that it was normally a 70/30 split (Mamba/regular membership). Which is right in line with current membership types so far this year. Don’t want someone to think or come up with the conclusions with a 60/40 vs 70/30 split that Mamba members are supporting the VQ magazine. If the person who stated it was normally a70/30 spilt in the past
2. I noticed no discussion of canceling or postponing NVE5, but rather ways to make it happen. Could be a big risk not knowing about COVID in the future or what membership is going to be in 2023.
3. Ok I lied three vs two questions. What kind of sponsorship ship money is coming in (who / how much) and more important what other money is coming in from other avenues. Is it money from the Viper that’s being auctioned off.

Thanks
Jeff

[Bruce H.]

#577762

quickster2 said:
Thx for sharing Bruce. Again, most, if not all folks, just want the Club to succeed on behalf of the Membership and in honor of the Viper marque.

Thank you. So much to do, so few to do it, but we’ll get there!

CarolinaViper said:
Bruce

Thanks for the update. Two questions and they will be short
1. Where did the historical come from stating that the membership is normally a 60/40 split being Mamba/regular respectively. I think someone stated in the board meeting late in 2021 that it was normally a 70/30 split (Mamba/regular membership). Which is right in line with current membership types so far this year. Don’t want someone to think or come up with the conclusions with a 60/40 vs 70/30 split that Mamba members are supporting the VQ magazine. If the person who stated it was normally a70/30 spilt in the past
2. I noticed no discussion of canceling or postponing NVE5, but rather ways to make it happen. Could be a big risk not knowing about COVID in the future or what membership is going to be in 2023.
3. Ok I lied three vs two questions. What kind of sponsorship ship money is coming in (who / how much) and more important what other money is coming in from other avenues. Is it money from the Viper that’s being auctioned off.

Thanks
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

1. The only split I’ve ever heard quoted was a 60/40, which I noted as I know that’s what our own club’s experience has been for years. There’s been no study to know what the motivation is for 2022, but I think it’s for a number of reasons, with VQ just being one of them, and not necessarily the dominant one.

2. NVE 5 can not, and will not, be run like previous NVEs, that was made very clear by many. The only way it can be considered is if we can figure out how to run it independent of membership dues that fund the operating budget. And there will be no using or borrowing of advertising, sponsorship or other revenue either. Wes, Jim Johnson from Colorado, and others have their work cut out for them, but they do have some ideas, and some time to try to put together a plan, that also needs to factor in the possibility of lower registrations and refunds. Unless the country is closed due to Covid, there could be a LOT of members that want to attend.

3. We can’t release the details of one rather large sponsorship until the contract is signed, as of last week there was at least one more being worked on, and yes, there is some revenue now coming in from the Viper auction.

[V10Sidepipes]

#577763

Bruce, after reading the updated minutes posted, I have a few questions and a few comments that I hope you will indulge:

Comment: It would be helpful if the minutes included those title-holders that are NOT present at the meetings so we can quickly identify patterns of neglect. Looking quickly at the list of domestic positions, it appears to count out at 42 and only 25 were reported in attendance (just under 60% attendance at the first 2022 BOD meeting with a new team… I would have thought this one would have been closer to 100%). This could be accomplished with a simple pre-loaded table / roster template that could be the foundation for all future minutes so it would not be a reporting burden.

Comment: It would be helpful if any documents that are reviewed at the meeting were included in the minutes as they should be entered into the record anyway. Without them, there is no way to review the complete information as presented after the meeting.

Question: Has anyone thought about releasing the VQ IP back to Maurice and allowing him to run / sell his own magazine as a vendor to whomever he wants via whatever channels he wants just like any other vendor with their merchandise? This seems like it would satisfy everyone as people that wanted a magazine could get one directly from him and people who didn’t weren’t paying for it and it gets VOA out of the magazine business (which would apparently cut a ton of $$ off the P&L as well). It would also allow him to expand the subject matter (should he want to) beyond VOA and market to the entire viper community on this and any other forum / social media outlet. This would also allow VOA to cut the price of membership without cutting any services offered (which would probably encourage more members to sign up as well).

Question: Reading the minutes it seems like planning and paying for NVE has zero chance of being stopped (at the club’s peril if there are any unforeseen / uncontrollable situations that arise). Do we know if this is going to be run as a Pay-Your-Own-Way event or will it be another subsidized event for the small % of membership that attends?

Question: One of the remarks in the meeting referred to past Presidents not being invited to the meeting and stating that they are members of the board per the bylaws. Can you reference where that is stated in the bylaws? I looked and could only find reference in Article 4 Section 1 where it stated “A past National President may continue to serve the National Board as ex-officio advisor at the board’s pleasure.” which would imply to me that they are NOT members of the board, they are ex-officio advisors and that position is not mentioned in the definition of the BOD…

Question: Current bylaws state that a National Officer may hold other Regional Positions. Has there been any discussion on changing that to avoid potential conflicts of interest and favoritism accusations?

Question: One of the questions that was asked referenced the President’s Meeting and hotel accommodations. Given the current budget situation, is there any reason that this meeting could not take place virtually to avoid the expense of such arrangements? Also given that there is a National Events Director, do the Presidents even need to be involved at the ground level or should that be up to the National Events Director and an Events Committee comprised of local members?

Comment: Tying into the previous question and NVEs, when I was with the NSX club many years ago, they conducted large national gatherings as well. The way that it worked there (which might be an improvement to the process here) was that regions submitted ‘bids’ for what they could offer the national club if their proposal was chosen. This way you had local members (who did not need to travel) coming up with the proposal and all of these were submitted to national for a vote. Seems like this might be a better way to get people involved and excited.

Thanks for your time and effort with this endeavor.

[Bruce H.]

#577764

Yikes V10! It’s after midnight! Great comments but I’m going to need to get some sleep before answering…catch you then.

[VIPER BAZ UK]

#577765

Thanks for all the posts and keeping us all updated Bruce ,This must take up a great deal of your time so its Greatly appreciated…

[Bruce H.]

#577770

V10Sidepipes said:
Bruce, after reading the updated minutes posted, I have a few questions and a few comments that I hope you will indulge:

Comment: It would be helpful if the minutes included those title-holders that are NOT present at the meetings so we can quickly identify patterns of neglect. Looking quickly at the list of domestic positions, it appears to count out at 42 and only 25 were reported in attendance (just under 60% attendance at the first 2022 BOD meeting with a new team… I would have thought this one would have been closer to 100%). This could be accomplished with a simple pre-loaded table / roster template that could be the foundation for all future minutes so it would not be a reporting burden.

Comment: It would be helpful if any documents that are reviewed at the meeting were included in the minutes as they should be entered into the record anyway. Without them, there is no way to review the complete information as presented after the meeting.

We’ll try to address and learn from all questions, suggestions and comments as we focus our efforts on building a better club.

It was disappointing that many regions were not represented. It’s possible that some were not aware of the meeting despite multiple email notices being sent as we discovered with one region where the emails went to his spam folder and weren’t discovered. The absent regions will be contacted to ensure they know about the next one. We decided for this first meeting to only show which regions were represented, making it very easy for all members to know if their region was or not. I think listing those regions not represented in the next BOD is a good idea, and a record of attendance is being kept.

Meeting minutes don’t include presentation slides, but rather topics of discussions on the agenda and raised during the meeting, as well as any decisions. Bob Bierman and I did however prepare a meeting summary that we posted that did include presentation slides that all can view in this thread… https://driveviper.com/forums/threads/29528-VOA-Board-of-Directors-Meeting-January-4-2022-Summary-amp-Comments.

Question: Has anyone thought about releasing the VQ IP back to Maurice and allowing him to run / sell his own magazine as a vendor to whomever he wants via whatever channels he wants just like any other vendor with their merchandise? This seems like it would satisfy everyone as people that wanted a magazine could get one directly from him and people who didn’t weren’t paying for it and it gets VOA out of the magazine business (which would apparently cut a ton of $$ off the P&L as well). It would also allow him to expand the subject matter (should he want to) beyond VOA and market to the entire viper community on this and any other forum / social media outlet. This would also allow VOA to cut the price of membership without cutting any services offered (which would probably encourage more members to sign up as well).

Question: Reading the minutes it seems like planning and paying for NVE has zero chance of being stopped (at the club’s peril if there are any unforeseen / uncontrollable situations that arise). Do we know if this is going to be run as a Pay-Your-Own-Way event or will it be another subsidized event for the small % of membership that attends?

All options for VQ are being considered and discussed. VQ is recognized to be an important club benefit to many. One goal is for all who would like to receive the magazine in printed or digital formats to have it available to them, whether by type of membership as now exists, or in some other way. The second goal is for VQ to not be a drain on the club’s operating budget. Balancing its benefit to club membership and revenues against costs is a very important challenge that is being tackled, and will have a solution.

NVE5 can and will be stopped if a plan can’t be found to fund it separate from our operating budget. The club can’t afford to take a financial hit from it. $20K has already been funded prior to 2022 and no more will be without that plan in place. Everyone would love to see it go ahead, and I do believe that a solution will be found. Why? Because anything’s possible, and we’ve got the A-Team is on it!

Question: One of the remarks in the meeting referred to past Presidents not being invited to the meeting and stating that they are members of the board per the bylaws. Can you reference where that is stated in the bylaws? I looked and could only find reference in Article 4 Section 1 where it stated “A past National President may continue to serve the National Board as ex-officio advisor at the board’s pleasure.” which would imply to me that they are NOT members of the board, they are ex-officio advisors and that position is not mentioned in the definition of the BOD…

Question: Current bylaws state that a National Officer may hold other Regional Positions. Has there been any discussion on changing that to avoid potential conflicts of interest and favoritism accusations?

That statement was incorrect. Past presidents are not BOD members per the bylaws as you noted.

National doesn’t do anything that really could favor one region over another that I can think of, but if the next NVE is in New York or New Jersey we’ll know the fix is in!

No discussion about National officers holding regional BOD positions.

Question: One of the questions that was asked referenced the President’s Meeting and hotel accommodations. Given the current budget situation, is there any reason that this meeting could not take place virtually to avoid the expense of such arrangements? Also given that there is a National Events Director, do the Presidents even need to be involved at the ground level or should that be up to the National Events Director and an Events Committee comprised of local members?

Comment: Tying into the previous question and NVEs, when I was with the NSX club many years ago, they conducted large national gatherings as well. The way that it worked there (which might be an improvement to the process here) was that regions submitted ‘bids’ for what they could offer the national club if their proposal was chosen. This way you had local members (who did not need to travel) coming up with the proposal and all of these were submitted to national for a vote. Seems like this might be a better way to get people involved and excited.

Thanks for your time and effort with this endeavor.

I don’t think there will be any kind of real support for any future president’s meetings being funded by the club. Zoom is good, and a video presentation by Zoom to all presidents to see proposed event facilities and such. There’s a common theme to everyone’s thinking, and that’s cut out all waste. This club is going to the gym for about 3 months and coming out totally ripped.

When the club considers future NVE locations there are some form of proposals presented I believe. One big determining factor though is geographic location, with NVE’s moving around the country to give more members an opportunity to attend more local ones eventually. Another has been suitable facilities, attractions, and a suitable local race track for our needs. But the track part of NVE’s is also under close cost scrutiny, so that may open up selection to more locations. A good approach might be to choose a general area and then invite proposals from regions in that general area.

You’re welcome, and thank you for the great comments! It’s all going to be worth the effort.

[Bruce H.]

#577771

VIPER BAZ UK said:
Thanks for all the posts and keeping us all updated Bruce ,This must take up a great deal of your time so its Greatly appreciated…

Thanks, it really does take a lot of time. Clear communications is so important, and it’s been so lacking. It’s hurt membership renewals and made it a steeper uphill battle. I can see the challenges to being able to communicate what members wanted to know, but fortunately the puzzle is now starting to come together where we have more of the answers and we’re eager to get them out.

Cheers

[Shannon Whitehead]

#577833

From Notes
“Wes discussed an overview of the intensive revenue and cost analysis he has prepared for budget purposes and a summary slide presentation will be posted below. The key take-away is that based on the Jan. 3, 2022 membership renewals totaling 879, that there would be a shortfall of $4,800, with just another 65 members needed to balance the budget at 944, which should be fairly quickly realized.”

10 days later…one of many milestones to come. Thank you to Bruce as well – membership appreciates your work.

2022-01-13-Membership.jpg

[Shannon Whitehead]

#38682

The VOA Secretary, Ed Massena, prepared these meeting minutes from the BOD meeting on Jan 4, 2022.

The BOD region presidents are required to review and approve meeting minutes before they become official, which they have now done. Please see the attached below. Thank you.

VOA-Meeting-Minutes-Jan-4-2021-2.pdf

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