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Threat to turn over assets to the new company? How about the threat from the members who never received what they paid for? Example; mag.
At this stage, I don’t even want to see a merger at any point with those guys. Thanks for sharing [Alex sent us this email too].
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This unfortunately forced Maurice to send a letter of clarification. This level of misrepresentation is something that we can’t sit idly by as it does affect everyone – regardless of what club you join.
When you’re on a high-level, you do notice the confusion this causes many members (however most folks on the forums are fairly aware). That’s why this particular set of issues needs to be communicated through the Viper community. Hearing untruths about their working with SRT on events, outrageous membership claims, and back door discussions misinforms people. While we also get a lot of communications and emails forwarded to us by people who receive thing from them, we choose not to publish them as it shows poor taste. But folks do need to know that the information is drastically inaccurate and in some cases purposely misleading to create the perception that the VCA is doing well. Even those items they publicly publish are merely strategies to change perceptions. Negative campaigns haven’t worked in the past, so they’re learning.
Be informed, be committed on the path, and don’t let your regions get split up (that’s the most important thing). We chose to build the VOA by region, and not individual members, because we wanted the regional clubs to stay together so members aren’t as affected by what goes on. But the current tactic they’ve employed is to quickly award regional presidencies and offices (sometimes to novices and those with no tenure whatsoever) simply so they can create VCA regions within the same state to make it seem like things are “continuing”. But it’s not only a poor decision but it splits regions up and will create a local mess – that is not in the best interests of the members at all. Let’s all avoid that regardless of what club people chose.
The more united we all are, the sooner this all ends. At this time nearly every US region is moving to VOA – and you’ll see more announcements shortly on the final few! Keep the local regions one entity so that members don’t have to worry about what club they’re part of. Let’s not now make a regional mess out of the national mess that occurred. As I said, be united and move together – that will end this all very quickly. This will only be a matter of months. No one wants 2 clubs, nor is it necessary. National should not have such influences on regional entities, that’s one of the reasons we started the VOA. National should be there to collect dues, run the website, put insurance in place, allow for logo usage, provide a magazine, and maintain a vendor relationship for all the clubs to enjoy. But creating sub-clubs to compete with regions already in existence that have chosen to move on – is a VERY bad move. Let’s please get this information out there.
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Anyone that wishes to stop getting these ridiculous letters from the VCA should click here: http://www.viperclub.org/opt-out.php
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The goof-balls just don’t have it in them to operate with scruples… sad for everyone
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Maurice sent this to the VOA Presidents and I thought we should post here, as well. Thanks.
Dear VOA President,
I’m sure you and your club members are busily preparing for Christmas/holidays and the last thing you want to deal with is club politics. However, the VCA has been sending messages directly to members, often not copying presidents, to recruit uninformed members by painting a picture that everything is fixed with the VCA. Unfortunately, these messages contain statements that are misleading or even completely untrue, which compels us to clarify some of their claims with you since we cannot address your members directly. Please share this information with your members so they can make an informed decision about renewals.
MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS: VCA implies they have droves of members signing up, yet they have never published any figures because in truth, their membership renewals for 2014 are down dramatically and at a fraction of the VOA. We have reports that some of those people renewed without realizing what was going on or they were completely unaware of the club they were joining. (If you have any members who mistakenly renewed with VCA, they can ask for a refund and if that fails, file a dispute with their credit card company.) It would be difficult if not impossible to conduct a car raffle, press-print a magazine, or hold a national gathering with numbers that small. Conversely, the VOA has quickly passed 900 members and close to reaching the 1000 member mark in the one month since we opened the doors. We hope you’ll remind your members to join VOA before Jan 1st, so they can be considered charter members!
SRT RELATIONSHIP: In their recent announcement, the VCA stated they are working with SRT and planning events together. However, if you read carefully, the people they are working with are with MOPAR, not SRT. Those are two different entities, and they simply have a business relationship with MOPAR. Although they stated they are working with SRT on a joint event at Daytona, we are in contact with SRT and confirmed that SRT is NOT working with VCA on any joint event. This is a complete fallasy used to create the impression that progress has been made in this area. Like all ALMS races, this SRT event is simply open to ALL SRT owners (including VCA members). On a related note, if you hadn’t heard, Doris and Ralph Gilles joined VOA on 12/16 by their own choice as paid members. It’s OK to read between the lines.
REGIONS: We know what your members value most is having fun with their friends in your local club, which is why we encouraged you to take a vote and either stay or move your region intact and together. While your members are free to join one or both clubs, it’s important that they understand that only the dues money they pay to VOA will be returned to YOUR club. If they want to continue having fun with their club friends, they need to join YOUR club since that’s where the activities will be. As you know, we already have the majority of the regions (30) on board and several more coming. Some regions have reported that the VCA is still witholding some of their 2013 dues money. If this is the case with you, we recommend you request the money before the end of the year.
EXPERIENCE: VOA is being led by the MOST experienced, senior members from the Viper community, including ALL of the Founders who started the original club. This is why we’ve been able to achieve so much in such a short period of time. We know what the issues are and what state the VCA is in.
VCA THREATS: VCA board members have recently posted that in their opinion, VOA regions should turn over their assets (money) to any new VCA region that forms in their area. We presume this is just a scare tactic used to keep regions from leaving, since you are a separate corporation, and those assets were paid by your members (or earned through fund-raising) and belong to you. Most of you are continuing on as the same corporation but with a different name on the door. Consider the analogy, if you were an independent gas station owner who sold Chevron gas, and decided to change to being a Shell station, would you be required to turn over your money to a new guy who opens across the street as a Chevron station?
It’s not our intent to be negative, but it’s important that you and your members know the truth. We hope this clarifies the situation so your members can make an informed decision about which club to join.
We are moving ahead in a positive direction, and looking forward to an exciting year ahead! We have no baggage and have built a completely new club with all the necessary components and have made over 40 leaders responsible for managing it as the Board of Directors. We ASSURE you that the club will be built with good culture, talent, and a positive spirit that you will be proud of. We appreciate your fervent support and encourage you to be involved and vocal.
We’ll be sending out a newsletter to our members with more updates shortly. In the meantime, have a happy and safe holiday season.
Best wishes,
Maurice Liang
President
Viper Owners Association
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