I agree, our "back room boys" screwed up.....anyone that is that dedicated to the hobby would have responded to a phone call explaining the situation and I'm sure would have had an amiable solution. Probably could have added to inventory and sold on a provisional basis.

On the other hand shutting down production (if that is really the case if products are still being advertised in the magazine classifieds) and making the entire hobby suffer seems a bit extreme.

At this point one or more officers of the club should contact Scott Flint and try to make amends.

As for publishing a promotional article I'd suggest someone from ACMOC make an appointment with Scott to do an interview and article on his products and investment. The notion of sitting back and waiting for a vender to promote himself in this limited hobby market is rediculous.

On another note, it is understood the "backroom boys" are also embarked on a project to upgrade the website and bulletin board. To my knowledge there has been no dialogue with the general membership about what is being proposed other than a few comments from Garlic Pete. This project needs to be disclosed with details, proposals and time lines. Otherwise I see another "fiasco" in the making.

OK, Now I am on the soap box.....fire away!!!!

Om i had this to say the other day this is sounding like the whit house we pay our dues and they dam well do as they please to have that much tied up in inventory is just plane crazy i sorry if i am stepping on toes but to let stuff like this get out of had during a economy that was in the crapper and tractors were going to the scrap yards and most of us could no way welcomed to save many of them a lot of us are on a fixed budget and try to save as many as you can and the younger folks they have family'
that have needs its hard to lay out that king of money on toys i bough mine for my dad off the e bay before he passed away i got 5 not all were cat but all were used buy the seabees during ww2 and korea i bough the stuff he ran and the stuff that he ran on the work on the alcan before the seabees were formed in 1942 i could see things like hats t shirts belt buckles suspenders with the club logo and the crawling cat logo or even belts or something that most all collectors would just love to have is a cat umbrella with the cat logo on it in stead stuff that will fit in our budgets that every one can own and our over head is not that big a killer and the storage is what not what the toys were i bough most of my toys right from cat not the club we could have best hats 1 year best 30s holts i think you get the idea i just think the toy thing a big wast of club moneys and we should go a different way or at least keep a open mind about the whole thing i think the the past 3 or 4 bod kind of let this get out of hand i think we need some one from cat that mite be able to just help us along to keep us from hitting these pitfalls it will not hurt to ask we have to ask because we yse their patend trade mark why not ask them we need help

I will repeat myself.....
I do not see how ACMOC raffling off a small amount of parts would hurt his business.

If ACMOC kept the parts people would complain,
If ACMOC would have had an auction people would have complained,
If ACMOC gave the stuff away people would have complained.
Now you can see how hard it is to make a decision.

Now we had 116 request come in wanting parts and we were only able to full fill 38% of those request. Now you do the math that is not even 50% so there is still a great deal of people needing parts.

The bit about the article, how else do you educate the members on someone or some thing unless you tell people about it?
Or one of his friends could post some info about him on the BB with lots of pictures and information.

I did say if he could not write the article that someone on the mag committee would more than happy to help!!!!!!!!
We are all very busy including myself but we are here to help.

We are he working at no pay for the good of the membership and every angle is considered before a decision is made so i am sick of the term "back room boys" the statement has no truth as we all make the decisions with no back room politics.

If you all think you can do better, then throw you hat in the ring and help out!
You can have my seat come January.....

Well I thought that would get a rise from somebody, hope a few more are tuned in. So there was a screwup, get over it, nobody is going to send out a lynch party. Point is , as far back as I can remember the BOD's continually get themselves in a jamb by not communicating to the membership. They continue to not recognize the true resource of the general membership and use of the world's best communication media, the internet and this BB and the magazine.

What may appear as open forum in business meetings does not come across as being open to those of us out here and it is certainly not possible for many to attend these meetings in person.

I can assure you that no one in the hobby is trying to "scuttle" the battleship. Quite the contrary, the members are your true resource and share holders of the club. If nothing else this should be a wakeup call to use this resource. Got to hand it to Garlic Pete, that was the first open dialogue on club business that has ever occured as far as I recall. The responses are genuine and sincere and much appreciated.

As elected officers it should be much easier to select the best solutions from solicited input rather than going with the input of a few.


The model thing has pretty much been covered for now and again thanks to Garlic Pete's information it is what it is and hopefully some solutions will develop. The one thing I would add is that the market has definately changed. Discretionary funds for most folks has been displaced by essentials. Will it change soon?. Not likely.

As for me moving into anybody's slot, that isn't going to happen. I already spend way to much time here and have no more resources to offer. I will respond to open dialogue related to club functions where appropriate.

The membership is the most valuable resource always has always will be- that has not changed.

Everything we do is for the membership, over the past three years we have worked very hard to forum a stronger bond between the members.
Example: working on having regular membership events, picking show locations all over the country so everyone would have the opportunity to attend, established different membership levels, increased the number of chapters, phasing the product line to include items for restoring cats, working to strengthen the bond between ACMOC and Caterpillar Inc., working on offering more support to its chapters: in the way of insurance, member recruitment, suggestions on how to hold a chapter meeting etc.
Now all of these things take time because none of us can devote our full attention to make it happen over night, we all have business to run, families that have needs (and if any time is left working on a project or two).

Not one Director or volunteer is paid either by monies or perks, the Directors could not even submit a ballot in the parts raffle, it has always been members first!

Now what happened years ago can not be changed, but the club operates much differently now.

There is no reason someone should feel that they had to wait for a discussion to open up on the BB for them to express themselves, the contact info for each director is published in each and every issue of the magazine.

I will repeat myself again, if you or any other member makes a product which is used on a caterpillar machinery then contact ACMOC and we will help you sell it.
The Louge parts were donated by the family, we made the best decision possible at that time and now have moved on.

If anyone feels that they can contribute in any area of expertise then please contact the chairman of that committee.

I certainly agree there have been many improvements and for the better due to a lot of work and dedication.
I'm well aware of the positions being unpaid and voluntary. Nobody pays me for the time I spend assisting here either.
You are still missing the point that open dialogue vs single contact is much more effective at gathering a multitude of options. I would hope to see more of this type communication in the future.

"Old wrote:

You are still missing the point that open dialogue vs single contact is much more effective at gathering a multitude of options. I would hope to see more of this type communication in the future.

This is an idea that should be getting a lot of play. Committees work great if you want to centralize power and control over an issue. Nothing moves forward and nothing gets any play unless it makes it out of Committee. From there the Board can control adoption or rejection with little fanfare. That's what's wrong. If the members are at odds with the Board, that should be made known before a decision is made, not years later when its too late to do anything about it. This has been going on for a long time and its led to mistakes. Its been said before and I'll say it again; if you're not proud of what you're doing and you don't want to talk about it, something is wrong.

If the major problems facing this Club had been discussed and hashed out on this BB before being implemented by the Board, I doubt these problems would exist today. Open discussion may decrease the individual power of Directors but its not about the Directors, its about increasing the Club's chance of success on endeavors undertaken. This Club has an outstanding brain trust. Its time to tap it.

I put it out their a time or two om hit the nail on the head it has to get out to us it sounds just like the white house i have done a lot of things in my time for nothing and enjoyed every mint of it you folks act like we are trying to hang you wrong we just want you to listen to us and if you have a idea put it out her and see if it goes or not but when stuff like this comes up the bickring starts it shoulds always be about the club

I kinda lost interest after being an on and off member from 97 to 2010 ( but have every issue from the time span)
Dads membership is a story in its self. But anyway we discussed it an decided to let our membership lapse.

An now I will probably have fire and brimstone rain on me but here my take.
We bacame members after I saved a 28 from a scrappers fate. We were looking for knowledge an the mag looked to be the best bet.( The first issue I received had a 25 or 28 pulling a plow on the back cover). I liked the info the older mags had like the machine spec sheets and the old service bulletins which have seemed to fade away taking my interest with it the last few years.

I think the mag should have several elements per issue
1 pics and info of machines and owners
2 classified ads
3 advertising
4 TECH INFO AND TIPS for common machines (not just dozers but all Cat machines). From simple stuff ie decal placements to common questions asked on the bb ie uc wear measument, pump and injector setup. step by step repairs on common components. Odd ball info like pony carb and mag rebuilding and tuning the book info if fine but Lil tricks are nice to know. To info like O.M.s direct start conversion info or canopy design others have built with dos and don't ie build heavy brackets dont bolt to fenders only or like the pics I have of one welded to a fuel tank. I bet if you ask people to submit info to group topics they will share. Ie I'm fixing to repair a steering booster on a d6 an will trade pics and a tech write up for submission to the mag for info I collect off this site for fellow cat owners to have for referece or for something to look at while in the reading room.

Bring tech and tips to the table an i'll bring my pocketbook.