Budget and Elections

The money is being spent on upgrading the BB this will be done in phases and billed in phases.
The club is working very hard to be diversified in ways to generate income- not just models

Thanks again,

Is there a possibility of joint venture with Cat on the literature sourcing?
Maybe handle distribution rather than the entire operation?

Thanks to Old Magnet for politely raising this subject.

(1) My suggestion is raise the annual Subs for ACMOC Membership by $10 in $5 installments over the next 2 years, if we have 4,000 or 5,000 members then that will raise a extra $40,000 or $50,000 per year within 2 years without too much drama, I realize a lot of folks are hurting still with the post GFC economy, and I know of guys here in Australia who cancelled their ACMOC membership because of financial hardship, but I think most members could afford a extra $5 a year over the next 2 years, that's what, about the cost of 2 cups of Joe at the local Donut Shop.

(2) They say there is no such thing as a free lunch and I agree, this Forum is a brilliant tool for bringing new folks into the ACMOC family and initial access should be free and unrestricted, however, I feel strongly that we financial ACMOC Members are going broke as a Club providing this free Forum and other services, and unlimited access to all areas should be reviewed to investigate opportunities of Fee Per Service, such as down loading scans from the Part Number Books and selling them. Forget reprinting the old Part Number books, that's yesterdays technology, and there are sufficient numbers of old books sold regularly on Ebay or here on the Forum to satisfy the handful of idiots like me actually saving old Cats with my hard earned coin.

Initially scan the Parts Books of the most common old Cats being restored around the world, like the 10, 15, 22, D2, D4, D6, D7, D8, and make those Part Book scans available through both the ACMOC Forum Store as a digital download or hard copy printed sheet, AND, available through the ACMOC Magazine for those thousands of ACMOC Members around the world who do not use a computer, AND, make those scans available to Caterpillar customers around the world via the Cat. Inc. Dealer network either digitally or as a printable hard copy, at a fair price. The Dealers do not have all the old Part Number books any more, and if they do it sounds like many of the younger Spare Parts folks do not know how best to use them. We need to move into the 21st century, while respecting the needs of older fools like me from the 20th century.

(3) I suggest that we ask Cat. Inc. to help sell those toy models through their international Dealer network, by having a small counter display at the main dealer shops around each country, that way you tap into a potential market of millions of Cat owners, and the operators, and the repair folks, and even the families of those folks, who go to the dealer regularly like my long suffering wife "Anna the Saint", to pick up the parts. Those people standing at the counter with their check book open, or credit card in their hand buying $3,561.89 worth of parts, or even just $19 worth, are going to spot that Cat toy on the counter in November or early December and think "Gee, I'm sure little Bobby, or Mary Sue would really like one of them under the Christmas Tree, hmm I might buy one right now", or at other times through the year for a birthday, or anniversary present. If a person is in a Cat Dealer Store to buy Caterpillar parts they are the most likely candidate to want to buy a Cat toy for themselves, or someone else, in my humble opinion, and we need access to those folks to save this ACMOC Club.

Right now you are only accessing what, only 4,000 or 5,000 Financial ACMOC members trying to sell these toys, and a few thousand more at your Trade Shows where it sounds like a few toys grew legs and walked out the door unpaid, and yes, by partnering with the John Deere folks we might sell a few more, but from my experience here in Oz, you are either a green tractor person or yellow tractor person, not both, and if you are actually restoring the real thing, most folks either do not have the spare cash, or interest, in acquiring a whole fleet of toys. Money is tight right now around the world, but if ACMOC discounts those toys to Wholesalers I think you will shoot yourself in the foot by destroying the higher market value paid previously by good folks. It sure would tick me off seeing a Cat. model being sold for $99 in 2013 after I paid $199, or $239 for it in 2011, and I've heard that already from several Cat. folks here in Oz who have bought those toys.

(4) I have previously offered to donate $50 towards the cost of the computer upgrade and other good folks stepped up to the plate at that time and agreed to throw a note in the hat too, my offer still stands, and I think if you can promise ACMOC members that the money raised will only be spent on that upgrade you might be surprised to find maybe a few thousand dollars being donated. I suggest Bruce sets up a specific thread asking for donations to this important upgrade, because I'm not the only one who has asked that we move more quickly to save the Technical Sheets generously uploaded to the Forum by Experts like "Old Magnet" and "Edb", I'm not getting any younger, and nor are they, and we need this computer upgrade yesterday, but funded by today's and tomorrows dollars.

You folks already know I'm dumber than the dirt I farm, but this is what I think.
Regards
Mike

Hi Mike,
There are a lot of good ideas in what you say but the trick is not going broke while administering them.

I'm thinking maybe some kind of coupon sale system may work where purchased coupons entitle the requestor to answers and documentation for questions asked to their satisfaction.

I believe a sort of version of this already exists on the net called Ask.com.
Can't say that I've used it or that I've been impressed with questions/answers involving tractors but it might work as an alternative to just giving the information away for nothing. Also could be some differentiation for member and nonmembers.

As far as models go with all the real toys in the hobby I just can't see adding dust collectors as a long term solution. There are no toy models in my house and I don't want any either. I think direct related items to supporting and restoring equipment are much more relavent to the hobby.

Just grinding some gears here, not trying to get on the soap box.

Thanks for the reply Pete, and thankyou to you and the Board for all your hard work. It sounds to me like the model project has run it's last race for the ACMOC Club, if it is costing us $200,000 for a new model and another Licensee has exclusive distribution rights, I wonder if those rights come up for renewal ever? My local Cat Dealer Store is just a equipment Rental Shop with 2 employees so I've never been inside a proper Cat Store and seen the models on display, I am surprised to hear that the toy prices in China have increased so much because they can still build a D2 size East Wind brand crawler and sell it here in Oz for around $US27,000 retail, and I reckon if you gave them a Best 25 crawler and asked them to reverse Engineer it and build you 100 of them they could knock them out in 5 weeks for about $US6,000 each, though obviously it might not be as durable as the original Best.😖mokin:

As a international member I must say I'm amazed ACMOC can airmail the Club magazine to me here in Australia at such a low cost, and I've often wondered if the real cost of my magazine here in Oz was being subsidized by U.S. subscriptions, I know what I pay the USPS for the Flat Rate Airmail boxes I get sent here by Florin Tractor Parts and others have gone up in cost nearly every year, yet my magazine cost has hardly changed, I'd be happy to pay a extra $5 a year if it meant the difference between ACMOC surviving, or not. I think we all agree the free lunch program got cancelled last Friday, and with 14,000 registered Forum users, that is 11,100 folks enjoying a free ride on the old wagon owned by the 2,900 financial members, sounds like a Democrat deal to me and nice when Treasury is awash with cash, but we are going broke right now. If we can work out a way to get just $1 from each of those 14,000 Forum members, that will give us the $14,000 we need for the computer upgrade, a buck isn't much to ask for is it.

With the Part Book scans my thought is 99.9999% of people potentially accessing that digital download service are not looking for the whole book, but usually a specific area of their tractor so they can get just one or two part numbers quickly and then contact their local Dealer to order the parts, is it possible to keep this concept simple initially, because I can buy those common Parts Number books on Ebay for $US30-$40 most weeks to cover the older D2, D4, D6, D7, D8, but I never use the whole Parts Number book on any of my old Cats, usually just a few pages, and I think most other folks are the same. Additionally, this next generation of kids don't use books at all I notice, everything they need in life comes through a cell phone or hand held tablet, so they like immediate access to tech information in digital format, and are obviously happy to pay $2 or $3 every time they download a "Ap".

I also think the old Tech Sheets generously uploaded by our "A" team players, guys like Old Magnet and Edb, would also be popular in the ACMOC Store as digital downloads or hard copy reprints to far more people than the specific Parts Number books, because I'd estimate of 14,000 Forum Members, and 2,900 Financial Members, only 63 of us around the USA and the world, are actually working on old Cats right now saving them, and so I think the old advertising brochures would be a good item to sell too, in either hard copy or digital form, and would be more popular to a wider group than the Part Number books.

The Operator Instruction Books would also be popular too in my humble opinion, because while I'd estimate only 63 of us around the world are currently working on a old Cat trying to repair or restore her, there are at least 5,000 owner operators just here in Australia with a old Cat in the shed that fires up and runs great every time they need her, but they don't have the original Operator Book any more, and while that may not worry them, it does potentially worry the next generation who will own that machine, and more importantly their Lawyers and Insurance Companies who provide the OH&S Coverage on their property, or business, or School. Liability is a huge issue as we all know, and in 2013 you need to dot the i's and cross the t's when you put a young operator on a old Cat., no matter what the situation.

We, ACMOC and Cat Inc, have a duty of care to provide as much information as possible on the safe operation of these old Cat machines as we can, to protect the next generation of operators and custodians, and I think by making the old orignial Operators Books available at a fair and reasonable cost, and all those wonderful Safety Sheets Cat produced over the years, often in cartoon form, that we, ACMOC, might have the opportunity to make a buck or 3 too, but more importantly, maybe save the life of a child or grandchild, or great grand child of one of our current Members, and I think that is a great concept to run hard with because the investment cost is nickels and dimes, but potential rewards are life saving, and you can bet any of Cat Inc's Lawyers in the USA currently reading my post will agree.

If I got involved in a Committee Pete it would all go pear shaped in a heart beat and I'd be getting a whipping with a willow stick from Garlic Mom every time I came Stateside, because she knows everyone here on this Forum is a lot smarter than me, and I always remember getting told once that a camel was actually a horse that was designed by a Committee, so I've always been a little gun shy with more than one person sitting around a table discussing something that involves my hard earned money😆
regards
Mike

PETE your south of where i came from i would rather spend my money for a real cat than a model the clubs cost more than i pay for most of the cats i buy i just 1 member that has trouble with some of the bickering that goes on i quit about 8 yrs back for the same reason and with the way our country is in we need to focus why the club was started the tractor it self and the people that like and rebuild them people that do not have any and post lots of crap all the time really jerks my chain if you want to get on the page and rattle on go some where different lets get back to the tractors and basics and i think we all will be better off get along better but i could be just the odd man out just my 2 bits but if we keep going like we are i for 1 am done with the club it sound like the white house more every day sorry i would hate to lose this but i will go to rtif:banplease: