My debit card was charged without my permission to renew membership and was emailed a receipt! I emailed Sue Westwood ten minutes after I got the email that I wanted a refund and am canceling my membership.
No reply! Tried calling, busy signal all day! Been several days now and still no reply, made several more calls, just get a recording!
Called Kurt Bangart, said "he would look into it and take care of it" still no refund!!
It just shows this "club" likes to take your money but you get no results! No Store! No decals! No merchandise!
I am not paying $67.00 for a "club" that just sends out a magazine four times a year!
I'm tired of the BS!!!!!!!
Gary Whiteman 

Sorry to see you leave but I understand.
This club is on a slippery slope and has been for some time. I ignore the current situation and focus on saving the Cat Equipment. Helps to overlook the BS.

It's always sad when someone wants to terminate their membership, the Club needs to grow membership by many thousands to be successful into the future. Unfortunately, a Club of only 2,500 cannot support an administration or systems that are a burden administratively with volunteers, hence the need to move to a system of automatic renewals of membership. Regarding the store, it was running at a loss, a call was put out for volunteers to help, typically no one put their hand up, everyone wants something, however, do not want to help to get it.
Currently membership is $44 annually, for that you get a website with this forum, a technical library and an online magazine and can become a member of a Chapter, I know the BoD is considering reducing the membership from $44 to possibly $30 annually or maybe even less. The Club needs to grow its membership Internationally to become meaningful, ie; a membership of say 10,000 would start to get Caterpillar's attention. It is obvious that the membership in the US is not going to grow significantly as after 32 years it has remained reasonably static.
Unfortunately, the Club has not evolved over time to accommodate the many changes in the way the world now operates, it has stagnated with old members and some former Directors not wanting to encompass change. To operate the way many of these people expect the Club to operate (like a very exclusive group), annual memberships would need to be in the hundreds of dollars, maybe $200 or $300 annually per member.
Let's all be positive and grasp the future and find ways to operate with minimal administration and give our time to help and work positively with an overworked voluntary BoD.

Former Director and President, Wombat

I understand that Wombat, but they charged me $67 not $44 for renewal. Plus the frustration not being able to talk to someone just to get a simple refund.

I understand your frustration Gary. I recently volunteered for the BoD to help in anyway I could. 
Old Magnet is correct about the club being in trouble for years. That situation has been resolved and the ACMOC is now operating in the black. To achieve that turnaround in such a timely manner drastic measures were taken. 
We will try to improve when we can but to operate the store isn't reasonable at this time or in the near future as Wombat said.
Craig
   
 

This happened to me as well.Just renewed at $44.No notice but it saved me the trouble of renewing myself.Kinda surprised me but I am OK with it

apart from the over charged bit , membership is auto renewable  

Currently ACMOC membership is $44 annually, any additional charges are for a hard copy magazine subscription, mailed to those who want same.

Regards, Wombat

Sometimes when things pile up on us from worldly troubles, one minor miscue can set us off. We have all been there and done that. However, we cannot let it detract from the successful revamping of our club and the tireless work of the BoD. There are a lot of others that have pitched in to improve our club and we are all thankful for that. If we were to make two columns and list the positive steps our club has taken on one list and the "downside" on the other column, the positive would win 10 to one in my opinion. Not everyone would agree nor would I expect everyone to agree, but the perspective of the overall improvements in our club must never be lost.

My doctor mixed up the fertility pills for my wife and my mistress so we all have our problems!!