Thanks all for your input on this unfortunate episode. Kurt refunded Gary May 23, it’s a real shame to lose any valued member and particularly when it’s an active participant in the forum. Rest assured that the BOD are working as hard as they can to get ACMOC back on track and these efforts are starting to show real results with membership increasing all the time. On a positive note I hear from the UK that Chapter 2 had a great AGM hosted by Finning UK also with a tour of a private collection afterwards. It was well attended and a great day was had by all! Club activities and engagement are at the core of ACMOCs mission so let‘s all focus on what we enjoy best, saving old yellow iron!

Regards,

Tony

Hi Will,
The simple fact is that at 10 minutes each to process a check, with say a 100 checks, that’s nearly 17 hours of work for our treasurer and as she spends an inordinate amount of time anyway doing work for the club voluntarily, we voted to stop accepting them for subscriptions.. Where we dropped the ball majorly was then including an envelope in the magazine mailings which didn’t help the situation. So now there’s a backlog we can’t clear. So the policy became paying online for ease of administration. Not a perfect solution but one that is a reality of not having permanent staff. There are however ways around this for people who want to pay by check such as having someone volunteer to take payments from members and then paying through the online portal. The down side to that is it probably wouldn’t be a good plan to have auto renewal as that person might not be around the next year for the renewals process.. everything is a compromise and if anyone has better strategies in mind let us know!

Regards,

Tony

Regarding your second point, figures are recorded, tax returns submitted and even Caterpillar are informed quarterly with the state of the clubs finances. The financial reports are all available and reported regularly in the magazine and at board meetings. These administrative tasks all take the time that could be used to process checks but as we said we had to prioritise the former..

side-seat wrote:

If the check returns are true; I just took a look at my bank statements and did not find my membership check cashed that I sent on 3/28/24. But my check wasn't returned either. So I guess I'm not a member anymore? I have been a member since 1993. I was not aware you had to pay online.

Thanks side-seat. I believe Sue is returning checks, working through ones she has received. A thousand apologies about this miscommunication, there were a lot of consequences that were unforeseen by this change. But as I said the major mistake was to continue to send a renewals envelope.. that one slip has caused a lot of the misunderstanding and then not explaining the requirements for change. Paying online is very straightforward and the link for renewals is on the Members page. I’ll post it up. 

Regards,

Tony


 

www.acmoc.org/new-members

Follow that link for renewals.



 

All I can do is try to reassure you Will that nothing underhand is going on, as I stated we’re attempting to be transparent and open in our communication but obviously failing in your eyes which I take on board. I notice to you chose to renew online on Apr 10, for which I wholeheartedly thank you and I hope you agree it was a pretty painless process. Thereby allowing the volunteers to allocate time to concentrate on these other issues of rebuilding the club and encouraging new and existing members to enjoy the benefits of membership. Such as Wombat stated, the forum, the Library and the magazine. Plus the shared community of like minded individuals. 
 Oh and as to who I am, if you’ve read the minutes you’ll see I’m listed as a Director sitting on the BOD. I believe in the latest magazine there’s a form for nomination. I’d suggest if you want full reassurance regarding the running of the club you put yourself forward to join us and then you might be able to see the hard work and time it takes to be involved in trying to steer the ship.. 

 Regards 

Tony (Director)