Long but a very goodread. Mike's letter to members follows the first couple of paragraphs. I made comments to his letter stating my Pros and Cons.
A couple of region presidents and other members wanted me to look a Mike’s letter to VOA members. There is going to be two camps with different thoughts on the letter. Below are mine with Pros and Cons of what Mike stated.
Below is the Letter from the current VOA National President.
Hello VOA members,
This year started our challenging, but with the hard work of the VOA board and many members that stepped up to help in nearly every aspects of club operations we are finishing up stronger than ever. The journey has been a lot of work and very rewarding. I have made many new friends and they brought their talents to help the club in one of its most successful years ever. I thought it would be a good idea to share a snapshot of things that we have accomplished together to make this club stronger and more resilient in years to come.
• Leadership
o Regular Board meetings (8 meetings over the first 9 months) so far this year.
o The board started a membership committee which will be sending out a survey about the needs and wants of members later this year.
PROs: - A whole lot more meetings with the regions vs the last National Leadership team.
CONs: - Still want to push their (National Leadership) agenda vs others
- Not willing to make changes to make changes to follow through with promises
• Financials
o Monthly Financial Updates supplied to all regional Presidents to share with membership.
o Overall, the finance team has reduced 2022 club expenses by 29% year-over-year.
o A budget for 2022 was developed and voted on in February 2022. We have adhered to this budget and informed board members every
month of any deviations from the plan.
o For 2023 we will review renewals from 1 Oct – 31 December 2022 to develop the 2023 Budget. We will finalize the budget based on 31
January 2023 membership numbers and vote on our 2023 Execution Plan the first week in February 2023.
o The VOA Store was one of largest costs to the club, with loses incurred year-over-year when you account for ordering, storing,
customizing, handling, shipping, and returns. A liquidation sale earlier this year, in attempt to recover some of the expenses, cleared
some inventory. Excess inventory was shipped from our store to Colorado for NVE5 at no expense. One of the Colorado members
picked up the remaining merchandise at no cost to the club.
o Advertising and Sponsorship is expected to surpass $20,000 this year
Hagerty signed a 3-year, $10,000 commitment to the club.
Brian Willey stepped up to be advertising director and brought in another $8,000 in funding with another $2,000 being worked on.
o What about that $175,000 SBA Loan? The club needed this loan for many reasons which included $100,000 in refunds to members and
members not allowed to travel to the U.S. for NVE4 as a result of COVID. A low interest government loan was taken out with a first
payment due in September 2023. This provided the club two years to cut expenses and create surpluses before the first payment is due.
o We are projecting $40,000+ surplus by 31 December 2022 which we plan to use as a safety margin against any future unforeseen
circumstances.
o So, the Club is financially sound.
PROs: - A lot more downward flow of information to regions
- Great reduction in expenses.
- Increase in advertising revenue
- Stated 2023 budget will be based on 2023 membership dues
- Great expected $$ surplus
CONs: - Financials are not posted on web for all to see
- Over emphasis the store drain on the clubs expenses (Magazine & NVEs
Are the main drain.)
- Is Hagerty ad income $10K for each year or a total for three years
- $155K Covid loan was not because they had to refund members $100K (that
money should have been return. The $100K loss was due to poor planning
and over spending of events for example $75k for track related expenses.
Maybe the loss would only be $20K, if the old president would have inquired
to see if she could have been cancelled the event. The prior VOA president
did not inquire.
- Did not give an up-to-date surplus in the bank.
.
Membership
o Why did dues have to increase in 2022? Dues have not been raised since the founding of the VOA – 8 years they remained untouched. Club fees and other incidental expenses have gone up over the years. The club was built on the idea that enough sponsors and vendors would be drawn to the club based on a production Viper. Since the end of Viper production, sponsorship funding dwindled, so something had to change if the club was to survive.
o We changed the method used to determine membership pricing. Expenses for running the club are 100% driven by membership dues collected. We are no longer using a deficit spending model or using future membership dues to pay for past obligations.
o The board voted in August to keep membership dues in 2023 the same for another year as we continue to strive to give more back to the regions. We looked at our membership levels that we had in 2022 and are keeping the two-tier approach for another year:
Standard – No printed magazine – $150 – digital only
Mamba – Printed magazine – $195 – extra $45 pays for printing and shipping
o Our regional payment goals:
2022 – $55/member – what we could afford based on our bills before cuts
2023 – $65/member – what we believe we can afford based on cost reductions
2024 – $70/member – what we believe can be achieve with continued cuts
Please note: for the 8-years (2014-2021) the VOA distributed $57.50 from a regular member and $75.00 from Mamba member back to the region. The split of regular membership vs Mamba membership was 40/60, so the average regional distribution was roughly $68.00/member. In the end we will be providing more back to the regions than ever before possible.
o Throughout 2023 we will continue to shape operations within the club to further reduce any expense that does not benefit the majority of members. Currently, Mamba members make up 70% of membership, which provides some indication of preference for a printed magazine, but we will be surveying and investigating that connection further this year.
o We understand Mamba members in 2022 may also have been members who contributed a little more just to ensure that the club would and could survive; to that we say thank you.
PROs: - Raised dues…long time needed
- Great change in running the club’s budget based on collected dues.
- Finally seeing that the magazine could be a drain on the club and may do a survey
to see if the magazine is worth keeping. (hopefully it will be a two-sided survey)
CONs: - Still not operating within the club’s…just push the goal line further down the road by
pushing back the 50/50 split of membership dues. How many more years 2 or more.
• Website (looking at a 39% reduction in expenses year-over-year)
o The current website controls most of our financial and operational processes of the club. The website was built many years ago, and its efficiency has aged, resulting in increased server costs and difficulty in updating content. Shannon Whitehead (New Mexico President) owns a company that makes websites for very large organizations and has offered to donate his time to build a new website free of charge. This is approximately $20,000 in value being donated in creating a new website to help the club better manage operations.
o Our initial goal was to launch the new website on October 1, 2022, for renewals to be processed through the new website.
o We got to close to the October 2022 launch but lacked the testing and evaluation to feel confident enough that everything would work properly. So, the new website is delayed until January 1, 2023, allowing us to test and deploy everything properly. It should be noted that the current website uses ten separate databases (that cost the club in excess of $2,800) to allow all the site features and forums to operate. The new website will consolidate these databases down to one, at a cost of $250. That alone is a 90% reduction in cost.
o Membership Section – We are integrating this section first as we are developing this area to be for members only. Membership continues to ask for value for their dues. This area will be dedicated to members. All members will have access to this area. We are working to put similar updates on the old website until the new website launches.
o A challenge on bringing the old forums into the new website:
To transfer every member and enthusiast, we must have their information transferred manually into the new website, which will be time consuming
So, when we launch, we intend to have all 2022 and 2023 membership on the new website immediately to ensure a seamless transition for members.
o The new website will improve many operations of the club so that the national team can focus more on improving the membership experience. Currently, our national team members each spend countless hours per week reconciling reports, looking over algorithms, and trying to understand the nuances of a website which is programed in antiquated code. Without these efforts our website would have crashed long ago and our finances would have suffered immensely.
o Club operations consume most of our time at National, so we rely heavily on regional officers to convey the BoD information and to create that great membership experience.
o The new website will allow us to help grow membership with a more interactive user interface. The new website will be scalable / responsive on any device a member uses.
o The new website will have a members-only area to host some ideas including:
Membership News – news feed
BoD Minutes – news feed
Monthly Finances – news feed
Request for Information – drop box – member questions to National
National Response – news feed
Members Only General Comment – Forum for members only comments
o Another benefit being planned is our website’s ability to piggyback regional websites to help smaller regions build a web presence and advertise more activities and events.
PROS: - Great savings overall
- Identified the club needed a new website
- Kudos to Shannon Whitehead not charge for his efforts
CONs: - Maybe not the right time for a new website integration
- Over stated that they were close to the new website for October 2022 date.
- Can’t even return the Membership data that was removed
- Didn’t explain why they chose the Membership Section to test
- Didn’t explain why they can’t return the Membership section
- Not being transparent by only allowing members to see how the club is
progressing
- Should be VERY transparent as they are using tax payer funds to finance the club.
Tax payers should be able to see how their money is being spent.
- Basically, encouraging censorship by not re-instating the Membership and having
a “Member Only General Comment” section on the forum.
-
• Magazine (looking at a 25% reduction in expenses year-over-year)
o Magazine costs were reduced by reducing content and through Maurice reducing his fees.
o Printing costs were reduced by getting a new printing company for the magazine. The magazine costs were reduced approximately 25% from the previous year and vendor.
o We went from non-standard paper to paper stock that is widely available
o We changed from offset printing to digital printing, which produces less waste.
o Where are my magazines? Below, I have laid out a typical magazine schedule for the club, showing scheduled dates and release dates for 2022.
VQ30 SPRING 2022
Targeted Release: March 15– nationwide paper shortage and finding a new print company due to unacceptable price increases with the old vendor
Actual Release: April 6th
VQ31 SUMMER 2022
Targeted Release: June 15 – unexpected delays waiting for content
Actual Release: August 10
VQ32 FALL 2022
Targeted Release: Sept 15 – completed simultaneously with VQ31, waiting 60-days from publication of last
Actual Release: Oct 2
VQ33 WINTER 2022
Targeted Release: Dec 15 – final article being developed and 2022 closeout information being collected for publication – on target
Actual Release: TBD
-
o We should have all digital magazines posted electronically before year end with printed copies to follow. Because we are limited by the USPS mailing system and the holiday season we cannot guarantee the hardcopy to be in-hand before 1 January 2023, but we are on track to catch up.
PROs: - Reduction in cost by 25%
CONs: - Is it predicted to go down 25% every year what was the actual overall expense
- Not sure it members are getting the on-line version as promised because of the
way it is worded that all members will receive digital magazine by year end.
- Not sure how the magazine is mailed used to be quick for Mamba members. If the
magazine is in the mail by December 15th should not be a problem to receive them
by end of year.
- Still having issues with getting the magazine out on time
- Over stated the regions were getting more back than ever before. Reason was
Prior years the membership dues were less than what they are now. Region expenses
have gone up also, but they are forced to operate within their budget.
- Did not state how much money could be save if the magazine was but on hiatus
for two years or subscription based. Put the potential loss on the only person is
benefiting from the magazine. If he feels he can make a profit, he will agree to it.
• NVE5 Event (no more cost to VOA members)
o In early 2020, the Colorado/Montana/Utah/Wyoming Region was selected by the board to host NVE5.
o The region is now taking on most of the financial responsibility to limit National from financial exposure – I give the region a lot of credit.
The Colorado/Montana/Utah/Wyoming Club has secured some risk mitigation funding guarantees from two private parties to potentially offset any unforeseen NVE-5 liability; this ensures little-to-no risk for the VOA.
o Registration opens October 15, 2022 for 2023 Mamba members. It opens October 22, 2022 for 2023 Standard members.
o With the exception of the $20K invested into this event by the National Club in 2020 and 2021, the National VOA relies on the remaining funding for this event to be paid for by NVE-5 participants. The National Club will not invest any more capital for this event.
o This event is expected to generate enough excess revenue, at a minimum, to replace funds invested by the National Club, making this event cost neutral for the National Club and its members.
PROs: - Limiting the club’s financial liability
- Club not investing any more funds
- Kudos to the club members who are going to off-set any financial lost to the club
CONs: - What’s the overall cost of NVE5.
- Is there a limit that the two members will pay for any loss. NVE-4 loss of $100K is a lot
• Bylaws (to be published sometime early 2023)
o We concluded that some of the financial issues developed through a lack of checks and balances in the bylaws. We pushed the board this year to publish revised bylaws. Our focus is twofold:
First we need to revise bylaws to add a compliance factor.
Second we need a handbook that addresses day-to-day operations to show future officers how to properly run the club.
o As example: Membership dues may change from year-to-year. This would be addressed in the handbook. The roles of officers and accountability is more permanent and will be defined in bylaws. Both will require BoD approval to implement, so National officers can not just change what is in the handbook to benefit them.
o We also want to make sure that national bylaws and regional bylaws are in alignment.
o Everything is staying the same as far as each region being on the board and everyone having a vote. National is not looking to gain more control over the regions.
PROs: - Don’t see any
CONs: - Taken to long to establish, allowing national leaders to be held unaccountable.
- Allows National leader to delay given regions a 50/50 split as promised for an
undisclosed date.
- Not sure that Nation and regional by-laws should be in alignment…what does this
mean.
Had to delete the last section of Mike's letter it was too long it was regarding Brian's Spirit of Viper Program - Awsome effort.
Mike Kuchavik Sr.
VOA National President
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