Touche Wayne. Very well said. (eom) (archive)

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: Thanks for your comments, I agree with you that we are far from professionals at running a car club but we have over the past months attempted to improve at what we do. However, the club is not for everyone. A couple of things I do want to comment on that you mentioned. We have begged BMW NA to be involved directly with Homecoming and to some extent they have but not near as much as we would have liked and requested. Their choice, not AG's. In fact in my opion Mr. koch has done everything he could to prevent the event from happing, Last year he instructed BMW CCA not to participate or even attend the event, (i have copies of the emails). I do suspect that some of the money spent by BMW was from NA, how much I don't know.

: you are also right about news being instant on this forum and old information by the time it gets to the members in the newsletter, but please keep in mind that about half of our members are not net active and to them its fairly new information. I have never taken information from this board, the board just beats me to it. I do not participate in this forum that much because i Don't want people to think that I am ripping off the message for information. I rip off magazines. As for the fees yes we charged 20 bucks to cover our expensis, which ran allot. BMW paid for their in house goodies and we paid for everything else, tents, trips to spartanburg, trips to set up the drives, signage, portapotties, awards and much much more. What was left over went to the Make a Wish Foundation, $5000. If you think we profited from the event you are incorrect. If you look at the money we do have left over and could spend on ourselves you would find that we work for cents per hour. I could work a little over time at my day job and bring home a lot more. check around and see how much it cost to print and mail a 32 or 36 page newsletter with color. If everyone thinks we do this for profit just let me know and we will terminate the club tomorrow. By the way, it was not cheaper to join and attend the event. it cost more to join and attend-$20 entry + $25 membership = $45, just coming was $35 so you saved yourself $10 by not joining. your are right that $25 membership fee is allot to spend to join a club for a $35,000 sports car club. That's lunch at Longhorn's.

: The election thing, I stand by my statement, as a benevolent dictator, it saves a great deal of problems, being involved in peachtree chapter for many years as a board member, YES it saves a great deal of apathy, egomania, and infighting. Peachtree has a great bunch now but it has not always been that way.

: All of you please understand that the problem we have is not with BMW CCA, (they might see a chance to take advantage of the situation), they have two alternatives in their program which would be acceptable to us, BMW is the fly in the sticky that insist we be controlled by BMW CCA.

: Sorry to vent on you anonymous, I do respect your opinions and hope no hard feelings.

: : I am NOT trying to stir the pot, just trying to give another view on the
: : subject.

: : From what I was told the last 2 years, BMW NA WANTED to get involved
: : with the Homecoming BUT, as Wayne stated, the BMW AG rules on how
: : divisions can interact with enthusiast groups prevented that. I do not
: : know how BMW MC was able to get around this issue. I know BMW MC spent a
: : helluva lot of money on the festivities. I had a great time both times I
: : attended.

: : I am a CCA member. Since I live about 70 miles from the chapter I am
: : assigned to I don't attend many of their events (an occasional autox
: : here and there). I am a member of the CCA mainly due to the Roundel.
: : Another benefit I received was the great event put on by the Peachtree
: : chapter at the Petit Le Mans last September.

: : I didn't join the Z register in the beginning mainly due to laziness.
: : When some people I knew got their first Z register letter I read it and
: : was not impressed. 99% of the information was information taken for this
: : message board, I decided to pass on the membership fee (was is $20 or
: : $30? I forget. Whatever it was I didn't see it worth my money.)

: : Summer 1998 rolls around....I get my application for HC 1998. The fees
: : for register members and non-members are different. I did some
: : calculations and determine it is cheaper to become a member than to pay
: : the non-member fee.

: : I don't have all the details, but from what I was told by BMW employees,
: : the majority of the costs for all the HCs was bore by BMW MC not
: : registration fees.

: : With all these things, I didn't see my money going to the register as
: : adding any value to ME. I also think that many Z register members would
: : not have joined if it weren't for HC. There goes a lot of the Z
: : register's income if that is taken away.

: : I guess my biggest problem was the fact that the Z register was not run
: : as a not for profit. I am NOT saying that I don't think that Wayne and
: : Amy shouldn't have been compensated for their actions but doing the math
: : it seemed a bit excessive for what the collective group received. Again,
: : this is just MY OPINION.

: :
: : As far as Wayne's letter (http://www.bmwregisters.com/hmcom2000.htm)
: : goes I guess I don't see the problems with the requirements to be a
: : chartered SIG. Not for profit? Great, my biggest problem with the Z
: : register in the first place. CCA taking over dues? Fine, probably be
: : cheaper for members of both groups. Publication every 90 days? Might
: : make the publications smaller. Election of officials? That's a bad
: : thing? 2 people make all decisions now.

: : Granted the Z3 group is a different kind of breed. Many owners I feel
: : never would have been BMW owners if it weren't for the Z3. I think the Z
: : register (errr Z3 CCA) should be added as part of the BMW CCA but I
: : think some sort of compromise needs to be worked out with the CCA to
: : give the Z3 group a bit more autonomy then the other SIGs that exist
: : have.

: : I am sure there is an acceptable compromise out there. Remember there
: : are 2 sides to every story, Wayne's letter is only one side. If we work
: : together maybe we can solve this situation and get HC 2000 back on
: : track.

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