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President's Message

Article IV Meetings (in the Constitution of the USCA)

A. Frequency of Meetings
There will be a minimum of one (1) Board Meeting and one (1) General Meeting every calendar year. The President or a mjority of the Board, may call a special meeting by posting notification to that effect to all active members at least (8) weeks in advance.

If we read this as written, a meeting must be called and notice sent and a vote taken 8 weeks later.
This board meeting in question happened on a Sunday evening and counted votes for a week to get a majority of six.
1. There was no vote call (it takes five board members to call a vote or it can be called by the president)
2. There was no called meeting because at least 2 board members and the president were not notified.
3. There was no vote take 8 weeks later.(not even been eight weeks)
(the 'racedis' file will prove these three points)

My Story
Al Olme took it upon himself to call Al Roach and spread the good news and of course Al Roach called me. Are you going to let them railroad me like they did Bob Anderson. I explained to Al R. that it was an illegal backroom board meeting and that as president I could not accept this action.
I told him to do his job and that it would all be straightened out at the meeting in Bean Blossom. I also told him that I was sorry that I had mentioned him in the Sidecarist and that this attack was at me and not him. This was not an issue before, infact in the 'racedis' files you will find that all of the board members signing on the post supported Al Roach in the last six months.

This Post by the board.
It is from private members because it did not come through the meeting process outlined in the USCA constitution (another backroom illegal board meeting) These folks just do not like following the rules.
Folks it is my job to make everyone play by the rules. When they are not followed messes like this come forward. I will ask you to refer to my campagin statement where I stated for far too long the USCA was ran from the backroom, I promised to have open board meeting. The board meeting at Bean Blossom will be open to the general membership and it will be held on the rally site. You are invited to come and see what is on the board and at the general meeting you can have your questions ready for the board. I am here for the general members, I am alway open for your suggestions. Call me at 859-389-6786 (since my number is incorrect in the Sidecarist), write or come visit.
Folks this is an example where I am doing exactly what I promised you that I would do and six folks are upset because I am keeping my word.

Al Roach (a little history et.al.)
Al Roach was hired by Ed Johnson in 1989 after a service destroyed the membership list. In fact the last advice Ed gave me about the USCA was not to let "them" do to Al Roach what they did to Bob Anderson. After Ed explained how important a part the membership list is to this club I agreed. If you look back in any issue(almost) of the sidecarist you will find that Al Roach has been and is our contact person. Everything either starts or ends on Al Roach's desk. He does the mailing labels on the sidecarist so you can get the mag. He sends out renewal notices so you can keep your membership current. He sends the money to the treasurer and he keeps the membership list up-to-date. All this and he also keeps our Incorporation papers in Ill, being an Ill corporation we must have someone in Ill listed on the paperwork. This is a lot of work for only 2400 dollars a year(I could save $1000 a month if I would sell my home and live on the street, penny wise and pound foolish) For years we have heard that the USCA is broke, if you look at page 33 in the last sidecarist you will find that with paying Al Roach we have a bank balance of $7,193.56. We can afford to pay for this service.

My respect for the Board?
This post in question mentioned that I have no respect for the board. That statement is 100% totally correct!!!! From day one they have accused me of being a thief, a liar

Maybe I'll find time to reply to all of the stuff that John wrote but I'd like to avoid a rash reply, you see right now I'm a little angry about the stuff that just isn't rue. I would like to address this paragraph...

"What have I been doing
I have attend local and regional rallies, have flown the USCA banner, and signed up new members. I have submitted pictures to the sidecarist of myself and groups standing under the banner. Al Olme has kept them out of his mag. Had a professional photo taken in 8-03 at the CSOC rally of myself, my wife Jean, our rig and the USCA banner and ask for it to be on the cover of the Sidecarist Did you see it?"

What John hasn't said here was that the Board has been asking him from the start was to offer some leadership. We wanted to know what HE was going to do. John repeatedly asks the same questions and we keep answering them. His questions always center on who is going to do this or who is going to do that. He never takes on any tasks himself. He just told you that what he has done for the club in the past year was to go to rallies and display the club banner. That’s not my idea of what a club president should do but then John is president and I’m not. Of course the reason that John is president is because Jay Giese, Claude Stanley and I went to the Board meeting at Lexington II and asked the Board to hold elections. They readily agreed. John Kennedy did nothing to make that happen. He did complain that there were no elections but he didn’t step up to the task of asking the Board to hold them. So far, that seems to exemplify John’s level of initiative; he’s willing to shake hands, smile and say “Hi, I’m the first ELECTED President of the USCA”. He leaves out anything about how elections came to pass.

I never knew anything about John submitting his picture to The Sidecarist until I read it here but I think it takes a lot of ego to ask to have your picture on the front cover. You see it isn’t “Al Olme’s” magazine. Yes, when Bob Anderson left, I did put out three issues of the newsletter, with help. Then we were able to successfully recruit Steve Woodward to be the editor and aside from occasionally writing and helping with the proof reading, I’ve stepped down. You’d think John would know that. The same goes for any other pictures John may or may not have submitted. I do remember seeing a picture of John’s tent and the banner at the Falling Leaf Rally in The Sidecarist but as for any others, you’ll have to ask Steve Woodward. By the way, while I was putting together the newsletter you never saw my photo on the cover either.

I’ve always heard that the best defense is a good offense and John is certainly throwing up a cloud of old issues. Well, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done for the USCA. I’m proud of the work that the Board has done and the club has benefited greatly. John mentioned the USCA’s new bank balance. Yep, we’ve got a little money now and John had nothing at all to do with it. Your Board built that measure of financial stability by making good decisions that were in the best interest of the club and watching the pennies.

The club used to depend on the rally to make it through the year financially. We don’t have to do that any more and it’s a good thing. It has allowed us to put on the 2004 rally for a lower registration fee than we’ve seen in years. The last rally that our President ran was one of the few that didn’t make money for the club. That was really amazing because he ran a rally the year before that did fine. I wonder what the difference was. Recently John said it was bad planning in that he thought they’d have 600 folks and the turn out was much lower. That’s not good for a president, bad planning will get you in trouble. Or was it because he spent money foolishly? I can’t say for sure. I have some ideas but either way, I certainly don’t want him spending my money or the USCA’s money.

Notice he never offered to give you the minutes to read.

Notice that Al is always the hero.

Notice that he did not mention the constitution, (he can not win that point)

Who is with-holding the facts?

The constitution not being followed is what this is all about. I follow it and am upholding it that is my job.

Do not let his smokescreen fool you. Just the facts. YIC John

I'm not sure if I want to get into this or not, but I do want to say that at the rally in LaCrosse last year I asked John to send me photos and information for the website. He assured me that he would and that he would encourage others to do the same. I have yet to receive anything from our president. Any information you receive from this website, comes from Al Olme, Claude, Joyce, and the other members of the board or from rank and file members. I only mention this to make sure that no one thinks I have refused to publish anything from John or any other member.

just as a question where did the picture of Ed Johnson on the homepage come from?

Actually, my notes say I received two photos from Dave Szkudlarek and two others from the Chicagoland Toys For Tots website. If that photo came from you, I apologize. Have you sent me anything else? The only email messages I can find from you is a lost password request and one about the USCA logo.

I think it is safe to say that there was an eight week notice on the board meeting. You see as it is done on the internet it is pretty much an on going meeting that was going when I became a board member. John knows this as he has participated in it and even called for votes him self.
In the case of the vote on paying officers John was repeatedly asked for his input, He did not responed.
I asked multiple times for him to join in or better yet lead us. John chose not to responed.
I asked John to either show some leadership or resign. John chose not to responed.
Once the vote was taken John was asked to pass the word onto Al Roach. John chose not to responed.
When finaly John decieded to responed with his reasoning on this, he gave his arguments. One of which I have now asked him to clairfy 5 times. This argument was that we could not have held a vote as he had the floor as he had already called for a vote on some thing else. So I asked on what? This argument also clearly makes his statement the we need an eight week wait to have the meeting kind of lame. John still will not responed.
When board members posted a responce to Johns arguments to try to engage in a debate (which is how things should be solved) John chose not to responed.
Once it became clear that John was not going to work with the board and in fact fight the board I called for a letter to be writen. John chose not to responed.
Once the letter was writen it was posted on racedis John chose not to responed.
We had an editing prosses for the letter, John chose not to responed.
We asked repeatedly of John not to force us to do this. John chose not to responed.
Before the final letter was posted we told John when it would be posted giving him a chance to responed and you guessed it. John chose not to responed.
I happen to think that if the board had decided that we should pay Al Roach despite the clear confilict of interest that John would now be arguing that we should not pay. You see now that I look back on this to John this has never been about what is best for the club but rather he decieded before it even started that it was his chance to do some kind of power play as he does not want to be hindered by having to answer to an elected board representing the membership.
I firmly belive that his actions are not in the best interest of the club. That to require this to be solved at the natinal rally is wrong as it is not fair to those who can not afford the time off of work or the money to travel to the event. I think the reason John is doing this is to try to stack the deck so to speak in his favor.
John could have engaged in debate. He still can with the board. He could present his arguments and then call for a vote to over turn. Despite this being pointed out to John he chooses not to. John has called for votes in the past so it is clear that when it is in his best interest he does not think we need to have an eight week waiting period. It only becomes nessasary when John does not get his way.
This is not the kind of leadership I think the club deserves.
Jay Giese

Jay Not all members are on line so when do they find out?maybe we should think about that to.

I agree, That is why this should and most likley will go to the sidecarits.
Jay

Originally written by JayDauntless on 3/14/2004 11:24 AM

I agree, That is why this should and most likley will go to the sidecarits.
Jay

But that poses a problem as well. Let's say that you wait until the next Sidecarist is delivered and as you read the information, you have questions or comments, or solutions to the problem. You must now wait another couple months for those questions to appear in the next issue so others can read them, then wait again for any response or follow up questions for your suggestions. By this time more money has been spent, and the elections and the rally have both come and gone, and how many disgruntled members will have decided not to renew their membership over the fight.
When I was approached to create the new website I expected to build something similar to what was here before, and leave the Forum to SCT and the Racedis site on Yahoo. I didn't think it necessary to duplicate what Claude was doing so well. It was quickly pointed out that Claude didn't want USCA business discussed on SCT and that did make sense. I was told by many different people that we needed our own forum so that Club business could be conducted in a more "timely manner" than would be possible through the magazine. Those people included Al Olme in phone conversations, John Kennedy at the LaCrosse Rally, and Colby sitting in my living room last spring. I think both the Sidecarist and the Forum need to be utilized. Granted I'm the webmaster, I believe in computers. However, according to the news reports so do the 90+% of other Americans who have Internet access in their homes. If you know of any USCA members in my area who do not have such access, let me know who they are and they can come to my home and use mine. I'm certain many other members would make the same offer.