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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Clarity on 35-36 Pickup Book

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Clarity on 35-36 Pickup Book -- page: 1 2 3 4     Texas40 12-04-2011 @ 8:27 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 64 Joined: Oct 2009 To members of the V-8 Club: As your president for 2011 I feel it is necessary to add some additional thoughts to the postings on the forum concerning the 35-36 pickup book. The board decision to halt the project was made on many factors some of which have not been shared. The board acted to halt the project based on the expense projection to complete this book. Using expenses presented to date plus estimated expenses to complete, this book project would have been the most expensive book the V-8 Club has ever undertaken. Couple that large expense with the perceived limited market and it simply made no sense to proceed. The board did not anticipate the level of expense to complete at the outset of the project or it would not have been approved in the first place. I hope this statments clears up some of the open issues regarding the decision not to proceed. Bob York jerry.grayson 12-04-2011 @ 4:04 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 128 Joined: Oct 2009 Bob, I must respectfully disagree with some of what you say about the 35-36 pickup book.I do not think that our book will be the most expensive book that the V8 club has published. Will you give me the costs of the other books? We made it known when we agreed to research and write the book that we were going to have to go to the BFRC for information and that we live 800+ miles away.So, some members of the BOD did know about travel expense. Again, Bob,no notice or discussion about cost cutting with us was ever attempted. Lawson Cox 12-04-2011 @ 6:11 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 18 Joined: Jan 2010 RESPONSE TO POSTINGS ON WEB SITES REGARDING 35-36 FORD PICKUP BOOK While I have been following this thread on all sites where it has been posted, I have remained silent up to this point. I have decided that now is the appropriate time for me to put my 2¢ into the pot. Hold onto your seats folks. There is an old appellate court case in Georgia where one side did not raise a point of law in the trial court and attempted to raise it for the first time at the appellate level. While this is not a direct quote of the courts decision, it summarizes it nicely. “One must discharge all of its guns in the first encounter. It cannot reserve further shots for use in some future reencounter.” Well, I have withheld my comments until now, and am letting it all hang out as it were. One caveat, however, I reserve the right to be heard in rebuttal to any statements or postings made by or on behalf of the Board as the battle is not over, only the first volley has been fired. Very brief history. I received a phone call, out of the blue, from Wayne Deitrich, SE Director, EFV8CA wherein he stated bluntly that the Board had decided to abandon The 35-36 Ford Pickup Book. He advised that he was calling to let me know of that decision before I heard it from someone else. Needless to say, I was thunderstruck and flummoxed. Later I received a copy of the summary of the minutes of the Board meeting where this decision was made, hoping that would clear things up somewhat. It only added to the confusion. The pertinent part of the summary of the minutes reads “There was a lengthy discussion of the 35-36 pickup book being written by Jerry Grayson and Lawson Cox. After considering the rising costs and the limited appeal, the Board concluded the book would not be profitable to produce and voted to cancel it. (Emphasis added) Now, the EFV8CA is a not for profit corporation. Correct? The stated purpose of the club is to document and preserve early V8 Ford history and early Ford vehicles as Henry built them. Correct? (Source: By-Laws of the Early Ford V8 Club of America, page 18 of the 2011 National Directory. The same information is posted on the Club web site, www.earlyfordV8.com. ) Query? When did the club become a corporation for profit? No record of such. Did the Board ever discuss such with the membership? No record of such. Have they notified the membership of such a decision? No record of such. Have they notified the IRS of such decision? If not, why not? No record of such. When the decision was made by the Board to write the book, and they approached Jerry and me to write the book, the Board had, or in the exercise of due diligence could/should have had basically the same facts then as it has now. Why then did they make the decision to write it if it did not appear there would be any interest in such a book? Responses to these postings show that there are a heck of a lot more pickups out there than the Board ever thought about, or than we realized, and all owners are crying for information on what is or what is not correct. Many are not members of the EFV8CA. Several have never heard of it. It is obvious from our research that early Ford pickups, 35-36’s especially, are the most poorly documented vehicles produced by Ford. In our research we have discovered there is minimal documentation, even in the Benson Ford Research Center, of these early trucks, especially the 35’s. Most of our information has been gathered by inspecting old trucks wherever we can find them. Much has been gathered from dozens of pickup owners we learned about through the web. We have looked at many of these old trucks in barns, sheds, grown up fields with trees growing through the truck. If that isn’t considered “research” what is? Hey, that is hazardous duty. While the National Club tries to poor mouth itself to its membership, and in essence uses that rational to terminate the 35-36 Pickup book project, it is my understanding, based on highly reliable sources, the club has in excess of $400,000.00 sitting in bank accounts in cash. The Board has denied repeated requests for an outside audit of the club finances. The President refused to discuss the club finances at the Auburn meet President’s meeting. Again, based on reliable sources, we understand the IRS is breathing down the club’s neck concerning its assets. Is the Board disclosing those facts to the membership? If not, why not? I understand it has been discussed at length in recent Board meeting as to how to get rid of some of this money before the IRS comes after them wearing hob nail boots and bearing firearms. If the club is in fact so concerned and dedicated on writing books to record and preserve the history of the Early Ford V8 vehicles, why don’t they expend some of that reported $400,000.00 to complete the book on 35-36 Ford pickups? A drop in the bucket considering the club’s apparent financial status. If the BOD is so concerned about frugality and preserving Ford history, what do they have to say about publishing the infamous Early Ford V8 Club Cookbook? Yes an Early Ford Cookbook, with the picture of a Model T on the front cover no less!! Several thousand dollars down the tube on that gem. And a picture of a Model T on an Early V8 book? ‘Ya gotta be kidding. (Nope, its true folks.) Maybe they reasoned in their own minds that “Hey, Henry put out a charcoal camping stove, and briquettes, which means someone is cooking on ‘em. Why not publish a cook book and cash in on that market? (Humor intended.) The 35-36 Pickup Book is probably 2/3 of the way finished and several thousand dollars have been expended in legitimate expenses thus far. The figure of $10,000.00 is the Board’s good faith estimated figure to complete the book, with an estimated completion date of May, 2013. The authors are in general agreement on that assessment. In attempts to document as closely as possible what the expense on the 35-36 Pickup Book would be as compared to other club books, especially the 35-36 Ford book and the 37 Book, we asked of our S.E. Director what the club expended on formatting those books and printing costs. We wanted to see if our figures were in line with what they had expended on other books. We were flatly refused any assistance on costs of those books. How were/are we to know how closely we are coming to expenses incurred on other books. To abandon the book would be to throw good money down the toilet, not to mention the club’s total disregard for hundreds if not thousands of hours spent in research by the authors and contributors on behalf of the club without so much as a thank you? Speaks highly of the club doesn’t it? How is this going to play out with future Authors? I have read with interest the recent posting that Bob York, National President of the EFV8CA made on the EFV8CA website concerning this matter. His post adds absolutely nothing new to the discussion. It simply states, in perhaps slightly more flowerful language, that the Board doesn’t think there is enough interest in the book to where the club could make any money, so the book has been abandoned, thus once again reinforcing the prevailing “for profit” attitude of the Board. I simply do not believe the statement that the 35-36 Ford Pickup Book would be the most expensive book ever published by the National Club. I am calling BS on that one. Prove that statement Bob. Lawson MG 12-04-2011 @ 7:17 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1255 Joined: Nov 2009 Lawson, I'm sure you intended to post the Club web site as: www.earlyfordV8.org. Clicking on the web site you posted takes you to a web site which is For Sale......MG $400,000.00!??? alanwoodieman 12-04-2011 @ 7:18 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 868 Joined: Oct 2009 you have brought up some serious things that need to be addressed by the BOD to the true "owners" of the V8 Club-THE MEMBERSHIP of which I have been for almost 40 years. What about it pres? MG 12-04-2011 @ 7:32 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1255 Joined: Nov 2009 I would like see Lawson's response published in the V8 Times. Jerry, v8teditor? Lawson Cox 12-04-2011 @ 8:06 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 18 Joined: Jan 2010 My bad.You are correct, it is www.earlyfordv8.org. Needless to say I have been under quite a strain recently with horrible back pains, some of which may have been from the knife in the back by the EFV8CA (LOL) Seriously, it has been rough, steroid injections, pain pills muscle relaxers; and this added to it all hasn't helped. This message was edited by Lawson Cox on 12-4-11 @ 8:17 PM Lawson Cox 12-04-2011 @ 10:04 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 18 Joined: Jan 2010 It is not clear whether you, MG, are talking about the web site you reached in error due to my typo, being for sale for 400K or whether you, MG, are questioning me on the statement about the $400,000.00 cash in the clubs coffers. The $400,000.00 in the clubs accounts is not a typo, that is actual cash on hand in banks. Let someone on the board prove me wrong. I am hereby demanding an immediate outside independent auditing of all of the EFV8CA accounting records as well as all of the clubs records pertaining to book sales and copies of the minutes of the board meetings pertaining to the issues in question. I feel the membership should be invited to name the independent auditing firm, not the Board. After all, we have had enough of the Foxes guarding the hen house in this club for far too long. This message was edited by Lawson Cox on 12-4-11 @ 10:11 PM MG 12-04-2011 @ 10:39 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1255 Joined: Nov 2009 Lawson, It's the $400K the Club has in it's coffers that I question with amazement. Sorry for any confusion here. Do you think that maybe this sum is being held in abeyance to be used for litigation purposes at some future date - a war chest? BTW - My heart goes out to you with respect to your back pain. My back went out several years ago and I have never fully recovered. I have never experienced pain so severe. I'm firmly convinced that the primary purpose/function of the sciatic nerve is inflict the most severe pain known to mankind. This message was edited by MG on 12-4-11 @ 10:59 PM JM 12-05-2011 @ 6:30 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 822 Joined: Oct 2009 A message to Bob York and all EFV8C/A BOD members, As a long time club member who purchases every Restoration Book this club publishes, regardless of whether I own these vehicles or not, I am asking you folks to go back and reconsider this decision that IMHO was the wrong decision. Thank you! John Mason JM

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