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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Openness and Transparency is Needed

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Openness and Transparency is Needed     jim5618 12-09-2011 @ 9:05 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 137 Joined: Oct 2010 As a point of information to those seeking disclosure of financial information, As a non-profit, the club is requires to provide the last three years of 990 tax returns including financial schedules to anyone requesting them. However a post on a forum is not a formal request and I would not expect an organization to post financial information on their website. It is not unusual for an organization to hold an operating cash reserve. The question is how that reserve compares to their annual operating budget. supereal 12-09-2011 @ 2:27 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 If I read my friend Bob York's post correctly, it was a financial decision based upon the likely number of owners who would be seeking the 35-36 pickup book. In these times, it is hard to quarrel over costs of any kind. If a mistake was made, it was to not make the decision to end the project before the work was begun. If substantial material has been gathered, perhaps those who have an interest would be willing to contribute some support to allow the project to proceed, or to purchase the existing materials. As the ranks of those of use who revere the old Ford culture are thinned, I suspect this isn't the last of such considerations. Mike34 12-09-2011 @ 7:42 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 6 Joined: Oct 2009 Dave, your point is well taken and was considered when I collected my thoughts. I erred when I copied and pasted text from MSWord into the forum form. It should have included this sentence. “A follow-up or parallel action would be to post the letter on this site, accessible to members.” I did, however, purposely want to emphasize letters to the RGs as vital because monthly RG meetings are a forum for face to face group discussions. With the exception of National meets, the monthly RG meetings are for many, the only time that members get together. So why are face to face discussions important? Read some of the postings on the various forums. Some of it is factual and thoughtful and some of it is speculation and conjecture. Some of it is productive and some of it is not. Face to face discussions are hands down significantly more productive than on-line debates because they provide an unseen mechanism of checks and balances which can keep things in perspective. I believe that continued on-line forum postings and/or rebuttals by decision makers will have limited productivity. What I would like to see at this time on the National Club’s Current News page is not a rebuttal to the outcries but rather a simple acknowledgement that the membership has been heard and that a response will be formulated and distributed to the membership. I encourage every RG to hold a discussion on this topic (after we hear from the National Club). Debate it to the nth degree and then provide a response/reply to your National Director. Respectfully, Mike 3w2 12-08-2011 @ 2:00 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 843 Joined: Oct 2009 Mike, I agree with your comments, but the information should not be made only to the regional groups, but also to the members, who, after all, are the Club's owners. David Rehor Mike34 12-08-2011 @ 12:13 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 6 Joined: Oct 2009 With all due respect, I found no clarity in the posting “Clarity on the 35-36 Pickup Book.” The post and replies are creating a lot of questions in my mind. The EFV8 Club Officers and Board of Directors are elected with the power to make decisions that affect the wellbeing of the club (in a corporate sense) and the membership. The decision to cancel the club’s first book on pickup trucks has certainly struck a nerve with many members. I am surprised by the outpouring of dismay by members and non-members to whom the club sells a lot of books. I think that it would be unwise for the officers and board members to ignore this outcry. As exhibited on several web sites, there is a lot of conjecture regarding the demise of the 35-36 Pickup Book. And it will continue until all of the facts are presented. A short rebuttal by the club President on this site was not the proper way to address this topic. As members of a club we put our trust in management. We hold you accountable to keep the membership’s interests in hand. It sounds like the membership is asking for some openness and transparency on this topic and you are obligated to reply. As a member of the EFV8 Club I’d like to see the facts presented, not just in words but in numbers. An annual financial report for the club would also go a long way to frame this debate and put things in perspective. I respectfully ask that the Officers and Board Members compose a letter addressing the topics mentioned herein and mail it to each Regional Group. Regards, Mike Brown

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