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Originally Posted by BMWCCA1
If you truly believe the Club is "volunteer-run", check the current financial statement for how much is paid in salary. Oh, you aren't able to find the current financial statement? For the paid employee/contributor list just check to the left of the opening seasonal monologue from Satch on p.5 of every Roundel for both paid office and Roundel staff. As a disclaimer, I, too was a Club volunteer for decades, having formed a local chapter, serving as newsletter editor and president for more years than I can remember, and then as Zone Governor before we started calling them Regional Vice-Presidents, then national vp, and several terms as president. I also served a 3-year term as Chairman of the International Council of BMW Clubs in Munich. All of those were un-paid volunteer positions. I later was offered a paid position of proofreader for Roundel and later a paid position as Managing Editor. I was dismissed by the Board from that position for telling them the truth they didn't want to hear about how (among other things) they had run an election that didn't conform to the Club's by-laws. They paid me to go away and to not comment on the reason for a specific time period. I have that in a written agreement. I have also received personal apologies from two board members present at the meeting where I was told to leave. A decade late, but apologies none the less.
The elected officials who make up the board are all un-paid volunteers. They deserve your respect and support for their time and effort. Most have come up through the ranks of local chapter management—often providing hundreds of hours of volunteer work to support the Club. But their job is to oversee those who get paid the salaries to do the day-to-day operational jobs. This would include approval of such a program as this "Who's Who" promotional dreck. I can only assume it was proposed by the Executive Director (paid) as a money-maker that would cost the Club nothing. There are many other ways the Club can prostitute itself that might be even more offensive to many member, but this one has just been so high-school in its presentation so far. There was already a 50th Anniversary publication provided by the Club and put together by Jackie Jouret for the "Passion" exhibit at the BMWCCA Foundation museum. I should know. I was interviewed for the book, even though the author was told she could not print what I told her related to very important historic decisions concerning Roundel publication changes made decades before, involving founding members of the Club.
Yes, those who serve on the Club Board of Directors are volunteers. The Roundel and office staff are not. Make no mistake about that. They are fighting for and proposing projects to preserve their own jobs. And this disingenuous "offer" is just one of them. Changing the name and farming out The Event Formerly Known as Oktoberfest to high-school event management with a penchant for charm bracelets was another.
If you don't like what you're seeing, be sure to express your dissatisfaction to your regional vice-president and the rest of the board. Don't bother with the National Office because they are supposed to be under the direction of the board. And see if you can find the Club's financial statement which we used to publish in Roundel every year.
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I'm very well aware of CCA's org structure, my point being that w/ 70+ chapters there are way more volunteers across the board than the few paid positions at the national office/Roundel....so the club is ~98% 'volunteer-run'
There were many decisions made throughout the years that didn't pan out and significantly many more that did. After 50+ years, CCA still exists w/ 70k+ members and if people want to cancel their membership over a history project w/ a few mailers, that's their decision. But, seems to be overkill to me.