<CORSA Chapters> Membership, dues and such

Tue Jul 15 06:37:09 EDT 2008

Hi Bruce,
I can answer this one for you.  I know you have been an advocate for a scholarship based on financial need. 
During the Annual Board Meeting in Detroit the Board decided the scholarship will be based on merit as it currently stands.  We appreciate your efforts and thoughts pertaining to this matter.
CORSA/CPF feels we have no right to dive into our members fianances, nor do we have the resources to do so.  As you know the applicant can be an immeditae family member or a grand child.  It would be very hard to draw the line to check out fianances of parents and grandparents.
Sarah
Ned and others: I wrote this some time ago and never finished the  second one, as referenced in this e-mail. Since that one might not  ever get finished, I'll send this now. - BruceOn Mar 15, 2008, at 8:58 AM, AeroNed at aol.com wrote:> Bruce,>> In my opinion, CORSA doesn't have $0.02 to spend "willy nilly" or  > any other> way. The dropping revenues through dues and merchandise sale are  > making it> extremely tough to come up with a balanced budget.>> Ned>>> In a message dated 3/14/2008 3:44:12 P.M. Central Daylight Time,> bwschug at charter.net writes:>> Does  CORSA have, perhaps, two or three-thousand dollars to spend> "willy  nilly"?>Ned,If money is so tight in the CORSA budget, I have to wonder then, why  the BOD continues to award scholarships to applicants who haven't  demonstrated that they need the money. To me, this is simply spending  CORSA money "willy nilly" (thanks to Tim for using the phrase "willy  nilly" to describe this careless spending. It sounds much better than  the phrase that comes to my mind, "pissing it away".) In 2007 $2,500  was awarded in this manner.Now I know that the scholarship money doesn't come out of the CORSA  budget. Or does it? Quoting from the Operating Procedure of the  scholarship (which may have been changed), "Scholarships will be  funded by donations to the CPF Scholarship Fund and from CORSA's  General Fund. Scholarships will be in denominations of either $500 or  $1000 with the total amount not to exceed $2000 per year.  Determination of the number and amount will be made by March 1. If  CORSA has retained earnings of at least $5000, CORSA will fund one  $500 Scholarship by depositing the difference between that amount and  the amount in the CPF Scholarship fund. In addition, CORSA will  deposit into the CPF Scholarship Fund 10 percent of the retained  earnings in excess of $5000 to a maximum of $2000 total."I presume CORSA doesn't have retained earnings of $5,000 so this isn't  being done. But I question the wisdom of putting this statement in the  procedure in the first place. This means that we have dues at a level  that we are losing members, and we still don't have enough money, but  we would still give some of this dues money away to students with no  demonstrated need if we had enough of it. Is this what the policy  really should be?In actuality, I believe the scholarship money is donated or raised  specifically for that purpose. But I'll bet that if the scholarship  program didn't exist, most of it would come to CORSA anyway, either to  the CORSA budget or the CPF budget. I'll also bet that if those who  make the donations understood how their donations were being awarded,  most of them wouldn't make the donation.Two years after I wrote my letter (available to anyone who e-mails me  asking for a copy) to point out the problems with the scholarship  program, and exactly how to solve them, I am still dumbfounded,  flabbergasted, and in shock with the reception of my recommendation. I  told the BOD and scholarship committee more than they ever thought of  regarding awarding scholarships, what was wrong with the way it was  being done and answered every question as to how it should be done. I  gave them a turn-key solution to a problem that none of them knew they  had. Still, they fail to understand or at least own up to what's wrong  with what they're doing.You probably saw the nice letter in the October Communique, from the  fellow who was awarded a $500 scholarship last year, thanking CORSA  for the award. I would like to point out that this fellow, who lives  in Texas, 1. Has been to six conventions, including the one in  "Detroit". 2. Owns a '65 Monza that he leaves at home while away at  school. 3. Has a Mini Cooper, presumably which he has at school. 4.  Indicates that he is a CORSA member.While I'm sure this is a nice young man, as evidenced by his taking  time to thank CORSA for his scholarship, to me, this is not someone  that CORSA should be giving $500 to, no matter where the $500 comes  from. The students that we award scholarships to at our church are not  at all like this young man. Typically, they are from a single-parent  family or a family that is basically part of the large "working poor"  class in our country. I assure you, they haven't been all over the  country to six collector car conventions. They don't own two cars, one  being a collector car that they leave home while at school and one  being a cool little Mini Coper. They also don't themselves belong to  $38-a-year club. Heck, this e-mail list has been full of messages from  people lately telling of how their own club members can't afford $38  for CORSA dues! Now here's a guy who can afford it and we're giving  him $500! The fact that this "picture" is all wrong to me but  perfectly fine to the scholarship committee and the BOD is very  troublesome to me and those CORSA members who share my views.This reminds me of a former BOD member who apparently came from more  wealth than did most of us. His family had a scholarship fund set up  which his children received scholarships from. But now that his  children are out of school, he shows his appreciation for these  scholarships by sending a check to the scholarship fund. Maybe I'm  reading too much into his remarks, but he seems to be suggesting that  the way to keep CORSA members is to give them each, perhaps, a  thousand-dollars. They, in turn, will be so appreciative that they  will continue to send their dues checks in. Now if we only had the  funds to give all 5,000 CORSA members a thousand dollars, we could see  if this theory works. Maybe that's not what he really meant.I have seen references to the scholarship lately as a merit  scholarship, which is exactly what it is. I have also seen it  mentioned that no financial information is required, which I think is  correct. I only point this out because I don't think the committee  knew the difference between a need-based scholarship and a merit  scholarship until I pointed it out to them. Now, I don't fault them  for that and am glad that some of them are referring to the  scholarship as a merit scholarship. But when this was being discussed  a year ago, the then-scholarship-chair wrote in his comments to the  Operating Procedure, "I believe the matter of need, if it is an issue  at all, should be up to the judge to read into the application.  Charlie West does this well." With all due respect to Charlie West,  there's no way he could read anything like this into an application,  when there's no financial information there!!! And if this is a merit  scholarship, there's no need to read anything about need into the  application!!!Further, two directors told me they supported my recommendation, one  even telling me they were going to try and get me on the scholarship  committee. That was the last I ever heard of that. Even after it was  discussed and voted down by the BOD, no one reported back to me to  tell me the results of the discussion. I wonder how many BOD members  understand what their responsibilities are to their constituents. As  my representatives, I don't expect my board members to automatically  agree with me, but I do feel they're responsible to report back to me  with the results of a BOD decision about an issue I raised.But the scholarship issue is only the tip of the iceberg. I don't  really know any board members personally, and have only met a few of  them. Most of them are people with recognizable names because of their  involvement with CORSA over the years. I'm sure most of them are nice  people too. But that doesn't mean they have the ability to make good  decisions regarding issues that come before them when they sit in a  board meeting. If the way this scholarship issue was handled is any  indication of the kind of decisions the board makes then I have no  confidence that they can make good decisions with the other issues  that come before them and solve the financial problems that CORSA has.I will write another post and comment on Tim's original question.  Because of my friend Chuck Armer's suggestion, I am airing my views on  this here instead of in VirtualVairs. I agree with Chuck that's it's  not necessary to put all of this out to the general membership as well  as potential CORSA members, at least not at this time.So, am I going to drop out of CORSA because of this? Am I going to  boycott CORSA and urge my club to not donate money to CORSA like we do  most years? Am I going to change my position that anyone interested in  organized Corvairing should join CORSA? Not at all. I firmly believe  that there is some waste in every system (How many of you have seen  letters-to-the editors in your papers from disgruntled taxpayers  saying they will not vote for a tax increase for the local schools  because someone in the school system is wasting some money? So, they  propose punishing the whole system.) I simply want to identify this  waste to those on this list with the hopes that the situation will  someday be corrected. I think you leave yourself open to criticism  when you allow this kind of waste and then come to your members and  tell them about being in such bad financial shape.Sincerely,BruceBruce W. SchugTreasurer, CORSA South CarolinaGreenville, SCStock Corvair GroupPerformance Corvair Groupbwschug at charter.netCORSA member since 1980'67 Monza. "67AC140"_______________________________________________Chapters mailing listChapters at corvair.orghttp://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters
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