"Mike wrote:

If Cat Inc currently will not let us sell more than 2,500 of any old Cat toy then we will need to discuss that matter with them further.
regards
Mike

agreed. I have heard previously about how successful the D2 models were. At a fair price I 'd buy one or more for my kids and others.
I'd be interested in the dollar figure a bean counter would give to all the goodwill generated by ACMOC members around the world promoting the history of the company. Not to mention buying Cat genuine parts.
How do we lean on/motivate all these supposed sympathetic ears at Cat Inc?
I would think that a reduced or foregone revenue from ACMOC model licensing would be insignificant against their $55 + billion dollar revenues this year.

"catsteve" wrote:

agreed. I have heard previously about how successful the D2 models were. At a fair price I 'd buy one or more for my kids and others.
I'd be interested in the dollar figure a bean counter would give to all the goodwill generated by ACMOC members around the world promoting the history of the company. Not to mention buying Cat genuine parts.
How do we lean on/motivate all these supposed sympathetic ears at Cat Inc?
I would think that a reduced or foregone revenue from ACMOC model licensing would be insignificant against their $55 + billion dollar revenues this year.

Nice to see your contributions on this thread so far Steve, you might be interested to know the former Chapter 2 Financial Members in England actually got a discount from the Cat. Dealer in the UK on the spare parts they bought to save their old Cats, I think that is a program that the BOD could raise with Cat Inc so that everyone who is a ACMOC Financial Member internationally received a discount on their genuine Cat parts, all around the world, that would help see more restored and running Cats displayed at public events, which translates into millions of dollars worth of free advertising for Cat Inc.

As American Express used to say about their card, "Membership does have it's privileges".........well, I say let's get a few more privileges for us genuine Financial Members of ACMOC so that we might encourage more fence sitters and free loaders to help carry the financial burden of keeping the Club doors open.
Regards
Mike

I have kept out of this discussion to date as there is so much I don't know regarding the operation and problems of ACMOC.

Mike I think your suggestion that Caterpillar through its dealer network give some sort of discount for parts etc for paid up members has great merit, should assist in growing the membership.

Maybe through the chapters, some more open discussion can take place, as to what members want, also some constructive ideas to improve both the financial position and service delivery of ACMOC.

Possibly the BOD needs to look at having the occasional meeting outside the US and having part of proceedings open for members to attend. ie move the organisation into the world and off the US dung hill.

I don't have 00.2c so will just have to put it on account Deas

"Wombat" wrote:

I have kept out of this discussion to date as there is so much I don't know regarding the operation and problems of ACMOC.

Mike I think your suggestion that Caterpillar through its dealer network give some sort of discount for parts etc for paid up members has great merit, should assist in growing the membership.

Maybe through the chapters, some more open discussion can take place, as to what members want, also some constructive ideas to improve both the financial position and service delivery of ACMOC.

Possibly the BOD needs to look at having the occasional meeting outside the US and having part of proceedings open for members to attend. ie move the organisation into the world and off the US dung hill.

I don't have 00.2c so will just have to put it on account Deas

I think your suggestion has good merit Wombat, it would not cost much for the ACMOC Club to send a couple of Directors to the UK for a Chapter 2 / Link Club event such as this weekends "Little Casterton" rally, flights from the States to the UK are cheap if booked far enough ahead, I think Peter Bloom, Erik and B4D2 would be excellent Ambassadors for the American ACMOC BOD and local Chapters, if the Club is to survive and grow we need a real international perspective to draw more good folks in.

I suggest in the short term that ACMOC pay for Peter Bloom to fly to the UK to meet with current Chapter 2 and Link Club Members to discuss the best way forward, and that in the future, say within 2 years if the Club survives, that ACMOC fly a Quorum of Directors to the UK for a ACMOC Board Meeting in the UK, with the long term goal of ACMOC Directors meeting in Australia or New Zealand for a Board Meeting within 5 years.

We need the best candidates to now step up to the plate and help run this organisation, with Cat, Holt and Best tractor and machinery assets of our international members totaling probably $US1,000,000,000 or more, we deserve the best team we can assemble to represent our "hobby", and it's time the BOD started to respect the one real marketing tool they have, the Forum. I'm absolutely amazed that Peter Bloom is the only Director involved in this discussion to date, ABSOLUTELY AMAZED, I know B4D2 is flat out with work commitments and building a new home, in between trying to get the ACMOC computer upgrade installed, but come on guys, wheres Dave, and Willie, this Forum runs 24/7 drawing new members in, and supporting existing members, while the ACMOC magazine is read cover to cover in 5 minutes every 2 months. Let's move into the the 21st century, please, before we go broke.
Mike

Peter, is not the only director involved in this discussion.

We have kicked the idea around about trying to get a discount from cat on parts but the idea took a back seat once we realized that there needed to be a way to identify the ACMOC members, example: membership cards.
So.. We have been working on the best possible way to offer the membership cards so they could not be duplicated and also the most affordable way to produce them.

I have noticed that some feel we need to distance ourselves from Cat inc. and some have suggested that we form a bigger connection with Cat. Well, ACMOC is working very hard to assist Cat in anyway possible when it comes to antique caterpillars. For instance: supplying machines for the Caterpillar visitors center, locating and placing a machine for the Caterpillar ball park, finding a machine to be placed in the cooperate hanger, supplying machines for Caterpillar events.
We hope that in time, and I believe we are there, that Caterpillar realizes just how important the work is that ACMOC is doing and that both organizations can benefit from one another.

Some of the ideas discussed here have been considered, some ideas could not be done at that time due to restrictions of our current BB system. Once the BB upgrade is finished we will have the freedom to pursue some of these ideas and the means to start, maintain and offer to the users.

ACMOC understands that the BB is a valuable resource, that is why the club is spending money on the upgrade.
We hope that people will find that the BB is helpful and benefits them in some way, therefore they would in turn support the club by purchasing a membership.

Alot of this discussion is about "what can I get from ACMOC" instead think about "what can I do for ACMOC". I know that when I was asked to serve as a director three years ago it was not about what I was going to get, but about how am I going to serve. I realize that hindsight is 20/20 and ACMOC is growing and learning as any organization, but remember that there was a constant rotation of either staff or directors since the beginning. We now have positions like the treasury and president that is not limited by terms.

ACMOC is only as good as it's members, so instead of waiting for ACMOC to come to you, think about what you can offer the club and give us a call.

I tried yesterday twice to post on this thread but was timed out so it is either my computer or a problem with the BB that needs to be looked at.
As Erik has said the BOD have been reading what you put in here. Somethings are already being looked at.
I put in my post that did not go through the M&M committee was charged in looking at ways to reduce the inventory and Pete and the committee has been working on it as Pete explained.
You all wonder why Pete is doing the replies? Most what you have been talking about concerns two committees that Pete is the Chairman of. he should be replying to these items.
I think there are a lot of good ideas here that can be made into reality.
Yesterday I was at the Chapter 4 meeting and took a poll on some things the members want to see. First 90% want their newsletter in print. I could go either way as it would get to me faster. They would be in favor of purchasing tech data through the web site for a few dollars. Most no longer use the BB as they have gotten very little out of it. They have asked for advice but not gotten anything. Even though I do see some signed in from time to time. I also resigned as the chapter News letter for the National News Letter Person as You made it clear you do not want to read about Chapter 4's steak cook out and I have been doing it for five years. I think with the amount of chapters we are getting we need to look into the chapter reports as with going on 20 chapters you can do one newsletter just on the reports.
Old Magnet you can call me what you want, I have been called far worst and I am still here.
One thing I have though I would get more of since going on the BOD is phone calls and E-mails. I get very few. You can also contact us that way.
As Erik put it. I will put it another way, You have given some great ideas, but the club needs your help beyond this so why not join in and see what you can do to be part of the solution.

Terry Welch

This is my payroll week, so I'm a little busy this morning. There has been more good discussion, to which I want to respond, but I'll have to wait for most of that until later today or tomorrow morning.

A couple responses I can't wait for:

cdtex99 - I really appreciate your insight. You have reinforced some of my thoughts and added some new ones. Whether or not we like it, right now the models business pays the bills, except for the magazine and website. We need to get that business back as healthy as we can and continue to look for other ways to pay the bills. I'd appreciate any more thoughts and discussion you'd like to have - online or off - to improve our prospects in that business.

Mike - That is exactly what I was thinking, too. We're kind of doing that backwards right now, with the ad in Two-Cylinder hawking our graders and terracers behind their John Deere D model. This is another place where the connection with Caterpillar, Inc. has been very frustrating, though. They wouldn't let us publish an ad showing a Caterpillar branded terracer attached to a John Deere branded tractor. We had to fade the tractor out, only showing the back half, and paint it the wrong color of yellow before they'd consent to the ad. I decided that in the Two Cylinder magazine this is probably a plus, because it will catch the eye of every John Deere purist, who will complain that it was, in fact, a D and that it was the wrong color. You know, any publicity is good publicity, right? If we can't make some headway with the Caterpillar Trademarks and Licensing people, though, their perspective will make advertising more difficult.

On the plus side, several of our model manufacturer partners do have surpluses of some nice John Deere disks and plows which would look great behind our D2s, R2 and other tractors we might do in the future. We're working on deals to acquire some of those models for sale in packages just as you describe.

Old Magnet - you started a new thread acknowledging the new Technical Library section which appeared yesterday. That new section is a response to the suggestion from here. We have created that area as a view only area intending to populate it with any technical documents posted by the likes of you, edb and others. We intend to transfer posted attachments and related discussion over there based upon recommendations from you who post them or the group here as a whole. When anyone sees something which they feel merits preservation there, they should either post a thread or reply pointing out the item, or contact B4D2, Chriscokid, Walt D7-3T or me so that we can move it over there.

You commented in your other thread about the need to keep it organized and properly annotated, which is a good point. This need is one of the reasons we have created it as a view only area. An area like this can quickly become populated with replies and other chit-chat which is great in the discussion area, but degrades the value of a library, which is what this section is intended to be. We would like to have those heavy contributors, like yourself and edb, be able to add items and content to this area directly, without needing to go through one of the three moderators or myself. Right now, though, we don't know how to give you that ability without making you moderators.

We would like it if both of you would become moderators, but didn't want to impose that upon you without discussion and knowing that you have the desire to act in that role. We will find a way to give you access to maintain the Technical Library section as soon as we figure out how to do that, whether or not you choose to become a moderator. We will need to rely upon the help of you, edb and some others to help us organize this area and make it as useful as possible. There are many ways to organize this information, and much of the information relates to multiple machines or applications, so we'd appreciate any help you can give us, online or offline, as we begin to implement this area.

This will be a process to get rolling. No doubt we will have some false starts and need some adjustments, but at least the discussion here has got the ball rolling. One other item we know needs fixing, in addition to getting maintenance access for you contributors, is that for now, the attachments will remain the property of and charged to the storage quota for the contributor. We will change this soon so that when the attachment is posted to the Technical Library section, it will become charged to the account of the bulletin board and will thereby become a permanent part of the postings, but for now, this is the best we can do as a first start.

I hope that this is a step in the right direction and everyone, please start pointing out items which should be moved to the Technical Services library so we can populate that content.

Pete.

Hi, Folks.
On the subject of selling models - and of choosing which ones to make next - I guess this one is more or less directed to Garlic Pete as he is the BOD member who has contributed most to this discussion. Just how many are remaining in stock of each model of which the club still has remaining stock and what were the original asking prices? My reason for asking is that it may give some idea of which models have been the best sellers straight from launch and maybe give a clue about which models and which scales are more favored.

One of the main 'issues' - quite possibly the most common one - that seems to keep coming up in all of these discussions, past and current, about how the club is run is the 'transparency' or apparent (to some) lack of it. One way of remedying that would be for more ordinary members to put up their hands to serve on the various committees that the management has running to fulfill various needs. Some of the committees are permanent, such as the nomination and election committee and the models committee. Others are formed for a specific purpose and only exist until that purpose has been achieved.

I have personally served on one specific purpose committee. Although I declined to nominate again for a BoD position for personal reasons, I have made it known to the BoD that I am available and willing to serve on any committees where they think I might have something to contribute.

Now for the next question. How many of the current ordinary members, ESPECIALLY those who have had a bit to say in this thread, have put up THEIR hands to serve the club in this fashion?

In saying the above and asking this question, I am NOT trying to big note myself. I really don't care what anybody might think of me and it ackshully says more about them than it does abut me anyway. My reasons for asking are twofold:

1. To sort out those who are willing to put in some effort to help the BoD members - who, BTW, are all volunteers putting in a LOT of their own time and effort to try to keep the club together - fro those who have a lot to say but are not prepared to back it up with some effort.

2. To try to get some of the people who are doing most of the 'talking' to get in there and see what does go on and report back to the ordinary members.

Think about it, Folks.

There is a LOT of 'back-seat driving' going on here and I think it needs to stop and the people who are trying to drive from the back seat need to be told to get in the FRONT seat and do better - - - - - or at least get in there and help the current 'drivers' do their job.

Just my 0.02.

So Round and Round it goes.....
Quite frankly I don't think anybody in their right mind would jump into the middle of this situation, now launched in to a flailing mode. Show some good signs of leadership and sincere communication and maybe some would be enticed to help.

Again I repeat the communication format should be open dialogue and on this site. Waiting for phone calls and emails just isn't going to cut it.

Interesting note on the "Technical Library" posting. I looked back on some of my old notes and correspondence and back in 4/10/06 I forwarded to George Howard the suggestion as to how the archives should be organized and is how I have my materials organized.
Guess how far that got. Also interesting that a few years back, Eric stumbled on to the file and inquired about it.....nothing evolved from that either.

As for me contributing more than I already do, that is a possibility but not until I see some significant improvement in this clubs leadership and its attitude towards the membership. I am also requesting that the club move ahead with an independant bulletin board where the members can get on with working on and maintaining real tractors free from current club business issues. This to me is the core element of the hobby and should be positioned as the most likely to survive.

"As for me contributing more than I already do, that is a possibility but not until I see some significant improvement in this clubs leadership and its attitude towards the membership. I am also requesting that the club move ahead with an independant bulletin board where the members can get on with working on and maintaining real tractors free from current club business issues. This to me is the core element of the hobby and should be positioned as the most likely to survive."

Let me get this straight now you do not want to talk about the functions of the club or work through the details on how to improve things, but rather return to just discussing tractors?
I guess we need a new sub-fourm for "ACMOC plans and ideas".