Still has loopholes....if you adjust the budget going in we would never know the difference even though the tracking looked right.
I don't know what the answer is. I've had experience where accountants and auditors tell you what you want to hear and the company/business went broke anyway. Not that I am claiming
such is the goings on here.

So if you had supplementary funds for the BB, what would you do with them?

Old Magnet - I know what you are saying. Unfortunately, the reality of targeted or restricted donations is that any real controls are dependent upon the integrity of the Board and administrators and the oversight of the members, donor and other stakeholders. I can tell you that the restricted cash we have now was all given for scholarships, every dollar was spent on scholarships and we did not reduce our normal commitment for scholarships during the years that we had restricted donations available. For example, this year we awarded $7,000 in scholarships. We received $6,500 in restricted donations for scholarships and our normal commitment is a $500 per year minimum annual scholarship.

As to what would be done with money which was donated to improve or add to the bulletin board, I have some ideas, but these are just off the top of my head and offered as a bulletin board participant. I am not the manager of that area and there are probably needs and possibilities I don't know about, so again, take these with a grain of salt. Also note that one person's idea of bulletin board support is different than another's, so some people might consider some of my suggestions not valid bulletin board activities. Should we begin to accumulate a significant fund of restricted donations for the bulletin board, I would suggest that a committee of ACMOC members who are also bulletin board users be formed to oversee those funds, accumulate and prioritize projects and administer their execution.

My list, off the top of my head and dependent upon how much money we accumulate:

1. We have thousands of photos donated by George W. Howard. They need to be formatted for bulletin board use, catalogued, titled and prepared for posting. George's concept was that these would become a reference library of machines and attachments. His notes for each photo provide machine description, along with major attachments, serial number, owner and other details. When these are organized, the could become a reference archive attached to the bulletin board. It might be available to all, only to registered users or only to paid members.

2. We have talked with Caterpillar off and on about taking over the reproduction manuals business. Prior publishers have scanned certain manuals for printing purposes. I think we could acquire the existing scans for posting, in an archive here. That archive could be available to all, registered or only paid users. If enough money was available, we could begin to work our way through the unscanned manuals creating scans.

3. We have started work on the Technical Archives, if funds were available, we could designate a contract person to gather, organize and post that archive. If funds were available and the donor's approved, that project could be done on a recurring basis, or a continuous basis.

4. A technical person could be used to create more videos like Sasquach has made about how to accomplish specific repair or restoration projects. These videos could then populate another archive available to whichever level of participant is deemed appropriate.

5. Someone could probably find a way to repair the picture posting order, or determine it can't be repaired and consider a different platform which will post in the correct order. For that matter, picture posting is frustratingly difficult in the first place. Perhaps another platform could be found which is easier and more intuitive to use.

I'm sure I can think of a few more things that could be done, given some time. My list is primarily oriented towards content generation because I feel that operationally, things pretty much run O. K. The bulletin board has not had an unplanned outage for several years now and other than the picture posting, I feel that the basic platform is pretty easy to use. Some complain about the search feature, but I've found that with a little fiddling in the advanced search, I can pretty quickly dial in on the information I want to find.

I'm sure B4D2 and others who are involved in the management of bulletin board operations would have a different list, probably including more operational things which I don't know are possibilities or problems. I think other suggestions for improvements to the bulletin board were mentioned even in this thread, but I haven't taken the time to scan back over the over 160 posts here. Anyone else have stuff on their shortlist that money could help accomplish?

Pete.

I like all of your suggestions but the area that is lagging the most is the generation of the archives. I would like to see a proposal for the costs to have someone search the available posts (takes a knowledgeable candidate) and glean what info is already out there as it's going to take forever to build the archives one post at a time.

I completely agree about the archives. Actually, now that I have the guidance from you and edb, I was planning to learn how to set up the categories, then begin that process of search, identify, cleanse and populate from our history here in my spare time. I believe that if I get started and a few help, we can glean a surprising quantity of information for that archive from our active posts here in a relatively short time.

A community effort like that can get a lot of work done for free. At least it would provide a starting point from which we can launch a paid person if necessary. You put your finger on the qualification requirements, the most important quality for someone doing that is tractor repair and restoration knowledge, not computer skills.

Thanks for the feedback,

Pete.

"Garlic wrote:

2. We have talked with Caterpillar off and on about taking over the reproduction manuals business. Prior publishers have scanned certain manuals for printing purposes. I think we could acquire the existing scans for posting, in an archive here. That archive could be available to all, registered or only paid users. If enough money was available, we could begin to work our way through the unscanned manuals creating scans.

Pete.

Pete I have to thank you for bringing these issues to open forum and I like the your #2 idea posted above the best and would give people who restore iron a good value for being a member. I would also like to suggest that when Cat decides that one of their parts for the pre 1960 irons no longer viable to have manufactured for them and stocked in their where house that the drawings and possibly the setup notes could be made available to club members. Obviously there isn't enough meat on the bones for them to stock those parts but on the flip side a running 80 year old machine is a good marketing piece.

"CR" wrote:

Pete I have to thank you for bringing these issues to open forum and I like the your #2 idea posted above the best and would give people who restore iron a good value for being a member. I would also like to suggest that when Cat decides that one of their parts for the pre 1960 irons no longer viable to have manufactured for them and stocked in their where house that the drawings and possibly the setup notes could be made available to club members. Obviously there isn't enough meat on the bones for them to stock those parts but on the flip side a running 80 year old machine is a good marketing piece.

I believe Cat already will supply anyone the Blueprints of parts they no longer produce.
regards
Mike

I've asked previously what is the real cost of mailing out the ACMOC magazine to international members because I suspect ACMOC is losing money supporting those members with the low annual fee we pay, Pete, have you had a chance to pin point that real cost yet, per member?

On another matter, I see in the latest Election we are voting for a "International Director", wouldn't Lance Jones our Australian based Director already qualify for our "International" Director, so why go to the extra expense of supporting 2 "International" Directors, it costs a lot of money making international calls for Board Meetings and other official type communication. If we are forced to now have 2 "International" Directors I'd suggest the second Director come from either England, Ireland or Scotland, because I see absolutely no benefit to ACMOC Members there being 2 Directors on the Board from Australia, UNLESS the the extra Australian candidate can bring exceptional business skills to the Board.

We, ACMOC, are a business that is in dire financial distress right now, and have been in financial distress for the past few years and it is time we had a skills based Board, and only Directors who are able and willing to communicate and be part of this Forum on a regular basis. I'm sure the 3 candidates running for the position of "International" Director are all really nice folks, but I've never heard of them before, nor am I aware of them ever visiting this ACMOC Forum, and for that reason at this stage I'm not voting for any one of those candidates.
Regards
Mike.

My sentiments as well Mike, in fact the only vote I am submitting is for Garlic Pete. Until the other candidates can qualify themselves as being able to communicate as discussed there is no point in persuing more of the same.

It is also quite clear we are at a fork in the road between core hobby and the model sales business. Interesting how when model sales were booming it was near impossible to get any focus on the BB issues. Only now that models sales no longer float the boat has there been any attention to the BB supporters and issues. I wonder if it would revert back to the same if the money flowed and it was back to business as usual.

I just got off the phone from BruceOz, he said he just paid his 3 year ACMOC membership and it was only $US46 a year, I can't believe ACMOC can airmail us 6 magazines a year all the way to Australia and New Zealand from America for $46 and make one nickels profit after they pay printing costs too. No wonder the Club is going broke, we actually lose more money by attracting more members and selling more magazines, who came up with that business plan? We need to fire our Sales and Marketing Manager as the first course of action if this business is to start actually putting any black ink on the ledger sheet to replace all the red ink there now.
regards
Mike

I am leaving in a few minutes for Corryong , so I only have a short reply . To both OM and Mike Myers I say this , many suggestion have Much Merit and I believe Peter has Done a fantastic Job to Reply to you All . The BOD is NOT an Old Mans Club . Mike , every Meeting is started on Time and Believe me there is no Chit Chat . Dave keeps meeting Rolling along a Good Pace . as for You comment on cost for Me to join in those meetings ,your suggestion that it Costs a Fortune you are so wrong . About $30. covers entire Meeting .
Now Mike ,You rang Me many months ago , Telling Me how YOUR company makes multimillions , so I just thought maybe you should get a Business class ticket to Carthage N.C. and put Some of your Suggestion to the General Meeting there . Would be a great tax deduction for You and put Those Ideas right in Front of everyone , Some of which are very Good . Should catch you at Corryong .

Lance Jones