"Mike wrote:

Here are the old Cat Master Lists submitted by Eddie Bedwell back in 2013, can we use these as the foundation templates for the Technical Library?

I'll look it over and compare to what I have but off the top I think some of those categories can be consolidated. I'll see about coming up with a new revised list.

Again I want to stress that if the administration rejects these proposals there is little reason to proceed and quite frankly this is my last shot as far as contribution to the clubs agenda.
I want to hear some feedback before I put any serious effort into supporting this venture. Considering efforts go back to 2006 with no forward progress from ACMOC, I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks Pete, I understand your frustration but I think both Garlic Pete and B4D2 are on the same page as us, well they were in 2013, and I know Wombat is on side, I'm hoping we have a computer expert, or experts in the Club who can give us an idea on how best to set this system up and how much it will cost roughly so your guidance along with Eddie in suggesting a good template will be critical right now to kick start new enthusiasm, once we have that information then the BOD and members will be better informed and can firm up on a time frame though I'm still hopeful of it coming together this year and we might be pleasantly surprised at how little it actually costs. Cat shares were under $60 when I looked yesterday so we can either ride them to the bottom or cut our losses on some and have something tangible to show for that $220,000 insurance payout on the toys, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush they say.

I wonder if in Cat Inc there might be an Archivist we could ask for advice on setting up this system, or even a really good motor industry Parts Person might have some good suggestions on hardware and software, no point reinventing the wheel if software systems are already available off the shelf and I think if we can work on this project right here on the Bulletin Board over the next month or two then it will free up valuable time for our Directors and Committee members. A couple of key issues is that there must be the opportunity to draw income through the ACMOC Store from non financial members who access tech info, and that the system can be expanded to include more categories, for example the old Safety brochures from Cat would be great, and even old advertising material could be reprinted on quality paper for sale through the Store, though one step at a time right now.

Lots of ideas and thoughts

Buying of the Cat shares I wonder would the same thoughts would be been banished around if the Cat shares had gone up three fold ???

I also wonder had ACMOC invested the money in electronic manuals and the system crashed we would people be saying what a waste of money you shouldnt have done that , we could have told you that company was no good

I guess what Im trying to say is how much of the criticism is people been over critical using hind site as there main driver


could have this all wrong and ass about but if people are to critical of the people doing the job who volunteer their time we might end up with no one willing to stick their hand up

all points raised are fair enough but maybe the criticism is a bit misguided just saying

Paul

Hello , the club should asked to host is club b/b site and archived info on a cat site server , the move to Caterpillar Visitors Centre in Peoria Illinois was a all one sided ,I can see no benefit that the club gained from this move , there wasn't even room to store the models , they were stored in some back yard shed that burnt down saving the club a lot of money ,
without help from caterpillar this club is doomed to the scrap heap ,learn from the UK link club and get cat sponsorship(or more) ,and one last thing , even if you don't like it this club has gone globule ,I see member post not having a reply on there pic post because there not local ,i understand that many people are happy looking but your a member of a club ,get involved and have fun other wise there is no point . being Australian i see the club going forward is by having voluntary contributions like ACME site to help with over head cost , I am member but the member ship doesn't cover the cost of the mag and postage so what is the point ?no help to the profit of the club, i always wanted my member ship to cover some of the b/b cost .i have meet many great people thought this club online and in person , remember that this is what the club is meant to be about ,
sorry about the down post but without fixing these first there is no point going on , thank you bruce

Hi, Mike Meyer.
I have already e-mailed Garlic Pete and Wombat about approaching Cat and maybe some of the nearby dealerships for assistance with a range of club issues. They will no doubt have to submit the idea to the BoD and then let us see where it might lead.

If my memory serves me rightly, back sometime in 1970s, the state of Illinois was about broke.They came up with the idea of approaching major companies and asking them to donate the part-time services of one or two of their executives with some expertise applicable to a specific government department to help that department get its act together. Many companies agreed to the request and supplied the services of those executives and, within TWELVE months, the state was back 'in the black'.

If it worked for a government, I don't see any reason why it can't work for the club too, not just for the financial issues but for things like setting up the tech library, setting future directions, maybe better store management, perhaps even some improvements to the BB - - - and I'd be surprised if there aren't a few more areas within the club where improvements could be made.

Just my 0.02.

Mike and others,
I don't think your focused on the main issue here.
What needs to happen is acquiring the help and diversifying the decision making to move forward.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"
The Archives issue is only one of many.
In order to get "Qualified" help on board it has to be attractive to do so.
To do this the organization has got to demonstrate that it has it's "shit" together.
That means communicating it is organized, the objectives are defined, a structure is in place and then acquire the resources needed to get something done. Waiting by the phone for someone to jump in to a undefined "snake pit" just isn't going to happen.

I know this way of thinking is foreign to many here but that's how projects and organizations are formed and dissolved. If it is not done in this fashion you are not going to attract professional help and if you do manage to recruit someone all you get is more unqualified same.

I know my "spreader" doesn't work as well as some but I can tell you I have used this format successfully for decades with hundreds of projects and at least a dozen organizations. It was what I got payed well to do.

The added "visionary" bonus is the fact that when you do operate from this type of platform the operation becomes transparent, people become comfortable with the operation and when it comes time to recruit officers your much more likely to draw candidates.

Before I get buried for the day,a couple of notes.

A potential sale of the Club's position in CAT stock needs to be thoughtfully considered. Presently, at $60 per share, the dividend yield on this stock is over 5%. We cannot get that in an interest-bearing account right now. I have NOT dived in to Cat's financials to see how long they might be able to go in a rough economic environment before they would have to cut their dividend... but I checked one financial site and found that as of Friday, about 19 analysts were recommending holding Cat stock, 3 recommended buying it, and only 1 recommended selling it.

I have bought and sold Cat stock successfully in the past, and in those years all my research showed the firm to be very well and conservatively managed- but that has been nearly 10 years ago. (I have been just investing in mutual funds the past few years.) Unless things have changed they can probably ride out a recession better than most firms and then are likely to rebound as they always have.

Once we dump the stock we make our loss real and permanent! Until then its just a paper loss... and providing a lot more income than a short bond fund would provide!

Again, I would not have recommended such an undiversified approach to investing the Club's long term assets to begin with, but this may not be the best time to pull the plug.

Greg

I'm 99.9% certain Cat will not go broke but with the global mining and oil / gas economy now taking a dive big time the sale of new machines and parts will obviously change dramatically downwards, dividends are only paid on actual profit not potential, so there is no point using historical data to forecast where the dividend might be in 2016 and 2017 if a company is in survival mode, yes, the shares might have increased in value if nothing happened to the world economy but that would still not have supported the decision to put all our eggs into that one investment basket. Let me give you another good example, our 2 Australian Directors Lance and Trish could have suggested at that time ACMOC put the money into a Cash Deposit here in an Australian Bank like the old and secure Commonwealth Bank who have branches in the USA, money up to $1,000,000 is guaranteed safe by the Government and interest rates have been up to 4.8% in recent years (right now 2.8%) on even just 90 day deposits, plus the Australian dollar has devalued by 30% against the greenback in that time so the $US200,000 would be worth about $US270,000 plus interest right now, in just over 18 months, but would I have suggested they do that with the entire $200,000, no, but for the sake of this discussion it could have been part of the risk spread, for example just a $20,000 parcel, because money sitting in a good Bank is a lot more secure for a non profit like ACMOC that I'm assuming operates under different laws to private companies.

I think the ACMOC Board possibly believe probably not too much is wrong right now and that most the decisions taken in the past couple of years have turned the ship away from the rocks, and that discussions like this are a kick in the guts after all the hard work they have put in, so that is why I'm being positive and throwing up ideas for discussion like the Technical Library once again, just like we did a few years back, and that Old Magnet did 10 years back, because it was agreed by everyone we needed to act on it ASAP to save the collections held in private hands by Eddie Bedwell here in Australia and Old Magnet in the USA, plus other smaller collections held by others. We are already losing access to this vital resource because Eddie and Pete keep telling us they are sick and tired of uploading the same info to the same questions every few months, sick and tired, now I've been listening to them, but have the entire Board because I suspect only one or 2 Directors actually visit this Bulletin Board regularly and they rely on Garlic Pete to be the only communication link, so it is absolutely critical in my mind we get a questionaire drafted up so that our 2,800 financial members can provide their thoughts and opinions on how they want the Club to be run and where we want to be in 5 years time.

99.9% of our Financial Members say nothing either here on the Bulletin Board or via the magazine yet they all have opinions, and I'm going to guess only about 15% of those Financial Members are active members of Chapters, let's say about 300 people worldwide attend Chapter meetings on a regular basis, so that leaves 85% of our Financial Members with no voice, but more importantly no sense of ownership, and I think that is why we, meaning the Club, struggle to find even one candidate to step up and offer to become a Director, as was the case with our latest vacant seat of Lance Jones. I've said it plenty of times already that I think we are lucky to have the many great volunteers step up and offer to serve as Directors and Committee members, all I've been trying to say here the past 41 pages is that we need to help them better in deciding where we go from here.

To get off that topic for a second I was thinking about Joe Black who I believe set up this ACMOC Bulletin Board originally, I'm a member of another antique Cat Forum he owns and runs called ACME and I believe he has a couple of other Forums he owns, I was wondering if he is the Expert we could ask for advice on how to evolve this Forum and create the Technical Library once we have the BOD onside, I know he works in the aircraft industry now but is obviously no dummy around computers and software, and more importantly he is a old Cat person.

Anyway, they are my thoughts for now, I appreciate everyone chiming in as this can only help our Directors who use this Forum like Garlic Pete and B4D2 with their decision making.
Regards
Mike