Club Officer? My Postmortem
Back on October 4th, Tim Meyers gave me a real turd of a Birthday present. (Tim objects to the use of the word turd. In truth he took me to breakfast at Jack Allen's the next day, which was amazing. So take my usage with a grain of salt) Post match at Austin Rifle Club, he nominated me to be Secretary of Austin Lone Star Practical Pistol Club, in part because there were not a whole lot of people jumping at the job, and I'd like to think, in part, because he believed that I'd work hard to get the club going in the direction that it should be. I'm sure that was because he knew that Les was a stand up guy, but I hope it's also because in the short time he knew me, that he felt that way about me too. There were some raised eyebrows, because many in the club who were present for the vote did not know me, they saw me as someone who had just finished shooting his second match with the club, and beyond that, not a whole lot. It was an uncomfortable situation for me, and I probably should have declined, but I channeled my inner "Les Kismartoni", and decided that Les would have jumped in, and worked to make the club better, so if I wanted to pay Les back for all he's done to help me shoot, I figured I would give it my level best effort.
I'd heard a little bit about the state of the club from Tim prior to the election, and he was the outgoing Vice President, so I knew there was work to be done, but once I sat down with the other newly elected officers, I was terrified of what I saw, or more what I did not see. The club's "books" was a word document showing gross receipts, some expenses, and total cash. The heart of the issue was that for the last 5-6 years the club President and Treasurer were husband and wife, and there was no accounting ever done. There was a line item expense of "steel, $1900", although the club had purchased no new steel in the last few years, there were gun giveaways that the club believes the former president sold items he himself won at 3-Gun prize tables. In short, things were a mess, and they were made more so when the officers, using the last couple of matches as a benchmark came up with a revenue projection that was between $3000 and $6000 a year greater than the "books" showed.
Getting in cold, my instant concern was protecting myself, I wanted no liability for what was in the books, and filing a 2014 tax return, and signing it, when I myself did not believe or could not support the numbers given was pretty low on my priority list. Mind you, zero receipts were given, just a sheet of paper. Anyone reading feel comfortable taking that to the IRS? After consulting with the other officers, a few of us proceeded to explore what our options for the club actually were. The number one idea was to protect the club, and it's assets, as well as the officers. To that end, I spoke with a C.P.A., and an attorney. In both cases, the advice was that we needed to "nuke the club from orbit, just to be sure", and form a new entity the right way, with the assets of the old club donated.
Unfortunately, that was not a universal opinion among officers, one of whom wanted to find ways to fix the existing entity, he set the agenda, he sent out e-mails to members painting a rosy picture, and moved at a snail's pace, in essence this officer, who was not the president, was running the club at his pace, and with his inaction. About this time we realized we were going to have a problem with the range, that the Austin Rifle Club wanted to renegotiate the existing contract to be more favorable to them, that they wanted to take away a second Sunday a month we had and ran a steel match, and they wanted to run their own Steel Challenge match, using our equipment, at no charge.
I had two instant thoughts, I wanted us to present a united front, and meet with the ARC board, and find out exactly what changes they wanted, find out what price hike they were looking for, and if we had to form a new entity, would they be willing to work with the new entity on a contract, or were they really looking to absorb the club, the assets, and run the matches themselves. Unfortunately we never got around to do that in the first 30 days. My other thought was that we should explore other venues, we should find out who was capable of hosting the club, what they would charge, and so on. If a deal at ARC was that bad, we'd give ourselves options. We could go to the club with the best information for setting ourselves up for success in the future.
While all this was going on, our one officer who was dragging his feet, was busy wanting to set-up "Mail Chimp" so we could mass e-mail the club, and filling out "Trello" cards for everyone's jobs. The short version, in my mind, was that he was doing the mundane tasks that did little to address the serious issues that the club was facing. Again, it was my belief that he did not want to make any changes, that he thought things were fine, and did not see a need for change.
I had reached out to Les, and connected him with the new club President, Ben Gilman, so they could talk, and Les was able to explain to Ben how M.I.S.S. reorganized a few years ago, how it worked for them, and how we could do the same sorts of things here. Les invested some time, and even gave us the links for forms we'd have to file to become a 501c7 should we choose. Again, Les was coming to the rescue from 1,000 miles away. I'd hoped he and Ben would get along, they both wanted what was best for their respective clubs, and they work towards it.
After about four weeks though, I'd seen little action towards protecting ourselves as officers. No meeting was scheduled with ARC, we had not tracked down the missing paperwork from the old officers, and we had not started a re-organization. On my own, I consulted another attorney, this one who was also a C.P.A., who counseled me that it was critically important that we document our attempts to collect missing papers. The longer we did not try to collect, the greater the liability we as individuals were likely to have. With that in mind, I sat down, wrote a letter, mildly unpleasant, but I asked for the missing documents, tax returns, and receipts, both expense and gate receipts, and after having the club President read it, I sent the registered letter.
I sent the letter out to the rest of the officers, and shortly after that, got this partial response from one of the other officers:
"There is a great chance you just created more liability for all of us.This is a bull shit way to go about business especially given that you don't even come to our matches to help or at least get to know the members of the club that has been successfully holding matches since the 80's."
-Nameless Officer
He had a point, I did miss the October steel match, and the November USPSA match. In both cases, I made the choice to be a parent, and go to Lauren's soccer game. In both cases, I actually asked the Match Director if I was needed to help set-up, or run the event, and had I been needed, I'd have went. I was not aware I was required to ask this guy for permission.
To the other points, ALSPPC has not actually been holding matches since the 80's, ALSPPC was the result of another couple of clubs that were folding, merger. I've got a lot of respect for the club, but the club is not a collection of letters, it's the people behind it. The people who have done the work, come to the matches, they are the reason the club exists, and they honestly deserve the best. They don't deserve a club that has never filed a tax return, or is left open to accounting questions because of lax practices. They don't deserve a club that could face penalties because they never did those things, and the honest truth, is they deserve better than officers who don't acknowledge that. I don't know the members of the club? I respect the club, and the members, I can't say that someone who was not fighting for the club is in the same boat.
I spent the September match R.O.'ing a squad of 10 other people I did not know, I went to lunch with another 7-8 people in the past 30 days to learn more about the club, the people who make it up, and what people want to it. In September and October both, I took time the Friday before the match to go and set-up stages with a couple of other people. That's about 50% of the club that I was able to reach out to in the first 30 days of office. Never once did I question the commitment of other officers, especially captain nameless who was not there to set-up either. In short, I think I did everything that I could have done to work for the interests of the club, and I can sleep knowing that I did that.
The response from the nameless officer was honestly what I was afraid of when I took the job. I never should have thought that I could contribute unless I had been around longer, I could have just set-up, tore down, and shot matches. Those are all things that I can always do. I can't blame Mr. Nameless too much for his reaction, because I am the new guy, it's hard to build trust and respect in a short time with people you don't know at all. I believe that I did the right things, but oviously not for everyone. Now I feel like I let Les down, like I let Tim down, and like I let myself down. The bylaws of ALSPPC prohibit the election of officers who have not been members for at least 6 months, using that as the reason, I submitted my resignation. The truth is, I'm not looking for a fight, but with the serious issues the club does face, I'm honestly not comfortable being a part of an officer team that was not on the same page, and was not committed to the ideal of building the best foundation for club, no matter what.
The last thing I want to do is sound like a bitter bastard, in truth I'm glad to shoot. I spent my time at M.I.S.S. setting up and tearing down, and I was happy, I trusted where the officers had the club going. I do believe that you get out what you put in, but at this point, I'm going to shoot, I can't not help, but I'm definitely a lot more leery to get involved now beyond basic help. I apprenticed more with Terry as part of the "Goon Squad" than I did with Les on the political side, and the club doesn't need the friction. I'm not a politician, I speak plainly, I don't sugar coat things, and I don't have the sense to sometimes just keep my damn mouth shut. I had a couple of officers call me, angry that Mr. Nameless said what he said, and I appreciate it, they aren't responsible what comes out of his mouth.
So that's it, 30 odd days, I won't do this sort of thing again, and I'll find a different way to pay back what I saw the real classy people do for the sport. Those are the people I admire, and want to emulate, and make proud.
