Well said john

"gauntjoh" wrote:

Only one person in this thread appears to be a paid up member (financial member) of the club (Deas) yet lots of advice on how to invest money you have not contributed to! Perhaps you would like to either join the club or at least make a donation to help finance the operation of this bulletin board ?
If everyone who posts on here either joined up or made a significant donation, the club would be much more secure for all of us.
Come on guys reach into your pockets.
Regarding gambling with club funds, that’s what previous directors did with the model programme and look where that took us, right to the brink.
If we gambled and lost there would be no more ACMOC, no more bb, no more free help and advice from our incredible expert members like OM and edb, is that what you folks want?

Well said. To be fair to the board members of the past, the model program did carry the club financially for many years. Most model runs had enough presales to pay the modeling and casting costs for the entire order. A couple runs were duds and did poorly. Unfortunately much of the clubs assets today are in unsold model inventory that is paid for but is not in cash. The model program has probably run its course, at least at the present time. The cost are stupid to introduce a new model, it takes over a year with no time guarantee's, and quite frankly the desirable models have been built. We need to find new ways to fund the club or quite factually it will go away. The non member users will lose as well as the supporters.

Speaking of models let me throw something out. Keep in mind I do not have any information as to who owned the molds, where they are or even if they still exist. Maybe they were destroyed after the run so there would be no more models made.

IF the molds exist is it worth looking into another run of some of the popular models? I know those that bought the models for an investment will cry foul as they want to keep the value high. On the other hand I would like to get my hands on a 40 scraper model but I don't want to spend $700 for one. I as a 20 year dues paying member only want a model of a particular piece of equipment only because I think it looks neat or I have the full size one. I am not into buying them only to be sold 20 years later at a profit.

Just some thoughts.

It is a real shame that more do not step up and become a member to help out. If the "what's going on" section is any indication the members are footing the bill for a lot of people that are enjoying the freebie benefits. Only about 12% are paying members on the bulletin board. The guests are no dummies as they get the same BB benefits as those of us that pay for it. Jim (myself) you are the idiot to continue to pay for all the "guests". What if we use the designation on the board of "freeloader" in place of guest?
We could have categories of freeloader, junior freeloader and senior freeloader. If freeloader is not politically correct we could consider moocher, parasite, sponge etc. The possibilities are endless.

There are currently 259 users online. 32 members and 227 guests (from today)

sell the caterpillar stock and buy coca cola with what is left. maybe just maybe we could get back our loss in time.

"D4Jim" wrote:

It is a real shame that more do not step up and become a member to help out. If the "what's going on" section is any indication the members are footing the bill for a lot of people that are enjoying the freebie benefits. Only about 12% are paying members on the bulletin board. The guests are no dummies as they get the same BB benefits as those of us that pay for it. Jim (myself) you are the idiot to continue to pay for all the "guests". What if we use the designation on the board of "freeloader" in place of guest?
We could have categories of freeloader, junior freeloader and senior freeloader. If freeloader is not politically correct we could consider moocher, parasite, sponge etc. The possibilities are endless.

There are currently 259 users online. 32 members and 227 guests (from today)

Well Jim, I always wanted to suggest new names for some folks, whether they are paid members or NOT!
LOL I had to bust a gut at your categories.The unfortunate truth is that you are correct.
Let’s please keep in mind that there are several “guests” that do provide, rather than churn the BB for whatever it is worth.
I don’t mind kicking in a few more coins to keep things going, but darned if I can do it all by myself.
I’m hoping the BOD can come up with ways to generate a steady influx of $$$.
I’ve considered donating an operable CAT to raffle off as a fundraising idea, but that may be too complicated, as some consider that a form of gambling, others may definitely say open to members ONLY, do BOD and their families get to participate, who gets to decide? It goes on and on.

"juiceman" wrote:

Well Jim, I always wanted to suggest new names for some folks, whether they are paid members or NOT!
LOL I had to bust a gut at your categories.The unfortunate truth is that you are correct.
Let’s please keep in mind that there are several “guests” that do provide, rather than churn the BB for whatever it is worth.
I don’t mind kicking in a few more coins to keep things going, but darned if I can do it all by myself.
I’m hoping the BOD can come up with ways to generate a steady influx of $$$.
I’ve considered donating an operable CAT to raffle off as a fundraising idea, but that may be too complicated, as some consider that a form of gambling, others may definitely say open to members ONLY, do BOD and their families get to participate, who gets to decide? It goes on and on.

have ab auction?????

"D4Jim" wrote:

Speaking of models let me throw something out. Keep in mind I do not have any information as to who owned the molds, where they are or even if they still exist. Maybe they were destroyed after the run so there would be no more models made.

IF the molds exist is it worth looking into another run of some of the popular models? I know those that bought the models for an investment will cry foul as they want to keep the value high. On the other hand I would like to get my hands on a 40 scraper model but I don't want to spend $700 for one. I as a 20 year dues paying member only want a model of a particular piece of equipment only because I think it looks neat or I have the full size one. I am not into buying them only to be sold 20 years later at a profit.

Just some thoughts.

Hi Jim,
To answer you first question ACMOC does own the tooling. To get any models recast it has to be in lots of 2,500 models. Now that being said it can be 5 different models of 500 each, but still a total of 2,500. Recasting any model would probably leave us with a couple thousand more models in storage. Before someone says to go elsewhere to do so just remember that anything we sell has to be approved by Cat Trademark and Licensing. A long term process in itself on models. But that is one of the reasons why the models are so of such high quality and perfectly detailed.
Roger