I recently perused the latest Board Minutes and the mention of "Subsidiary chapters and Contract chapters" came about. Without me reading many pages of bylaws etc., could someone of higher rank explain and provide examples of each? I have to say from guessing, the contract chapter is any that has a membership roster, president and such with dues/meetings, etc. and requires potential members to join/pay dues to national?
What the heck is a subsidiary chapter, and could you name one, just for curiosity sake?
Sorry for likely the silliest question ever asked on this BB. Thank you, JM.

Contract and subsidiary chapters have a membership roster, president, dues and requires members to pay national dues.
Contract chapters control their own money and can possess machines and donated items. US chapters are non-profit organizations with 501 (c) (3) status and file annual reports with the IRS. Contract chapters in the US purchase their own insurance for events they sponsor.
Non-US chapters (Australia and others) are contract chapters and follow the non-profit requirements of the country in which they are organized.
Subsidiary chapters fall under an "umbrella" of ACMOC. As such, any money, machines and donated items are considered property of ACMOC. They are considered non-profit but report information to ACMOC. (I'm cloudy on this and am trying to gain more information.) Subsidiary chapters have hosted events and ACMOC has paid the insurance. This has been a financial drain to ACMOC and is not fair or equitable to contract chapters.
If you go to the chapter page, each chapter has either an S or C in brackets beside the chapter name. S is subsidiary and C is contract.
Loma Berndsen

Okay, so I read that there are only 2 Contract chapters in all of the United States; You say the Subsidiary chapters bleed the $$$ from everyone basically. Please name off the shows that the club has footed the insurance bill for? Don't they just provide general liability for the National Shows, which is not expensive at all? Why does the "club" even allow 2 types of chapters?
I think I will ask my own CPA's regarding non profits in my home state of California, and rules about Oregon and Illinois.
I would think there is benefit in either type of chapter. I have never been part of the formation of a "new chapter", so I do not know what that entails, expectations, etc.
Please keep the membership informed. Thank you, JM.

I don't have a lot of the answers in regard to the shows that ACMOC has paid the bills for. I am a member of Chapters 1 and 31. Chapter 1 has not hosted events since I became a member and Chapter 31 is in the formation stage. In 2013, the idea was that all chapters would become subsidiary, but chapters abroad had to be contract. Another I'm not sure on how Chapters 1 and 8 stayed contract.
If you do get information about non-profits and would be willing to share, it will help ACMOC out tremendously.
We definitely need to clean up this situation and we want to be fair to all chapters.
Thank you,
Loma

I am bumping this thread up.
One report said conversions had to be completed by 12-1-22, and then I read by end of 2022; which is it really?
Curious as to the type of (new) chapter 31 is. Is it a Contract or Subsidiary? How many US chapters formed since 2013?
Too bad the national couldn't collect insurance $ from sub chapters to help offset the burden "we" inflict upon everyone.
At this point, I could not see the benefit of an S chapter becoming a C chapter, other than keeping its own $ and receive donations, which many do not collect dues or have had anyone generously give a chapter. Perhaps the BOD could provide a longer list of the PROs and CONs.
I have spoken to some folks from EDGE TA about non members joining in a local chapter; becoming one of their members would provide some insurance, but it becomes convoluted again, as it has its limitations as well. No magic bullet signing up; they have their own parameters to follow as well as safety rules.
Just making my own casual observations and a penny for thoughts. JM

If it was only as simple as the insurance issue, the administrative burden of subsidiary Chapters on the Club is considerable if it is managed properly, yes currently it is way short of the management required to meet all legal/regulations and insurance that are required. If the Club was to continue as current with subsidiary Chapters, but enforce all compliance as required, you will find it is no more onerous for a Chapter to operate as a contract Chapter. If the Club was to charge not only the insurance , also the administrative cost to manage subsidiary Chapters it would be quite considerable. The truck group I am told has a full time admin position managing it. Wherever a Subsidiary Chapter exists the Club should also register in that state and file returns etc, currently this is not the case, I am sure an insurance company would use this as a legal loophole to not payout on a claim. The insurance also does not cover the individual Member, only the Club and the Chapters as entities. So currently I would suggest the insurance is not worth the paper it is written on; The Clubs finances are such that it has to reduce the administrative burden by a large amount, so whilst many things in the past have been done, does not mean that it can continue into the future if the Club is to survive.

It also appears that generally the contract Chapters are much more active and beneficial to the membership than subsidiary Chapters (a very small number of subsidiary Chapters are good performers). The Club needs to restructure and change to encompass the 21st century. It has been of concern to the BoD for quite a while that many of these things are not right/legal etc and need to be rectified.

Kind regards, Wombat

Thanks for some feedback Mr.Wombat; This should separate the men from the boys then. Most people don’t like change. I will also say that this isn’t going fix everything overnight. If sub chapters were so terrible, they should have not allowed any since what year?
I’m curious as to the formation/inception of each S chapter.
Correct about the insurance, it isn’t good for much.
ATHS truck club provides for our shows I am told, and each chapter is asked for annual financial info at year end. They parallel ACMOC in many ways, except their membership is around 70,000 strong worldwide.
The C chapter just takes the monkey of of nationals back. They say do not use the name Caterpillar or CAT, some might just strike ACMOC’s name as well just for their own safety…
Thanks as usual. JM