Region 1 2nd VP

[rickandsandi]

Good afternoon fellow Region 1 members. I would like to take a brief moment to introduce myself as one of the candidates for the Region 1 2nd VP position. I am a member of the New England Unit and very happy and proud to be a member of WBCCI. My wife Sandi and I live in Bethel, CT and have made lots of wonderful friends within WBCCI and look forward to many, many more years of camping with everyone. If you are interested in learning a little more about me I have attached a short letter of introduction. Please feel free to email me with questions. I would like to thank you in advance for your support and your vote!

J. Rick Cipot

[SilverCabin]

You would have my vote, but I'm in Region 3.

Good luck,

Randy

[Goin camping]

Good luck to you!

While I'm in Region 12. I have read many of your posts and I think you would be a great choice for Leadership.

It gives me hope that you and hopefully other like minded people are stepping up to be the new generation of leaders.

The last generation put in a lot of hard work, time and effort into our Club. You will have to do even more. I think you are the right choice for the job

Milo

[moosetags]

Best of luck in your quest.

[mistral blue]

Originally Posted by Goin camping

I have read many of your posts and I think you would be a great choice for Leadership.

It gives me hope that you and hopefully other like minded people are stepping up to be the new generation of leaders.

The last generation put in a lot of hard work, time and effort into our Club. You will have to do even more. I think you are the right choice for the job

Milo

(my emphasis added)

Having known both Rick and Sandi personally for many years, I can say with the utmost confidence that Rick would make an excellent Region officer. This man lives and breathes aluminum and there is no one more devoted to the future success of the WBCCI.

I know of no better choice.

[dudebb]

Good luck Rick! I'd vote for you if I could but I'm in region 2, I believe (just emailed my application yesterday and received a reply today as to where to send my check). Anyone who gets married at a wedding rally must bleed aluminum. Hope it works out for you.

[rickandsandi]

Good morning Leo-

WOW! Some really great questions and I felt the need to post to your post ASAP! Right now it is 6:30 AM my time so I will not answer your question this morning. Please allow me a day since I will be in the library (yes I still do research for ASLM in the library at times) after work this evening. You have some very excellent points of which I am in accord with and a few that I think need to modified. Yes, our organization is getting smaller and one of the very first concerns of the leadership should be member attraction and advoidance of member divide admendments. I look forward to answering you questions completely!

J. Rick

[ArtStream]

GT65,

Great questions!

These should be the standard questions for all candidates!

Michael

[Nuvite-F]

Originally Posted by 65GT

What are your thoughts an MALs? Frank Carson, the new International Membership Chair, says that roughly 18% of MALs don't renew. Should the club eliminate MAL status and assign members to a unit closest to them? Should the club grandfather current MALs and allow them to remain non-affiliated?

I haven't heard a figure for MAL non-renewals before, but if I remember correctly that during the last renewal cycle something like 1,275 out of 7,300 members failed to renew. 1275/7300 = 17%, not significantly different from the MAL non-renewal rate. So MAL non-renewal may not be a problem per se.

[rickandsandi]

Good afternoon Leo and my fellow WBCCI members. As promised I would like to address some of Leo's well thought out question:

How do I feel about merging Region's 1 & 2-
Right now I would not consider merging the two regions together for two reasons. First, Region 1 currently covers a very large geographical area. Increasing the size would put a burden on the Region 1 Officers as it is required that they attend rallies and functions throughout the region during their term. Second, I believe that we will see member growth within the next five years and then we would need to revise again the regional boundries.

As for the second question of 12 vs. 6 regions I think I have covered that with the above respose.

Would I support a change to end the single candidate slate: Tough one, the way the system 'appears' to work now is that officers automatically move up. If we are discussing this in the International slate there are provisions as we have seen for nominations from the floor which never seems to work well and consumes hours and hours of time. Of course we as members of the organization do see at times that there is possibly a better person for the position after seeing an officer sit for two years. I also fully understand the need for officers to work their way up [a problem I am personally facing right now] through the ranks to learn the process. I would not be opposed to a change that would allow a process put into place that with a min. number of signatures from a region to place their Regional President onto a ballot. There would be a lot of work to be done but it could be done.

Roll call votes: Having yet to experience this for myself I would defer comment at this time.

Regular member requirments: I believe I have stated my opion on this quite strongly. In fact while being interviewed by the nominating committee, they produced one of my posts on this very forum and asked me to explain my comments. I gues they thought they had me in the hot seat. I firmly stand behind the requirment that you must own a hard sided unit produced by Airstream. I will NOT vote for any proposal or emendment that deviates from this very basic fundamental founding of our club.

Mail Ballots: Right now almost every WBCCI unit has provisions for mail-in ballots. Other than the logistics and expense, I would support a system that would allow each and every WBCCI member to vote and for that vote to be counted on the International level.

more to follow......

[wkerfoot]

Originally Posted by rickandsandi

Good afternoon Leo and my fellow WBCCI members. As promised I would like to address some of Leo's well thought out question:

How do I feel about merging Region's 1 & 2-
Right now I would not consider merging the two regions together for two reasons. First, Region 1 currently covers a very large geographical area. Increasing the size would put a burden on the Region 1 Officers as it is required that they attend rallies and functions throughout the region during their term. Second, I believe that we will see member growth within the next five years and then we would need to revise again the regional boundries.

As for the second question of 12 vs. 6 regions I think I have covered that with the above respose.

...

Rick,

While Regions 1 and 2 cover a large area, where are the unit rallies held? Are they any farther apart than El Paso Del Norte and Wyoming in Region 11?

Bill

[Goin camping]

Originally Posted by 65GT

I believe that number represents 1st time MAL members not renewing -- i.e., 18% do not renew after their first year.

Unfortunately the path that the club has taken by allowing online registration and by allowing only MAL dues to be accepted online may be creating a percentage of MALs signing up than in years past.

__

Every month the Blue Beret lists the new Members.

If you see Unit #000. You know they are MAL. Email them a welcome and invite them to your Unit.

I'm getting a very high response from these new Members.

[mistral blue]

Originally Posted by Goin camping

Every month the Blue Beret lists the new Members.

If you see Unit #000. You know they are MAL. Email them a welcome and invite them to your Unit.

I'm getting a very high response from these new Members.

Karma 2 ya. Excellent idea!

[rickandsandi]

Originally Posted by wkerfoot

Rick,

While Regions 1 and 2 cover a large area, where are the unit rallies held? Are they any farther apart than El Paso Del Norte and Wyoming in Region 11?

Bill

Bill, we have six units in our region from Connecticut up to and including Canada. Each unit holds rallies in their perspective areas and the Region Rally as in other regions moves from one unit to the next year after year.

Charter Oak Connecticut
New England
White Mountains
Canadian Atlantic
Quebec Canada
Cape Cod

[wkerfoot]

Originally Posted by rickandsandi

Bill, we have six units in our region from Connecticut up to and including Canada. Each unit holds rallies in their perspective areas and the Region Rally as in other regions moves from one unit to the next year after year.

Charter Oak Connecticut
New England
White Mountains
Canadian Atlantic
Quebec Canada
Cape Cod

Rick,

I understand that, but if you plotted the rally locations for all of the units in both regions, how far apart would they be? We have 13 units in Region 12 and the farthest rally locations are probably about 500 miles apart, although I have not plotted them.

Bill

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by rickandsandi

Good afternoon Leo and my fellow WBCCI members. As promised I would like to address some of Leo's well thought out question:


Mail Ballots: Right now almost every WBCCI unit has provisions for mail-in ballots. Other than the logistics and expense, I would support a system that would allow each and every WBCCI member to vote and for that vote to be counted on the International level.

more to follow......

Rick, the units may have a provision for mail in ballots, but some of them seem to be provisional based on whether or not there is a "proposal when such is deemed desirable or necesary."

In our case the NEU provision for a mail in ballot voting needs to be updated to include all forms of voting. Unless I am reading this wrong (Article 6 Section 6 of the NEU Constitution) a vote can either be all mail in or all handled at a meeting and this choice is decided on by I don't really know who; I was told the President. Someone should not have to be at a meeting to be able to have their vote count.

At the same time, people choosing to use their votes should make the effort to educate themselves on the issues.

I am looking forward to hearing the rest of your responses to Leo's questions.

Kristine

[mistral blue]

Originally Posted by wkerfoot

Rick,

I understand that, but if you plotted the rally locations for all of the units in both regions, how far apart would they be? We have 13 units in Region 12 and the farthest rally locations are probably about 500 miles apart, although I have not plotted them.

Bill

I just did a quick scan of Regions 1 and 2. It's pretty big! I was surprised. I'm sure there's bigger of course.

I also imagined if I were grand poobah for a month and wanted to visit some rallys. From my house in CT to Trois Rivieres, QC - 7 hours, 23 minutes, 437 miles. From there to Orillia, ON - 8 hours, 12 minutes, 452 miles. From there to Staunton, VA - 11 hours, 12 minutes, 667 miles. From there to home - 7 hours, 33 minutes, 450 miles.

1 month, 3 rallies, 34 hours & 21 minutes driving time, 2006 miles.

And from Eureka to Chula Vista your looking at 772 miles. 1 State. 1 way!

Ouch!

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by mistral blue

I just did a quick scan of Regions 1 and 2. It's pretty big! I was surprised. I'm sure there's bigger of course.

I also imagined if I were grand poobah for a month and wanted to visit some rallys. From my house in CT to Trois Rivieres, QC - 7 hours, 23 minutes, 437 miles. From there to Orillia, ON - 8 hours, 12 minutes, 452 miles. From there to Staunton, VA - 11 hours, 12 minutes, 667 miles. From there to home - 7 hours, 33 minutes, 450 miles.

1 month, 3 rallies, 34 hours & 21 minutes driving time, 2006 miles.

And from Eureka to Chula Vista your looking at 772 miles. 1 State. 1 way!

Ouch!

Great stats, Don! Nice Job!

[rickandsandi]

Good morning Leo- I will be getting back to the rest of your questions, but for someone who has so much to say, ideas etc. why is is that we don't see your name on a ballot? As a Unit Officer you too must be very concerned and do have the opportunity to make change. In fact your chances of getting into a regional office are quite a bit better than mine at this point because of you tenure. Just wondering. Wouldn't it be great that we could change everything in one giant fell swoop? Nothing is that easy. It is required that a Regional Officer visit each unit at least once during their term. Since I consider the next generation of WBCCI, early 50's, family man, two income household, I could not travel (thanks for the homework Don!) throughout new new proposed joint by you Region 1. In addition, have you been asking any questions or requested comments from the nominated candidate for Region 1, 2nd VP? I am sorry you feel that I am of the old mold and just another Red Coat. Please take a moment to read my past posts here on the forum and you will see things much differently I promise. In truth, the reason I did not recieve the nomination from the committee was because of my hard stand for change as noted here on the forum and they had printed out hard copies and attached to my resume.

Rick

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by mistral blue

I just did a quick scan of Regions 1 and 2. It's pretty big! I was surprised. I'm sure there's bigger of course.

I also imagined if I were grand poobah for a month and wanted to visit some rallys. From my house in CT to Trois Rivieres, QC - 7 hours, 23 minutes, 437 miles. From there to Orillia, ON - 8 hours, 12 minutes, 452 miles. From there to Staunton, VA - 11 hours, 12 minutes, 667 miles. From there to home - 7 hours, 33 minutes, 450 miles.

1 month, 3 rallies, 34 hours & 21 minutes driving time, 2006 miles.

And from Eureka to Chula Vista your looking at 772 miles. 1 State. 1 way!

Ouch!

I'd add that next year's Region 1 rally is 600 miles from my house...and Don and Rick are 200 miles in the other direction. 800 miles, one way, for them. All of these locations are well within the geographical bounds of Region 1.