ASH champion?

[BP125V]

Very well stated John. Thank you for that post.

[bill van steenwyk]

Thank you for looking that up. The means by which this came up.
Part of the procedure to close out old business is a vote by the membership to ratify the Actions of Officers, Board, Council, Category Chairs and Race Commissions for the prior season. After the Motion and the second, a discussion is allowed to take place. It was asked by a member of the audience to "divide the question", isolating this topic. The remainder of the actions were then voted on and ratified.
The next step was a resolution endorsed by the SORC (not unanimously but by majority) asking for the decision of the National Commissioner to be overturned. The basis for this request was that The SORC followed all rules, regulations and by-laws of the association and was fully within its rights to render the decision it made. There was no reason therefore to review the decision in spite of the appeal.
The bottom line is, without the right to ratify the decisions of the officers of the organization, we would essentially have a dictatorship. To my knowledge, this sort of action has only taken place in only two other instances since the mid fifties. Whether you agree with the results or not, we the lowly membership showed the BOD who is really in charge.
You should have seen the faces on the few "J" drivers that were there when they found out that they're vote, they're voice, was as loud and important as ANYBODY and EVERYBODY in that room.

John:

A couple of questions and whether you or anyone else believes it or not, I have no agenda in asking the questions, and am fully for a democratically operated organization.

Do you think that only having the right to ratify the actions of the BOD, "AT the meeting," is really the way to run a supposedly "democratic" organization with the amount of members APBA has compared with only one hundred members having the opportunity to vote on this compared to the total amount of members in APBA? I know what the by-laws state, just interested in your opinion.

Was prior notice given that the way this was brought about (dividing the question) was going to take place, and was Chairman Eddie involved?

The comment about "showing the BOD who was really in charge":

Was there a push to do the same thing regards the Crowne contract? Based on the amount of questions asked over the last 18 months, including on APBA's own social site, does no one care about how this amount??? of money is being spent and what if any progress has been made towards stated goals??, and what opportunity's exist for return of some or all funds if the goals are not met? If as AA states a line item budget was handed out in the finance meeting, is that to be published and if so, where can it be found?

Thanks for your enlightenment on how this process unfolded.

[Danny Pigott]

The real loser is the organization? Do you even know how an organization works? So what you're saying is the members which pay their hard earned money to be a part of the organization shouldn't have the final say. If so, That's the stupidest thing I've heard from you. By the way most of it is. Do you even know what happened?? Do you even know what the rule is? If you hate it when democracy rules you should check in your citizenship.


AA

I hope you don't talk to me like that , we should all have respect for other people on here.

[hydroracer25]

Whiners (b!tchers) beware!

As one of the organizers of the 2012 SO/J Nationals, I've kept quiet throughout this whole "ASH Appeal" process, but the level of uninformed nonsense that continues has to be put to rest. First off, only 6 of the people that have posted on this thread to date attended the 2012 Nationals (by my count). Does that make you unqualified to post, no, but it may make you uninformed...

Here are some facts: At the driver's meeting the chief inspector stated that you must have a 2012 safety inspection sticker (not a specific "Nationals" safety inspection). The boat in question had the required safety inspection sticker. The boat in question also went through elimination heat inspection and passed, thus allowing the boat/driver into the finals without any note of the pickle forks being illegal.

It was after the finals were completed that the boat was disqualified for having pickleforks that did not meet the rule. Driver appealed his disqualification and won his appeal when the SORC overturned the inspectors/referee ruling. It wasn't that boat in question had a 3 year old sticker or that driver/owner were trying to "get one by the inspectors".

Were there better ways this could have been handled, yes. That goes for all aspects of this issue from the driver/owner, to the qualifications inspection, to the decision, appeal, protest, etc.. Both sides went through due process and yes, it is unfortunate that things had to be dragged out this long. As a member of the race organization that hosted the Nationals I feel bad that both parties have had to go through this and don't want things like this the happen at "my Nationals". Fact is they did.

I'm sick and tired of people coming on this thread and making posts about the SORC, APBA, the race committee, etc. and stating we are losing members because of this and bashing everyone and the organization as a whole. It seems to me that the same people always show up to take advantage of anything that may be perceived to be a "wrong" by APBA or it's club members. This race committee did it's best to host a quality Nationals and hoped all that attended had a good time while at the event. I'd love it if everyone left the Nationals happy and we didn't have the disqualify one person during the week's racing, but we know that neither will be reality at an event like this.

All we can do is learn from our mistakes and try to improve next time. If you're looking for an excuse to quit APBA, this is far from it. If you want to leave then leave, but once you do, quit your b!tching! I've had plenty of issues in my 30 years of racing at Nationals and with the way things were handled before, during and after to walk away from racing. I chose to keep racing because I love it and realize that mistakes are made and that no one is perfect.

Mark Miskerik

[JBM]

Sticker or not, the boat was DQed. I had a similar experience happen to me weeks before this took place. Won the divisional in OSY only to be DQed in the nationals in Depue for a lower unit that didn't pass inspection. Same unit that passed weeks before. It Happens! Move on, get it next yr.

[stevegray]

wow

Wow, at least you all keep giving us some interesting reading! Thanx

[csh2z]

Bill,
I'll start by saying, sometimes I agree with you, sometimetimes I don't. I don't know you personally but I believe your intentions are good, sometimes acting as a devils advocate (nothing wrong with that).
The ratification part of the process can only involve members "at the meeting" because that is the only time a challenge can be brought forth from the membership. There is no way to know in advance if any decisions will be challenged. Remember, this has only happened now three times in the past 55 years! Is it right that only 100 people can represent the entire membership? On the surface it seems unfair but two things come to mind, one - Every member has the opportunity to be there, and some would say, the obligation to be there. Therefore everybody did have the right to vote in the process. Secondly, the 100 people is probably an arbitrary number not relative to the population of the organization. I couldn't justify changing it, nobody knows how many members are going to attend. It's no different than any election or ballot item, usually less than 50% of the membership bother to vote anyway, therefore less than 50% determine our future.
As far as the Crowne contract. Regretfully, nobody asked and as a representative for my Region and for Stock Outboard, I apologize for that. However, that doesn't preclude me from trying to get those answers for you all and I will do what I can to find out.
Maybe the APBA Annual Meeting should be earlier in the week when the energy level is up, rather than the end of the week when the intensity dies down and all you want to do is go home and get working on those boats & motors.

[adamallen]

John:

A couple of questions and whether you or anyone else believes it or not, I have no agenda in asking the questions, and am fully for a democratically operated organization.

Do you think that only having the right to ratify the actions of the BOD, "AT the meeting," is really the way to run a supposedly "democratic" organization with the amount of members APBA has compared with only one hundred members having the opportunity to vote on this compared to the total amount of members in APBA? I know what the by-laws state, just interested in your opinion.

Was prior notice given that the way this was brought about (dividing the question) was going to take place, and was Chairman Eddie involved?

The comment about "showing the BOD who was really in charge":

Was there a push to do the same thing regards the Crowne contract? Based on the amount of questions asked over the last 18 months, including on APBA's own social site, does no one care about how this amount??? of money is being spent and what if any progress has been made towards stated goals??, and what opportunity's exist for return of some or all funds if the goals are not met? If as AA states a line item budget was handed out in the finance meeting, is that to be published and if so, where can it be found?

Thanks for your enlightenment on how this process unfolded.

It can be found at the National Meeting. Additionally, Crown Prtners gave a wonderful presentation of where the website has taken us thus far and where we are going.

AA

[Blackhawkguy]

The process worked

Seem's to me the process worked-just because you do not like the result does not meen the process is flawed-we spend bilions of dollars overthowing governments to free the people and give them democracy but then don't like who the free people elect. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Remember the organization is you the member-so when you bash it-you are bashing yourself-if you want change make the effort to vote and attend meetings and comunicate with your elected reps-in this day and age of e-mail and social media there is no excusse to not be able to get in touch with someone-if you have enought time to get on here and rant and rave then take the same amount of time and do the right thing and touch base with the person or persones who can help you make the changes you wish for.

Kerry

[Turtle]

In the words of the great Rodney King..."Why can't we all just get along."

Happy racing to all, and to all a good night.

[Dave M]

Aa

The real loser is the organization? Do you even know how an organization works? So what you're saying is the members which pay their hard earned money to be a part of the organization shouldn't have the final say. If so, That's the stupidest thing I've heard from you. By the way most of it is. Do you even know what happened?? Do you even know what the rule is? If you hate it when democracy rules you should check in your citizenship.


AA

AA,

I think you may have not read my post right. I said accept it, move on, and fix the problem.

I get it that you don't like me, and guess what, that is fine. Not everyone can be buddies. Without contorversy nothing improves.

I will give you one little piece of advice, don't question my citizenship and think I won't take offense to it. You honestly only know me from this website, right ? If you base your judgements of a person from a blog, then you sir, need to wake up and take a sip of reality. I think to prevent any future meetings of you & I from turing south in a hurry, we should agree to disagree and move along. You are uniformed about my understanding of how APBA works. And you are certainly out of line questioning my love of America. Don't P.M. me either.

[Big Don]

Mark I could never say it as well as you did. Nice post.

To me it does not matter what side you agree with. What you have to like is that the process worked. I have had several people tell me that it’s not fair that some knew how to approach the BOD at the meeting on this and that some don’t. To that I say, you’re are correct we all don’t understand all the rules and stuff. But, all of us have to know people in and outside this sport that can read our rules and know how Roberts Rules work. (we all have to know a lawyer or two also?) If you don’t know the rules, you need to ask. I call others all the time to ask their opinions.

I love the fact that the process worked. If the vote had gone the other way, I would think the same thing…the members made the decision. That’s all we can ask for. This is what we all fought for in the Summer of 2003.

[Team 12R]

Insurance Standpoint

I wonder how our insurance carrier feels that our organization has just said "we don't care about safety"? A majority of our general membership just told our insurance providers that we are going to ignore our own safety guidelines.

[Big Don]

No one ever said we don’t care about safety. The insurance company did not come up with that rule, we did, and no one is ignoring it. Some just felt that it was too harsh of penalty for the situation

[Team 12R]

Don, come on....

That whole sponson tip rule had so much involved and by so many it may be one of the most well researched rules we have. The fact remains that the sponson tips were found at final inspection to be illegal. What did we do? We showed our insurance carriers that our bilaws are so well written that we have loopholes to supersede safety rules that underwriters take into consideration when issuing our policies. I remember you and Eddie both not so calm a month ago when the appeal was held to the inspectors findings at grass lake. Now you act as you are satisfied and content. I'm only concerned that the slick action at the annual meeting could cost me more money to race. The bottom line is at the end of the final heat at apba inspection the tips were found to be illegal. Our own rules say the boat should be disqualified. This is a safety rule Don. We told our insurance carrier that a sticker from a local region race probably handed to George without looking at his boat closer (beacuse its been looked at for years) is enough to ignore a blatant violation at our national race.