Ahrma- jeff smith call to action

Fair is foul, and foul is fair,
hover through the fog and filthy air...

Double, double toil and trouble,
fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

 

po EM everybody... little charles has a po- EM...

 

po EM? po EM?

We don't need no stinkin' po EMs.

 

Precisely. This is what we need to be discussing as it is the only viable means of changing the rules.

So, term limits? No confidence votes? What kind of reasonable change can we propose that has a chance with the voters and the board?

BTW, I think a town hall meeting @ barber is a great idea and possibly showing our concern in unison in a coherent way at the official town hall meeting is a good idea. If we ask the right questions and voice our concerns as adults, we will be heard.

 

If I am not mistaken in the past at Barber there have been two seperate town hall meetings, one for dirt & one for RR.

The meeting needs to be at a time & place that all of the racers can attend.
I don't know 7pm Saturday at the winners circle for RR or even if we have to travel over the hill to were the dirt crowd is.

 

You neglected to mention the torches, pitchforks, and hot tar...

 

Here's an email that I received today:

PASS THIS AROUND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

AHRMA'S rulebook has been repeated amended to ADD punitive rules to be used against those members who did not agree with SMITH. SMITH and BENDELOW rigged the rulebook to create infractions for those who did not violate rules, to silence them by making them inelligible to ride, suspend them, make them pay ahrma's attorney's fees, and terminate the memberships

SMITH was forced out of the AMA due to financial impropriety. this was not an amicable resignation.

BENELOW represented and represents SMITH in the ongoing AMA controversy. BENDELOW must be fired from AHRMA . BENDELOW is in a conflict of interest with SMITH and AHRMA. BENDELOW cannot represent AHRMA's interest which are /and/ or appear/ to be in conflict with SMITH's interest. BENDELOW's removal is in in addition to SMITH being removed from AHRMA.


AHRMA has a "secret agreement "with SMITH to indemnify SMITH if SMITH is sued or a judgement is taken against SMITH. THE MEMBERS HAVE AN ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS SMITH AGREEMENT AND THE TERMS.


WHAT WE NEED TO DO?

1) fire SMITH

2) remove all AHRMA trustee's(GANG OF FIVE) who approved the secret indemnification agreement with SMITH
3) find out how much money AHRMA has spent with BENDELOW..SMITH has used AHRMA's accounts and AHRMA's BENEVOLENT FUND TO pay his lawyer to litigate issues he created and caused. SMITH AND BENDELOW ARE BOTH IN A CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITH THE AHRMA MEMBERS
End of email


So now what????????????

Does anyone have any idea how Jeff Smith could have gotten the majority of the board to agree to indemnifying him?

I recall that when Jeff Smith was voted back on the board as Treasurer that he gave the board a list of 7 demands. Apparently this is one of them. How in the frig could the board go along with an open ended liability like this?

And this Bendelow/Smith, Bendelow/AHRMA conflict? Can't anyone see the stupidity and utter arogance of such an arrangement? Further, why the fuck is Bendelow even on the company dole? His totally fucked up worthless advice as council brought AHRMA to its knees in the first place.

Maybe AHRMA deserves Smith and Bendelow if they're kept on.

 

Roger has already mentioned this, but I will reinforce. The town hall is necessary, but support from the dirt devils is essential. This is NOT a RR issue; it IS an AHRMA issue. I do not know any of the racers on the dirt side, so those of you who do need to contact them and get their participation in this action. The details can be worked out over the winter, but without their support the chances of success are much more slim.

What the board needs to understand right now is that this is not another bitch session. We are serious about cleaning up our organization and bringing it back to the membership.

Here's my BTW. I don't know Jeff Smith personally, and I don't know but a few Board members, BUT I do know people like Smith and Boards like ours. Smith is termed a generally nice guy. That makes him very difficult to oppose. He has that political savvy. Our Board is made of of generally nice people who think the best intentions of everyone. I can see exactly how we all got in this mess. (insert Choo Choo icon here). The Board members who are listening and reading need to take a stand, to bring this to an open vote. Most likely there will be an attempt to remove them from the board. If that happens, they can appeal their removal by requesting a vote of the membership. We vote them back in, and we start over again. AND we continue until this issue is resolved.

In the meantime, we petition for a change in the by-laws as has already been noted by the likes of Beezalax (sure wish I knew all your names).

 

Stu? Stu? Wake up! You're back in orbit, come down. Everyone had moved on past the rhetoric and was trying to find some answers and work up a plan and you post your rant again. We're looking for some help, not the same old cr*p arm waving that hasn't gotten us anywhere in the last 3 years.

 

kevin,

i think you need to recalculate. factor corner-workers, ambulances, advertising, administrative, as well as making a profit....for future events that operate as a loss. remember, roadracing is only one part of ahrma.

my thoughts....oh yeah, and sack the toad.

tex

 

A point well taken, Tex. and appreciated. My point was to only draw a bead on the revenue stream brought in through the one part of the organization I am familiar with. We generate big dollars and we spend the same. My biggest curiosity is to understand how we fit into the whole of the financial picture. 37 years of competition have taught me this is an expensive past time, and I am pretty pissed off that one man's arrogance has nearly caused the collapse of an organization I've grown very fond of. The people I've met here are the best, and many of them I'd probably never see again if the club was gone.

 

Karl, You need to pay more attention so let me review my last post in a more simple light for you:

Note the email that I copied from Buff Harsh. Buff's email starts: Pass this around....then Buff's email ends with the statement 'SMITH AND BENDELOW ARE BOTH IN A CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITH THE AHRMA MEMBERS'

My comments commence after that where I expand on NEW information. So were you aware that AHRMA has indemnified Jeff Smith when the 5 board members reinstated him to the position of Treasurer? This is truly new information to me and everyone else. This is not a rant, Karl, this is new and very disturbing information. Who would give Smith an open ended protective covenant like this?

Further NEW information, Karl, was also posted in Buff's email that disclosed a conflict of interest for Bendelow being counsel to Smith in the ongoing AMA investigation as well as continuing to serve as counsel to AHRMA. One can not serve two masters. Karl, how can we not take a closer look at this relationship? First, for me is the amazing and stomach wrenching information that Bendelow is still on AHRMA's payroll. As has been eloquently pointed out by BSA guy, there are real issues here. I mean, who in there right mind would keep the lawyer who adviced you and then you got your clock cleaned? This isn't even addressing how he can represent Smith in the ongoing fraud investigation that Smith is intricately involved in AND represent AHRMA. I've had some experience with the legal world and I'll bet that any lawyer out there will say this is a delicate situation at best and at worse a conflict of interest. I'll bet that most lawyers wouldn't touch this relationship with a ten foot pole.

Karl, I'm not ranting about 3 year old information. Look, the hits just keep on coming as our concerned members dig deeper and deeper. You couldn't write a novel this convoluted.

I signed my name to Buff Harsh's petition. Did you?

 

Most interesting, Stu...I think Karl gets wound up by the 'style' of your presentations rather than by the actual content...his response to this post should be noteworthy...thanks for posting this.

 

Karl drinks the Kool Aid. Ignore him.

Y'all know where I stand on these issues. 'Nuff said.

 

Yes, a few days ago.

I'm a little surprised that e-mail came from Buff; you didn't identify it as such, and it was pretty crude by Buff's standards. It wasn't even clear in your post what part was the e-mail you were quoting, or if any of it was. i.e., "Fire Smith" - it's already been noted in this thread that there is a specific procedure for getting rid of a trustee. "Firing" them isn't it.

Maybe you should be spending your time organizing a mailing fund. If anything is to get done, there will have to be a mailing or two to all the members, and of course, AHRMA won't pay for that. It will cost roughly $2000/mailing.

 

I would like to start a fund for a mailing. This is a good idea and one that I have considered. There are plenty of people not on the internet or this board that will need to know about what is happening. Karl- you are right- my email was very direct- but I stand behind it. I don't mind saying that Jeff and his 5 majority board members need to be fired. I have gone beyond the guilt of being politically correct- I am just looking to provide real information.

 

Karl- this is something you could address: why is it, tell me, that "AHRMA" is spoken (or written) about as if it is some 'thing' other than a collection of its members? Does the formality of the operating personnel (HQ) exist for some other reason except for the purpose of serving the members, without which it would simply be several pieces of paper with some names, dates, and official stamps?

You do raise a good point: that there needs to be some organization to the effort to (fill in the blank space). By the way, can't some information be transmitted by email? Are the members email addresses listed somewhere?

 

Would He or She or Them work better for you than It?

Mail and/or e-mail addresses would have to be obtained from the AHRMA office. Don't forget, there are probably some members that don't use e-mail, although that may be a small number.

 

Before you guys get any more wound up, could you wait for some more facts to come out? Some of those mysterious by-law changes that you fear were secretly passed in the dark of night included: Changing the address of the Principal Office to Dave Lamberth's. WOOOOOOOO. Scary....
I've found that if you want to win an argument, sticking to the truth usually helps credibility immensely.

 

You mean I should stop poking these guys with a stick? I'm having soooo much fun. Sometimes I can even get someone who hasn't been posting to chime in.

BTW, did you know that I got Stu to post his rant 3 times in one month a couple years ago?