For starters "we" didn't piss any money away on pins, "we" had nothing to do with it. The EC made those decisions. Thankfully they don't put routine matters like that out to vote. Of course this fits squarely into the "damned if they do, damned if they don't" category. They took an opportunity to do a nice thing for all those folks who actually get involved in activities at the club level, and they get hammered by a few people...well actually one or two as it turns out. All that money they spent! So far the alternative use for that money (peanuts really) could have been just given away to club, used to underwrite discounts for E-5's and below, and now we see it could have been spend to pay Ernst and Young or Price Waterhouse to count the votes. Right. Odd that this kind of good dead would be vilified, but not surprising. I'm waiting for the outrage about the whole get a discount on your membership for CD'ing two events. Curious that one hasn't been talked about yet, it's only been around for how long?

So back to that whole sublet out the counting process to the professional thing again...any idea Mike how much that would cost? How long would it take the AMA to "recoup" that investment? How much would it cost to have the votes votes counted and ensure that the process was handled appropriately? What if only 10% of the members vote, that's upwards of 16,000 pieces of paper to handle right? I suspect you don't know what time would be involved in that, or the type of accounting firm who would specialize in that would cost, but it's significant. Think in the $10,000 range. Do you think that's a cost effective and appropriate use of our dues? I don't, but they didn't ask, but that's fine with me, they were elected to do a job and make decisions, not check in with the membership on every decision. Odd that this didn't seem to be an issue for you when the regional VP ballots were tallied up and the decisions made. Not a peep out of anyone for that matter. So the AMA decides to take another cost cutting measure, and get vilified for it. Seems customary.

A final thought, why again would there be this conspiracy to rig an election for a voluntary position that pays.....nothing?