JUGFLIER

So now in my case i was voted out of the club by nine members. The club had about two years befor that close to, if not over, 40 members. Our club was given a peice of land in a landfill to put up a flying field. We were paying 1200 bucks a year rent on a piece of land before moving. The club dues were 40 bucks a year for regular membership, and 20.00 for senior citizens. The proposal to the club was that we could take the 1200.00 dolars a year we were paying for rent AND INVEST IT IN nice facilities and at that time comparisons were made with the Huntsville al. club, that we could possibly in 5 or 6 years have a very nice field. There were a core group of people who showed up and did the lions share of the work. The runway was laid, safety fence installed and our building moved from the old field. The first year we had a good time, the club grew with about ten new members that first year. That was very good growth for our area. The problem began when a few of the people who had helped procure the property and then helped get a grant from AMA then began to act as if it was his personal field to decide who could fly there and who couldnt. The decision was made that we did't need the "old farts" in the club. Their words not mine. The people who were retired and paid only 20.00 dollars a year. Many of these people could not fly because of health reasons, bad eyesight, or other health reasons. These men, many of them, had been in the club since its formation, and helped teach me to fly as a young teenager. These men paid their dues every year even though they didn't fly. they would come out and hang out at the field, come to business meetings, mow the grass, repair the lawnmower, and just about anything else that needed to be done. When us younger guys came out on the weekend to fly, well, that's what we did,FLY.

JUGFLIER

As i said, the decision was made to get rid of the old farts, this was really the beginning of the bad blood in the club. A proposal was beginning to float around that they wanted to raise the dues to 100.00 dollars. Keep in mind, we paid no rent. The club was raising $1200.00 a year prior to this for rent plus the expense of maint and upkeep on the old field. When i really questioned the wisdom of this i was told it was to get rid of "the old farts". I argued that the value of these people went far beyond money and that we would lose many people who were younger and had small kids and wouldn't be able to afford the increase. I was told this was an expensive hobby and if you could't afford the dues you need to find another hobby. When the proposal was put forward in the club meeting the club was lied to to get people to vote for it. We automatically lost about 25 people when the dues were raised. In that year i repeatedly pointed out the devastating effect of this bad decision, and successfully argued my points to show that those who had pushed and manipulated the club to get the dues raised had made a mistake. Needless to say the movers and shakers at this time was the doctors. If anyone need to understand what happens when you tell a doctor that he is wrong and back it up by logic, one only need read this thread and see the berading i have taken from a certain doctor in this thread.

JUGFLIER

Well you would think a sensible man would try to remedy the situation sensibly. A problem had cropped up, the old farts were gone and there was no one to mow the grass or keep up the field. Well these sensible ding dongs decided in the december 2005 meeting to levy an additional $50.00 field maintenance fee on anyone NOT wanting to mow grass. Do you see this already? The doctors would pay 50.00 bucks and only fly and the rest of us lowly serfs would pay $100 plus mow the grass for the docs. We should be happy, after all according to their reasoning if we played golf (lord help us) we would pay 300 to 500 a year in club dues. If we deer hunted we would pay more. We were told that we should be paying 200 or 300 a year to fly at our field. Remember free land, AMA paid for our runway.

JUGFLIER

Well is it getting good yet? After the december meeting there was a crack in the once solid front portrayed by the club. a great number of people were upset and came to me to bring some sanity back into our club.In the January meeting we called the doctors to task, one was club president and after i stood up to him he resigned. BOTH were publicly humiliated. We dropped the "lordship" rule and dispensed with the field maint fee, and lowered the dues to 60 bucks. There was a lot of hard feelings but after a few months it apeared that the club was starting to move ahead. Well what happened next was that one by one people who had defied the docs were villified, hounded, threatened, untill they had a slim majority. During this time the forum section of the club website was being used to threaten members and just generally trying to create disharmony in the club. The club website was also run by the then president. The acting president barely had the money to pay his rent, the doctor basically helped him thru the hobby my giving planes, radios, ect. to him. While this is admirable, this acting president gave him the run of the club and the website. This is where the greatest abuse in the club took place, people were literally ran off. In January the club had voted guidelines for the website and ordered the webmaster/pres. to inforce them. The club was tired of the antics of some on the website. You guys got a taste of it in the previous thread. The doc starts the fight then sends in his 4 little lap dogs to fight his battles for him, then stands back and watches.

JUGFLIER

Before the May meeting i had informed the club president/ webmaster of the vote of the clb and ordered him to remove offensive posts. He posted on the website that it was his and he did not have to obey any vote of the clb and no vote of the club wold force him to do so. When we came to the May meeting we had a slim majority, and we were united on cleaning up the club even if it meant removing another president. The doc pounded his fist on the table, threatened the vice president, threw down his membership card and stormed out. While i was trying to get the club to see the importance of inforcing our rules he stormed back in and told me to shut the bleep up. I had had enough of his intimidation and told him to shut me up. He attempted to come around the table but was restrained by a 65 or so old man. It is interesting he hated old farts but it was one who saved him from making one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

JUGFLIER

What really angered me was the people who before the meeting had wanted to clean up the club, got intimidated and voted to keep the website, the president and the status quo.
Two things occured to me that nite. Why was i fighting for people who wouldnt fight for themselves? That now that i had lost this showdown vote, i was the next one to get run out.
Well less than 30 days later i was accused of vandalism and destruction of club property and voted out by nine members. Nine out of what had previously been over 25.

JUGFLIER

its getting late and tomorrow i will lay out the circumstances of why i was accused of vandalism.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

I am really glad that the club that I am the President off does not have these kind of issue's. All clubs have the members that will do what ever it takes to make the club run and function and the members who fly only. My club is blessed with a large number of retired folks and with out them we would be a mess. These gentlmen will do what ever is needed and do it without being asked. They spend hours teaching new students, both retired and younger pilot's which has increased our membership, which has added to our treausury. We also pay rent every month and just voted in a minor dues increase, ear marked for field improvements only. Our field is located on County property and the club does all the maintance. As a working man, I can only fly on the weekends. When I go to the field, it has been groomed and maintained by all the retired members who fly during the week and do not fly on the weekend so the working members have more air time. I cannot tell you just how much our club values these retired members and I am glad to have them as my freinds as well. These gentlmen are a wealth of information and just plain good folks to sit and visit with. Reading about all the discord in some other club's, I am truely honored to be part of a club that settles it's issue's in a responsible manner and does not resort to expelling members for having a differing thought process. If you have an AMA card and are in the area, give me a call, you are welcome to visit our field for a flight or two. Good Luck, Dave

Hossfly

Very nice A.gar. your experience is the way things SHOULD be. Unfortunately even in this supposedly gentlemanly sport of aeromodeling it ain't always that way. I enjoyed such myself for many years. I have also been witness to the situation that JUGFLIER speaks of.

As JUGFLIER reports there are those that because they wish to stand above rather than serve, get elected to positions of some power. They cannot lead thus they use intimidation, fear, ridicule, and sarcasm as their tools. Works for a SHORT while and then the tools no longer get the job done. Yet so few will stand up and oppose ditactorship.

Then as JUGFLIER brings to focus, those that should be saying "_ell NO I won't GO," squeeze down into their corner and crawl away from whomever is being nailed to the cross because he was trying to right the wrongs. It's apparent every day in almost every way.

rcuman

All I can say is that I have been a member of the club in question for 3 out of the 8 years it has been in operation. I have never in my life met so many nice people than the members of this club whom I have also become friends with. I am not going to give JUGFLIER the satisfaction of goading me into another bash fight. If you want to find out for yourselves how our club really is please feel free to come on down to our field when the weather is better. Remember you are only hearing one side of the story and if I tell ours, it will only lead to another bashing contest. We are trying to move on as a club and do not need this type of stuff anymore.
Enough said.
Or typed.

JUGFLIER

Then your doc buddy needs to shut up. By the way nice club? You got rid of that red neck confederate battle flag that flies over your field every weekend?

JUGFLIER

Thank you gentlemen for your support. So many of these men who were not wanted were retired veterans of wars. At least two were retired naval vets who served in vietnam, one retired army, who served in vietnam, many others who had served their country in some compacity. They fought for us but no one, but me i suppose, was willing to fight for them. In April 2004 before it went bad, i went to Toledo with the doc. It was eye opening, his rants against "old farts" stemmed from his complaint that medicare capped what he could charge, and that they only paid so much and he couldn't collect the difference from the patient. This was at the heart of his adamant opposition to any kind of senior citizen discount. The old qcrcc club had since its beginning a senior citizen discount, to my understanding.

JUGFLIER

Much of what i have posted here happened before you ever joined the club. From day one you tried to get into the big dog club. That was a private club within a club headed by the doc. You have refused to listen to anyone who was in the club before you. You know nothing of what i say because you refuse to listen to noone but THE big dog.
I lay a challenge at your feet. Print out this post and take it to Randy and let him read it. Then ask him to tell you if it is the truth. Go to the field on savannah and let the older club members read it, let them tell if you if i lie. But becareful you don't start to call them names.

rcuman

I really do not care what happened in the past before I became a member. I know what has transpired for the past 3 years.
Oh By the way, I would appreciate it if you did not refer to me by my first name. I have kept your name anonymous in all of my replies. I expect the same from you!

JUGFLIER

My humblest apologies. your wish is my command.

EdFly

Oh well, here we go again. JUGFLYER, you are right. You have always been right, and you will continue to be right infinitum. We are very bad people, and we deserve what ever fate comes to us. We deserve to lose our field, we deserve to have the AMA come down on us, and we should all lose our planes and flight equipment. Everything you have said and will say in the future will be 100% truthfull and will paint the perfect picture of our club. We are all looking for other places to fly, because we can't stand to be in each others sight. Maybe some of us can even come and fly with you at your new field if we can prove we did not have allegience with the evil doctors that ruled our club with an iron fist. I can only imagine what it would be like to be so perfect all of the time. Looks like I hitched my star to the wrong waggon. Please sir, can I have some more?

EdFly

Right again JUGFLIER.... We purposefully targeted Veterens in our club for termination. We didn't want their kind anywhere near us. And when one of those nasty vets come up to watch us fly, and started telling "war stories", oh well I don't have to tell you what we did to them. I hope I am helping JUGFLIER, my memory is not quite it used to be....

JUGFLIER

Edfly. There was time when i thought there was a kinship between us. You alone remain in the club that i have believed would somehow respond to the truth. I have always believed of al of them in your club, you were the one that could be saved. I have all but lost hope for you.

You partner has been baned from your old flying site BY THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY. This is because he had to deal with him for many years. It was because of this the rent went up just about every year. When the older members left qcrcc and negotiated to get the old field back, the owner said he could NEVER come back. The other fields in this area does not want him.

You just 2 weeks ago tried to get back into the old field. You tried to bring another of your current members with you. Three other of your members have gone to the old field and tried to get in. They were not successful.

Your doc buddy started this by, IN HIS USUAL FASHION, ran to the internet to bash someone who disagreed with him. JUST AS HE DID ON THE CLUB WEBSITE AND SUCCESSFULLY DESTROYED YOUR CLUB. All this happened in front of your eyes. The whole time YOU made excuses for them.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Okay here we go again. We appear to have 2 or 3 members of a club airing out the dirty laundry and casting stones on the water over who is right and who is wrong. I can not see much revolance to constructive debate on the AMA so I am going to close it down. Thanks Dave