Buick Club of America Pre-War Division

This is intended as an open letter to all BCA members. As I cannot possibly reach all BCA members directly, I am mailing a copy of this letter to all Chapters, Divisions and all other affiliated and unaffiliated entities in hopes it will be shared with all of your membership.

First let me introduce myself. My name is Dick Beckley, BCA # 7896. I have been a BCA member since 1978. My number is by no means low but thru attrition, death and other factors, I am probably among the BCA’s longest continuous members. When I joined, the BCA was only 12 years old. I co-Chartered our Mason Dixon BCA Chapter here in South Central PA in 2008 and have been Director, Asst. Director, and Show Chairman for the Chapter. Our Chapter has been very successful in our 11 years. I’m a longtime member of the 53-54 Skylark Club and have hosted 2 of their National Meets. I co-wrote their Articles of Incorporation and By-laws and was instrumental in getting this club affiliated with the BCA. I’m also a member of the Pre-War Division, and the 36-38 Buick Club and previously served as President of the National Woodie Club for 2 years. So you see, I’ve been around for some time in the hobby. I might also add that like most of you, I have no part in this whole situation, other than that I am a concerned longtime member.

My purpose for writing this letter is to make all BCA members aware of the struggle within the BCA. Officers, Board Members and some other un-elected BCA members, employees and ex-employees are engaged in a power struggle with several other Board Members who presently hold a voting majority on the Board. These Board members have been attempting to rectify some mistakes, omissions and other questionable happenings of the BCA management and officers in past years. This includes conducting a full transparent forensic audit by an independent accounting firm to put to rest any and all complaints, accusations and any other concerns as to the workings of past administrations and persons. This is not to say that anything improper has been done but to put to rest the fears of many that something indeed has.

For most of the last year or more the majority of the voting members of this current BOD have tried to get this audit accomplished, only to be met with delay. I feel that these BOD members should be allowed to bring this business to a vote and get these problems resolved, one way or another, so the BCA can move on to what it is intended for, namely to provide fun, fellowship and the benefits of membership to its members.

In the following paragraphs I will attempt to lay out the problems as I see them. I only ask that you read it, ask questions that you may have and then vote your conscience as this election may well hold the future of the BCA in its results. The problems facing us are as follows:

1. There has been no accounting of the BCA treasury in over 3 years published in the Bugle. Most of the membership have no idea of our fiscal condition.

2. Even when it has been published, the money associated with the National Meets has not been included in the financial statement. It seems to be a deeply held secret.

3.There have been statements made by some BCA Officers that we have a balance of anywhere from $500,000 to $700,000 in our Treasury. Yet, since our fiscal near collapse around the year 2000 when we were bailed out by a generous member (who I will not name), we have had a page in most issues of the Bugle asking for donations by members to keep the Bugle afloat, until it was stopped recently when many members objected to this request. I myself asked President Oldfield why this was happening since we had such a balance in our Treasury. He responded with a statement to the effect that since 2000, we have been either in the red or the black from $4500 to $7000 each year and we needed a donation to the Bugle to make sure of its continuation in the format we enjoy. Please make note that in the ensuing time our club dues have been raised to the present level of $50 per year, one of the highest dues in the hobby, especially when added to what most also pay in dues to Chapters, Divisions and Affiliated Clubs of the BCA. I’m not a mathematics wizard but if we were almost broke in 2000, and we only gained or lost between $4500-$7000 each year, how did we attain a surplus of $500,000 to $700,000? This needs to be explained and an audit would go a long way toward explaining.

4. Please tell our membership why we have an elected Treasurer who is a voted in Board Member but we also have had a CFO for the last 9 years handling the Treasury who is NOT an elected member, and was appointed. Our Treasurer does nothing and the CFO, Mr. Stoneberg, at this juncture, has announced he is now running for the BOD.

5. The Board received the resignation of longtime Buick Office Employees Mike & Nancy Book effective Jan 2019, because of Mike’s bad health, even after they had recently signed on for 3 more years as employees. Now after a year trying to get these items resolved, Mike Book announced he is a candidate for the Board as well. This does not make sense to me.

6. I questioned the BOD why a letter was sent out to several Chapters by the Secretary concerning the BOD’s attempted expulsion of one of the Board because they objected to his method of bringing these fiscal issues to the table. The Secretary incorrectly stated the results of the vote. I was told by him that I had no business being privy to BOD matters, when every club or organization I’ve been associated with has an open invitation to its members to attend BOD meetings. I might add that the incorrect stating of the voting results counted the President in the count and as far as I know, the President of any organization only votes in case of a tie or where his vote would change the outcome (Roberts Rules). His vote did not change the results but made it look closer than it actually was.

All of the above are just some of the problems and issues facing our club at this time and the reason I am writing this is to let you all know that there are 3 candidates running for the BOD this year who WILL bring these items to the floor for resolution to the benefit of the membership and not for the benefit of any one person or persons. These candidates are Jake Moran, Mark Shaw, and Joe Suarez. Feel free to contact each of them if you have any questions on any of the above. Also feel free to contact me at dbeckley@epix.net if you desire more clarification on any of my statements I’ve made above. I’ve done my best to state the facts and information as correctly as I recall.

The old car hobby is being attacked at every turn by government and special interest groups intent on destroying our hobby. We should be united in our efforts at every turn, not intent on attacking and destroying each other. Politics should not be a part of our hobby if we are to survive. I implore you to seek the truth, study the facts, and vote your conscience. The future of the BCA depends on it.

Mr Beckley I wish to point out that some of your statements in your post are inaccurate.

My first concern as National Meet Chairman is the assertion that the National Meet Committee has any secret accounts. There is a separate National Meet Committee account that is used to pay the bills associated with a National Meet. The host chapter sends all invoices to the National Meet Committee for review and payment. At the end of the Meet after all bills are paid, half of any profit is distributed to the Host Chapter. The other half goes back to the National Meet Committee / BCA. Those totals and individual transactions are sent to the BCA's accounting firm and incorporated into the BCA end of the year profit and loss statement. The National Meet Committee has no secrets of any kind. To say otherwise is, in my opinion, not being supportive of the fine Members of the BCA that work hard to ensure a succesful National Meet.

"For most of the last year or more the majority of the voting members of this current BOD have tried to get this audit accomplished, only to be met with delay. I feel that these BOD members should be allowed to bring this business to a vote and get these problems resolved, one way or another, so the BCA can move on to what it is intended for, namely to provide fun, fellowship and the benefits of membership to its members."

The BOD voted to conduct an audit with a cost not to exceed twenty five thousand dollars in August. The vote to do so was 5 in favor, 3 against. At that same time a committee of three members were appointed to solicit bids from three different audit firms. The task was to solicit three forensic quotes and three opinion quotes.
The pricing that came back was from two firms, with both not providing the requested quotes. The pricing was significantly in excess of the budget.
The team was tasked with getting additional quotes. Following this, several BOD members accused fellow BOD members and the BCA President with "foot dragging." One of these members that made the accusation was actually one of the members tasked with soliciting quotes. Unfortunately, like a lot of inaccurate information, the more it is repeated, the greater the perception that it is true.

As of the 1/02/2019 no additional bids had been received.,The task was then assigned to the Treasurer and to Office Manager Nancy Book.
Two additional bids were received with in three weeks. Both quotes were within the budget.
On the 2/18/2019 the audit firm of Plante Moran was selected to perform the the audit. The vote by the BOD to approve Plante Moran was unanimous.

"I questioned the BOD why a letter was sent out to several Chapters by the Secretary concerning the BOD’s attempted expulsion of one of the Board because they objected to his method of bringing these fiscal issues to the table. The Secretary incorrectly stated the results of the vote. I was told by him that I had no business being privy to BOD matters, when every club or organization I’ve been associated with has an open invitation to its members to attend BOD meetings. I might add that the incorrect stating of the voting results counted the President in the count and as far as I know, the President of any organization only votes in case of a tie or where his vote would change the outcome (Roberts Rules). His vote did not change the results but made it look closer than it actually was."

The letter in question was sent out to the Chapters /Regions / Members in response to their requests that Terry Wiegand be expelled. It is the job of the Secretary to respond to any member writing to the BOD.Those letters were sent out to only BCA members that had contacted the BOD regarding that subject.
My listing of the voting in this matter was approved in the minutes by the BOD. I did in fact tell you that have have no business in involving yourself in ongoing BOD business. You have the same right to know the results of BOD business as does every other BCA member. You do not have the right to involve yourself in ongoing BOD business. You have no right to get emails forwarded to you in the midst of ongoing discussions. Even in a live BOD meeting, members cannot get involved in the discussions unless opinions are solicited from the BOD.

It will serve the membership better in a BOD candidate discussion if you were to limit your comments to the candidates and not involve other hard working BOD and Committee members.

Jack Welch BCA #5387
BCA BOD member and Secretary
Chairman National Meet Committee

I think the bad feelings began when the Driven Class (not judged to high standards, but a little more than just "display-only") cars were relegated to a remote parking lot that was walled off from the rest of the meet by a high fence at the South Bend, IN. national meet. This led to a feeling among Driven Class and non-judged car owners that they were being treated as unwanted step-children compared to the cars being judged in the 400-point classes. The awards banquet at the end of each national meet tends to reinforce that perception, with most of its emphasis being on trophies and awards. Pre-War cars, being harder to get parts for and tougher to keep in an original state--especially if you want to drive them on today's roads--tend to congregate in the Driven Class, the Modified Class, or the Display-only class, unless the owner is well-heeled enough to do a total restoration and bring the car to the meet in an enclosed trailer. There are exceptions, but that's the norm.

The bad feelings got worse when in subsequent national meets the Pre-War (and other) cars were separated from each other depending on what they had signed up for (400-point, Archival, Display-only, Modified, or Driven Class), and at some meets there were assigned parking spaces for the entire meet, based on what type of judging or non-judging the car's owner had signed up for.

In the meantime, people got elected to the BCA Board who were and are quite stratified in the types of Buicks they focus on. We have some Board members who are only interested in Pre-WWII cars, and have little knowledge or interest in newer Buicks. Likewise, we have some Board members who are only interested in the later model Buicks and have little knowledge or interest in the older ones. This deepens the divide.

Add to that, a lack of financial reporting to the membership of the club for nearly three years, following the sudden death of our long-time club accountant, Joel Gauthier, and suspicions tend to build up about what is going on with the club's finances. This has recently been rectified, with the publication a few months ago of an annual financial report in the magazine, but it took nearly three years to do so and a lot of reputational damage was done in the meantime. In addition, an outside auditing firm has recently been hired, after a Board member made an issue out of the lack of audits and adequate financial reports for many years and the club's build-up of a large financial reserve, which, (from my perhaps uninformed point of view), the reasons for and size of the reserve were not adequately communicated to new Board members as they came onboard. When the reserve reached or got close to $700,000, one alarmed Board member reported the club to the IRS, out of fear that it would lose its non-profit status, and when he could not get a majority of the Board to acquiesce to his concerns He also alleged wrong-doing by some, but that has not been proven and should not be brought up unless or until it is proven, and I doubt that it will be. Carelessness--maybe. Evil or bad intent--I sincerely doubt it. This has made the divisions and bad feelings even worse.

At about the same time, the BCA Board majority removed the Director of the BCA's Pre-War Division due to concerns that the division's membership records were not being tracked and newsletters were not being distributed with regularity. The majority of the Board then took the step of appointing another Pre-War Division Director, and this person at about the same time attacked the Board member who reported the club to the IRS, with a petition for his removal from the club. At the same time, the Pre-War Division held their own election and elected another member as their Director. So, now you had two competing directors for the same Division--one with a lot of "baggage" due to his very public attack on the Board member at a national meet and not having been elected by anybody other than the Board majority, and the other duly elected but by a somewhat questionable list of Pre-War Division members.

This brings us down to the current BCA Board election situation, in which there is a definite "us versus them" group, as well as a couple of unaffiliated or perhaps uninformed Board candidates in the current group of eight candidates. Much like the national Republicans versus Democrats, each camp is making claims about the other that are probably more extreme than reality. For example, the establishment group (for lack of a better term) is not against Pre-War cars or non-judged cars as the challengers might have you believe; and the challengers (for lack of a better term) do not want to eliminate BCA judging (as the establishment group would have you believe), they just feel there is too much emphasis on it. So, that's where we are, and I will probably be attacked by one group or the other for what I have written above--so be it. I'm a 40-year BCA member who has had a lot of involvement with the club and that's my perspective, as fairly as I can write it.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

These are just a couple of notes from me regarding Jack’s comments.

First, on finances. Since being elected to the BOD I had only recently seen a NMC budget statement when dealing with the possibility of having a National at Gettysburg in 2022. Each year I was on the BOD there has been very little if any understandable information in the end of the year P/L statements about the NMC finances.

Second, on the audit. One of the three original appointees to solicit bids seemed to me to be against the whole idea and so had relatively minimal participation, leaving it to the other two appointees. It was difficult to find any bidders for an opinion only audit, and many of them were far in excess of the allowed budget. The firm that submitted at the very end of 2018 was within the budget. The two additional bids that were obtained in January that Jack mentioned both exceeded the budget by 100%. I will not mention the names of the firms since the bidding information is proprietary. The firm with the end of year bid, Plante Moran, was selected as Jack stated.

Larry DiBarry BCA #18395

From Larry Schramm:

After reading much of has been said about the Board minutes and the current situation that the club is in I find it necessary to put some truth to events as I experienced them.

The current situation started about four years ago. There was a decision made at that time to not publish the financial statements annually as required by the Buick Club of America By-laws. According to the By-laws the statements are to be published annually for the membership to review the financial position of the club and how money is being spent. This continued before I was elected to the BOD. I have only been on the Board for about nine months.

After Mr DiBarry & Mr Wiegand were elected to the Board they started to ask why the financials were not published as required by the By-laws. There were a number of discussions on this subject that put forth several reasons such as not enough room in the Bugle to publish, our CPA died, and a few other things.

Those discussions prior to my election to the Board apparently became quite heated and in the interest of looking out for the members, Mr Wiegand told the rest of the Board that he was going to the IRS for review of the situation if the information was not published. He was told by the BOD to go ahead and he did. That is why the IRS has been involved in the organization.

On my election to the Board, my primary interest is in halting the declining of the membership and grow the club. It became apparent that the By-laws were not being adhered to concerning financial information, so the first order of business was to get a baseline of where we are and where we were going financially. From my background the only apparent way was to have a detailed financial audit. Anything less would be a disservice to the membership.

At Denver, the financial numbers presented to the club did not add up and I brought this up personally to the President, Mr Oldfield, who refrained from talking to me about the presentation.
In the August or September meeting we talked about having an audit for the organization. During that meeting, I made a motion to start a forensic audit WITH A COST NOT TO EXCEED $25,000.00. Contrary to others who say that my motion was for an unlimited open-ended audit, those statements are patently untrue. The unedited transcript of the meeting will reveal my motion. After pushback on sending out a detailed audit proposal, I amended my motion for a two-part quote request, one for a detailed audit and a second for a high-level statement audit.

When the motion was voted on, the vote was 5 yes and 3 no. The no votes were the Chief Financial Officer Mr Stoneberg, the Treasurer Mr Safrit, and Mr Steed. The President was also against any type of detailed audit and argued for a more high-level audit.

Ms Vasilov and I wrote the Request for Quote (RFQ) requesting two separate quotes in accordance with the BOD’s direction.

Besides the request for audit, there was a large emphasis in the RFQ to review the financial practices of the club and compare them to financial best practices in 2019 for a 501C-7. Additionally, we requested guidance for a possible IRS audit and what we needed to be sure we are in compliance for their rules and regulations, as well as what is an appropriate amount of reserve for an organization our size. We currently have over $500,000.00 in a reserve account.

The RFQ was completed about the first of November.

NOTE: About this time the Board was notified that the BCA had lost it 501C-7 status with the state of California. The rest of the Board was told that this was going to be taken care of.

Ms Vasilov and I then contacted three of the top 20 accounting firms in the north central US and asked them to submit proposals and estimated bids. All were told of the lack of publication for three years and possible IRS review.

The responses from them were as follows: one of the firms declined to bid on the project, and the other two totally declined to bid on a statement audit and only quoted on the detailed audit.

When this information was presented to the Board the President said that the proposals were inadequate because they did not include a statement audit. He refused to have any vote on the two proposals and demanded that we get more quotes. He also said that if I could not get it done, he would have the Office Managers, the Books, and the Treasurer get more quotes.

In the January 2nd meeting after the holidays I agreed to get more quotes and went back to the top 20 accounting firm list and contacted three more firms.

Ms Vasilov and I ended up with a total of five firms responding. The two firms that responded to the Treasurer and Office Managers came back with bids between two and four times the agreed-on budget as well as no bidding the statement audit.

On February 6, 2019 I sent out the five proposals that we had received to the Board for review. We had a teleconference meeting on Feb 18th to review the proposals and vote on a firm. At this meeting, the vote was 100% to engage Plante-Moran to do the audit.

I then contacted Plante-Moran to let them know that they were the successful firm for the work. They started their internal processes and completed a contract for the work to start the audit and after it was signed and forwarded to them, the exchanges of documents started in just over a week.

Two things must be noted on this type of work. The cost to do the audit is directly related to the ease and access of the required documents.

We should have the results from the audit in about 8-12 weeks depending on the accessibility of records and questions that might come from the review.

If anyone would like to see the RFQ that was sent out, please contact me and I will send it out to you

If you would like to talk to me, please call me. My phone number is in the Bugle.

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