Charlie Burke Re: [VAL] WBCCI dues, etc. and running at large

["Tom" <thomm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Charlie,

I'm going to cut and paste your statements from this post and answer them as 
best I can below.  Here goes ...

> Unfortunately I come late to this discussion. Tom, you sure no how to 
> start one don't ya.

Nice to see you here, Charlie even if you come late.  I am merely trying to 
get people to think about a lot of things that we were all exposed to at one 
time or another at the latest international rally.  So yeah, I plead *no 
contendre* but I'm not sure that I've started more than a discussion.

> Where were you during the delegates meeting?

I was not there, we arrived late Tuesday afternoon - got stuck in the big 
traffic jam on I-44 due to some idiotic driver/s who managed to get one or 
more of themselves killed that day.  We were stuck out there for over 2 
hours.  I had not planned to attend regardless, thank you for your 
participation.

> Unfortunately no officer of the VAC was there to speak for or against the 
> amendment, so it was left to others to make it happen. Not bad for a bunch 
> of  "old guard-types??

Not bad at all; but now I also wonder where any of the VAC delegates were. 
Did you ever find out why they failed to show?

> Other than complaining in forums like this how do you expect to make 
> changes in the club? Delegates are representatives of  individual units. 
> To have a constructive voice in the club you need to be a unit member. 
> Stay in you unit, or another, get you self selected delegate and come and 
> raise some h--l where you will be heard by the decision makers. It works, 
> I know, I had a ball.

Complaining?  I'm not complaining, Charlie.  Far from it.  I am stating the 
facts as I know them.  There is a big difference between the two ways of 
expressing our views.  It could be said that you are not answering any of my 
questions or statements - that you could be seen as doing just what I said 
others did to lots of people at the rally, talking down to them.  If you are 
not doing that then I apologize.

Do you also feel that if someone didn't like the way it was that they should 
just go home after traveling so far to the rally as it was broadcasted over 
the CB radio that afternoon to me?  How's that kind of statement grab you? 
I say he was rude at least and stupid at best to ever say something like 
that to any club member.  I don't think you'd be happy if it happened to you 
either.  Or, would you just "understand" that that's "just the way it is" 
and go about your business?  I doubt you would.

> Apparently you and I were at different rallies at Springfield.

Wrong again, Charlie.  I was at the same rally.  In fact, I sent you a 
couple of E-mail messages using the wi-fi Rich Luhr had set up in the row 
behind where we were parked in Purple Row 4 - Rich and his family were just 
2 trailers away from us.

Why didn't you ever answer my Email, Charlie?  In fact, I wrote and you 
answered me from the road when you were headed to Springfield.  I don't know 
if that was before or after you hooked up with Hunter around Saint Louis 
where you stopped but it may have been.  Why didn't you answer back?  See? 
We both missed an opportunity to get to know one another - at the very least 
I offered to have you come over and share a cup of whatever if I recall 
correctly.  I also invited your wife to come and meet my wife, remember any 
of this?

> For instance:
> The ONLY day the volunteer parking committee wasn't working was Sunday. 
> They operated 6 days a week. And because it is a document check and 
> parking it takes about six volunteers to park one or a whole caravan. The 
> parking committee does the best they can with the volunteers they have. 
> Information about what to expect from parking has been posted on the WBCCI 
> website for many years.

I have been informed that the Region Vice-Presidents had access to all the 
rally information prior to the rally that "should have been sent" to those 
who registered - and we did so early on.  See?  In our Region I didn't 
receive it - then again, lots of other people from other regions didn't get 
anything either.  What was up with that?  When others and myself asked where 
we would get the information we were told, "When you register."  Fine, but 
that was a one-time deal.  If you were "late" getting there as I was and so 
many others were, WE all missed out. Then again, the Region Vice-Presidents 
had that informatin - for MONTHS prior to the rally.  Talk about a lack of 
communication.  Lots of people won't be coming to another big rally like the 
International again, ever.  Guess it's not just me, Charlie.

> In case you hadn't noticed a large part of the reason 30 amp and 3 amp 
> were separated was space. There was not enough room to fit everyone on one 
> side of the power plant. It had nothing to do with people "stealing" 
> power. Often times when people talk about others they project their 
> standards and morale's on others under the guise of "common sense" Why 
> would one assume or even suggest others would steal something?

I don't believe your statement for one second, Charlie.  There was a LOT of 
R-O-O-M at the large field for everybody who showed up in Springfield.  Care 
to see my pictures of all that open space?  I guess you didn't go and count 
the numbers of units in the 3-amp section for yourself because if you had 
and you can do the math you'd have known there WAS room for everyone.

Your reasoning that there wasn't enough room won't hold water.

So tell me this, then.  Would there STILL have been 2 parking areas in the 
field/s IF there was 30-amp service for EVERYONE?  Heck no there wouldn't 
have been.  Why?  Because the power company would NOT have wanted to pay for 
improving 2 sites after spending over $100k for the largest field.

The reason we were segregated is so they could keep the groups separate - 
and not equal.  The small field had 3-amps, the big field had 30-amp$ that 
was pre-paid in advance of the rally.  You will have to come up with a valid 
reason other than there not being enough room for everyone on one field.

Missouri is a wide-open state with LOTS of room for all of us to have gotten 
together in one field even if we had to rent large generator power-plants to 
do so.  We were kept separate becau$e some paid extra $'s and some didn't.

> Seemed to me the use of CB by Wally Byam Control is a problem that doesn't 
> need to be fixed. Got the frequencies, got the equipment, got an 
> inexpensive resource for new folks to get radios. If you have a question 
> about the information put out, why not ask?  When I was listening they 
> were answering questions over and over and over.

I never said get rid of the CB's.  What I said was that there are better 
ways to get messages out than sitting around your radio at 4 PM or whatever 
time messages were read out loud to the masses.  That's what I said.  Go 
back and re-read my post.

I can see that I'm not getting anywhere fast in this discussion as you seem 
to have all the answers and you haven't offered one suggestion for making 
any changes for the betterment of your fellow members.  If you have, I must 
have missed it.  Please inform me if you have and I missed it somewhere. 
Okay?

I'm used to getting like responses from members who've been "in" the club 
for years though so I really shouldn't be surprised at your answers to me. 
Care to offer *any* suggestions to make things better?  The "old guard" 
thinks like you've written from everything I've read here or in the past. 
This attitude of not wanting to make *any* changes because you and others 
feel there isn't any need to change some things will doom this club as 
people die off and new owners refuse to follow the mantra they retired from. 
It is kind of funny though to see people who once held power over others get 
red in the face with veins standing out about to burst though when others 
tell you they don't want to do it your way and in fact they really don't 
care HOW you did it where you came from for a change.  Were you ever in the 
military, Charlie?

> Getting on the Internet was actually quite simple. Just flash back to the 
> good ole days of dial up and go for it. We, and those around us were 
> online every evening. Verizon, Sprint, it didn't matter. It worked. Dial 
> up gets the job done for no increase in cost to attendees. If you really 
> had to have WI-FI you had only to go over to Vintage Thunder.

Now that's funny, Charlie.  I WAS on the Internet courtesy of Rich Luhr and 
his smallish wi-fi, thank you very much!  I even wrote TO you, but you 
refused to reply.  I think that was about the time that Hunter took down my 
membership on "her list" yet again due to some things she didn't agree with 
me saying on Tom's list here.  Funny how statements HERE on Tom's list can 
get you banned on "Huntress' list".  I'm sure she told you about it and 
perhaps, just perhaps, that's why you didn't answer me or even give me the 
courtesy of a reply?  Now, you did write to me BEFORE this latest Huntress 
action towards me.  Regardless, I get "her" mail anyway and I know you 
didn't write about me there either.  Be careful Charlie, talking to me too 
much might put you in disfavor "over there", too.

Tom Meeker
WBCCI 5303 - speaking for some who can't speak for themselves