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Large UAMCC Crowds

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John Tornabene

Member Guest
This is where Rob Huffman the Convention Chair and his crew of Jeff L. Myself, Don Phelps and Carlos hit the homerun for this org... The rest is history but the finger pointing days are long over. Its a shame us guys and the BOD could not remedy the up coming situation at hand. This to me was the turning point of this org. and its also where I wished I never let my fellow members down by quitting.
Anyway Enjoy the pictures and maybe just maybe we can do this again as the UAMCC org.
 

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John Tornabene

Member Guest
Not trying to rankle any feathers but I've been to a few Conventions and this one ranked right near the top. Persnally if I never thanked the guys then for pulling this off well my bad because you all did a GREAT job.
 

Jeff LeCours

New member
I had a blast at the convention. Good speakers (except Toastmasters unfortunately) I hope to see that caliber of an event some day from one of the orgs again. Maybe in Vegas or a place like that. Maybe a couple orgs and NCE get together and make it a money maker and a learning event to be remembered
 

Mathew Johnson

New member
John, get back on the BOD. They need you, the members need you, Rob should join you as well. Make things happen, if anyone can do it you can.

Matt
 

Jeff LeCours

New member
John, get back on the BOD. They need you, the members need you, Rob should join you as well. Make things happen, if anyone can do it you can.

Matt

I got a better idea. How many seats are open. Why dont' John T, Matt J, Rob H and me JL see if we can ALL get on the BOD, if we can we I am sure can get a quorum and the first thing we all do is hire Exec Director(s) This org really needs a full time ED, we ALL hire for cheap money Ron Musgraves & Carlos Gonzales as the ED's. Perfect idea, man I am always coming up with great ideas!!!!!!!

Oh Darn, John T, Rob H, Matt J & Me arent even paying/paid members, we can't be on the BOD.....Oh well, never mind.

LOL you all have a great day, Life is Good
 

John Tornabene

Member Guest
Matt--Two big problems most of us are not paying members and..... most of us are not allowed to serve on the boards anymore. Why?? Because our wives say so:biggrin:
 

Ron Musgraves

Past President
Staff member
This is where Rob Huffman the Convention Chair and his crew of Jeff L. Myself, Don Phelps and Carlos hit the homerun for this org... The rest is history but the finger pointing days are long over. Its a shame us guys and the BOD could not remedy the up coming situation at hand. This to me was the turning point of this org. and its also where I wished I never let my fellow members down by quitting.
Anyway Enjoy the pictures and maybe just maybe we can do this again as the UAMCC org.

Those are nice photos, maybe the most successful event of the year!
 

Jeff LeCours

New member
Those are nice photos, maybe the most successful event of the year!

Ron I wish now the crud wasnt going on back then, you really would of enjoyed the entire event, you could of just sat back and enjoyed, the speakers, the vendors, the after hours hanging out, the people, the venue, everything The BUZZ. You would of had a blast, I did. There were many contractors I had never met or even heard of before and there was just a great buzz going on for those few days

Maybe because I helped put it together, but I felt real good and it just felt real professional and maybe just maybe the PWing industry had finally made it or was on the way to making it.
 

John Tornabene

Member Guest
Ron I wish now the crud wasn't going on back then, you really would of enjoyed the entire event, you could of just sat back and enjoyed, the speakers, the vendors, the after hours hanging out, the people, the venue, everything The BUZZ. You would of had a blast, I did. There were many contractors I had never met or even heard of before and there was just a great buzz going on for those few days

Maybe because I helped put it together, but I felt real good and it just felt real professional and maybe just maybe the PWing industry had finally made it or was on the way to making it.
and Jeff you were right on. The org. was on the way of making it. I handled something wrong before I left and I wished I had stayed on and just rode Carlos to do the right thing. I took calls from him with Ron on another line to get those two to make up.
I needed to be like Ari Gold from the Show "Entourage". Just put on the bull horns and steer Carlos straight.
I quit and I was wrong in doing so. I don't mind playing the bad guy within the BOD's if it means the job gets done. That is my lone regret. Could have I flipped Carlos...Probably. Hey look I dealt with some bad people in my time including some notorious gangsters---Ron M. knows what I'm talking about so Carlos shoulda been a walk in the park to get him to see straight. Not by threats which he and yes you Jeff thought I was doing. I needed to get to him and just sit him down and just talk. Me and him. This was at the time I needed to do but....I quit. Probably I can blame myself as much as Carlos for causing the collapse of the UAMCC org. Heck I'm the one who brought Carlos into the mix( he can tell anyone that). He was my choice after Beth and a few others turned down to take the UAMCC from Robert who wanted us to take it....for nothing. Beth said no, Celeste said no and I said no. Matt Johnson may have also been asked but I don't recall that. So I brought Carlos into this mix with Beth,Rod,John Orr,Brian Penney and Cujo Cooley. Between us we all determined that Carlos was the guy and he accepted. This is why I feel so burned so in essence me and Carlos needed to sit on a park bench somewhere back then and just talk. No threats and by the end of the day if we didn't go for a nice dish of Chilean Sea Bass and some good Ruffing Chianti wine and we just said FU to each other then that would have been it. I would have left quietly because at that point there would be nothing I could do. And no, strong arming him and throwing him in the drink would not be an option in case anyone was wondering.

I feel still in my heart this org. has a small pulse left and somewhere at some time the beat of that pulse will go on. I just have to believe that. But if that beat stops it will be a sad day for Robert and many of us who believed in this contractor for contractor org. but life will go on. Yet still I hear that pulse.....
 

John Tornabene

Member Guest
A couple of last possibly sad pictures of those happier times. Sad or not they left me and my wife with some great memories.

Enjoy
 

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John Tornabene

Member Guest
This last picture of Michael Kriesle says it all. This show went by in a flash where it was like a blur and it started to fade away.

This as good as it was should have never happened.
 

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Ken Fenner

Active member
John, it is a shame to see where the org has landed. I have heard so much anti Carlos talk, its insane. People forget one thing.. without Carlos, there would have been no org. Period. The finger pointing is like a shackle and chain that keeps this org from getting back into a run. Carlos made mistakes. You made mistakes. Jeff, Rob, me in the earlier days... all made mistakes. But one thing about everyone named is that they tried and had their heart in the right place.

Contractors.

We are all contractors. We're not the top of the business food chain. No CO's left eBay to come help with the UAMCC. Mistakes were bound to happen. Human digressions were bound to happen. In 2009 things happened. The decisions weren't always popular (ie JITB), but movement was made, gloves were tried on and the org grew.

Is there a pulse left, John? I don't know. The BOD has been underground since January. We get pops up with a rah-rah post about all of these big events on the horizon and then another 8 weeks passes without an update or announcement. Its been that way all year. You and Jeff stated you are not paying members. Thad, a moderator and you an admin of this board don't even know who is a member. No financials. No idea when and if the BOD still has meetings. I've talked to guys that have active paid memberships (due to expire soon) and they have not even received a 2010 member sticker. How long does it take to send a sticker to print? We cannot blame that on you or Carlos or any of the hoopla that happened in 2009. I am guessing the crossed fingers and high hopes that a leader will emerge and that people will start sending in money are passed dreams. Carlos took the bull by the horns and got things accomplished. Yeah, he messed up in a big way. At least he had the fortitude to take risks. Perhaps his ego got the best and he made big mistakes but he still tried and built a solid infrastructure of systems.

I'm tired of begging for updates and putting myself in the noose on the gallows when I speak out. I've done my part for this organization. Either a leader steps up and turns this thing around or the UAMCC continues its slow fade into oblivion.
 

Tony Shelton

Environmental Consultant / Past Director
I don't understand the hurry. It's not like the status quo is running up bills for the org that can't be paid.

Every business we've owned started with a business plan. I learned after the first one that expecting to go from zero to 1 million in two years is not likely unless you have a product that sells itself (or pulls in investors with big money to promote it) The first few years are taken up setting up groundwork and streamlining methods so that in a few years it can take off like a rocket. Without that foundation any business is unprepared for when the real work starts to come in.

The UAMCC started off wrong. The wrong people were trusted to have the experience and the integrity to pull it off. Sure, there were some really good people mixed in there, but in the end a few of the wrong people made some wrong directional moves. Wasn't this considered in the planning? Didn't someone think to allow for mistakes and/or problems to slow down growth from time to time or was the business plan made with the "pie in the sky" attitude that everything starts on day one and just continues to multiply till the org is gigantic?

You always have to allow for slowdowns, problems, etc in your business plan. It's a lot better to be pleasantly surprised with good results than to be caught with your pants down - as we were in 2008,09 when the economy dealt a blow we NEVER thought could happen. But we slowed down, kept our eye on the ball, changed direction and bulldozed our way through. We didn't make it in a year. We didn't try to fix all the problems immediately, we took them on one at a time and never quit. That is what it takes to make it.

So again I say. What's the hurry? An org that can quietly make it though this and emerge growing as slow as need be is a lot more appealing than one that is hurried along (i.e. a convention it wasn't ready for) and begging for members with little to offer in the way of help for members.

Why not give these guys all the time they need? It's starting to sound like all the guys who were running the org before can't wait to see the doors closed because they are no longer running things. Is that the impression you guys are trying to give?

Who cares how many are posting on the board. In the end, the bbs doesn't make the org. This is a great opportunity! We could use this time wisely to fix problems with the bbs and the website, make sure the infrastructure is in place, talk about some ideas for the membership, find out who has talents and discuss the best way to use them, work on the future direction of the UAMCC and discuss areas where the org should get involved and areas the org has no business in. Too many of these things were bypassed in the beginning and the result was, - well, you see the result.

Lastly, while it is easy to talk about Carlos all the time and blame what has happened on him, the fact is, Carlos wouldn't have been able to wreak any havoc at all if he had been surrounded by a group of guys that were as concerned about what he was doing as they were about how many promotional posts another member was making. Everyone involved in all that junk is equally responsible for dropping the ball and putting the UAMCC where it is today. Offended? Good, now, hopefully the lesson is learned and next time don't be so blinded by your hatred OR friendships that you can be made to look so foolish. God knows I've been blinded before myself and have made the exact same mistake.

With that in mind, DON'T DROP THE BALL AGAIN by trying to make the BOD act before they are in a full position to do so. (Unless, of course, your goal is to put the nail in the coffin of the UAMCC - and if that's the case, then just say so and quit pretending)
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Its all that darn George Bush's fault. Why should anyone take responsibility for today when yesterday is so much easier to blame?
 
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