Mountain View Yacht Club & Irwin Marine Contract

[Gilligan]

Mountain View Yacht Club contracts with Irwin Marine for management and other services involved with operation of the club facility. Some time ago there was quite a heated discussion on the forum about allegations of the MVYC Board of Directors pushing through the renewal of Irwin's contract before members knew about it and without input from the club members.

With that in mind, let all interested be advised that the contract between MVYC and Irwin's ends in the fall of 2005. The Board of Directors will be discussing Irwin's contract renewal and options at their next scheduled meeting January 22, 2005. If you are a Mountain View Yacht Club owner or shareholder you should have heard about this already. Members can contact their directors to discuss any concerns they may have or (forever) hold your peace and live with their decisions.

For more Mountain View Yacht Club news and info see their web site:
MVYC

Happy Holidays to all.

[Commodore]

Originally Posted by Gilligan

The Board of Directors will be discussing Irwin's contract renewal and options at their next scheduled meeting January 22, 2005.

Thanks for the heads-up. Who is allowed to be at that MVYC Directors meeting? Are members allowed to be there and are they allowed to voice an opinion? Other than Irwin's, is there another choice for operator of the facility or is this meeting just going to adjust their contract fees?

Happy New Year,

[ITD]

Commodore,

If I were a member I would attend whether or not I was invited. (Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission in some cases). Would also call a director or two and ask what is going on and voice my displeasure or problems beforehand. When at the meeting speak, things, if bad, may just get better.

[Gilligan]

Originally Posted by Commodore

Thanks for the heads-up. Who is allowed to be at that MVYC Directors meeting? Are members allowed to be there and are they allowed to voice an opinion? Other than Irwin's, is there another choice for operator of the facility or is this meeting just going to adjust their contract fees?

I think that members are welcome to attend the board of director meetings but are not allowed to participate. I've also heard that these meetings are not generally formal and members are likely able to talk. I'm not a director so I hope someone will correct me if I am mistaken.

The annual member meeting is usually Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and that is the meeting where all members can be heard. You may want to contact a director to add your item to the agenda.

My intention is to let members know that the MVYC directors meeting is coming and Irwin's contract renewal will be on the topic list. If you have concerns about any club issues let your directors know. Show up at the board meeting too if you want, but talk to your directors first.

I can't answer your other question about alternatives to Irwin's. Again, ask your director. If you don't get involved in the decision then don't complain about the result.

[Commodore]

Found an interesting letter from the President of Mountain View Yacht Club when I visited their web page MVYC. They may update that page after their meeting so I will quote some of it here.

Originally Posted by Dennis Lane President MVYC

NEWS FLASH !! Letter From Dennis: January 10, 2005

Dear Shareholders,

There is a rumor going around that there is a “special” meeting of the Board of Directors on January 22nd for the purpose of renewing the Irwin Marine/MVYC Management Contract. The rumor is not true. The meeting scheduled for January 22nd is a regular winter Board meeting. The original date of this meeting was January 8th, but the meeting was rescheduled for January 22nd due to a schedule conflict.

As reported in the Fall 2004 MVYC News, the Irwin Marine/MVYC Management Contract will be an agenda item at this meeting as follows:
Establish renewal time line
Gather input from Directors

Also please be informed that the Irwin Marine/MVYC Contract will be a discussion item on the Annual Meeting agenda in May, giving every shareholder an opportunity to offer input, comments, questions and concerns. There will be no vote by the Board on this matter prior to the Annual Meeting.

As always shareholders are welcome to attend Board meetings. Space is limited at the winter meeting, so please let Carol know if you plan on attending so that there will be seating for everyone. Call her at 603-293-0059 or email caroldowning@irwinmarine.com.

Shareholders are welcome to attend Board meetings but can they participate or just observe (the question I asked in an earlier post). They do not say. Shareholders can voice their opinion on matters, including the Irwin contract or complaints at the annual shareholder meeting while representatives of Irwins, whom we interact with routinely, are present.

Now there are "rumors" going around, but from where? Do they say? Not exactly, but you can surmise where the the source of the chatter is from this charged up portion of his letter.

Originally Posted by Dennis Lane, President MVYC

Another issue that has come to the attention of the Board is the “chatter” on the Winnipesaukee Forum website regarding MVYC. How credible is anonymous chatter posted by people hiding behind nicknames? These people can say whatever they want about MVYC or any other topics because they do not have to stand behind what they post on the Forum. Your Directors and the MVYC website (www.mvyc.biz) are the most accurate source of information regarding MVYC.

Have a safe New Year and a quick winter.

Dennis Lane
President

Well we see where their Board stands on the subject of this forum. Where are the rumors? I do not see anything in this thread that I consider inappropriate or of concern to a Board of Directors. Unless I missed some posts that have since been edited or deleted. Where there any in this thread? Just because I am anonymous to "them" does not make the above quotes and other information any less accurate. The attitude displayed by President Lane prompts me to want to stay anonymous with my MVYC comments and questions as a renter or shareholder.

This type of response makes me curious. Very curious about the Mountain View Yacht Club. Do they have their own forum for members and renters?

NOTE: BOLDING in above quotes was added

Wish the MVYC Board would respond to other items and issues as quickly as they did to the "chatter" on this forum.

[PROPELLER]

To the Commodore: There was a thread before the annual 2004 MVYC shareholders meeting that discussed the Irwin/MVYC contract. Someone from the Wolfboro Yacht Club asked forum readers if they had any knowledge about Irwins contract with MVYC because their club was investigating the possibility of having an outside vendor like Irwins manage their club. What resulted in that thread was some mudslinging about how Irwins took advantage of MVYC shareholders & the contract was a bad deal for the share holders.

You may be able to find it in the archives.

[Commodore]

Originally Posted by PROPELLER

To the Commodore: There was a thread before the annual 2004 MVYC shareholders meeting that discussed the Irwin/MVYC contract. Someone from the Wolfboro Yacht Club asked forum readers if they had any knowledge about Irwins contract with MVYC because their club was investigating the possibility of having an outside vendor like Irwins manage their club. What resulted in that thread was some mudslinging about how Irwins took advantage of MVYC shareholders & the contract was a bad deal for the share holders.

You may be able to find it in the archives.

Thanks Prop, I did find the thread in the archives: April 2004 MVYC thread

Don't see much mud slinging there. That was a year ago and this current thread is about right now. A January 2005 meeting. The letter from President Lane on the MVYC web page is dated January 10, 2005 and I believe is a direct response to this thread, and not left over from something in the forum archives a year ago.

Mud slinging is not productive but an open discussion can be invaluable even if some comments come from sources with screen names.

[PROPELLER]

I did not review the previous thread from 2004 but my recollection was that there were some posts accusing MVYC of not negotiating a better contract. That was the mud slinging I was referring to & I believe that is part of what Dennis Lane is referring to when he references chatter as you quoted above. I don't see any rumors in this new 2005 thread. It is simply stating there will be a board meeting & renewal of the contract will be one of the topics of discussion. Gilligan said in his initial post on this thread that the previous thread was a heated discussion & that was my recollection also.

[Gilligan]

Originally Posted by PROPELLER

I don't see any rumors in this new 2005 thread. It is simply stating there will be a board meeting & renewal of the contract will be one of the topics of discussion. Gilligan said in his initial post on this thread that the previous thread was a heated discussion & that was my recollection also.

Thank you Propeller,

That is more courtesy and information than I received from my personal e-mail to Mr. Lane and all the Board of Directors. The heated discussions I recall happened a few years ago, not in 2004. It was not the previous MVYC thread it was some time ago. Here is a copy of the e-mail I sent to the Board a week ago. To date, no reply at all from MVYC. No clarification on the question of member participation (not attendance) at Board meetings. Not in e-mail or in Mr. Lane's January 10, 2005 letter.

Originally Posted by Gilligan e-mail to MVYC

To: dennislane@mvyc.biz

Cc: sgleason@mvyc.biz johnoday@mvyc.biz johnford@mvyc.biz johndegroot@mvyc.biz joetaylor@mvyc.biz juditaggart@mvyc.biz karenaudet@mvyc.biz johnlaplante@mvyc.biz paulaberrtholdt@mvyc.biz

Subject: Rumors, Forums, Questions

Date: Sat 01/15/05 11:52 AM


Dear Dennis and the MVYC Board of Directors,

I saw your Jan 10, 2005 letter on the MVYC web site. It seems like you are concerned about the messages posted on the Winnipesaukee.com forum. My screen name is Gilligan. I thought I was doing a service. Reminding members about what is coming up. I can not find anywhere where I posted anything FALSE, or untrue.

I think you over-reacted to this situation. Did you even read the Forum thread? No one said "SPECIAL MEETING" in fact I said it was a "regularly scheduled board meeting". I said that Irwin's contract would be an agenda item - info right from the MVYC fall 2004 newsletter. I suggested that members contact their directors for questions or comments. I suggested we NOT go through the nonsense and allegations regarding Irwin's contract that was on the forum a few years ago. I mentioned that members should already be aware of the meeting (from the Fall 2004 newsletter). It might seem that the members missed or forgot the information from that newsletter, otherwise the Board would not have heard about "rumors" on the internet.

If you did read the forum thread, why didn't you answer the question asked about members having a voice at Board of Director meetings in your letter?

Here's a link to the Forum thread. Please read it and let me know where the "rumor" and false information is. Just because I use a screen name does NOT mean my information is wrong.

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/...ead.php?t=1380

I don't want to cause any problems so I would appreciate a reply and an idea of what (if anything) in my posts was inaccurate or inappropriate. Thank you.

Gilligan

Too bad I can not make that meeting. I started this thread with good intentions and I finish the thread in frustration.

Bring on ICE OUT.

[Commodore]

Originally Posted by Gilligan

Too bad I can not make that meeting. I started this thread with good intentions and I finish the thread in frustration.

Gilligan, Did you really expect MVYC directors to reply to you? The copy of your e-mail had nothing in it to identify you. No real name or slip number. You are anonymous. They are busy enough dealing with members who identify themselves.

What you overlook is that you did accomplish something. You reminded us about the meeting and you got people interested and thinking. Your thread may have triggered the MVYC president to post a response letter about "rumors" and this site on the MVYC web page. They added the minutes of their board meeting to the web page which is a great idea. I think this thread helped get that done. The minutes indicate that members were allowed to join the open discussions at that particular board meeting (my original question).

Unfortunately I must complaint about that letter from MVYC President Lane. It's one thing to put it on their web page (copied above but gone now from the MVYC web site) but another thing to snail mail it. That same letter was snail mailed to all the members of MVYC. On blue letterhead in a nice envelope with $0.37 postage. That must have cost club members at least a few hundred dollars and seems like a needless waste to me.

I think you did OK Gilligan. Thanks.