Important Update:
The Executive Committee recently mailed out a notice with three important pieces of information:
- The annual meeting for this year has been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
- There was no mention at all of an election this year, which is strange. Even if we could not have a typical annual meeting with an election, why couldn’t we think of some creative ways to at least have the election? If we can have a national Presidential election, surely we can find a way to elect a new Executive Committee.
- The Vice President has resigned, and the EC appointed a new Vice President. Why don’t we have an election for a new Vice President, rather than the EC just appointing whoever they want?
Here are summaries of the monthly meetings from November 2019 through March 2020 (we have not had any meetings since March 2020)
March 2020
The people from Vicmir & Sons came and gave their presentation about our ventilation system. They admitted that this range is the only range they work on or have ever worked on. Consequently, Vicmir has absolutely no experience with gun range ventilation systems or engineering. The Executive Committee said that we have 412 paying members and we need 500 paying members just to break even financially. Discussion about the Executive Committee charging a member with a safety violation when the video clearly demonstrated that no safety violation happened. This led to a discussion about a member of the Executive Committee drawing a loaded gun from a holster in the gun cleaning room, and pointing that firearm at another member. The membership questioned the Executive Committee about all of the lies they have told surrounding the building permit. The membership wanted to put a motion on the floor to stop spending the club’s money on investigating the Jack Falcone emails. Initially the Executive Committee refused to even put this motion on the floor, but then later they relented, and the motion passed.
February 2020
The Executive Committee with no input from the membership unilaterally decided to give one of their own a $500 a month salary. It was discovered that there is no backup person to this $500 a month salaried person, and so no one else knows the camera system, the website, etc. It was revealed that we have a huge balloon payment coming due in a few years on the loan from the bank on the new building. The Executive Committee admitted that they had too much control over the new building project. We spent $2,000 on lawyers fees to discuss pursuing Jack Falcone. It was revealed that there are over 10,000 dollars worth of expenditures on the new building for which we have no receipts or invoices. It was discovered that the EC has 5 debit cards to withdraw money from the club’s bank account, and there are no financial controls, no accountability, no receipts and no records of exactly how this money has been spent. We supposedly bought a $1,500 welding machine off of Craigslist for which we have no receipt, no invoice and no record of any kind.
January 2020:
The general contractor has yet to attend an Executive Committee meeting, even though the Executive Committee promised the membership that they would be meeting with the new general contractor. A member of the club presented his lead testing findings which showed shockingly high levels of lead all over the club, including the clubhouse and the top of the refrigerator. Lead committee is formed. Discussion on the website being down. The member’s questioned why there was absolutely no financial report given at the annual meeting in October. The Executive Committee responded that it was never called for. The Executive Committee admitted that the person they hired to be the “architect” on the new rifle range is not in fact an Rhode Island certified architect. The Executive Committee then refused to explain why we cannot hire a RI licensed architect. The Executive Committee refuses to put a motion on the floor to pause spending on the new building. The Executive Committee claimed that all of the storage containers used on as the walls of the new rifle range are ¾ filled with dirt except for one for ventilation. The membership proposed a feasibility study on the new rifle range, which the Executive Committee rejected.
December 2019:
Some key members of the Executive Committee were absent. The Executive Committee altered the meeting minutes from last month to show that they never said that we had a building permit. They then admitted that we didn’t have a building permit. Instead, they claimed that the permit was stuck in zoning. They promised that the newly hired general contractor for the new rifle range would be at the next EC meeting.
November 2019:
The Executive Committee repeatedly stated that the permit would be posted next month and the work on the range will resume. They admitted that the roof was not a permanent roof and only a snow/ice barrier. Their plan was to put a metal roof for about $50K, and spend another $50-60K on the backstop. The Executive Committee admitted that the initial report of the expenditures did not include the storage containers themselves.