QMA’s 50th Anniversary ~ 11-18-2011
Re-conciliation or Re-declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
1) THE GOAL of QMA for the past 50 years has been “to build and strengthen the association through unification by conformance to rules and regulations under one jurisdiction.” I claim the
current and past QMA NBOD did not uphold our By-Laws but basically made up the rules as they went, interpreting them to be used for the betterment of their own political points of view!
2) QMA’s Mission Statement was changed in March of 2009 from it’s original noble purpose which was to strive for a clean, safe, healthy sport which may be enjoyed by ALL in a close relationship with GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP” to “QMA realizes there are other racing organizations out there but”…. Their political points of view have overruled their concern for their members rights they were supposed to protect and out of fear and anger created a beaurocratical nightmare much to the detriment of QMA and it’s membership.
3) The QMA “Code Of Conduct” Statement was re-written from something intended to protect members from physical and sexual abuse, to be used as a weapon against QMA members and their right to free speech by terminating memberships of anyone they claim is “acting in a way detrimental to QMA”. Said suspensions were not in accordance with codes.
4) Election Fraud- A) Nominations for QMA office have been disallowed due to recently imposed deadlines. They didn't even bother to change the bylaws. No one really knows what the stipulations for running for office and such are and if they want to find a reason to allow or disallow something they just come up with one of their Famous “Clarifications”
B) The Election Procedure Guidelines were changed just one and a half months shy of last years’ election. It stated, ONLY members who PAID their 2010 Dues by October 31, 2009 will be allowed to vote for National and Regional positions. Our Charter clearly states that this procedure is illegal and doing so drastically changed the way QMA has done business for the last 50 years. According to California Corporate Code and our QMA By-Laws membership is in good standing through December 31st and members should have been allowed to vote in the past couple of elections as well as this year! The numbers of members voting in past elections needs to be addressed because there have been so many people defrauded of their voting rights that the current system is incapable of a fair election.
C)- The changing of the form of balloting from paper to online – without clear & proper notification to membership.
National BOD – Meeting minutes from Nov. Unless the National office hears from you or a member, it will assume that you will be voting online. Members must be validated. Only Art, the webmaster will have access to the voting area. All ballots, paper and electronic, will be sent to the accountant for counting. Will further disenfranchise many voters.
This procedure was implemented in November with the election just a couple months away. How are voters being made aware of this change out of the racing season? The net result is again that it will cause many more votes to be lost.
D)- The new rules have been orchestrated to restrict who may run for office and to limit the number of voters, so as to affect the outcome of the election. This too is specifically prohibited in our corporate charter. In the last Quarter Reporter it stated that QMA had a total membership of 2,694. My question is simply how many of those people received a ballot and voted last year?
5) Sunshine law violations- The NBOD does not properly publish meeting minutes so that the membership is aware of discussions regarding important QMA business, but rather discusses issues amongst only themselves. They fail to place MANY of the items brought forth by
members’ onto meeting agendas including but not limited to RCP’s. These items are summarily dismissed by the National Board, especially if they are not in agreement with the QMA membership further separating themselves from a proper discussion process.
6) Discrimination- NBOD has Suspended and/or restricting memberships and terminating membership without due process. Our corporate charter SECTION 5340-5342 stipulates proper notice be given in all suspensions and the member then has a right to file an appeal. This process has never been proper within QMA. The National board cannot just let in anyone they like and forget about those members’ rights that they don’t personally agree with.
7) Financial Hardship-The cost of recent engine tech updates ie: keyway, flywheel, tech tools, and head replacement, differences in engine platforms and rules from other sanctioning bodies is detrimental to QMA’s original goal to have unified rules across the nation. This is driving members away from QMA and to USAC and Independent Clubs that have not imposed those added costs to their membership.
Misappropriation of Funds- Giving far too brief financial statements to the membership, where the members cannot tell what is going on. For instance, Quarter Reporters can not be mailed but time and money is wasted publishing and sending the revised QMA Mission Statement as well as retractions and clarifications to the members giving the NBOD political stance on the happenings of the quartermidget world, at the cost of thousands of dollars, and then in a stroke of genius “to save money” NOT send everyone election ballots.
9) Actions Detrimental to QMA- By restricting membership and terminating members without due process, Hijacking our club by throwing out nominations and RCP’s the BOD does not agree with, Causing members financial hardship with new tech and membership decisions that benefit the NBOD, both politically and financially they have harmed QMA.
10) Making Misleading or False Statements- The QMA NBOD have continuously made false statements both to attain office as well as hold onto it. Examples are in evidence.
QMA Requirements for lawsuit /election process reconciliation:
1) That all members be allowed to vote in this years election regardless if their memberships are
renewed by the recently imposed deadline of October 31 or not, and that all members in good standing through Dec. 31 be allowed to vote in elections as per CA Corporate Code.
(2) That a list of those suspended or denied membership for whatever reason be published.
(3) That those suspended or non-renewed members have their rights of notification and of a hearing upheld and according to CA Corp. Code if due-cause not proven be reinstated.
(4) Involve past & current membership – make sure past members who may have been driven away from QMA for whatever reason and would like to re- join QMA have that opportunity, and to ensure their voting rights.
(5) That the National Mission Statement revert back to what it was on November 18th 1960 when QMA was incorporated and the version drafted in March 2009 be completely annulled!
(6) That ALL RCP’s submitted to the National Board by Regions go to vote at the National meeting.
(7) Have a mass outreach effort to anyone involved in quarter midget racing as well as those planning on racing next year and invite them to become members.
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That un-approved membership applications and nominations along with their postmarked envelopes be held on file with documentation and to simplify the procedure used in the process.
(9) Have balloting at QMA club meetings as they do in many Region 2 clubs, make said meetings mandatory, and have regional & national officers as well as an independent accountants oversee the process. This would attain the goal of cost control that QMA is trying to achieve and at the same time make sure all members get to cast their vote. The recently imposed online election process is good but there is simply not enough notification given to primarily rely on that system at this time.
(10) That an overseer of the election be appointed for both the nomination and election processes.
Have a fair, honest, open election where 100 percent of members vote and ALL votes count!
(11) That the Quarter Reporter be published monthly and for the content to actually keep the members informed of what the National Boards decisions are. A lot of the trouble within our organization is that the membership is not being communicated with effectively.
(12) That changes to the way QMA does business require amending the By-Laws the same way that changes to anything in the rulebook occur, by vote at the National Meeting or if online elections are held by referendum of the members. That way any major changes will be made public in the beginning of the year and be published in The Short Sheet from said meeting that every member gets yearly with their Rulebook.
(13) To adhere strictly to the QMA Bylaws and Rulebook. Any policies made under the current and former administrations that are not published in either of those documents, should either have a motion to be accepted by membership and included in them or disallowed and completely voided.
(14) To uphold the findings of a recent QMA poll that showed 87 percent of the membership wanted an “open door policy” at its events, where any quarter midget participants could race.
