Section Meeting 14th November 2022- Vote of “No Confidence” in the VMCC Fiduciary Board.

WESSEX MONTHLY MEETING 14th NOVEMBER 2022

There was a lengthy discussion on the performance of the current chairman of the fiduciary board, Mario Costa Sa and his fellow directors during which the following subjects were raised.

1. Finance. The paper shown below giving an accurate account of the current financial status of the VMCC was presented to the meeting.
2. The fact that several Directors were co-opted by the current chair and did not seek election within the time specified in the (then current) articles.
3. The attempt to remove power from democratically elected Area Reps.
4. The creation of ‘Regional Chairs’ selected by the chair and not democratically elected.
5. The continued promotion of Duty to Ride, including a You Tube video by Steve Allen, something that clearly is a VMCC project (this after the vice chair told our meeting it was nothing to do with the club) but which has little if any membership support and has to date (13/11/2022) raised only £1060 of its £500,000 target.
6. The publication of the 1000 rides booklet for sale in retail outlets, something that clearly contravenes GDPR.
7. Censorship and over regulation on the Forum where any critical comment, however mild, is removed and the poster banned, sometimes for life. The former moderators all resigned en bloc rather than cease being independent of the board.
8. The increase in machines in the club garage, some less than 25 years old and therefore not eligible for club runs. Machines that can all now be borrowed by non-members.
9. The cancelling of two months magazines despite the monthly journal still being heralded as a member benefit. Said to be caused by changing printers, which, if true shows poor organisational skills. More likely to be a cost saving measure to recover some of the current financial deficit.
10. Vaunted cost saving as a result of cancelling the clubs gaming licence (£750). In fact, this years raffles have lost c£26,000 and therefore don’t make the 20% profit margin required by the Commission. So they jumped before they were pushed!
11. The person at the head of the club, the President, being barred from board meetings.
12. Changes in the bylaws that remove Vice Presidency from the current 12 Vice Presidents, all of whom were elected by the membership for services to the club, and their replacement by VP’s selected by the board. The former VP’s received no courtesy call to inform them of this change of status.
13. Despite Mario Costa Sa expressly forbidding anyone to trade on the Club’s social media pages allowing a well-known trader to use the Club’s stand at Stafford to market their machines for sale.
14. Modification to the Club’s oldest machine (The Dreadnaught) to make it ‘easier’ for anyone to ride. It’s understood that it has now been put back as it was.

Due to the loss of £441,567 over the last 33 months the Wessex Veteran and Vintage Section has no confidence in the board chairman Mario Costa Sa and his fellow directors.

The vote of No Confidence was passed unanimously at the meeting and on behalf of our Section members, Section Officers and Committee our Chairman will be formally writing to the board to register this vote and the Section’s wish for the current board to stand down at the earliest opportunity for the good of the VMCC.