QUESTIONS with BMW MOA Board President Chuck Manley and Director Greg Feeler 10 By Reece Mullins #143779
Many questions have been raised recently by our members following the MOA’s seemingly abrupt decision to move from Ellisville, Missouri, to Greenville, South Carolina. The topic has been discussed and dissected on both Facebook and the MOA forum with few definitive answers being offered. After deciding to attend the MOA Board of Directors meeting in Greenville, South Carolina, in January, I created
a forum post to not only let fellow forum readers know of my plans, but also to allow those unable to attend the opportunity to give me questions to present to the Board during the scheduled open session. Granted, the forums only represent a fraction of our membership, but I believe any dissemination of information, no mater how small the audience, a worthy effort. Because the open session presentations lasted about three hours, decorum dictated I narrow my questions to two
that I felt best represented those offered on the forum thread I created. With time making it impossible to answer all of the questions I had, MOA Board President Chuck Manley and Director Greg Feeler suggested using Owners News to present both my questions and their answers to all MOA members. What follows are the top ten questions I brought with me to Greenville that day and the answers offered by President Manley and Director Feeler.
Q:
Regarding the move from St. Louis to Greenville,
South Carolina, can you explain the reasons for the move and how the transition is going several months into the new digs? Additionally, there seems to be a lot of backlash regarding the abruptness of the announcement and a concern for the staff no longer with us. Has the MOA leadership looked at a strategy to manage or “soften the blow” when informing its members of personnel changes and major strategic moves?
A: 20
To put this answer into the correct context we have to
start with the fact that the primary job of the Board is to serve the best
BMW OWNERS NEWS March 2016
interests of over 34,000 members, and that foremost among those is to ensure the long term viability of the club. We realized many months ago that our legacy office in St. Louis just wasn’t affordable, being devel- oped for a club with a much larger mem- bership and not appropriate for the “virtual” world of the 21st century. The opportunity to share space in a new
building being built by the BMW Car Club of America came up after we had deter- mined the need to downsize. It was a fantas- tic opportunity to greatly reduce costs, while developing better relations with a sis- ter BMW enthusiast organization. To be clear – in no way does this move affect the independence of the BMW MOA. We are not in any way subordinate to the BMW CCA or BMW corporate. This new location
will also allow us to use a more virtual structure, which will save money, give our staff greater flexibility, and allow us to bet- ter serve the members. The answer to the second part of your
question is that changes like this are always going to be difficult and disruptive to the people affected. Some think an early announcement helps, that it might “soft- ened the blow” as you said. However, it’s really not fair to ask people to put their lives on hold and continue to do their jobs for your convenience as if nothing has hap- pened. From my personal and professional experience, it is far better to give those affected the chance to make their transition as soon as possible. In addition to this, there are also unfortunate requirements and liabilities today which make “transition”
the club
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