Nhra and the cash cow

[Bruce Noland]

Bo,

There a few people exploring the possiblity of a class action suit against nhra because of the new cars that Taylor and others allowed into Stock and Super Stock. I am not part of this legal activity and hope to be long gone before they get to court. You may see at least one law suit. Also, I have been told that nhra is vulnerable to legal attacks from different directions. Some of the legal actions can be brought by the Feds without any cost to the racers. nhra has been dumping on the racers and it looks like some of the racers are prepared to return the favor. I'll be on the flats!

[Larry Hill]

By - Laws Of National Hot Rod Association
A California Corporation
Artical 1
Membership
The Membership of this corporation shall be devided into Active , Associate and Honoary members. the dues to be, paid by an Active Member shall be $2.00 a year, payable in advance. The Board of Directors shall the right to refuse membership to any applicant, but unless so refused, all applicants for Active Membership shall become members upon the receipt by the corporation of the annual dues and whatever information concering the applicant the Board of Directors may from time to time require. The Board of Directors shall, from year to year, have the right to change the requirements for membership. All persons who become members of this association during the first year of its existence shall be deemed to be Charter Members thereof
The Associate and Honorary Members of the corporation shall be elected by a majority vote of the Board of Directors and shall serve until removed as such member by a majority vote of said Directors.

Article II Principal Office
The principle office for the transaction of the business of the corporation is hereby fixed at 1015 souith La Ciienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, Californa. The Board of Directors is hereby granted full power and authority to change such principal office fron one location to another in the county of Los Angeles.

Article III Meetings
Place of Meetings: Any and all meetings of the members may be held at any place in the County of Los Angles, the exact place of each meeting of the members to be fixed by a resolution adopted by the Board of Directors. The meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held at 1015 South La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angles, California, or any other place in the County of Los Angles that may be designated by the President.
Notice of Meetings: The annual meeting or any special meeting of the members shall be held at a time and place to be fixed by the Board of Directors. One of the purposes of the annual meeting shall be the election of a Board of Directors. Notice of all meetings of the members shall be mailed to each member at least five days prior to the date fixed for such meeting.
There shall be no regular meetings of the Board of Directors. Special meetings may be called at any time by the President, or if he is absent, or unable, or refuses to act, by the Vice President, or, if he is absent, or unable, or refuses to act, by any Director. Notice of said meetings shall be given to each Director in the form and manner as tjhe person calling the meeting in his discresion shall deem sufficient but action taken at such meeting shall not be invalidated for want of notice if such notice shall be waved.
Notice of the time, place and purpose of any meeting of the members or of the Board of Directors may be waved in writing either before or after such meeting has been held. All such waivers shall be filed with the corporate records as a part of the minutes of the meeting.

More Later

[bill dedman]

Larry,

Have you run across the document that alludes to the vote in which the general membership turned over the decision-making process to the Board of Directors?

We voted to do that years ago, and that's probably the reason this thing is the mess that it is, now. The fox is watching the chicken coop....... and, has been ever since then.

Bill

[Larry Hill]

Artical IV.
Directors

Number and Term of Directors: The buisnes, prroperity and affairs of this corporation shall be managed by a Board of Directors composed of three (3) [changed to nine (9) on January 7, 1956] members who shall be members of this corboration. Each Director shall hold office for the term for which he is elected and until a successor is elected. Vacancies in the Board of Directors shall be filled by appointment made by the remaining members of the Board of Directors. Each person so appointed shall serve as Director until his successor is elected at an annual or special meeting of the members.

[FED 387]

ATTN Larry hill---makes for interesting reading where or how did you find the NHRA info?????---Inquiring minds want to know---Comp 387

[Clayton Wright]

Originally Posted by boster58

According to that language we need a special meeting of the members ( which should be those who pay a membership fee) called for by the members ( those who pay a membership fee ) to discuss the current leadership of NHRA. The members should demand a voice on the board and demand regular elections of board members . The members have the power if we start to use it. Members do not have to be treated unfairly or talked down to by the leadership. If any sportsman racer calls Tom Compton , Gram Light or Danny Graica they will not return your calls . They are to good to talk to the people who pay there salaries. Sounds like they consider themselves to be above the members( those who pay a membership fee ) who they should be serving .

I have called all of the above and none of them have returned one call. My attorney has made several request of NHRA council Linda Louie to address some of my concerns with the action of NHRA and she to as also declined to return a phone call or email.

I think the members of NHRA should start a petition for NHRA board members to hear the concerns of the membership.


Bo Kenney
NHRA Member # 1273

Sounds like our elected officials in Washington doesn't it. No accountability.

[A100]

We are a long way from yearly membership being $2 a year.

Bill, I sorta remember something similar. Seems like after the M/P protest at Indy, NHRA laywers must have gone over the incorperation papers amd saw a possible problem. I think that fall NHRA sent out a proxy to solve their problem. If you didn't send it back, NHRA got to vote for you.

Wish someone would go thru the official records NHRA has filed in LA county and find out what rights we acually have. Looks like Larry has a good start.

[Bruce Noland]

I'll try to dig up some of my old research on this outfit. I have some of their charter stuff and legal materials that were given to me by a California non profit lawyer. It's been awhile but I seem to remember him saying something about challenging the take over by Wally & Co.

[Larry Hill]

We have a copy of the tax return (Form 990) for NHRA for 1992 and 1993. We also have the By-Laws and Articles of Incorporation plus a few other forms. The reason we have these is that Larry got mad at NHRA in 1995 after he had been running the little red Chevy pick-up truck for a year (before AHFS). In that year, the truck had been given 30 horsepower and the index dropped 1 second ( not a tenth, but 1 full second). So he wrote and requested these forms. He was so pissed off that he didn't race for about a year, but then I remember a talk he had with Stan Perry something to the effect that "it's their ballgame and you can stay mad if you want to, but if you want to do what you truly enjoy doing, just suck it up". Those were not the exact words, but he got the meaning! So we have been racing ever since. We still have all these forms and I will bring them with us to Memphis this weekend if anyone wants to see them. I don't think Larry plans on doing anything with them, but after all these last increases in fees, it just brought back some bad feelings.

Look us up at Memphis if you want to see these.

Patsy

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

We have a copy of the tax return (Form 990) for NHRA for 1992 and 1993. We also have the By-Laws and Articles of Incorporation plus a few other forms. The reason we have these is that Larry got mad at NHRA in 1995 after he had been running the little red Chevy pick-up truck for a year (before AHFS). In that year, the truck had been given 30 horsepower and the index dropped 1 second ( not a tenth, but 1 full second). So he wrote and requested these forms. He was so pissed off that he didn't race for about a year, but then I remember a talk he had with Stan Perry something to the effect that "it's their ballgame and you can stay mad if you want to, but if you want to do what you truly enjoy doing, just suck it up". Those were not the exact words, but he got the meaning! So we have been racing ever since. We still have all these forms and I will bring them with us to Memphis this weekend if anyone wants to see them. I don't think Larry plans on doing anything with them, but after all these last increases in fees, it just brought back some bad feelings.

Look us up at Memphis if you want to see these.

Patsy

If I'm not mistaken that truck was capable of going 6 months under the index.Correct me if I'm wrong.


Ed F,