They are looking for donations to help meet their budget expenses for this year. This is a link to their "Donate a tank of gas" campaign. It ask people to donate the cost of one tank (or for one wheeling trip) of gas to them so they can continue providing services. RCTR has challenged all of its members and the VA4WDA members to donate the money for a tank of fuel. I think was should also support UFWDA.
http://www.ufwda.org/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=13 One Monday night during the VA4WDA monthly meeting with about 50 people in attendance, the members voted to donate back to United the $1700 we received through their OIP program. The members also voted to donate an addtional $3000 dollars from the proceeds created by this year's Annual Run.
I have an article coming out in the next VA4WDA on this, but here it is in a nutshell.
UFWDA has made the transition to a business support organization rather than a member supported one. Meaning the majority of their operation budget comes from business sponsors. Because they restructured the membership categories the number of members has declined and although the business sponsorship is up by 2000%, yes 2000, they will still be short on their budget. They have already exhausted the savings accounts so the only alternative is to cut services. One of the services to be cut is legal advise and representation. This will be a do or die year for United. If they close the doors then we have lost a valuable resource in preserving our rights to wheel.
Thanks
Don
I'll be prepared to answer any questions in greater detail at meeting.
