Jeff Wolf on "Force Hood's absence, lawsuit hurt NHRA"

[Paul]

Alan, its probably true that in the process of doling out my criticism that I don't fairly credit that same management team for all the positive things they have done for the sport.

Maybe I expect too much, but I'm a pretty "black and white" kind of guy.

I may be dead wrong about this, but even in accepting some of the good that the current management team has performed, I feel that they have trampled on NHRA member's rights as part of the process of assuming total control of the organization.

You could argue that this was for the best, that if they hadn't taken this firm control that the NHRA would have suffered, and I'll admit that many members appear to feel this way (although I don't think they really understand how this total control was acheived).

But the NHRA is suffering now, and now that these guys have entrenched themselves through questionable methods, its pretty scary to me that there is no apparent mechanism to have them replaced.

The only way I could see that happen is for the NHRA to be forced to return to its original structure, which was to have the members control who was placed on the NHRA's board of directors.

Just to be clear, there are no personal or spiteful feelings driving my opinions, I just want what is best for the "real NHRA" which I view as the racers. If you can convince me that the current "closed" management team is what is best for the NHRA then I'll shut my yap, but it would take some pretty clear facts and logic to do that.

 

[Toejam]

as much as i want to agree with him that ashley's absence will hurt the series,
and it probably will to some degree, i have to keep reminding myself that
if you said 'ashley force' and 'danica patrick' to 100 anonymous people,
90% mite recognize danica, lucky if 10% mite recognize ashley.

I remember when Ashley got her FC License, everyone was talking about how her just being out there would attract all these new sponsors to the sport! Has it???

 

[clwill]

CW, I'm willing to bet any Non Profit with NHRA's Financials would get flagged almost yearly!

I dunno. If you look at the link I posted in the other thread, you'll see that there are some pretty darn big 501(c) organizations out there. Assets in the tens of billions. In fact, NHRA's asset base of around $100m makes it kind of middling sized, if you look at that list. But this is little more than speculation on my part.

I know personally that the IRS does monitor you closely the bigger you get. At Microsoft, we were under what was euphemistically referred to as "continuous audit" by the IRS and there were two IRS employees who had permanent offices just down the hall from our senior tax guy. But MSFT is >500 times larger than NHRA. What I don't know is if NHRA is anywhere near big enough to get regular scrutiny.

 

[clwill]

Then he takes that car and invites the President of the organization without which none of this would have ever happened to lunch to say thanks, and what do you guys do? You guys all but accuse that President of steeling from the company and buying the car in question.

... and no comment about money and the NHRA is complete without a comment about said car...

 

[Mooseman]

I may have read all this tax irs stuff wrong but I didn't think that this whole thing was anti nhra or anti anybody I thought it was just making sure everyone was running inline with the regulations and that those getting compensation were getting a acceptable compensation for their position.

In jobs I have had I have only ever been a worker I have never run anything but would even a non profit organisation they are still going to make profit but I thought that it worked in a way that the organisation can make money and thrive but that money has to be spent and go back into the organisation and cover expenses and costs of the organisation.

I thought that in a case of non profit that the management rather then being owners they become appointed managers to control the business side of things and are in theory employees of the organisation and given a wage or salary just like any employee would and that that wage or salary is based on their position.

Am I way off. I honestly thought thats how business work even for profit I allways thought that the money earnt goes into the business and that the owners and employees make money by having a set wage or whatever. I have heard alot of stories about business where the company loses money but the owners get rich and allways figured that putting the money back into the business was the smart thing to do.

 

[hometown]

... and no comment about money and the NHRA is complete without a comment about said car...

I've actually ridden in Terry Vance's Bentley. Damn fine automobile if I do say so myself.

 

[BigDaddyB]

My questions is, If in some future deal the NHRA is aquirred by an entity willing to offer 125 million for all the assets who ok's the deal? An secondly who holds the title to those assets? The 125 million who gets the money?

The one thing I have noticed in this forum is that there are people who very comfortable with the operation of the NHRA. There are other people who are not comfortable. I think big question is, Is the NHRA operating by articles of coporation and bylaws submitted to the State of California. The Federal government has laws that must be complied with too whether you are for profit coporation or non-profit coporation. Whether you are racer, non-racer, fan, curious on looker, you hope that everybody abides by law.

 

[Paul]

My questions is, If in some future deal the NHRA is aquirred by an entity willing to offer 125 million for all the assets who ok's the deal? An secondly who holds the title to those assets? The 125 million who gets the money?

Bruce, I'm no attorney, but from digging in to try to understand the topic above could as best I could, here's my understanding of the situation.

As a 501c(6), there are pretty clear limits on how any of the NHRA's assets can be sold, and these assets include all their brand names, trademarks, copyrights, publications, member lists, etc., in addition to their physical assets.

The assets can only be sold if the sale of those assets directly benefits the organizations members in the manner that was stated in the original articles of incorporation. In the case of the NHRA, this was something along the lines of "advancing the sport of drag racing and providing safe environments for competition for its members".

So they can't sell any of these assets unless they can justify that that sale itself helps those member oriented goals. In addition, the proceeds from that sale also must be used in a manner that helps achieve those goals.

This is a pretty limiting restriction. For example, I don't think they can sell off the NHRA Pro division to the highest bidder unless they can somehow justify that this sale is in the best interest of the NHRA members.

I've been told by someone that saw the draft HD Partners deal document that about 1" thickness of the document was attempting to skirt around these limitations. I also think that the sale could have been challenged by the NHRA members as it didn't appear to necessarily be in compliance with the original stated goal of the NHRA.

Currently the board of directors could approve such a sale if they could justify that the sale meets the requirements I described above. Any funds received would then have to come back to the original NHRA non-profit company, and then be used in a manner compatible with organizations goals.

Other than through the shady "boosted salary" method that I've previously described, the current board members would not be able to legally receive any funds from such a sale.

However, I suspect part of the HD Partners deal was that they were to receive high paying jobs plus some stock at the new company that was to be formed to run the Pro NHRA division.

This definitely would have been pretty sketchy in my opinion as it was a way for them to start directly profiting from some developed assets (the NHRA nitro divisions) that are required by law to only be of benefit to the NHRA members.

 

[BigDaddyB]

Paul,

I now understand the concept that NHRA would be nowhere without its members. I ran into an interest article in National Dragster ,dated Jan 28, 2011, An interesting tibit I found was that there was a membership manual distributed to the members. I wish there was one around in 2011 so we could see the original intent of what was expected of members of the NHRA.

 

[clwill]

I wish there was one around in 2011 so we could see the original intent of what was expected of members of the NHRA.

NHRA WebSite

 

[Toejam]

I dunno. If you look at the link I posted in the other thread, you'll see that there are some pretty darn big 501(c) organizations out there. Assets in the tens of billions. In fact, NHRA's asset base of around $100m makes it kind of middling sized, if you look at that list. But this is little more than speculation on my part.

I know personally that the IRS does monitor you closely the bigger you get. At Microsoft, we were under what was euphemistically referred to as "continuous audit" by the IRS and there were two IRS employees who had permanent offices just down the hall from our senior tax guy. But MSFT is >500 times larger than NHRA. What I don't know is if NHRA is anywhere near big enough to get regular scrutiny.

You may be right, I gave no advanced knowledge of Tax law. But I do know that people who earn over a Million dollars per year have a 300% higher chance of an audit as opposed to say a $30-40,000 taxpayer!

 

[BigDaddyB]

NHRA WebSite

good humor Chris

 

[clwill]

good humor Chris

It's a link to the "purchase a membership" and it has exactly what you get with your membership.

 

[SundayNiagara]

It's a link to the "purchase a membership" and it has exactly what you get with your membership.

I think he's talking about something from back in the fifties, something I've never seen!

 

[nhdriver]

The thing that jumped out at me was the amount of money Gardner & Compton make for running this "non profit" No wonder Compton drives around in a Bently.

 

[clwill]

I think he's talking about something from back in the fifties, something I've never seen!

I know, but then he asked if there was something for today. The best I can do is the page I pointed to, basically "here's what your membership buys you".

As far as I can see, the "membership" in the NHRA is just about the same as my "membership" at Costco. It includes their right to require it to enter, and my right to buy stuff I don't really need at a slight discount.

 

[none]

The thing that jumped out at me was the amount of money Gardner & Compton make for running this "non profit" No wonder Compton drives around in a Bently.

And there it is again, don't you guys have anything original?

Please read Post #18


Hey Kevin,
Glad nobody saw you or you would be a world of trouble too-LOL

Alan

 

[BigDaddyB]

Alan,

The reason people want to know what is going on with NHRA is that they are concern about the organization. An example to clearly define the what people are concern about, Here in California we have small town called Bell, CA. in that town the Mayor was taking town a million, the City Manager something like 800 thousand, and Police Chief was taking down more money than the Police Chief for the City of Los Angeles. Until an individual or group brought this to the light of day they would still be paying thru the nose to live in community where only middle to lower income people live. Barry Madoff made millions because everybody wanted the golden egg. The age old proverb is still good, " Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies".

 

[mick]

the ONLY thing that will inherently change the NHRA is competition from
an equal or better series, emphasis placed on price money.

 

[clwill]

And there it is again, don't you guys have anything original?

Hey! Just like you don't like being painted as the "NHRA", I sure most of us don't like being lumped together either...