January 2021 Club Meeting Recap
January 23, 2021
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January 2021 Club Meeting Recap
January 23, 2021
Our November 25, 2020 newsletter reported on the November 11, 2020 Club Meeting, providing important information that Club officials were either overlooking or intentionally withholding. The first Club Meeting of the new year was held on January 13, 2021 via Zoom conference, with minutes distributed the next day. However, those minutes omitted many subjects and reference to critical commentary from members at the meeting, and were cryptic on other subjects.
In this newsletter, we will report on the eight main topics discussed:
The Paradox of Amending the Club’s Articles of Incorporation: Article III of the Articles of Incorporation establishes a hard maximum of 50 member shares that may be issued. The current Board is well aware of this limitation and the fact it has been on the books for fifty years. Thus, we cannot escape noting the strange timing of a sudden move to amend the Articles of Incorporation at the same meeting where a new Board is to be elected. The current Board has continued to actively recruit new members and issue an increasing number of excess shares despite the fact that, each share above 50 are “void or voidable” shares because they were issued by a “defective corporate act.” Instead of checking and managing the Club’s roster to ensure that there were no more than 50 shareholders before trying to amend the Articles of Incorporation, they kept issuing more shares, shares that are legally void, placing the Club in a condition where it is unlawful for them to conduct any votes at all. [Read More...]
What’s the Rush?: It seems clear that the Club’s officials have not adequately familiarized themselves with the provisions of the Articles of Incorporation and their interaction with other Club documents, so we question their hasty actions. In spite of the Article’s provisions, obvious relevance, superiority, the Club’s attorney, Edward Holodak, has actively and consistently claimed – in filings and statements – during at least two Club-related lawsuits that the By-Laws were what controlled the Club’s operation. So it’s puzzling to see the current Club officials suddenly moving the amend Articles of Incorporation, a document that has been ignored and unrecognized for decades, and has not been amendment for half a century. We feel the Board owes the membership an honest and complete explanation for their sudden interest in the Articles of Incorporation, and what pressures are being applied to them that suggest the need for a hasty patchwork amendment without what should be due diligence of the highest order. We believe nothing good for this Club will come from ratifying such haphazard changes to the Club’s highest policy and we urge members to speak up and reject all changes that are not subjected to what should be transparent due diligence in the short- and long-term interests of the Club.
A few minutes later after introducing the intended fix to “pay as you go,” member Greg Calley asked how many members were in the Club. Back at the November 11, 2020 Club meeting, the Treasurer said the Club then had 72 dues paying members. However, at this meeting on January 13, 2021, the Treasurer replied that there were 58 “active” members and 20 “suspended” members “for different reasons.” We have no idea exactly what an “active” or “suspended” member is (these are not defined in any Club governing document) or the “different reasons” causing the Club to suspend 20 dues-paying members. The Board must know what these “different reasons” were because none of them questioned the Treasurer’s statement. [Read More...]
Right around the time all this financial discussion was occurring, the President blurted out that the Club share value was $1.00, an amount that had been established (however improperly) on May 13, 2020, and would be $1.00 for the rest of 2021. The President did not cite any vote by the Board to set this value at $1.00 for 2021, which is more than remarkable given the fact that, last year, he nastily lampooned the prior Board for being negligent in not properly setting the share value in a manner as he claimed they should have done. The irony is that the President just announced the that Club’s Board did the same thing in January 2021 that their predecessors had been doing for years: Without ever recording a vote, the Board just kept the prior year’s January 1st valuation. [Read More...]
Rather than provide financial breakdowns by month, Treasurer Andrew Bilukha’s summary combined November and December, and reported the club was about $13,000 in the red for that period. At one point during this presentation, former Treasurer Carl Kennedy noted that Bilukha’s numbers didn’t add up, so the books Bilukha presented were bad. Bilukha snapped back, essentially claiming that his books were better than no books (a direct reference to the otherwise worst-kept-secret Club lawsuit and allegations against Carl Kennedy that Greg Gilhooly repeatedly said they “weren’t going to talk about”). Kennedy pointed out that any discrepancy was cause to look at the underlying data to determine the full nature of the under- or over-reporting of income or expenses (Kennedy claimed that the Club was over-stating its liabilities). About five minutes of the meeting were wasted while supposed IT-expert Bilukha tried to display financial information on the fly. Rather than preparing and emailing “slides” of his presentation in advance to all members, he instead fumbled through various screens, perhaps trying to avoid exposing defects to the membership. Finally, the Treasurer said that his “numbers” would be sent out to the membership. He subsequently distributed to members a “Balance Sheet” dated December 31, 2020 and a “Profit and Loss” document with a date range of Jan 1, 2020 to Dec 31, 2020.
There was an interesting series of questions about stated debt, followed by answers and then changed answers resulting from the Treasurer’s initial characterization of “loan” debt, but then changing it to “liens” when he was challenged. Former Secretary Paul Sanchez asked why the “loan” of $46,000 was labeled as “UNVERIFIED.” Greg Gilhooly pounced on Sanchez in an extremely accusatory manner. Gilhooly’s reaction strongly suggests the Club also intends to default on this financial obligation to Mr. Sanchez unless Mr. Sanchez can produce the mortgage, promissory note, and meeting minutes validating this debt. Rising to Gilhooly’s challenge of the legitimacy of this $46,000 debt, Sanchez repeatedly said that “money changed hands.” So, it looks like the Club has its next lawsuit in their cross hairs and will follow their pattern of defaulting on obligations and keeping that dirty secret from the membership. [Read More...]
During the November 2020 meeting, President Greg Gilhooly reported poor membership interest in attending the Club’s planned Christmas Party, but he forged ahead anyway to sign a contract with a guaranteed number of attendees. At the January 13, 2021 meetings, Gilhooly seemed unashamed when he disclosed that the Club had to “come up with the difference” to pay for the predictable shortfall in the contractually guaranteed attendance. During the meeting, he said the shortfall was “6 or 7” (the minutes say “6”). A shortfall of seven members would mean the Club paid out $245. Whatever the needless cost, the low attendance was the predicable result of the ill-conceived decision to ignore poor reservations and hold a mass gathering for a dinner party directly following what was one of the deepest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida. The President simply shrugged this needless expense and health risk off when he said, “we did the best we could.” Really? [Read More...]
The Club’s Treasurer, Andrew Bilukha, said that 38 members owed the club $13,008 due to a “feature” in ScheduleMaster™ that had been enacted by Bilukha. The ScheduleMaster™ system is allowing each member a “grace” amount to run up excessive balances without incurring any restriction to their flying. Bilukha is now proposing to fix his error by eliminating this $500 “grace” amount and replace it with ZERO so that members could not schedule or fly any aircraft if they owed the Club anything, even monthly dues. Bilukha said that there were 38 members who owe the club: $6,000 was owed for 30 or more days, while $7,000 was owed for less than 30 days. Even the President admitted he had taken advantage of the Bilukha’s flawed implementation by not paying his dues on time. But the President duplicitously chided another member who argued against rapid significant change, pointing out that everyone managed to pay their mortgage on time, and this should be no different. [Read More...]
Near the end of the meeting, one member expressed frustration that there were serious maintenance discrepancies that were being “carried” (improperly undocumented and/or magnitude of deficiency unrealized), with the effect being that the Cherokee Six, N2921S, stranded him in Fort Meyers and another member got stuck in North Eleuthera Bahamas, and that he had not been reimbursed for having to drive home from Fort Meyers. Greg Gilhooly seemed to take this feedback personally. [Read More...]
Several people recently forwarded to our webmaster a number of mass emails addressed to over 100 recipients from and reply-to-all to “Aviation Advocate.” We are not the author or sender of those emails nor do we know who is, but following its distribution, we have seen an increase in our web site traffic. [Read More...]
We will continue to update you as events warrant, and we encourage all members (whether “active” or “suspended” or whatever) and former members who never received their Membership Fee refunds to continue to evaluate all available information about the Club’s operation, direction, proposed changes, candidates, and appointees. After all, the raison d’être for this web site is to provide exactly that kind of information using verified source documents. Still, if the membership does not make changes by electing at least some new people to the Board, it seems entirely likely this Board will perceive this “green light” to be a mandate for them to accelerate their unilateral application of unprecedented new policies and interpretations, even applying them retroactively, all at the expense of the dues-paying members and others who are owed money by the Club.
For those who have provided us feedback, we are pleased so many of you appreciate our efforts and Thank You for your kinds words.
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