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Welcome to the August – September issue of the Badger Star!  It’s been a busy two months since our last issue; be sure and read both the review of our D-2-D at Flannery’s and our Summer Picnic July 10th

August 7th is German–American Day.  Carl Schurz Park, where we recently held our Summer Picnic, is looking for cars for their parade, and volunteers to help with various things throughout the day.  Carl Schurz Park did not charge our Section for use of their pavilion for our picnic, in anticipation that we would help them with German–American Day.  I hope that you can participate in German–American Day in some manner, and help our Section from having to pay for the use of the pavilion.

Upcoming Events

August 21st is our next Section event, where we head to the Horse & Plow located in Lodge Kohler in Kohler WI.  September has 3 events planned and we have a Fall Rallye in October.  We are also working on a Fall Color tour with lunch at Siebkens Resort and their famous Stop-Inn Tavern in Elkhart Lake, and efforts are underway to hold a tech session later this year. 

Be sure and check out our schedule of upcoming events for all the details on upcoming events.

Board Members Wanted

The Wisconsin Section is seeking members who have an interest in serving on the Board of Directors. 

Four positions are open.  See the full announcement elsewhere in this newsletter.

Section Finances

Historically, your Section received financial support from MBCA National in the form of a quarterly stipend.  Those funds were primarily designed to help the Section defray the costs of producing this publication, the Badger Star, as well as to help support the various activities and events your Section holds throughout the year.

However, in April, 2020 those funds were discontinued by MBCA National.  The cut-off affected every Section in the Club, not just the Wisconsin Section. 

At the same time, as the effect of the pandemic began to take hold, a number of our advertisers also pulled their financial support, understandable given the uncertainties at the time.

At the time the stipend was halted and advertising revenues dropped, your Board conducted a thorough review of the Section’s finances including a financial projection of how long we could continue to operate “normally” without support from the National organization.  One of those changes was in the Badger Star, where we decided to suspend mailing paper copies except for those in our Section without email addresses.  Other changes were also made in order to conserve the cash balances on hand.

We have not received a dime from the National organization since early 2020, and we do not anticipate receiving any sort of financial support from them for the foreseeable future.

While our cash reserves are fairly robust at present, that will not continue unless some changes are made.  The bulk of our recurring expenditures are related to the Badger Star, and we do not want to decrease the frequency or quality of our award winning newsletter.  We also don’t want to suspend mailing it to those members who don’t have an email address.  We currently have about 25 members who do not have an email address with the National Office.  If you are one of those members and have an email address, we would really like to email you the Badger Star rather than mail a paper copy, to help the Section control our costs.

Consequently, you may see a charge associated with attending future events.  Those charges will be designed to cover event costs and to make events revenue–neutral.  This will help your Section conserve cash until National resumes their stipend, new advertisers are signed-up, or other means of fund raising are identified.

If you know of a business that would be a good fit as an advertiser to Wisconsin Section members, don’t hesitate to mention the Badger Star to them, and please forward their information along to any of our board members.

As a final note I would also like to point out that no officer or director of the Section receives any reimbursement or compensation for their services. 

Name Badges

If you’re interested in obtaining a MBCA name badge, the person to talk to is Nicole Noll, Membership Specialist at the MBCA National Business Office.  You can find Nicole’s contact information on the MBCA website at www.mbca.org/contacts

I close these remarks by welcoming our new members and thanking each and every one of you for being a member of the Wisconsin Section.  It’s our members who make this Section successful.  I look forward to seeing all of you in person at an upcoming event.

Best regards,

Bruce Hamilton

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