Whew I too would like to see the fire damage.
So the check to RFK... how much did you collect this year and how does that rank with all the other years you've been our RFK collection person?
I have to depend on our treasurer as I never see the financial reports that come back from the events. Tim Macy has been busting his behind to figure all of this out after coming out of his retirement as our treasurer, but here's what has been determined.
In 2013, Tim wrote a check for about $2500 (as I recall) to the RFK and I turned it in. Some years have been more than others because at times I was able to include the amount collected at STAR and other years the timing just didn't work out.
I didn't request a check in 2014 as I had gone to Alaska that year after STAR in Rapid City. At the end of 2014, the RFK collected balance was $5054.25 and included event collections at the end of 2013 such as the MPFB and all of 2014.
In 2015 I tried to get a check from Tim's replacement, but I did not receive one. For all of 2015, the association collected $3849.00 for a grand total balance of $8903.25. That is the amount of the check that Tim recently wrote to the RFK and which I just delivered.
At STAR this year I had still not received any indication that a check would be forthcoming from Tim's replacement, so with the permission of the EC, I held the funds raised for the RFK at STAR this year (the treasurer was not there, so I had no one to give the money to anyway). In August we still had no resolution regarding the treasurer, so I also held onto the funds donated at the MPFB with Jon Campbell's agreement. Those amounts from those two events totaled around $1800. I had another ~$100 from Rick Giddish's 2015 Middlesboro event, and I added a personal donation to the amount to bring it up to $2100. That was turned in at the Knoxville RFK event in October in the association's name.
Next year we will have all 2016 donations collected at Tri-STAR and all other events this year other than STAR and the MPFB. Those amounts will be added to the amount that I just turned in, so at our event next October we'll probably get credit for over $10k in donations. That's really cool. Since the "local" RFK event next year will be at Deal's Gap the first Saturday in October, I think that would be a fine time for a bunch of our members to show up.
The next year we'll probably be back to a more normal amount.
Every year there is a variation based on what type donations have been collected. We've done a real 50/50 at STAR some years with the winner donating back anywhere from $0 to all of their part. Some years we've called it a 50/50 but had the winning pot capped at $500 or had some type of swag as the prize (it was a portable grill one year). And even when we've done that, the winner has sometimes donated part of it back.
I don't really know what kind of money Tom Bartels used to generate, but my gut feeling is that the amounts being collected in recent years have gone up. A very few years ago it was a big, big deal when we collected $500 at the MPFB for the first time. This past year it was north of $700, and the winner of the 50/50 donated his entire portion back to the cause which allowed us to give the entire $700+ to the RFK. Our donations at Tri-STAR this year were the most we've ever received too. I haven't seen a breakdown on which events generated donations, but perhaps I can get that from Tim before he goes back into retirement.
