Hello, my name is Jerry Ferguson, former president of the V-Max Owners Association during 2000 and 2001. This message is to provide a brief history of my association with that club and why I feel it's necessary to offer a personal apology to anyone who has joined the V-Max Owners Association since January 1, 2000. First let me say that throughout my association with the club I met and am still friends with many V-Max owners and enthusiasts I feel are good, honest individuals who share my original reasons for joining and later devoting much of my time and effort to that organization - love of motorcycling and belief that the Yamaha V-Max in particular presents a unique and substantial motorcycling experience to it's owners not available with other brands or models.

In 1998 I began my association with the club as a member in the Southwest USA region. After seeing the lack of events and representation in the western US (pretty much all of the club events then were in the eastern US) I decided to start organizing events in my area to meet other V-Max owners who shared my love for the motorcycle. After trying to get the club's webmaster to add info about my events to the organizations web site and getting little help I decided to create a Southwest Region area site. Heading into 1999 the Southwest region site grew in popularity and actually began to contain more up-to-date information and pictures than the primary club site. Club membership in the Southwest area continued to grow at a faster pace as a result of the site information and the events. Near the end of 1999 the club president then in office had made a decision to step down from office for various reasons (that were explained to me later after my term had begun). Because of my enthusiasm and self-motivation, the SW region director (at that time) Bert Wank approached me in early December 1999 and asked if I would be interested in the role of V-Max Owners Association president. My first reaction was that it would be more work and time involvement than I had as a father of four and IT professional working for a large corporation. I was reassured that the job responsibilities would be shared by this SW director (something that never came to pass) if I took the position. Under those conditions I decided to submit myself as a potential candidate for the office of club president. Shortly after I was confirmed as the new president of the club to take office January 1,  2000.

Before January 2000 came I met with Star Touring and Riding Association president Alan Cease in an informal meeting in Tucson Arizona, Alan's home town. The Star group is Yamaha's only recognized motorcycle club and boasts thousands of members who get free initial membership in the club upon purchase of a new Yamaha Star model motorcycle. After listening to my story about the Vmax club and my upcoming involvement as president Alan's advice was to start my own organization and not try to assume responsibilities as prez of a quasi-not-for-profit club if I felt I really wanted to take on such responsibility. His reasons, which in the end turned out to be exactly true, were; 1) Associations such as the V-Max Owners Association are built around the concept that all members feel they should have a say in what happens due to the 'association' aspect of the club but that very few members will actually spend any time to help the club, and 2) Some 'old time' members of the club will never respect any work or decisions by a new leader of 'their club' and will more than likely only harass and stir up trouble as a result.  His advice was to surround one's self with those who feel the same and share a vision and goals and create an organization on that groundwork that has one mission and a common direction to achieve it, and in that way a successful organization could be built. Alan has obviously been successful with his organization, and Yamaha seems to think so too.

Well, feeling Alan was probably exaggerating a bit and that I could move the club in a positive direction with the help of my SW director 'friend' who pledged assistance and the the other club directors, I decided to continue with my plans to head up the V-Max Owners Association. At the same time as my new role took place Roy Richards, the soon to be former prez, appointed a local Florida club member, Scott Wingerter, to take over as club treasurer  on Jan 1, 2000. Roy had appointed a new V-Boost magazine/newsletter editor, Steve Jasse, a couple of months earlier and Steve had produced his first 2 attempts at a V-Boost by the time Jan 1 rolled around. During December, before I had taken the role of club president, Steve started bending my ear claiming he should be compensated for his job as V-Boost editor. I put him off until I took over and brought up the question of paying Steve to the rest of the directors. It was decided that since the club had never compensated any member who did any work for the club that things should stay that way or compensate everyone who did work and loose the 'not-for-profit' status the club was trying to achieve. (NOTE: 'Not-for-profit' and 'Non-profit' are not the same thing and the club has never had 'Non-Profit' status as some in it proclaim.) It was clear after Steve's request for money was denied that his interest in helping the club with the V-Boost also died (although he continued to try and squeez money out of the club). His next V-Boost issue (and his last at that time) came 6 months later after constant hounding and periods of weeks where he was not to be found. This, coupled with the extraordinary amount of grammatical and spelling errors, along with some questionable picture content (Steve also runs a fee-based biker porn web site here), led to his dismissal from that position in mid-2000, a decision reached by consensus of the directors at that time. It has been brought to my attention that recently, since my resignation, the new self-appointed club president (Mike Sayers, my former vice-prez) has apparently seen fit to start paying some club officers/members and bring Steve back and compensate him monetarily for his role as club V-Boost editor and web site webmaster. This is in direct conflict with the founding principles of the club and violates the clubs own policies as found on this page which was taken directly from the club web site on 12/30/2002. The club has since changed this page after I pointed out here that they violate the principals of their association. After Steve's dismissal, a friend and AZ local Vmax enthusiast Terry Campbell agreed to take over the (temporary) role of VBoost editor and over the next year produced the best publications the club has ever seen. It was only after he saw the lack of help from fellow club directors/members and the constant complaining that he decided to give his notice and resign, shortly before I did for many of the same reasons.  Of course the club officers and spokespeople have tried their best to discredit Terry and his contributions since he left the position and resigned from the club, more on that below...

During my first month as president after asking for records from the club store and not receiving any (for about 2 months) it was apparent that the store had not made the club any profit, but that the individual running the store had been pocketing any proceeds.  The merchandise offered at that time was a few iron-on tees and sweat shirts and some small Vmax trinkets. After not being able to get any records, I made the decision to shut the store down as it was, and reopen it in an effort to bring revenue into the club.  Some of the 'old timers' (self-proclaimed founders included) felt this was wrong apparently because the 'old store' was run by a club 'good ol' boy' and his friends. Of course after my wife and I opened up the new store and the club realized profits of over $15,000 while we ran it for them (using a room in our house), the complaints from these same dissidents turned to praise, at least until they had something else to complain about.  In opening the store I allowed the club to use my Vmax motorcycle drawing, something they are still using today - in violation of US copyright law (after be notified to cease use of my original artwork drawing in March 2002). So not only does the club not have any registered copyrights or trademarks at all (as they claim), but they are in violation of US federal copyright infringement as of Dec. 2002.  The club has failed to come up with any original designs or store items and the store is virtually the same as when I created it more than a year after my resignation.  They continue to use the club patch I designed for them with an image of my 85 model scoop on it (yes, that's right, every club patch since 2000 has an image of my 85 model scoop on it).  Ironically they also continue to use funds from the sale of tee shirt designs by my deceased AZ friend Doug Bennett (after being told not to in late 2001) to fund the club, but have done nothing in his name since my departure (since the DB memorial rides were all organized by myself in the past).  Because of this I have recently started selling his designs through V-Max Outlaw to help fund the Annual Doug Bennett memorial ride once again.

When I took over in January 2000 the club had approximately $5K in bank funds, and close to $30K in the bank  when I resigned. Membership had doubled during my term mostly due to the magazine advertising, massive web site updates including the new ability to register and pay on-line with a credit card, new store merchandise and on-line payment, new vendor discounts, international club emphasis, and other programs I worked on. The hard work had paid off in increased membership, but in spite of this success the club had persistent problems which increasingly seemed to be associated with the organizations structure, as Alan Cease had warned me of in December of 1999. Immediately upon taking over in 2000 I instructed the club treasurer to file income taxes, and the same for the 2001 tax year. I had been told he filed the returns, but have since found out the club never has filed taxes and I was never provided the tax information (or other financial info for that matter) from the treasurer when compiling my statement for the membership each year during my term. It is quite evident that the club continued to neglect it's legal financial responsibility by viewing the State of Florida Division of Corporations corporate status which was only recently re-activated (Dec. 2002) after being neglected and remaining inactive since my departure in 2001. Additionally the club was having increased incidents of motorcycle accidents at sponsored events, mostly due to out-of-control high speed rides. The treasurer, who controlled the money, refused to do any work to secure an insurance policy to protect the club directors from personal liability, something only fair considering they were doing work for nothing (well, all except for Steve Jasse these days). In the end, it was clear to me that the club finances were being handled in an inappropriate way and increasingly sparse information was provided when asking about funds.

Despite the clubs apparent success but partly due to some of the issues mentioned above, I decided to resign in late 2001 as the president. Probably more than anything else I began to see that 'the club' was more important than the Vmax to most of the directors and some of the members who bought into this motorcycle gang mindset. More importantly I had begun to fall into the same mindset without realizing it. Several times throughout my term of office there were discussions among the officers with regards to 'perceived' members-only benefits (discounts, information, merchandise) that were available to non-member Vmax enthusiasts (through channels outside the club) who chose to not join the club and pay dues. The idea was the officers felt that if they could restrict, as much as possible, the ability of Vmax owners outside the club to get discounts and information and Vmax merchandise that joining the club and paying club dues might be more justified and of more value. This idea seems to prevalent even now as club directors and 'spokespeople' have threatened to call V-Max Outlaw discount vendors in an effort to thwart the discounts to non-club members, and complain that V-Max Outlaw provides my original copyright design merchandise and Doug Bennetts for sale to the general Vmax owner population, without and 'club dues'. Almost all of the VBoost newsletter information was solicited and taken from the internet, and could just as easily be made available on the internet (as I've done on V-Max Outlaw). The VBoost was much more costly and extravagant than it needed to be and the information was really available elsewhere for free. The club store was making the club enough money to pay for a newsletter, if one was really needed for those without internet access, but forces within the club eventually wanted to funnel club funds into the pockets of some members (like Jasse) to help justify charging dues. Club discounts didn't cost anything to arrange and members dues couldn't justify that aspect of the club. It was becoming clear to me that enticing Vmax owners to join a club and pay dues was not only unnecessary, but an injustice. Increasingly club officers and others promoted the 'members only' attitude that flourishes in my absence (see this for some insight). When I resigned the officers and others in the club were (and still are) angry that someone who had done so much work (for them) would and could just leave. The club had felt the same way before with previous officers, and in some cases treated them the same for the most part. Officers and some members have continued to show this anger, resentment, and lack of appreciation for anyone who has done work for the organization, much like a gang of bikers resents someone leaving their gang.  Since leaving, club spokespeople have ironically accused me of 'dipping from the club pot' during my term (stealing money), when in fact it actually cost me money out of my own pocket to help run the club. Since all club funds and the banking were strictly controlled by the treasurer in Florida (I live in AZ), I regularly fronted the club many hundreds and sometimes over a thousand dollars out of my own bank account to stock club store merchandise and waited to be reimbursed. My wife would spend her own money at the post office to send club store merchandise out and wait for reimbursement from the club.  The treasurer even had the nerve to complain about the cost of a postage meter when club store business picked up enough to warrant getting one. These same club spokespeople and even one director also accused me of using my position as president to benefit friends with 'special deals' I got for them.  If anyone knows just what it was I got for them please let me know because I haven't a clue, and neither do any of my friends or the directors who refuse to substantiate those claims in public. It seems when someone 'leaves the fold' the club tries to do what it can to discredit the individual in an effort to make the club look like the winner, and it seems the bigger the contribution the individual had the more the remaining officers and 'spokespeople'  will fabricate lies in the absence of actual wrongdoing.

Since 2002 the VMOA has been in violation of US copyright laws regarding the use of copyrighted material. They have been warned numerous times about the specific violation but have chosen to continue to profit and line the pockets of the 'good ol boy' club presently at the helm of that organization. As a result, a US copyright infringement law suit is now in the works.

So in the end I must apologize to all those who joined the club after I worked to promote it. My intentions in the beginning were to promote the V-Max motorcycle and help owners, and I feel I did an injustice to my fellow Vmax enthusiasts who have helped fund and promote an organization that has questionable ethics, little integrity, and serves itself. The president of the club following my resignation suggested that I have a 'personal vendetta' against the club, which is his reason for the existence of V-Max Outlaw. He and the current leadership of that organization have only to look at the conduct and behavior of themselves, their directors, and some of the club members to find the real answer to why someone who would do so much to contribute would leave their organization and build something like V-Max Outlaw.  This web site and what I try and provide to ALL Vmaxers everywhere is merely a continuation of what I had originally hoped to do years ago when I first began to meet fellow Vmax owners and contribute to the global Vmax community. There are many other issues with the V-Max Owners Association and individuals associated with it I have not discussed here, but lets just say it didn't turn out to be what I had hoped it was, or could be.

Jerry Ferguson