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March, 2020
Convention Cancellation Notice
To
All BTOC Members,
With
the ever-changing daily life as a result of the COVID-19 virus the Board of
Directors met with the majority voting to cancel our June convention in St
Louis. This decision was not reached easily but was made in the best
interest of those who had planned to attend the convention.
With
conditions changing almost daily our primary concern is the health, safety
and well-being of our members. A secondary issue for cancelling at this
time is that there are several significant bills due shortly and throughout
the month of April that would create a greater hardship on our Club’s
treasury for cancelling at a later date.
Please be assured for those who have already registered, our treasurer John
Groot, is working on the details to put a full refund plan in place. This
is a tremendous and impactful move and will take a little time since funds
will need to be transferred between Club accounts and then funds transferred
to the PayPal account for refunds to commence. As soon as the plan is in
place refunds will begin with the first refunds going to the members who
registered first. We are anticipating that all members who have registered
will receive their full refund in the form of a check or PayPal credit by no
later than June 1, 2020.
In
addition, convention chair Marshall Adams will be working with Scott Fowler
and Skip MacEwen attempting to negotiate refunds and or credits for down
payments already paid over the past two years to the hotel and daily
events. There are contracts in place for the hotel and events so this will
take time and understanding from both sides. The Club is very fortunate
that we are out of pocket far less cash currently for the St Louis
convention than for any of the previous BTOC conventions.
To
all members who have made a hotel reservation for St Louis, please remember
to call 888-627-7064 to cancel your room.
Some
exciting news—at the meeting your board approved to reschedule the St Louis
convention for June 2022. In addition to recouping our down payments our
convention chair will begin the planning task for 2022.
More
exciting news--Our #1 partner, HLW was kind enough to create seven
1-of-a-kind locomotives for our convention. Since we will not be using
these very collectible locos for prizes or raffles at St Louis this summer,
we intend to come up with a plan to conduct an auction for each of the
locos. Pictures and details will follow. We hope to see generous support
for this auction as the dollars received from it will help to restore the
treasury’s balances. Each loco is custom decorated for the St Louis
convention so they will be extra special down the road representing a
convention that, unfortunately, was not able to take place!
Finally, we will be working on a 2020 Club car to compliment last year’s USA
Merry Christmas glow in the dark box car. Look for more info and early
ordering in the upcoming BTO. We are hoping for broad support of this Club
car like the support for last year’s car. It proved to be the fastest
selling car ever produced for the BTOC. The profits from the sale of this
car will also help us get the Club’s treasury back into a stronger position.
We
are truly hoping that you receive this announcement in good health. Be safe
and your board is looking forward to seeing you in Cleveland in ’21!
With
all the shutdowns and shelter-in-home directives our Club motto is
more fitting than ever.
Havin’
Fun, Runnin’ Trains
Stay
Safe, Stay well,
Charles Bartel, President BTOC
Your
Board of Directors
Additional Info
Formal Cancellation Letter
Cancellation Refund
Notification to Registrants |
