Slingshot Owners Group (SOG)

Quote from Mike in Victoria BC

What is the SOG vendor policy?

Hey Mike in Victoria BC - before the Slingshot Owners Group (SOG) started promoting vendors it developed a Vendor Code of Conduct that vendors and SOG must meet and agree to,

The Code of Conduct defines what is expected from vendors and SOG. Things like following labor/employment/health and safety laws for nondiscrimination, fair treatment, and wages and benefits. It includes that a vendor must protect customer data. It includes that a vendor must conduct their business in a high ethical manner like by not taking kickback or unlawful payments; and abiding by fair competition and antitrust rules, avoid conflicts of interest, that SOG will not accept gifts in order to work with us and that SOG will not accept or solicit any illegal or inappropriate benefits (including money, goods, hospitality, gifts or any other item of value) from suppliers or others with whom we do business. It includes that confidentiality is required beyond non-public financial information to also include business plans, ideas, improvements, pricing strategies, etc. It also includes the protection of intellectual property such that knowingly selling, exhibiting, producing, or advertising any unauthorized copy or reproduction of any other manufacturers’ product without appropriate agreements in place to do so would be a violation of the Code of Conduct.

I hope that helps a little

Quote from wokka

Good point, I just looked at the site, and even under the members area, it's not posted.

For transparency, all of this should be posted for potential members.

Hey wokka - you won't find it on the member website as it is applicable to vendors who wish to work with the Slingshot Owners Group to promote their products to SOG members. Above you will find a general idea of what is contain in the Code of Conduct. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Quote from wokka

Thanks Ross and as a member, I'm requesting that you post that info, at a minimum, to the members section.

Are there any meeting minutes or agenda's that can be reviewed for the members?

Transparency is key to your membership and potential new members/vendors.

I realize SOG is new, but giving the membership this info is key to your continued growth, and if you can't provide it all right away, we understand, but an ETA would be important as to when we could get that info.

Lastly, is there a charter or constitution that lists all of your by-laws, policies and/or rules?

Thanks!!

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Thanks so much, I will definitely bring up posting the Vendor Code of Conduct to the website.

We haven't done any work to develop process to share documents (agendas, minutes, policies, etc.) not required by law on the website. I'm not sure how to determine if that is a good expense (financial and time) for us to focus on currently. Help me understand how important it is and how often you look for those same things with other businesses you deal with - that will help us determine where to prioritize it with all of our other work and tasks taht members have expressed interests in.

Quote from wokka

Well, is SOG a business or a non-profit that is promoting membership for owners?

I liken the SOG to any other non-profit that is promoting something for their membership. I'm a member of the National Speleological Society (caves.org) and have been for many years. We have all of of what I asked for available on the website for the members to download.

If you are a business, it certainly doesn't appear to be from the website, nor did you promote it as such when asking us to join.

I'm not trying to be controversial at all, I'm just asking questions and want the SOG to succeed (as far as what I understand the goal is), which is to promote the SS and it's owners.

IMHO, you should be 100% transparent in everything you do. The only reason you should not be is to protect someone's personal information, other than that, all meetings, data, rules, etc should be posted, at a minimum in the membership area and I'm asking you to do that, as one of your members.

As members, we should have input in some form to the decisions and direction that the SOG is going, either through direct voting or through voting in new directories for the board.

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Thanks much - that helps me understand better your perspective

SOG is a not-for-profit business. In most simplest of comparisons a business can be private or with stockholders whereby stockholders would have voting privileges a not-for-profit can be private or with "members" - here "members" is like stockholders where voting privileges are included. Often times "members" requires a membership fee. There are a lot of nuances and more detail so please forgive the over simplified example. SOG was designed to be a free place for owners and not require membership fees (everything is done on a volunteer basis which explains why everything takes us longer).

Again, thanks for the info, that helps us better understand so that we can prioritize what you shared as we continue grow and move forward

Quote from Mike in Victoria BC

In fairness to the vendor who may not be aware of a problem, does a vendor get a chance to rectify any issues after you notify them of a possible problem? If they rectify it, can they remain a SOG vendor? Or perhaps you could use a system of 3 warnings before being condemned?

( he said 'rectify'... heh heh)

So far, we have nine vendors approved. We have four vendors that have inquired since January 1 but have not yet completed the process. We have determined we were unable to work with two vendors. We do not have a restriction on how often a vendor can request to become a vendor. We have removed zero approved vendors from the list of SOG approved vendors for violations of the Code of Conduct. RECTIFYING (see I said it too LOL) an issue is a difficult one - it depends on the issue(s) and the ability for the parties to rebuild trust.

I hope that makes sense - do I get double bonus points for using 'rectifying'

Quote from wokka

Ok, so you are classifying yourself as a business, but non-profit. If you aren't charging your members a due, then are you charging your vendors?

Since you have denied two vendors entry, I'd like details posted on all of the vendors, criteria, and all pertinent info on all of it please, the ones you allowed in and the ones you didn't and please be specific.

If you'd like that info kept in the members area of the SOG website, I'm ok with that, but you should be transparent. Again, personal info can be kept out of it, but you should let your membership know why a potential vendor was denied.

Thanks

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At this time we are not charging vendors who participate on the forum. We have asked that if our promotion efforts are a positive for them that they consider helping SOG with operating expenses. For large retail vendors we are stating the same and asking that if we hold an event that they wish to attend that they pay more than their equal share of any charges by the facility so as to lesson the equal share amount for smaller vendors.

I'm going to respectful deny sharing as our communication to both denials included that the SOG Board had no desire to share the details beyond the parties involved. Even high-level details about the denials would identify the parties involved and I am struggling to see the value to owners in airing dirty laundry for all to see.

Quote from Mike in Victoria BC

Well speaking as a non-vendor and a non-member (so far, waiting to see what direction SOG goes) my concern for the vendors is that directors' decisions may not accurately reflect the opinion of the membership. There could be bias among the directors (eg. if some are vendors themselves) or they may just not be reading the mood of the membership correctly.

If this is a group by and for the members (will the members be electing directors in future?) then I agree with wokka that you should be fully transparent with your own members and perhaps even allow polling or voting on some decisions if there is controversy. But if the directors of the group are going to remain self-appointed and/or appointed only by the other directors, then that's a different story... it's really the director's group and they can do whatever they please, and then I can understand not leaning toward transparency. In that case the members are really just 'customers' of the directors' outfit.

I understand your perspective and can tell you that no Board of Director is a vendor.

SOG may not be the organization for every owner nor ever vendor.

As for bias, I'm not sure how you could avoid it, most certainly there could be bias but we hope that has been eliminated in the selection of the Board of Directors. Really, this could be no different than a popularity vote among members. or someone buying votes. But maybe as we grow and learn we will come up with ways to achieve it.

At some point in the future members may certainly have the ability to appoint directors but that is not where we stand today. Again, a voting membership will force membership fees and that is not where SOG exists today.

You are correct, at this time, 'members" are more like 'customers' from the perspective that they do not have individual votes in the day-to-day operations of the organization.

Any Slingshot owner is welcome to submit ideas, thoughts, etc. to slingshotownersgroup@gmail.com

The organization was formed only a few months ago. All work has been done on voluntary basis. Is SOG perfect? Can't be right - it is a goal but one that can never be achieved. Is SOG done and will not change over time? Absolutely not, it will grow and change.

Quote from wokka

i agree with Mike in Victoria BC wholeheartedly, SOG needs to rethink how they are handling this and what it's members are going to gain from this.

I understand the need to screen vendors, but that needs to be transparent to the membership, or we are just getting your bias or favoritism.

I'm not saying that this is the case, but we don't know.

I will share with the Board -- but I can tell you that I myself do not support what you are asking for. Even at a high level. this community is too small for folks to not be able to figure out the details and for now - these kinds of things only separate a community they do not bring them together.

The declined vendors were properly communicated with and all of their questions answered. If they choose to go public with our decision they certainly have the right to give up the confidentiality around the Boards decision to not grant vendor status. You will not see the Board bad mouth either of these vendors with any disparaging comments. They understand our position and it is in their hands to decide how to move forward either correcting the issue(s) that were identified or not changing and continuing on as they had

I'm outta here to enjoy the evening with Karianne (*wink* *wink*) and the weekend with my kids and grandchildren - and you fellas have kept me from getting ready!!!!!

I hope this information was helpful - stick around and watch some more - you can always decide to enroll through the webiste at https://www.slingshotownersgroup.com/join-sog-today or you can send an email to slingshotownersgroup@gmail.com if you wish to disenroll or have further questions for me