Scott Solombrino: NLA CANDIDATE

Scott Solombrino of Davel Chauffeured Transportation, San Francisco,

[This message was edited by XENEFOX Media Corporation / Limos.com on January 05, 2001 at 11:41 AM.]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by XENEFOX Media Corporation:
Scott Solombrino of Davel Chauffeured Transportation, San Francisco, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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Scott Solombrino would be a good addition to the board. Scott has been very active on Capital Hill to help draft bills that favor our industry. Please support Scott in his run for the board.

John Sinibaldi
NLA Board Member

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We would like an unequivocal statement from you as to where you stand on either termination or non-renewal of the management contract between NLA and Host Communications. We would also like an unequivocal statement on where you stand with respect to the reelection of Darryl Norman as president of NLA.

Dear jhj:I woould like to thank you for taking the time to set up a forum for all of the people running for the board. I have been reading with great intrest some of the responses that have been posted over the last few weeks. Due to time constraints and a very difficult travel schedule I will only be responding to questions on Fridays. I beleive that it is important to try to express opinions on a wide variety of issues that will be facing our industry. I do not beleive in some of the attacks that are made on peoples charecters on this site. It is not only unprofessional but it is very unproductive. In my 23 years in this industry I have never seen such division in this business.I am running for the board to bring unity back to the industry. As one of the original founders of the NLA I am shocked by the petty politics and lack of unity among the members and the board. There are very big and dangerous issues sitting in Washington DC that are waiting to be enacted by a wide variety of people who would love to see our industry regulated,taxed and controlled. That is where members should be worried about,not the petty politics of who did what and when and to whom. All of those ego issues must be put aside and we as an industry must focus all our attention on industry issues in Washington D.C.. The first question about Host is not valid. I have never seen the contract with the NLA so I am unable to make a judgement without that information. I do agree that the NLA board must allow a constant distribution of all information relating to the association to all paying members. That includes all financial and contractual information to anyone who requests to see it. The members have a right to know about their association. If I am elected I will move very fast to vote for the elimination of all executive sessions. The original intent of the NLA was to be open to all members at all times. Any member should be allowed to attend any board meeting. If the member has an issue then they should request in writing in advance an opportunity to speak at a board meeting. This concept is pretty basic and even the King of Saudi Arabia grants a session every 30 days to all citizens of the kingdom. Thats not even a Democracey! People seem to forget that the purpose of the board is to serve the best intrests of the members not themselves. On your second question about the president of the NLA I do not think that I have been privy to enough board meetings to express an opinion at this time. I have had many conversations with him and often disagree on some issues but agree on others. It would be unfair until I have seen more to express an opinion either way. Please keep in mind that presidents only serve if members want them to serve. The NLA needs change and unity. I will help to bring both if I am elected. We have very serious problems to deal with and now is not the time for infighting. The NLA should be moved to Washington as soon as possible. We are in need of hudge exposure in the town where all the decisions are being made. All board meetings should be conducted in Washington and it should be left for the membership people to do the outreach programs. Meetings should be conducted during business hours with lobbying events planned during the meeting dates. our exposure in Washington is critical to our survival as an independent industy. Please feel free to post any questions and I will respond on fridays. thank you for asking.

Dear JIm Sorry I spelled Democracy wrong.

See my post in "NLA, Love it or Leave it."

To all readers: I am posting to NLA love it or leave please join us for some discussion. Thank you and dont forget 3 issues: No more executive sessions,back to Washington DC where itall began and unity now. See you all soon!!!!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by XENEFOX Media Corporation:
Scott Solombrino of Davel Chauffeured Transportation, San Francisco, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dear NLA member,
Beleive me when I tell you, the worst thing that could happen is Scott not being on this new board in Vegas. He has that right stuff, and I beg of you to vote for him!!!!!
Lets get these good people on, Scott is one of them!!!!

I want to join David in his comments in this respect. No one should misconstrue my exchanges with Scott to mean that I am not supporting his election to the NLA Board. I do, however, intend to draw him into dialogue so that others can also see that he deserves a board seat. See the "Love It or Leave It" topic in this forum for a fairly definitive first statement from Scott about his positions on issues affecting NLA. I trust that he will maintain a dialgoue here for the next several weeks.

To all NLA members: On friday I was told that the election had been changed once again. The board was voting on a bylaw change to allow regional elections. If this is true then you will find me in the western region. I find this change confusing after I was told on Wednesday that the election was not regional. My job as a member advocate is to inform the membership of the information that I am able to gather and it is no easy task. I have also been told that the contract with Host has been renewed for another 2 years. What is very confusing is that depending on the board member you speak to therer are very diffrent versions of this account. I wish that everybody on the board was on the same page. I was also lead to believe that the certification program was going forward. I will be very surprised if that lasts past the LCT show. That program was flawed from day one and there are many reasons to investigate how the conclusion was made to continue something that had that much opposition. If I get elected to this board I will put great effort into a better system of communication between the board and its members. All NLA members have the right to input in the decisions that are being made on their behalf. Please remember that the ballots should be in the mail this week. All members need to vote so that their voice can be heard. Please consider Scott Solombrino for one of your votes. Thank you.

Why am I the only candidate that is posting? It takes more than one person to reach a goal. Just in case nobody has noticed there will be 5 people elected!

Because none of them give a crap! Some of us are looking toward a new association after the Las Vegas Show.

James H. Joseph
Pegasus Chauffeured Motor Cars
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
jhj@pegasus-pittsburgh.com

NLA has noticed a board meeting for this coming week. I wouldn't put it past them to try to amend the by-laws at that meeting, but it is impossible to do so legally. First, the present by-laws call for 10-day notice of a special meeting, and the notice is inadequate, so the meeting, at best, is a "conference" and not a meeting. If they attempt to amend the by-laws, it will be a nullity. Second, since most of the directors have never read the by-laws at all, and the proposed revisions are not "red-lined" to point out the changes, they have no clue what they're voting on, but that's nothing new. Third, the ballots must be mailed with the report of the Nominating Committee to all members "along with the notice of the annual meeting," and such notice must be given no less than 30 days before the annual meeting. thus, at least for this year, there cannot be a legal annual meeting at the Las Vegas show unless the ballots and notice are mailed by tomorrow, and if there is no legal annual meeting there cannot be a legal election.
Also, as far as the Host contract is concerned, I don't put fraud past anybody connected with the NLA/Host relationship, but the board has never approved such a contract, any telephone meeting at which they might have done so had inadequate notice and did not contain notice of the agenda items that would have resulted in approval, no vote was taken, the board has never replaced Bob Scott so there was/is no Executive Director to countersign the contract. This will be upset in court as well as the phoney election, phoney directors' meetings, phoney annual meeting, and phoney NLA. Scott, I hope you are coming to understand preciselyt what it is you are dealing with at Host and NLA. Our differences arise out of our different understandings of the malevolence of the majority of NLA directors and Host Communications. If you do not yet have a grip on the lengths to which they will go to preserve their grip on the NLA, you will. Do you really think they'll let you win an election, even if ALL NLA members voted for you?

James H. Joseph
Pegasus Chauffeured Motor Cars
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
jhj@pegasus-pittsburgh.com

I can only keep pushing forward. I will not stop trying to do the right thing for the members.The entire indusrty knows one thing ,that I will not be pushed around by anyone at Host or on the board. I am a fair man with strong ideas on what is right and wrong. I am only asking for a chance to work on that board and if I cant help fix the problems then maybe I will have to explore other options. I have more of those than anyone and I am not afraid to blaze new trails. Help me to try first before giving up on this situation.

PS: I have been a founder of many things including the NLA and I am not afraid of doing it again if we find that anything illegal has gone on. I think that people are guilty of some bad judgement but I cant be sure until I get there.

Scott,

Our NLA membership has lasped and we have not renewed. WHY? I had personally EMAILED AND/OR FAXED every single one of these director candidates to get their positions on things. As you can see, you are one of the few who responded.

As a NLA member I wanted to hear where the NLA wanted to go in year 2001 -- as you can see, the candidates, to date, have not responded. The faxes and emails have been ignored.

Well, the NLA's membership renewal letter which we receive in the mail every 2 weeks has been ignored by us. Hence, we are no longer members of the NLA. If their organizational leadership can't answer questions directed by their constituency, my company has no business in renewing with them.

I hope this is only temporary and things change.

Michael Composto, Founder
Limos.com

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Dear Mike: I have never had the pleasure of meeting you and I hope I will soon. I am unhappy with some of the issues at the NLA but I still deceided to continue my support as the Lead sponser of the show. I am also still doing my education sessions in Las Vegas to help small operators understand the complexities of this business. Because things are not going well now for all members does not mean that with relentless pressure and good leadership we cant have influence to change the direction of the association. We all need your support as a venue to exchange ideas and let the members figure out what they want from the NLA. Thats why you should not only pay the dues but also continue to focus on gettinig people to vote in large numbers for the first time. Tell them to send the ballots by certified mail and challenge them to fight for what is right. Its too easy to walk away,that was the mistake I made in the middle 80's. Now look what I and doing trying to get back into something that I helped create. When you see the largest private owner in this industry taking this amount of time to improve the industries association then the least people can do is join me and give me some support. Dav EL gains nothing from my election to this board. Thats a total joke. There is no money here for me but I do think that a united indusrty with a solid association helps to improve and protect this industry. That is why I am pushing so hard. I would rather spend my time building my company and going on vacation with my family but this is too important to let slip away. The small operators will gain from this experience. Any company that was started before 1983 has no idea what it was like to operate in this business with no national association. This is where time does count. We were a lost bunch of owners with no direction and plenty of regulators up our ass trying to pick our pockets. As bad as new people might think the current situation is now it pales in comparison to where we were in those years. Please dont give up yet, we can work togather to make things better.Get members to vote!!

Michael -
Don't you think it would be appropriate for limos.com to recognize on this site the logos of other organizations instead of just NLA. We've discussed this before, and I think the time has come to recognize that NLA is not only NOT the only national association, but that it might not be worthy of being so recognized.
- Jim

James H. Joseph
Pegasus Chauffeured Motor Cars
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
jhj@pegasus-pittsburgh.com

I find interesting that Scott's tone in his last two posts hints at his recognition that there is a deep problem at NLA that may be unsolvable. Board membership is a position of trust, not elevation to the heights of arrogance. That trust has not only been abused by most of the board members, but they have handed over NLA to a management company that refuses to let NLA out of its clutches and is duping the ignorant directors day after day. What's worse is that the hapless directors not only defend what they have done, but they attack the people who see clearly their defalcation. My vote now is to give NLA to Host and let them hold an empty bag. NLA members should vote with their dues. Hold tight and we'll have NALA up and running in February with an agenda that members can be proud of and a set of by-laws that will provide for member democracy and be bullet-proof insofar as the ability of any group or faction to high-jack the association is concerned. By February 1 we should have a set of by-laws posted on the net for review by those interested. Does anybody think it will be REALLY hard to get 1,600 members for NALA fairly quickly if the Association offers services to its members? There are those of us who don't think so - all we need is for a couple of networks to endorse a new association and its off and running. Scott, you need to consider where your energy is best spent. Some of us have been fighting far longer than you and we think that bothering with NLA is nothing more than pi**ing up a rope. The same energy invested elsewhere can pay tremendous dividends in a very short period of time. NLA is going to be drained of its best members in short order. Think about this - the vast majority of NLA members join just to have a logo and differentiate themselves from their competetors who don't belong to NLA. Does it make any difference to them which logo they have, or which association they belong to? Does NLA offer so much that they won't switch in a hearbeat if NALA offers them something more - maybe even a logo without an out-dated limousine silhouette on it? Maybe a name that is broader than just "National." There's no "beef" at NLA, and it won't be hard to start a new association with something between the buns. http://limos.infopop.cc/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

James H. Joseph
Pegasus Chauffeured Motor Cars
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
jhj@pegasus-pittsburgh.com

Scott,

Thanks for your reply -- I have not given up on the NLA -- I am taking a wait and see posture.

If I could vote, my vote would go in your direction because you are HERE; LISTENING; and RESPONDING. That is a start. The others must not have time, not care, or feel that 50,000 page views a month is not enough constituency.

As for recognizing logos in directory classifications, our next rendition of our directory will feature other recognitions; not just the NLA. I fully understand that the NLA is not the only game in town and we are prepared to recognize it; I just can't go an start adding things to our system when its underlying programming schema is being redone, redeveloped, and moved over to an entirely different operating system and database. The next version will feature everything under the sun.

Michael

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Michael you have done a great JOB with this forum, I know the members or non members appreciate it.

Now for what ever it is worth I have to support Scott for the board and if there is anybody left out there that cares they must vote for him also!!
He is to knowlegeable of the industry to not have there. This is not a Carey person that has set up a certification program in cahoots with the NLA people, I believe Scott will work for the members.

BUTTTT as I said before along with a few others including Jims remark, it might be to little to late. There is not as many true good guys as you all thought now, is there. I hate to say to Joe I told you so.
Its a shame as hard as we worked to get the TLPA to talk with the NLA and now this garbage, they must be bustin a gut laughin.

Just a question about starting a new association, whats wrong with the TLPA? Do you know what kind of power we would have if we put 1200 members in the Limousine division. Think about it.

Let me know your opinions.

Scott,
I have stayed quiet this week as my first grandchild was born on new year's day, but I hope that everyone that reads this forum plus my state associations across the United States know that you would be a great asset to the Board of Directors of the NLA. I look forward to working with you in my last year as a Board of Director.
Carolyn

Scott,
I have no idea where my first post went, but we'll try again. I have been very quiet this week as my first grandchild was born on New Year's Day, and yes I am very happy with Christopher.
I hope that all of the readers of this forum and also my State Association Membership realize what an asset you will be to the NLA Board of Directors. I look forward to working with you in my last year on the Board.
Carolyn

Dear Michael: The NLA issues are not simple. People are afraid to post because of the politics of the NLA. This is wrong,they should all be posting for the benifit of the members!! There is a total lack of accountablity to the people who are paying the bills. The members have to pressure the board to respond to their issues and sometimes the board will be correct. Dont forget it was the membership that elected all the people on the board!! I am here because I have no hidden agenda. I want to help the members.

Dear Carolyn and Guy: Thank you for all the help and support. I will not give up until I get elected! I think that I can help make a diffrence and fight for member issues. People seem to forget that the board and people running for the board are volunteers. They dont get paid,they serve because they want to help their industry. All of these people dont agree on a wide variety of issues but as long as they abide by the members wishes they are ok. We have a situation here that is very odd. The members are not playing a role in the process. Thats a very scarey thing and I would like to remind everyone that there are about 12000 companies and 1500 NLA members!! That is a disgrace. What happened to the 2000 members we were supposed to have by this year under Host management! Why has it taken 15 years to attract only 15% of the industry? Why are people leaving the NLA and joining the taxi! association? Now I am going to run the forum and start asking the questions. My campaign is over! I want answers because it shows a negative trend.The members have been left out in the cold and this must stop. I will not give up until I get elected and if I lose I will run again and just work twice as hard. I was a founder and this is not what we had in mind in 1983! What happened to communication,compromise and commonsense on the board! These words dont exist now. People must wake up and start working together to solve the real problems. This is business not kindergarden folks!We must get people back to reality.Thank you to all who see my point of veiw

I just want to comment on the reason more and more people are joining the TLPA. When I was put on to them the limo division was very small, as we brought unhappy or non NLA members in we asked for a limo division committee, they accepted and it was started right away. They listened! When there was problems between them and the NLA with HR 1689 there was a vote to break off communication, our group fought against it and talks resumed. They listened! When it was brought up about endorsing trade members and we said not to do it, they didn't. They listened! I could go on and on this is why they are gaining momentum and membership. They run their own association (no management company) they have communication with all magazines and there newsletters are informative and truthful. There is definate strength there. I only brought this up because you mentioned Taxi association and asking what and why the the NLA is losing members.
I know your heart is with the NLA I went through the same thing with a local association the LATB the wrong people got in with the wrong agenda with people that did nothing but cause problems, thats why the WFLA was born and became part of the FSGTO. I had put 8 hard working years into it, but had to walk away as many did.
Little guys want leaders with the right agenda this is no different with the NLA, they keep preaching the little guys then they nail them with the Pinnacle and * garbage in the membership book, this turned off many many more then what accepted that program. The amount of members that went in it should have told the NLA that it was not wanted, yet there still screwing with it. This is what the members are saying, they dont listen. Why did the present board not let guys like Allen or Joe run and let them get beat or win by the members not personalities, this is were Daryl lost alot of respect because he only steps in when he wants to. I am going to stop here for now, I hope you can pull it off I just don't know if you will have support within once you do get in.

Scott,
I have done everything I can to get votes for you, I am sure many others have also. I will be gratefull to serve with you on the Board
David

Dear David Thank you for your support. I hope I will be able to contribute to the NLA board.

To all NLA members,Now is the time to vote. Remember the wacky rules and send in those ballots soon. Thank you for all the emails and phone calls we will get to the end. If you dont get your ballot call the NLA office! Thank you http://limos.infopop.cc/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Got all my ballots today but 2 I hope they will be here on thursday! I helped some voters in Fla get the correct envelopes from the NLA office and they were very helpful. Please vote for your association! Dont forget to vote for Me!!!

If I am elected I will make myself available on this site and others to help NLA members and keep people informed. Information is vital to the association!! So stay tuned and if you want change get out the votes!!

Dear LImos.com: You have provided a wonderful tool for the members of the NLA to express their veiws. I thank you for letting people learn both the good and bad. The issues we talked about have served the members well. Thank you for all your help!!!!

No problem! Thats for the vote of encouragement.

- Michael Composto, Founder

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Monday is the last day to vote! Get your ballots postmarked by Monday and send them in! Its your association and your voice should be heard. I thank you in advance for the help! Lets get it done! http://limos.infopop.cc/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif