Catastrophe

The " in " crowd was the group of individuals that interacted directly with CS on mostly a daily basis.
The other good volunteers had little or no knowledge of the mechanics of administering the site or the finances present and future.
It is because of that first hand knowledge and the correspondance with CS that was in question a decision was made to rectify it or leave.
To remain would be aiding and abetting.

To rescue it, could never include the continued ownership or participation of Chris sunkin.

We left.

What you people have to understand is how SOS was presented to the volunteers. It was presented as never being a business, ever.
It was presented by a person that told everyone that he was a very successful businessman who had a long history of boat ownership and knowledge and a ton of close personal relationships with icons and business owners in the sport.

He has told more than a few people that he " threw" 120k at the software and then on top of that another 30k at adding the classified section.
When volunteers hear these things and read daily exploits of owning 14 different boats and falling 3 times out of a boat over 75 mph they follow along.

But when you discover by reading Rob Freemans stuff, which by the way I sincerely thank him for, you begin to look closer and the emporers clothes start to fall off.

When you check the software story and especially the classified story and its very not true, you ask questions.
Everything that he has said he is, he is definately not.

Back to the 4 comment.

The 4 called Chris Sunkin out in writing TWICE. Both answers were BS.

Chris Sunkin has gotten away with his exploits for one reason only.
He surrounds himself with people with credibility.

Given that it was decided that SOS is actually the future of his money source and the stage that is available to pontificate from it is a disaster in the making for someone or a group of people in this industry.

3 things specificately brought me to the end.

1. Chris Sunkin attempted to take money from a charity until I caught him.

2. Chris Sunkin attempted to use his connection with me to drag some of my dearest and best friends into his Saccenti boat venture as a dealer.

3. Chris Sunkin used the very hard work, resources and connection with others to propagate this mess.
Moderators were being chosen on who they know and what lake they were from rather than their loyal commitment to work hard solely for SOS.

There are countless times we were lied to and deceived. And as volunteers that is shameful.

The volunteers that remain or are supporting the site currently do so because they felt it was theirs. It was.

SOS has a cancer. To live, the cancer has to be eliminated.

Under the current circumstances it is very odd that the solicitation of banner ad revenue has just now started.

I personally was involved in the planning of bringing SOS to a pay site. Up until 2 weeks ago it was not to happen until a major image and feature change was finalized.

It was disheartening to me that all that was never started since it was promised to all the volunteers in December.

So you understand, any retort that comes from CS is manufactured crap. And any coached support is just that.

Straight up...this man duped a lot of trusting hardworking loyal volunteers .

There have been others that have had fundraisers in this sport.
I remember one where a person took some money that wasnt theirs. I also remember what happened to him.

A few years later we have the same thing happen and I read on here that some stupid dummy suggests giving the guy some slack.
Have we gone so low or are we so desperate to be FOUNDING MEMBERS that we will accept that behaviour?

At one point the other volunteers knew little of what 4 people knew. They all now have equal knowledge...and yet they remain.

Those people that run successful fundraising, please ask yourself if after a lot of doorknocking and effort and jumping in freezing water so your balls shrink to a pee ...would you allow someone attempt to keep your money from its intended destination.????
THINK everyone THINK

GB

Thank you

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

I will not wait until it is said that this was Alec's doing and that the rest of us were somehow duped into following along and helping him. I personally was aware of every e-mail, PM, and conversation around this subject and decided there was no other choice than for myself or Chris to leave. When Chris was given the offer to pay him back the money he invested in the site (as close as we could figure since there were no true numbers to be had) it was with my full knowledge and backing. Make no mistake that I/we were willing to give up countless hours of work, thousands of dollars of our own, and a place we all loved and built because we could no longer cover for this person. As for why we chose to try and do it privately and not involve the whole Advisory Board....look how well that worked out when Chris did it.

OldSchool

I concur with Alec and Ted's statements above. My goal was to be not associated with Chris and to not be subjected to the lies anymore on a daily basis. I would welcome any lawsuit if one is brought against me/us. If that is the route he chooses, I would imagine that there could be a subpeona of that PayPal account as well. That would be interesting This entire deal has been extremely embarrassing for me and I am done for a while on the internet boating sites. It's just not something that I need right now in my life. One other thing that I would like to address is the fact that there was no "backdoor" that we've been accused of creating to get back into SOS after sunkin blocked us out and chose to lie about us and our motives. I think that he forgot that we have friends that we've known forever. You know, like people that we've shared the love of boat ownership with.

The bonus part is that I actually have three boats and plan on enjoying the chit out of them. Hope to see my fellow boaters out there.


Signing back off...
Craig

handfulz28

So where the heck do we go now? I hate the idea of giving "corporate" any money.

klaw

hey Craig

Just noticed you were from MD I get out there about 1/2 doz time a year. Next time I am out there how about a ride in the Gun Where is Edgerock?

Klaw

Audiofn

Ted and Craig hang in there guys. Just come back to OSO and blend back in when ever you are ready. It is still the same group of bumbling idiots that ran it when Steve owned it. It is actually faster now then it has ever been.

CigDaze

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

It's a sad shame what happened; a disgrace, really. I can't tell you how disappointing and heart-breaking this has been - after the thousands of hours that we've all collectively put in. We lived and breathed that site and everything it stood for.

In the end, we had to make a judgment call. We couldn't stand back and continue to watch the wranglings, we couldn't remain idle while bearing any further embarrassment.

During the course of the last few months we've been becoming increasingly aware of some circumstances which necessitated that either we leave, or he does. We could no longer in good faith remain on board in any official capacity, nor continue to deliver any more of our volunteer efforts.

We delivered an offer, an opportunity to quietly remove himself in an effort to preserve our credibility, the credibility of others, and to preserve all of our hard work as well as the site itself. We resigned after it became apparent that the offer was declined, as we refuse to be associated any longer. Others have since followed shortly thereafter.

We all very much appreciate all the thoughtful and supportive words we've received of late.

Kind regards and best wishes to all.

SpeedGirl

iTrader: (1)

Standing on my soap box....

Yes a corporate company owning OSO leaves a bitter taste, and I too was very skeptical when OSO was experiencing problems.... However, many of the issues have been resolved and the moderators of OSO are all dedicated to "the sport" and making this the best place to visit!!

While IB pays the bills, it falls to the moderators to keep things running smoothly. IB is not a "boater", they are a business. Unfortunately, that can create an impression that is somewhat less friendly that it was when Steve was the owner. Your moderators, on the other hand, ARE boaters, board members, and your friends. IB has left it to the moderators of OSO to keep the community feel to the board. We do our best and of course there are times that our opinions don't mesh with those of others on the board. The moderators ask that everyone please keep in mind that we do what we do on a volunteer basis and try to keep personal opinion out of our decisions.

I would say that I take to heart the "this isn't home or family" posts since I put a lot of time into OSO - for free.... I have made some great friends from OSO and nothing can take that away....

VtSteve

I feel for all of you guys involved. It was obvious you all put some tremendous effort and sweat equity into it. If it's any consolation, you all did a tremendous job, and created a unique personality at the site.

All of you should be respected for how you handled the situation, and left behind that which you labored so hard to build. It's pretty easy to figure out who the good guys are here, and it's nice there are some left. I have a lot of respect for how this was handled, and admiration for the "WHY" is was handled that way.

Thanks for sharing a truly sad story.