Both David and I have communicated to PRA directly our concerns regarding this topic.
We have both suggested methods of resolution and await a response.
This thread should have been put to bed ages ago. It is more than unsettling to my fellow attendees and surely can't be welcome by PRA.
Those of us that attended would like to get this finalized immediately as some would like to attend the upcoming Florida runs.
Hopefully there will be an announcement tomorrow.

The next event for PRA is the Platinum Poker Run in Stuart, FL this weekend. The lunch stop is 3 minutes from my house. It will be interesting to see the number of entries for this year since last year was only about 16-20 boats with atleast 5 of those being sponsor boats. Wellcraft was there last year promoting there new Scarab CC and Skip was there with Cigarette.

This event only has a $1500 entry fee! :rolleyes:

16 at 1500 doesnt make running a poker run look too enticing to me.

I think next year I may re-join the LEOPA bunch - if they'll take me.
When I originally joined it was a 25' minimum and I just made it.
I'm only going to be running a 24x7 for the next few years, maybe they will still let me re-join.
But they had good, fun, runs.
$50-$75 for the run.
I'd rather do that.
And, the money raised went to good things - I know a favorite was Toy's for Tot's.

But they had good, fun, runs.
And, the money raised went to good things - I know a favorite was Toy's for Tot's.


AND THAT......IS WHAT ALL THIS SHOULD BE ABOUT !!!!

I am a member of LEOPA and their runs are well run, well attended and a great value. That is because it is a non profit club. We always have money left over to donate, lately our charity as been the Special Olympics plus we try to give the kids a ride as well. Another reason that they are cheap is the lake Erie shoreline between Downriver MI and Toledo/Cleveland area has a large chain of small boat/yacht clubs, they all have bars and run lots of events. LEOPA joined the parent organization, they don't usually charge us for docking and we more than pay for ourselves by spending big in their bar on Friday and Saturday nights:ernaehrung004: They love it when we come to town. We also don't donate $50,000, probably no more that $5,000 but our most expensive run is $250.00.

I was thinking PRA should be worried, with the success of Bobthebuilder's Fort Myer Charity Fun run he and Raymond and their Canada friends might just put on more fun runs:cool-smiley-011:

Alec you should bring that beautiful cat of yours to Lake Erie for one of our runs next year, you could give all the Cig's that dominate the club a run for their money:D

Did you see where Bob is going to put together a US Canadian Tour of the Georgian Bay next summer.

MsP, we as a bunch of Canadians actually held 4 very successful for charity poker/fun runs this past season. I was fortunate enough to ride with Alec in Cat Atstorphe for 3 of them as my cat is still in pieces. Our runs cost a little more than 250.00 but we have to have a pretty decent insurance policy in place to cover the organizers and the organization ( the Performance Boat Club of Canada ) http://performanceboatclub.ca/index.php and the insurance market up here is a big fat PITA. None of our runs is for profit. Every cent we raise beyond the costs of the run and insurance goes to charity. Cancer research, children with cancer camps, Children's Wish etc. Several of the big timer poker runners that also attend PRA events either sponsor our runs or donate heavily to the cause. We as a group feel pretty strongly about the whole situation. Charity comes first, well, after safety of course but its, as Alec said, all about the charities.

I sure hope PRA makes good on their promise or the bad blood up here will be sticking around for quite some time I think.

JS

Could you please do us all a favour since you are so close.

Go to the registration desk for the event and offer Pra HALF of their asking registration fee and see if that would be acceptable to them.

Just curious to what their response would be. Remember


H A L F

Well, I guess that makes a statement.:hitfan:

Does this mean that the charity is only getting half of what was promised? Is this a fact or just hearsay?

Raymond was travelling yesterday and unable to post. I expect we will hear something today. We will hope for some good news.:D
Bob

I was at the Stuart Poker Run this weekend with David and John from the Lawrason's Nor-tech 43 cat. We talked with Bill and came up with a very generous donation for the John D'Amico Chrarity for kids with cancer which is the TEAM LAWRASON'S charity of choice. As I stated early on, the event organizers needed some time to clear up the accounting for the event, even more so for one of this caliber. Unfortunately, there has been unnecessary mud-slinging. Let's all give Bill and PRA a "thank you" for the generousity to this charity and for the ability to put on great events that so many of us love to attend. We will see most of you in Sarasota in a couple weeks for another great weekend. Stay tuned for the official press release from PRA.

Accounting sure can be a little complicated. Esp. in Canada with all their socialist government red tape. As a TSX Venture traded company, worst week of my life come's every quarter and I have to pull every transaction together for the required audit. The worst thing about this process, is the number of transactions that we make in quarter. Man I write alot of checks. I digress, its not fun spending the full day with American and Canadian accountants, they always slow up the process talking, comparing both countries wacky tax systems! That just makes it even more boring and long.........

:rolleyes:

Thank you Bill and Poker Runs America. Over many years you have served our sport and numerous charities well.
Keep up the good work.
See you all in Sarasota.:D
Bob

Was it for the 50K or not?

That's the 50K question.

I have been watching this thread and I feel we should cut PRA a little bit of slack. I look at it this way, PRA does a great job with their events and have raised a huge amount of money for their charities over the years. Every single run they donate money out of their revenue. I think that is very commendable. Actually, how many companies do you know that donate a portion of every sale to charity? I don't know of any. I do sympathize with them on this situation. I understand what their intentions were and they probably should have been more careful and listed certain conditions. I know they anticipated more people for the run and never expected to fall short of the 25 boats. I know Bill was anticipating on 4 or 5 of us from Miami that didn't actually book the run but early back were thinking of going. I was having health issues so I couldn't attend. Joe Podavanos boat was not ready due some engine rebuilding details, My partner Keith with the Racheals boat decided to make his a 6 seater so it's under the retrofit and our other buddies didn't go because we didn't and we always go as a group. I know there were others that said they were going that for one reason or another didn't book the run. Early back I heard Bill Taylor was sorry he limited the run to 25 boats as he had a much better response then they expected. They thought they were going to be pissing members off telling them the registration was full.
I understand people are upset. I think we should look at the big picture. PRA raises a lot of money for charities every year and I feel we should cut them a little slack for falling short one time. I'm sure they will do whats right, they just need to figure out a game plan. There are a lot of things that I think are being forgotten. I saw the accounting some people did figuring PRA's profit from the run. It's not realistic. The run was all inclusive so there were other expenses for them. The rooms were very expensive, as well as all of the gourmet meals. Then there is their entire staffs payroll and expenseses, I'm sure this took 100's of hours that they had to pay their staff to organize this event. Transporting their pace boats, air fares, fuel, permits, security, advertising, prize money, additional prizes, dockage, Insurance, plus i'm sure over a dozen things I don't even know about.
Anyway, I feel they have always been a class operation. I feel this is very unfortunate. I do feel they will do the right thing as they always have.
Please don't shoot me for posting this. I have been thinking about this situation since the thread was started. I think Bill is in a terrible spot over trying to be generous and now it's blowing up in his face. Look at it this way.
He could have offered $100k first place and then pleged $10k for the charity; if the event was completely booked as expected he could have pocketed the additional $40k. It would not have changed attendance or anything else. I think the $50 was a very nice gesture and it's a shame attendance was low.

Well thought out and said Gino!

As many others I have been following this thread and commented a couple times. This was tough for me as I grew up with the Taylor family and Bill expossed me to this great hobby as a kid. I know this was not done on purpose and Bill would never have a hidden agenda, I hope it does not effect his future runs and I am sure everyone has learned from this experience so it will not happen again. Glad to hear it seems to be straightened out.

So, are we allowed to know what the "generous donation" was or is it a secret?

Do we have to wait for the official press release to find out?

I am glad that the charity of David's choosing will get some of what was promised. I suspect they will be grateful for it.

Not sure where you came up with the "mud slinging" comment Raymond. No where in this thread have I seen anyone actually label PRA or call Bill Taylor anything disrespectful.

A point was raised, several UNASWERED questions were levied, information was slowly "leaked out" but no name calling that I can see.

Maybe an official from PRA should have posted their intentions on here and it would have saved alot of those questions that I am sure have left a few people with an uneasy feelings about the whole situation.

Communication is the key. Lack of communication leaves everything up to imagination and speculation.

This whole Poker Run is somewhat "secret", only the INVITED entrants actually know what it cost, what the payout is, and how the prizes were being awarded.
Why should I expect to know how it is handled now, unless I paid the entrance fee, I'm not sure it's any of my business how the payout is handled.
I live in Ottawa, I knew this Poker Run was happening because some of my NJ friends had been invited, I forgot about the date, and didn't realize it had happened until after it was over.
There was no public press releases trumpeting the fact that there was going to be a large charitable donation, so how is it anybody's business now except for the people who stroked the cheques for the entrance fees.
If you paid, and won and you have a concern about the way the prizes (money for you, money for your charity) were handled then take it up with PRA, if not then don't worry about it. If you want a say, then ask for an invitation to next years run, and stroke the cheque for the entry fee. (which to my knowledge has never been a public amount - invitation only)
It just seems that sometimes people are looking for an excuse to pile on. Of the people in this thread that have voiced concern over the handling of the payout how many were at the Casino Run, or any PRA run ever?

Well, maybe you should reread the whole thread. It was stated by more than one participant what it cost and what the payout was and what was "said" was going to be given to charity. So if the cost, the prize amount was all made public, whats the problem with asking if the charity amount was "as stated"?

Right ... it was stated by the participants, not made public by PRA. If paid participants have a problem with it, then have at it.

I'm just wondering why we expect a press release now, when there was no press release before the event.
The participants have a right to know how it turned out, do we ?

Well I would want to know if a PR organizer is doing the right thing if I was to attend their events. I do several FPC events and would consider any PRA events if they fit into my schedule. I think poker runs are cool but lets face it there is a profit to be made at these events and if they were made at the expense of a charity contribution I would not participate in that organizers events.

The flaw in this whole story is they promised 50K to the charity and may not have donated the 50K! Just like if they promise a chopper/ video then announce that not enough money was going to be made so they substituted a polaroid picture taken off the dock instead.

What up! :)

If "$50,000 to Charity" was used openly to market the event, then the organizer should make good on the pledge. Because if one person signed up based on that pledge, then that person was misled.

But if "$50,000 to Charity" was a casual, word-of-mouth-to-the-participants thing, and the organizer is still making a sizeable donation, it's less of an issue. At least it would be for me.

As Airpacker said, I've seen no mud-slinging here. People are allowed to ask questions, especially if the organizer of a given event is someone they've supported or are thinking about supporting. From everything I've been told, PRA is a stand-up organization. But that doesn't mean it is above all scrutiny.

Nothing? (stir stir stir) :D

a donation was made, but not the full amount, but the participants I was told agreed, so I guess we should let it drop. PRA although for profit is a good organization, I am sure they will dot their i's and cross their t's in the future.