Dear Tulsa Bird Dog Club Members,
As you know, the Tulsa Bird Dog Club has been discussing purchasing land for field trials and clay shooting. At the close of the May 27th 2008 meeting it was decided to pursue the matter with the membership.
Initially, this discussion was focused on a 120 acre property between Skiatook and Hominy for $120,000. On May 29th, Greg Kuhnke met with attorney A.G. Murray and discovered that the 120 acres are not contiguous. There is one 80 acre block that connects at a corner to another 40 acres. It was concluded that particular property is probably not suitable for what we need as a club.
Regardless of this particular land's suitability, the discussion shifted to what must happen in order to purchase any property. For one, we must have a down payment, and in order to raise one, we need to save and accumulate sufficient funds.
We have discussed a number of ways to achieve this goal and one would be to increase the annual membership dues to say $100.00 per year. If we retained approximately 100 members at this rate we could save maybe $8,000 to $10,000 dollars per year for a down payment on a piece of land.
Once we have the down payment saved, we could then sell Equity Shares or mandatory owner-memberships. This would consist of a one-time Owner/Membership Fee of say $150.00 Each member would receive a Certificate of Ownership that would be transferable by gift or sale to another party. Hopefully, as the land purchased is improved over the years it will increase in value thus increasing the value of each Equity Share or Membership. This way even a senior or seasoned member could join knowing that his investment can be passed on to a loved one or friend to continue this hunting tradition.
We are suggesting that we start the Equity Memberships only after the down payment has been realized and that land has been identified for purchase. Soliciting equity ownerships prior to identifying land for a future home would be like selling blue sky or a pipe dream.
The number of people willing to pay the higher annual dues and purchase shares will determine the amount of down payment available. The difference between our down payment and the purchase price will be paid by a loan from an area bank. Currently, there are two local banks competing for our business. The size of our down payment determines how much the new dues will have to be in order to cover the annual expense of the loan.
All numbers used above serves as an example only. Many factors could raise or lower the equity fee and annual dues. What do you think?
To determine the feasibility of this proposal, we need to know whether you are willing to pay increased annual dues and purchase one or multiple owner shares to help with the down payment. You do not have to buy any shares to join the club at this point, but every member will be required to pay the equity fee once it is implemented.
The Equity Ownership method of financing and improving land has been used successfully by many organizations. The number of Equity Ownerships to be made available will be determined by the membership as the number of shares available will also impact the value of each share. The value of the some memberships has risen dramatically over a period of time in some cases increasing 5 to 10 times the original investment.
We plan to fully discuss this matter at our next Tulsa Bird Dog Club meeting on August 26, 2008. We have described the dream of your TBDC Officers. We need to know if you the membership share this dream and want to make it happen. Please be present and be prepared to express your ideas and thoughts on this matter.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call one of the officers of the club.
Greg Kuhnke -
Roy Marshall -
Keith Lindsay –
Mike Hill-
Chris Jones-
Doug Hardesty-
Jeff Jones-