Dear APBA member:
2020 has certainly been a year for the books.
And as we draw closer to the end of the 2020 racing season, I find it again necessary to reach out to you regarding the financial aspects of your American Power Boat Association.
If you haven`t yet read my article in the latest Propeller magazine, I encourage you to do so. And if you have read it, I implore you to read it again. It is of the utmost importance that you understand the effect the pandemic has had on APBA, how we`re dealing with the repercussions currently and how we have to plan to secure our destiny should this madness run into our 2021 racing season.
We have always been and currently are charting the course of our member-driven organization. Let me repeat that: our member-driven organization. Without members and the support you provide, APBA is nothing. However, without our Association, our members have nowhere to race. This is what you get in return for your annual APBA membership dues — a place where races are guaranteed — even if in a new and truncated form during a pandemic.
Looking at the whole of 2020, APBA is doing OK financially. Yes, the pandemic has hit us squarely in the jaw and significantly altered our checkbook, but we are still on solid footing and not in danger of closing up shop. While we survived the 2020 season on only a handful of races held throughout the country, the simple truth is that we cannot sustain ourselves on this current trajectory.
To that end, we`ve been doing a lot of outside-the-box thinking to increase our revenue. A key individual to whom we turned is APBA Historical Society Chairman George Buddy Byers, who has set aside a gift of up to $50,000 for our Association. This gracious gift amounts to matching dollars against what we can raise as an organization — meaning together — we can raise $100,000 for the Association we all love and consider our extended family.
I`m appealing to the tradition and honor APBA has bestowed upon boat racing over the last 117 years, as well as your sense of the greater good. My hope is that we`ll be back to business-as-usual racing next year, but I`m a plan-for-the-worst, hope-for-the-best kind of person. Therefore, your monetary donation will not only help bolster our financial situation for 2020, but will also give us a leg up on the road to recovery as we head into the uncharted waters of 2021.
I`m asking you all to please consider making an additional monetary gift to APBA. Your gift, in conjunction with Buddy`s matching gift, can be a real difference-maker in the health and well-being of our Association. I appreciate all you have done so far, and all that you will continue to do in the future.
Thank you.
Chris Fairchild
APBA President
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