[QUOTE=Jetryder223;155235]Smart folks who thought mariners were easy marks.
Too bad for them that there are a few among us who can size up a situation and call BS.[/QUOTE]
I stumbled on this thread and was enjoying the banter. Then this observation reminded me that history repeats itself. Does anybody remember the guy who set himself up in the mid-80’s as a financial advisor to mariners. Just send him your fat Exxon and Mobil and Lykes and US Lines paychecks and his alchemy will turn it into gold. Well, you can guess how that ended. I believe the guy was some operator out of Rhode Island and his name was-you can’t make this stuff up- “Medici”. I believe he was caught en route to the Caymans. That dirtbag financially ruined a lot of Maine and Mass academy grads.
Another (much more benign) mid-80’s venture was a newsletter called the “Professional Mariners Alliance”, composed mostly of recent ringknocker grads. This forum is of course essentially much better, more modern (and free) version of that rag. I googled that term and it gets you to a dive bar and tattoo parlor in Long Beach, Long Island now. Sic transit gloria, I guess.
Now as to “the APMA”, not saying these guys are crooks in any broad sense. It seems more like a loose affiliation of drinking buddies looking to make beer money. It’s not a perfect analogy, but i view it as a sort of bush league version of where somebody calls you up saying they are soliciting donations for some sheriffs department. The department gets some minimal, token fraction of the take. The analogy is real US mariners and their interests, to the said sheriffs department—again an imperfect analogy.
Also as someone noted, it was probably formed in part as a conduit to (most likely by and large repuatble) financial advisors. But its easier and cheaper to just listen to Dave Rramsey or go to vanguard.com.
I guess the floor is still Mr Hamilton’s if he cares to refute and enlighten us as to the Organizations purpose and strategy.
So I just got the 26 page non-profit application of the APMA from the IRS including their bylaws, balance sheet, and articles of incorporation…all suspicions are confirmed. If any body is interested, I’ll…sigh…scan them and upload them to a Dropbox or Google Drive when I get back later on tonight…or if you have a specific question, hit me up.
[QUOTE=captjamied;158767]So I just got the 26 page non-profit application of the APMA from the IRS including their bylaws, balance sheet, and articles of incorporation…all suspicions are confirmed. If any body is interested, I’ll…sigh…scan them and upload them to a Dropbox or Google Drive when I get back later on tonight…or if you have a specific question, hit me up.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=captjamied;158767]So I just got the 26 page non-profit application of the APMA from the IRS including their bylaws, balance sheet, and articles of incorporation…all suspicions are confirmed. If any body is interested, I’ll…sigh…scan them and upload them to a Dropbox or Google Drive when I get back later on tonight…or if you have a specific question, hit me up.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=captjamied;158767]So I just got the 26 page non-profit application of the APMA from the IRS including their bylaws, balance sheet, and articles of incorporation…all suspicions are confirmed. If any body is interested, I’ll…sigh…scan them and upload them to a Dropbox or Google Drive when I get back later on tonight…or if you have a specific question, hit me up.[/QUOTE]
I just want to read the mission statement…how they plan to just be so gosh darned happy to help a lost and financially inept mariner invest his hard earned money to make him just oodles of big bloated returns. I hear the Lord’s Resistance Army is paying 1000% annual return as long as you don’t mind being paid in animal parts or little children or the Islamic State who are paying 2000% returns but you have to fly to their territory to collect
[QUOTE=c.captain;158790]I just want to read the mission statement…how they plan to just be so gosh darned happy to help a lost and financially inept mariner invest his hard earned money to make him just oodles of big bloated returns. I hear the Lord’s Resistance Army is paying 1000% annual return as long as you don’t mind being paid in animal parts or little children or the Islamic State who are paying 2000% returns but you have to fly to their territory to collect[/QUOTE]
Just so long as the ROI is better than that from that Nigerian prince I sent my bank account info to!
Sorry for the delay all…life happens…
Here are those links, sorry I couldn’t just get them all in one folder with one link but I’m just a lowly tugboater and such mysteries of technology escape me.
I will refrain from making a synopsis but the first 9 pages are the IRS form 1024 application (the IRS goofed and instead of sending me pages #6,7,8 they sent duplicates of #3,4,5…how relevant that is I don’t know but it seems a plausible oversight on their part). A list of their officers is pg.4, The Articles of Incorporation are pg.10 and the by-laws are pgs. 11-22 with the balance sheets on pgs. 22 & 23
Wow I wonder if the people who came up with those numbers have been drug tested. A million dollars in membership dues in 2017? At $72 a year, that is almost 14,000 members. Somebody has been smoking some whacky tabacky.
Apparently this has been a thing for well over a year. The bylaws say they were enacted in December 2013. Yet we’re only just hearing about this Association.
The other thing I picked up on is they think they’re going to get $500K in membership dues this year and $1 million next year. Do they know something we don’t?
Their mission statement also strikes me as being a little bit vague. Are they going to have lobbyists in Washington? Will they represent the mariner at, for example, contract negotiations? Will they have someone on call to help out with labor and legal questions? What sort of training are they going to offer that isn’t already on offer at any number of maritime schools? Are they going to be a good source for job leads? Too many questions for me just yet. Maybe they are on the up-and-up, maybe they’ve got a decent idea–as fragmented as this industry is, something that would give all mariners a common voice could be a good thing–but as far as I’m concerned there’s still a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
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[QUOTE=RespectMyAuthority;159089]Wow I wonder if the people who came up with those numbers have been drug tested. A million dollars in membership dues in 2017? At $72 a year, that is almost 14,000 members. Somebody has been smoking some whacky tabacky.[/QUOTE]
Oh no, it’s even better. That’s the projected number for 2016!
Oh no, it’s even better. That’s the projected number for 2016![/QUOTE]
You are correct, my mistake. Maybe they have been drinking something a little stronger than what I have in my cup…
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[QUOTE=awulfclark;159091] Maybe they are on the up-and-up, maybe they’ve got a decent idea–as fragmented as this industry is, something that would give all mariners a common voice could be a good thing–but as far as I’m concerned there’s still a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
![/QUOTE]
The signature on those documents confirms for me that they are not on the up and up. Did you see the salary numbers? He isn’t doing it out of the goodness of his heart. It is all about the Benjamins.
[QUOTE=RespectMyAuthority;159092]The signature on those documents confirms for me that they are not on the up and up. Did you see the salary numbers? He isn’t doing it out of the goodness of his heart. It is all about the Benjamins.[/QUOTE]
Well, a man has to make money somehow. But there better jolly well be some value if he thinks he’s going to collect that much revenue and pay himself off our contributions. That’s the real question–what’s that value? As yet there’s been no definitive answer and that’s what concerns me. It’d be one thing if they could say specifically, “We plan on doing this thing, that thing, and this other thing,” and if it doesn’t work out maybe at least they tried. But nothing like that is forthcoming as yet.
[QUOTE=awulfclark;159096]Well, a man has to make money somehow. But there better jolly well be some value if he thinks he’s going to collect that much revenue and pay himself off our contributions. That’s the real question–what’s that value? As yet there’s been no definitive answer and that’s what concerns me. It’d be one thing if they could say specifically, “We plan on doing this thing, that thing, and this other thing,” and if it doesn’t work out maybe at least they tried. But nothing like that is forthcoming as yet.[/QUOTE]
Sure a man has to make money somehow but how about the old fashioned way of working for a living. He worked for around 20 years on the highest payed shipping job in AMO because he had a sugar-daddy high up in the company. What did he spend all that on? Why does he have to scam those who make an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work? I am sure he has delusions of grandeur to help the poor down-trodden but in the end, the main purpose of this endeavor is to help himself.
[QUOTE=RespectMyAuthority;159106]Sure a man has to make money somehow but how about the old fashioned way of working for a living. He worked for around 20 years on the highest payed shipping job in AMO because he had a sugar-daddy high up in the company. What did he spend all that on? Why does he have to scam those who make an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work? I am sure he has delusions of grandeur to help the poor down-trodden but in the end, the main purpose of this endeavor is to help himself.[/QUOTE]
my disgust has reached all new lows here…this is beyond any apology a hideous farce
[QUOTE=Bilgeman;157214]The world looks considerably different when you’re getting plastered at the Fleet Reserve Club in Annapolis…I know, I’ve gotten blotto in there a few times. My favorite time was when the United Airlines pilot fell asleep in his BMW out in the parking lot.
If you wanta n example in steel of just HOW different it can look, I offer the gas-turbine powered LMSRs presently tied up and rusting away in a “Congressionally strategic” port near you.
Draft too deep, fuel bill too expensive,(even for the Navy), bigger than the Titanic and has a crew about half that of a World War II Liberty Ship.
This is why admirals should not be allowed to design cargo ships simply because they are admirals.[/QUOTE]
They have 'em scattered about the globe these days. A couple of em in Marine Corps black livery.
I can attest that they are the biggest fuel hogs evah. Very wasteful design with no heat recovery to speak of.