Last night, Viper Club President Lee Stubberfield reneged on his promise to resign and instead suspended a number of directors. The power trip didn't last long. Stubberfield has now resigned for real, and he lays part of the blame on "bloggers.'
His resignation comes after a number of last minute actions yesterday that saw founding president Maurice Liang suspended from the embattled club along with a few other directors. After those suspensions and appointments, it appears Stubberfield is now ready to leave.
From: Lee Stubberfield
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 3:35 PM
To: Lee Stubberfield
Subject: Resignation
To the Board:
I write to you today to report I am resigning as your President effective immediately. I reflect on this with a with a mixture of great pride in the state of our club, and sorrow that we are all embroiled in controversy.
We have a sound financial condition again with a sold out raffle car that provided a quarter of a million dollars. A magazine that that has won countless awards, and a membership service level that we all agree is 5 star, and a parts business that will provide supporting revenue for the club.
Yet today we face countless allegations of various vices in the automotive press. It is said we are at war with Chrysler or that Chrysler is at war with us. It's alleged that somehow having a for profit business owned by a non profit car club is somehow a bad thing. And the leaders of our membership company and our for profit are somehow doing something shady. It's alleged our tax returns are wrong.
None of this is true, but this level of journalism, which really is not journalism but blogging has created this picture, with comments from a very few who have issue with the club. As just one example: It is alleged our tax return is wrong because we do not report any chapters. We don't have chapters. All our regions are incorporated in their own states as separate entities and report their own tax returns.
We do have some possible restructuring to do to qualify for the membership money Chrysler would provide to the club for new members who buy the Gen V. This is the issue Chrysler was addressing in their recent letter to our directors. They were not dismissing us, they were telling us to change one thing in our structure to qualify for this program. I might add that we have not received any funds in this way for many years.
Yesterday I had to make some of the most difficult decisions of my life. I removed three Directors and replaced them with more neutral ones. The removals are from both sides of the aisle so to speak. I know these actions will be questioned and criticized. Wait for the facts and the truth to come out. I pledge to you that my only motivation in making these decisions was to leave the Viper Club leadership in the best possible hands to rebuild the leadership in peace.
I'm taking the same action and removing myself so others who are less polarizing can move ahead while protecting the club's assets. And let me make one point clear, I never said I would resign on Friday. I had decided to resign late Monday and had communicated that to the board. That slipped one day to today on the advice of club counsel so there would be no confusion with the dates executive action was taken.
Trust your new leaders. I have worked with this Board for five years, four as your Treasurer during the transition from a Dodge supported club to a financially independent one. Give them some time.
Keep on believing Viper faithful, we will weather this storm as we have others.Lee
What is said in the letter stands in direct contrast to everything we have heard from literally dozens of members of the VCA. To date, Mr. Stubberfield has not responded to any of our requests to comment.
That means a new board of directors will be taking over the Viper Club, one appointed by Mr. Stubberfield that he finds "less controversial." But "less controversial" to him might mean "more controversial" to the rest of the Viper Club membership. Once again, we'll have to wait and see if the changes will appease the Viper Club membership and Chrysler. Especially Chrysler.