MARS Bulk Purchases

[Brian Prestwood]

I've been discussing this with a few members. I thought we should open it up to all the membership.

In the past, members used their own funds to pay for bulk purchases then collected payment from the members who participated. Obviously, this practice limits both the size and number of group buys.

I'm proposing the board start using club funds to pay for bulk purchases and keep a small inventory of our most commonly used items. Individual members would still run the group buys. Some of the arguements against using club funds for bulk purchases are...

1) Collecting sales tax is a pain.

My Response: We are not reselling. We always pay the appropriate sales tax when we purchase the goods from the vendor. We do not have to collect sales tax again when we collect payment from the members.

2) Using club funds will draw the attention of the State Board of Equalization.

My Response: Again, we're not doing anything illegal.

3a) The financial benefit we gain from doing bulk purchases is not cost justified when compared to the loss of the discounts and donations from the LFSs.

My Response...
I know this is a taboo subject for some and some even believe the boogie man will reign fire down on MARS because I brought it up. I appologize if ahead of time if this issue scares you.

First of all, let me say for the record that I both like and respect all of the LFS business owners I know.

It seems obvious to me that our members benefit more finacially from bulk purchases than from discounts and raffle items. Rather than get into the details of that here I'll take questions offline. Please PM me if want me to explain my cost justification. If I don't convince you feel free to say so here.

3b) The financial benefit we gain from doing bulk purchases is not cost justified when compared to the loss of the LFSs as a knowledge source.

A variant of 3a with an apples (finances) and oranges (knowledge) comparison thrown in to confuse. You can't quantifiably compare financial benefits to knowledge benefits.

Any more arguements against using club funds to pay for bulk buys?

So, what do you think? Should we use club funds to pay for bulk buys?

Keep in mind, the club will keep all uncollected merchandise and either let another member pay for it or raffle it off on the raffle table.

Also, if you're a club member whose income comes from the aquarium trade please disclose that bias.

Finally, stating the obvious, no matter what I think, if a majority of the board doesn't agree it won't happen. I love my checks and balances.