3 February, 2004

Hello Shipmates,

This is going to be my last newsletter as president. I feel that I owe everyone an explanation as to why I'm resigning.

I took the position as president when I was asked by Randy Mink if I wanted the job. Since I agreed to do it, I have tried to help Randy run the website, and keep things going as smoothly as possible. It seems that as soon as I took the position, I had to field complaints from some of the members and even the wife of one member. (It would have been different if she actually served onboard) This was a learning experience and I'm glad that I took the job.

I sent out crew letters making sure that everyone was kept up to date on most of the problems that were going on, I didn't send out a letter concerning everything.

When I tried to send out letters and other stuff, I was inundated with E-Mail from some members bitching about getting SPAM instead of just deleting it and moving on. With that I quit sending out E-Mail to most people involved with the site unless it was regarding things that we were working on with the site.

When the reunion rolled around, I started getting letters from some members complaining that the price of the reunion was too high and they wanted this and not that. Well it was because of the complaints that Mike Lovett suddenly quit. I tried like hell to get him to come back and enjoy the reunion that HE had worked so hard to put together. In the end he told me that he wasn't going to go, because of the way that he was treated by some of the members. The reunion was set up as a package deal and if we let everyone nickel and dime everything it would have cost a lot more than it did. (And those that did actually pay would have lost a lot more!)

When the reunion did come, My wife and drove to Virginia Beach despite the impending arrival of a hurricane. As we were enroute I got a lot of calls from people saying that they weren't coming or saying that they would be there but they were going to arrive a day late. Some of the members did show up even though there was a hurricane going on, we renewed a few friendships and made new ones that will last. We had to deal with getting the hospitality room opened and some of the hotel employees shitty attitudes about doing their jobs. Stacey Backman and Sandy had to deal with a shift manager that was more worried about getting plastic chairs out on the deck than he was about his guests.

While everyone was enjoying the reunion, I started getting calls about refunds. We were in the hospitality room and Sandy and Stacey mentioned the "Wad" of cash that Randy had. We talked to him and found that it was some of the money that was sent to him. We immediately took that and Reimbursed as many of the members as we could but ran out of cash. We had everyone sign for the money they received and I trusted that Randy would take care of the rest, like he assured me. He took the list of names with him.

When we got back I had letters from members wanting to know about refunds. I referred them to Randy expecting that he would be getting the money back from the cruise that was paid for than sending out the cash. The website went down for a few months because the fees weren't paid. After they were paid the website came back online and it seemed that things were going to be okay. In December I got a letter from a member that was rightfully upset that he still hadn't received his refund. I sent Randy a letter and he finally told me his version of what happened. I got the member to wait until Jan 1st before doing anything and Randy assured me that he would get this taken care of Immediately and get a loan to cover what was still owed.

While that was settling down I tried to get a model of the ship produced. I contacted other websites to find out if there would be enough interest in getting a company to produce one. There was a lot of interest and I contacted numerous companies about making the model. While I waited I started getting I-Mails saying mostly that people don't want to pay a lot for a model. Nothing was set and I was getting complaints already. I gave up the idea after talking to a company in Italy and starting to set up initial talks about getting the model. Randy had found info on someone producing a model and put pictures on the site.

Jan 1st came and went and I got a letter stating that the money had not been sent out and contact couldn't be made with Randy. I sent him I-Mail and tried to call him. His phone had been disconnected and he did not answer my letters. I gave the member all of Randy's info that I knew of. Randy finally contacted me and told me that he was in the hospital for a while because he was depressed and he stayed in the mental health unit because he felt like taking his own life.

I have enjoyed a lot of things while I served as president, everyone has been great. I am stepping down simply because I will not be associated with the missing money, or an allegation of theft. Although from the letters that I have received, everyone have been supportive and said that it's not my fault that this is happening. Before leaving I wanted to do what I could to make sure that this didn't happen again. I asked members for volunteers for treasurer. from the responses, I put 2 treasurers in place to make sure that there were check and balances and to ensure that not one person had control of any money, now there are 2 and I know that we will not have to worry about a mess like this again.

I deal with thieves and liars and complaints from people every day at work. (And I thank God everyday that I have a job) I do not want to deal with the same things while I am at home. Home is a place where I can come and know that I don't have to deal with these problems, at least I used to think so.

I hope that this explains my reasons for leaving. Good luck with finding a new president. My name will still be listed in the crew roster, and anyone can contact me. I will be at the next reunion, and do whatever I can to support the website.

Fair Winds,
Bob Borland

28 October, 2003

Hello Shipmates,

It's been quite a while since my last newsletter. A lot has happened since I wrote it.

First of all we had our Inaugural reunion. We all watched with dismay as Isabel crashed the party. Sandy and I beat the hurricane to VA. Beach along with Kurt Wolfgang and his family. We were a little concerned that the hotel would close due to the impending storm. Fortunately for us, Bob and Sam Trader offered to let us stay with them should that happen. The hotel stayed open and we had a dry room to stay in. Thursday more of the members showed up during the brunt of the storm. We had Chicken wings and drinks in the lobby of the hotel. That was our hurricane party. What a blast we had. It was comforting to have friends around to sit with and take our minds off of the storm.

Ed Rameriz's cell phone wasn't working and I explained to James that when the winds are high, it blows the signal off course so making a call is harder in the storm unless the signal happens to hit a tower. HA HA HA.........alcohol makes people believe some of the silliest things.

Friday morning was awesome, it was like there hadn't been a storm at all. (With the exception of not having power) A lot more of the attendees showed up on Friday and I finally got to meet Randy Mink. The Dot Com Daddy of the Daniels website!

The weather for the rest of the reunion was great, there was swimming and partying for all. We had a dinner at Bob Traders house since all of the dinners at the hotel were cancelled. The party on the patio was great and so was the hot food. Randy has posted pictures on the site of the reunion so you can see what we did.

Pat Cadigan surprised everyone when he told us that he left his hotel, which had power and came to the Holiday Inn which was without just so he could be with everyone and enjoy the reunion. I'm sure that Little Jack Cadigan would have stayed where he could have television but The Cadigan's are real troopers to give up power.

Brian McCallen won one of the paintings of the Daniels for $110.00 and gave it to Roscoe Burns who wasn't allowed to bid higher than $100.00. If Roscoe would have been able to bid higher and won the painting I'm sure that it would have come out of his allowance for the rest of his life. Pete Hogden split on the cost of the painting with Brian and they both gave it to Roscoe. Great job guys!

There is a new section on the site labeled "The Inaugural Josephus Daniels Reunion" anyone that went and has a story feel free to type it up and send it in to Randy and he will get it posted.

Elections were held and all of the site officers are going to stay the same. Bob and Sam Trader were elected to plan the next reunion. I'm sure that they will do a great job with it.

We will not be staying at the Sunspree resort for our next reunion due to the fact that a lot of the hotel personell were rude to our members at times and although we were staying at a hotel after a hurricane, they weren't concerned with our comfort. Our group made up a majority of the guests at the hotel and they acted like we were an inconvenience. There were 4 employees that were top notch and went out of their way to help us and make us comfortable but the rest of them should be retrained or fired.

Randy is working on getting refunds out to everyone that has paid. Please be patient because he has a lot of them to get out and it is just him handling this.

I have contacted an Italian company about getting a model of the Daniels produced. I haven't heard back from them but I am hoping that we can get this done so that we can all have a small reminder in our homes to share with our families. We have had a great response at the thought of getting a model created but the demand has to be very high to make it profitable to produce. When I was asked about what kind of price that we were looking for I started out with $50.00. I am willing to pay a lot more to make this a reality but I know that not everyone is willing to pay a high price.

Well that's about it for now. Thanks to everyone that made the reunion a reality and let's hope that the next one will have more attendees........minus one, ISABEL!

Until next time,

Fair Winds

Bob Borland