BCM Magazine

[Dreamscape]

Mike Sullivan is not involved with the magazine anymore.

Mike Kadletz is who anyone needs to talk to regarding the magazine. Please direct all questions to MAK.

Thanks!

[HighTechRedneck]

Thanks Paul and Jim.  You are correct.  I left the business several months ago as announced at the time.  I have no knowledge of what is currently being done there.  I don't know who Kellie is or why she is telling anyone she is working with me.  

The phone I had is no longer in service and the only phone number I know of for the business is the one at the top of the BCM home page at www.BusConversions.com  

Phil and I still help out as volunteers here on the forum to support the bus nut community but are not a part of BCM's operations or ownership anymore.

Mike Sullivan

[technomage99]

Mike, Paul and Jim:
Here's the top of the 3 emails I received from Kellie in reply to my queries/complaints  (private info **** out):
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From:
"mike@hwybus.com" <mike@hwybus.com>
Add sender to Contacts
To:
"Cal*** T*******" <calprivmail-busconv@yahoo.com>
Thank you for your email.  My name is Kellie and I am going to be helping Mike get the magazine back up and running.  Sorry for the lack of communication.  I will post an update as soon as I have correct information about the next issue.  If you have any questions or ideas, please contact me at kellie@hwybus.com
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Is the Mike Sullivan who just replied on this forum is the REAL one (hope  everyone else is who they appear to be too)?   If the real Mike Sullivan  is puzzled,
I suspect his  address book suffered a  heist.  I expect next to receive more emails like  "lottery winnings or business opportunities" from Nigeria or the Ukraine along with Viagra  etc.   No problem tho,  since all my  email addresses are disposable and can be replaced by new ones.  I get "bacon", and spam goes  into the great "Bit Bucket" in the cloud.

Getting back to the fate of BCM:  Mike Kadletz and Chad Laines  (nor anyone else) answer the phone # listed on the homepage nor emails, wonder what they are up to?? 

Curiouser and curiouser

til later,   

Cal

[John316]

Just to clear some things up. Mike Sullivan (Hightechredneck) has NOTHING to do with the BCM now.

..........I left the business several months ago as announced at the time.  I have no knowledge of what is currently being done there......Mike Sullivan

I personally can attest that Mike Sullivan is no longer at all affiliated with BCM itself.

Mike Kadletz is the one who this "Kellie" would be working for. In the email, I see no reference to Mike Sullivan at all. Mike Kadletz hasn't posted on this thread (that I know of), and is the one that there is NO communication coming from

Mike Sullivan has gone over and above, what he should do, to try to make sure everybody knows he is no longer affiliated with BCM.

To me it is clear.

FWIW

John

[HighTechRedneck]

Yes, I am the "real" Mike Sullivan.  Mike Kadletz has the forum screen name of MAK.  Technomage, I am the person you spoke with on the phone a year or two ago when you subscribed/renewed  (I remember because of the Babylon 5 usage of the term "technomage" and our discussion about that.)  But I left BCM late last year.

As John said, that email almost certainly is referring to Mike Kadletz and not me.

[buswarrior]

Let me lend my reputation, and friendship, in support of Mike Sullivan, known by his handle: "HighTechRedneck"

Busnuts, make no mistake,

This guy, Mike Sullivan, this BUSNUT, facilitated a renaissance of the BCM brand.

And many of us celebrated and purchased subscriptions again, after having given up on the poor service of the former owner.
You may check the archives, I was less than enthusiastic, cynical even, but put my money down too. And then spoke strongly in support of the proven effort being put forth.

However, in hind sight, it is easily assumed from casual observation, Mike S did not have full control over the financial levers of the business.

As it went wrong financially, he was gracious, and courageous enough to publicly announce on this BBS, he could not continue, and with a magazine volume ready to publish, returned the BCM brand to its former owner, Mike Kadletz.

And Mike Kadletz has failed to publish the turn-key volume that Mike S gave him, instead offering it to read as a web based magazine, which costs NOTHING. There is a considerable amount of paid-up subscription money somewhere that has not been spent on the subscribers.

And there is no evidence of an attempt to move forward from there. The empty promise of a February anniversary issue, now that it is March, says it all.

If you don't know what all this means, best you ask someone who might, to explain the business relationship that must have existed, if it went from there, to here, and back again.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[eagle19952]

http://hwybus.com/

So what is the future home of something special ?

I have no dog in this  but would it not seem logical to believe that the Mike S that left had a pretty good idea about what was going on at the time he left ?
Would he not know how many subscribers were being "ripped off" ?
I have a hard time believing that 100's of thousands of $$'s are gone, thousands  maybe (as in less than 10< way less) are "swiped".

I am just curious.

[buswarrior]

Which part of this are you having a hard time with?

However, in hind sight, it is easily assumed from casual observation, Mike S did not have full control over the financial levers of the business.

Logically, if you don't have full control over the money, you don't have full control over the money.

Which also means you don't have control of the information.

None of us have access to the dealings, but we can imagine...

Suppose a passionate fellow stepped up, trying to help a dying hobby publication, and then for awhile, put out a magazine for the hobby that he loves, but without full disclosure of the finances?

Make no mistake, BCM was failing before Mike S tried to help. There are too many of us on here that had left, read between the lines, the magazine would have failed already back then, if Mike S hadn't stepped in.

And, with the benefit of hindsight, we are where we are, with no magazine, and unfulfilled subscriptions?

For anyone with any business acumen at all, the signs are very clear as to what might have occurred.

It is painfully obvious that Mike Sullivan has been very gracious in choosing to remain silent on the details.
And he has my respect for his Christian resolve to be positive.
Better man than I.

Ownership of this BCM venture did not fully leave Mike Kadletz's hands.

Otherwise, how did he end up with it back in his hands?

It should have simply failed. Full stop. All finished. But it didn't...

Best focus your inquiry, before, during, and after, towards Mike Kadletz.

Barring evidence to the contrary, it is obvious that he has held the reins all the way through.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[technomage99]

 
Thank you Mike Sullivan, you authenticated yourself (what a  memory!) .   

Mike Kadletz has yet to "esplain hisself".  I figure he's working on a way to "milk the brand" a wee bit more til he proves (to me at least)  differently or am I just being paranoid. 

Google satellite photos of the business address show  4-5 buses  (depending on which photo) out back of 7246 Garden Grove Blvd.  Google Street photos  show NO business sign over or on the door at that address.

By the way, the latest Google satellite photos have resolution so high you can even see "people" in the parking lot.  In fact the resolution is so good, I think they used aircraft recon (or it was a smogless day in CA?).   The Google street photos had such high resolution that somebody at Google went to all the trouble of "blurring" people, phone numbers on signs and license plates.  No sign over 7246 though.    I figure the high rez photos were within the last year (maybe very recently).
My latest question is:  Is there really a business operating  at 7246 Garden Grove Blvd anymore???

til later,   

Cal

[Jeremy]

By the way, the latest Google satellite photos have resolution so high you can even see "people" in the parking lot.  In fact the resolution is so good, I think they used aircraft recon (or it was a smogless day in CA?).   The Google street photos had such high resolution that somebody at Google went to all the trouble of "blurring" people, phone numbers on signs and license plates.  No sign over 7246 though.    I figure the high rez photos were within the last year (maybe very recently).

I may be wrong but I believe all the low-level Google Earth photography is from aircraft rather than satellites. The 'blurring' on the Street View images is done by clever software, not people (can you imagine what a task it would be if it was done manually?). There was a lot of discussion in the press about it at the time - an earlier Google privacy controversy which has since been overtaken by new ones.

Jeremy

[HighTechRedneck]

I appreciate the support from folks who know me.

Taking responsibility is very important to me and I do want to set the record straight on this topic.  From July 2009 through October 2011 I was President of the corporation we formed to take ownership of the BCM brand.  Chad Laines and Phil Lyons were the other two Officers of the company.  Our ability to insert funding was extremely limited so a deal was negotiated that provided a minority stock ownership for Mike Kadletz in lieu of paying for the brand, and he invested $5000 in startup capital.  As folks who invest in stocks elsewhere know, this gave him a vote in the selection of the officers but not in the day to day operations of the business.  No other cash came with the magazine.

Chad, Phil, and I were the people doing the work and making decisions, and as President I led the team and managed the day to day operations and finances.  And as folks who called in know, I was the voice on the end of the phone when they called.  Chad and Phil both had extensive day jobs and so had to do there work nights and weekends.  We did our level best and worked very hard for little or no compensation to revive the magazine.  With the support of subscribers and advertisers things made a good bit of progress and I think many will agree that it was looking good.  There were many struggles and challenges and at times we stretched the patience of our audience, but it was a labor of love for a community that we were (and still are) a part of.

Between 2009 and the present, over 1000 magazines have failed.  Nearly all of them were much bigger than BCM.  And many RV industry related businesses have collapsed.  BCM is at the junction of these two challenged fields and although we made a lot of progress, the financial challenges were insurmountable.  Adding to problem, in March of 2011 I suffered a major personal hardship that took me away from the business for a month.  That absence created a hardship for the business that proved to the beginning of a snowball that grew to devastating proportions.  

Anyone that has run a struggling business understands the critical month to month balance of receivables vs. payables.  Through the struggles I did my best to keep subscribers informed, but the fact remains that we failed to print/provide the April, July, August, September or October issues.  We did credit the missed issues back to all subscriptions and ads, but of course that only helps if future issues actually get printed.

Mike Kadletz had expressed interest in regaining control and getting the magazine back on its feet.  After the rally in October failed to generate revenue, instead losing money, I made the decision that the magazine needed the reinvestment and different leadership and I resigned.  Chad and Phil then elected Mike Kadletz to the Presidency, partly for the labor availability, partly for the investment, and partly for his experience with the magazine.  Phil has since resigned.

I have no knowledge of what is currently being done or planned.  I do still believe that Mike Kadletz had, and likely has, every intention to revive the magazine.  But in this economy I suspect he is finding that to be a bigger challenge than he anticipated.

There weren't and aren't large sums of cash being absconded.  Prior to the 2009 transition the magazine was losing money.  In 2010 it achieved a pleasant break even status and then in 2011 it lost money.  By the time I left the missed issues had brought subscription revenues to a near halt and of course you can't bill for advertising when it isn't getting printed.  Yet there are monthly overhead costs that remain no matter whether it prints or not.

I feel very badly for all the people who have paid for subscriptions and not received magazines.  I can't condone the silence that has gone on by the current ownership, that is a big mistake in my opinion.  But I do understand the struggle they are having in getting it back into print and I know there isn't a big pool of money being derailed into someones personal account.  That doesn't make it right.  Communication needs to be happening routinely to keep people informed.  But first and foremost, I hope that everyone recognizes that it is a small hobby, a small hobby magazine, the only one specifically for this hobby,  and it is not a big money maker for anyone.

Phil, Chad, and I did our best.  Beyond that I don't know any answers.

[technomage99]

Hi Jeremy:
I just read Mike Sullivan's chronology which clears some things up, but not Mike Kadletz's silence.
Are the Klingons  at 7246 "cloaked" or just gone leaving some ol stuff in the back yard?
I figure most forum readers and contributors won't be puzzled by the above terminology.

til later,

Cal 

[garhawk]

Thanks Mike,

If that doesn't clear it up for the folks, then ****'m!

Come see me when you get over on this side of the mountain.

[belfert]

Mike Kadletz had said several times before Mike Sullivan took over that BCM was losing money and that the buses he sold were covering the losses.

[bobofthenorth]

Sounds to me like MAK is the only guy who has ever put any real money into this adventure.  I guess more accurately MAK and those of you who paid for subscriptions that you never received.  Time to move on.