Changes in VEX/IFI management are for show

FIRST General Forum
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I am very hesitant about posting this for fear of retribution. I know that posting this anonymously will hurt my credibility, but there is no way I feel safe using my real identity.

I am currently with IFI/VEX and I have been here many years. I am grateful to the many people who have had the courage to speak out. I know those stories and more. Nothing that was posted was a surprise to me.

I can’t talk about my story, because it will reveal my identity and I can’t afford those consequences. I know many people like me who will not post their stories because they are still here, but their treatment and the broken promises have seriously hurt their lives.

No one can stand up to the CEO of IFI. Not even local law enforcement. Not even the local legal system. This small town is virtually owned by this obscenely wealthy man. He gets a free pass. Everyone knows this, because he brags about it and regularly demonstrates it.

The only thing that can stand up to the CEO of IFI is company revenue. I am so proud of this community for showing the moral strength to boycott VEX products until a change in management is made. For some teams, it is a major expense and serious sacrifice to move away from VEX products.

I’m putting myself at risk to write this because I don’t want all this to be for nothing. VEX/IFI stated that they will get a new CEO, but that Tony Norman will stay on as board member. But, the IFI board only has two members, Tony Norman and Bob Mimlitch. I assure you this means nothing at all will change, because CEOs work for the Board of Directors. The same exact toxic, ruthless company culture will continue to exist so long as Mr. Norman is in control of it. As board member with 50% say, he has the power to hire and fire any CEO. Don’t expect the other board member to ever stand up to him - he has demonstrated that he has never done so in the past.

The slight of hand that you’re seeing here is exactly what I’ve been watching happen for years. I don’t want to see the entire community get fooled by this. I don’t want to have all of the public outcry be in vain. I don’t want to see the abuse continue while everyone is fooled into thinking they made a difference. You should be very upset that IFI is trying to pull this over on you.

The market revenue is the ONLY thing that has the power to stop the abuse and toxicity. Please do not let up the pressure until Mr. Norman excuses himself from the the board of directors of IFI and ALL THEIR SUBSIDIARIES. They have dozens of subsidiaries they can use to hide Mr. Norman’s continued control. He even has a company that owns all the property that IFI occupies, and IFI pays him rent for it.

You can easily verify that IFI has just two board members (and they are Tony and Bob) by accessing records filed with the Texas secretary of state, and I encourage you to do so. You can also confirm with a little googling that his company Overkill Properties, LP owns all the property.

Please do not let yourselves be fooled. Please do not let this moment lapse. Now is the time to be heard and cause a real change in the community for the sake of the people that are like family to me.

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Vote with your wallets y’all, make it impossible for them to justify the cost of keeping their board the way it’s set up right now. Keep the pressure up, and thank you for sharing this, you’re being very brave in what you’re doing here

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Thank you for saying this, and especially thank you for the mention of Overkill. Posting this was incredibly courageous.

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For the record, Tony’s full name is David Anthony Norman, which is what shows up on most of these records.

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It’s not enough to say “we’ve changed”. It’s not enough to say “we hired someone new”. A company that’s dug as big a hole as IFI has with the community needs to take actions and actively talk with the community. They need to tell us what they’re doing, how it’s impacting the company culture. If we assume (big assumption, I know) that they’re going to make the effort and turn things around internally, then they also need to know that it’ll take years to restore community confidence in them at this point.

My team made our annual “large” pre-season parts purchase last week (there may be one more smaller purchase later this month, depending on when things come in stock). That’s $1000+ dollars that last year was spent at Vex, and this year was not.

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Not integral to your point, but one generally needs three members to make a board. A quick search with the TX SOS shows a third board member:

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I don’t know any of the details myself, just what I found here.

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I find this statement interesting. I have no knowledge of what’s going on in the city of Greenville, and have never been there, but as an outsider, the city has a population of over 28K people, with the largest employers being L3Harris (6500 employees), Hunt Regional Medical (1100 employees), and the school district (800 employees). IFI doesn’t even show up in the top 10 list of employers on Wikipedia. It’s not a large city, but it’s not a town of <1000 people with IFI as the major employer either.

Given this, how does Tony wield so much power, and why would people in power in the city pay more attention to him over L3Harris or any other major employer? If IFI left the city, I don’t see it hurting the city much. Are there major political contributions or other financial relationships with city leaders to curry favor/influence?

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According to a 5-second google search, he (was) the CFO of IFI, so that checks out.

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The word “DIRECTOR” indicates membership on the board of directors.
And Warren Weeks left VEX before these allegations came to light. Like many who have left, they had a conflict with Tony.

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A corporate secretary is a member of the board of directors. If Warren is no longer a member, that position either had to be filled by someone else or is vacant with an active search.

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The buildup of quality and customer service issues at Vex over the last several years led directly to my decision to spend $33,239.36 allocated from the Perkins Fund at their rival companies (specifically REV and CTRE) this past spring. Since then, I have spent about $7000 of funds at REV, $400 at CTRE, $100 at WCP, and $1800 at AndyMark. In past years I would likely have spent much of that at Vex. So, thus far their company has lost about $42,000 in revenue just from me, not counting any lost customers from my advocacy with my friends and fellow robotics mentors. I’m sure there are many other stories like this, and many more to come in the future.

Just an anecdote

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A CFO vacancy and active search were mentioned in Tony’s ‘resignation’ letter. Though not mentioned, this probably corresponds with a vacancy of Mr. Weeks’ seat on the board.

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Here is the management information record from the Texas secretary of state. This record shows all the executive positions in the company as well as all the directors. Companies are required to update their directors and executives with the secretary of state every year. This is the record as of January 17, 2022. According to the filing history, IFI updates this information every year as required by the Texas secretary of state. As you can see, each position is listed separately. Only two directors are listed. Warren B. Weeks is listed as the CFO, and is not listed also as DIRECTOR, because he is not on the board. This information was correct as of January 17, 2022, but Warren left a few months ago due to a falling-out with Tony.
The only two board of directors members are David A. Norman and Robert Mimlitch III (aka Tony and Bob). It is unusual and questionable to have only two board members, but it is legal in the state of Texas.
Each director has one vote, so Bob and Tony each have equal voting rights.
In my opinion, there may as well be only one board member, Tony, because Bob seems to just stick with technical things and go along with Tony on any management or business related issues.
This is why, in my opinion, it is imperative that Tony excuse himself as a member of the board of directors of IFI and all their subsidiaries. If not, then he will still be in charge of the CEO and the company culture.
According to the Texas secretary of state records (the filing history tab) they file every year at about this time. So, the entire community can double check that IFI has addressed the management issue by watching for IFI’s next filing with the Texas secretary of state. In past years it is never later than January.

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These number sound great as $42,000 is a lot of money from my perspective. However, I have no clue how much this means to vex. I would assume that vex goes through millions of dollars of purchases a year. I assume you wouldn’t be able to do this as IFI is a private company, but is it possible to look up the companies annual revenue and/or profits for a point of comparison?

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As an example of how a prominent figure can become engrained with a shocking level of influence and reach within a small community, and show up in unexpected and disturbing places: Given what we’ve learned about the culture at IFI, and in particular the rampant alcohol abuse and predatory and coercitive behavior extended towards young women, having your name on the board of directors of the local sexual assault crisis center and hotline would seem to be an opportunity just ripe with potential for intimidation and sweeping of things under the rug, even simply by having your name on their website.

(This center should probably be alerted to what’s been going on so that Tony can be removed. Do we have a good non FRC-facing summary of all of this somewhere?)

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This was mentioned previously and @Akash_Rastogi brought up a very good point:

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The image shows two directors and one secretary. A secretary is not a director.
Please see my post below that shows the complete picture of IFI executives and directors.
IFI has exactly two board members: David A. Norman and Robert Mimlitch III.
Warren B. Weeks is not and has never been a member of the board of directors of IFI.
IFI has had exactly two directors, Tony and Bob, since it was formed two decades ago.
If you believe there was ever another director, please show the evidence that shows someone else with the word DIRECTOR next to it. Otherwise, please acknowledge you were incorrect in your guess that there are three board members.
This point is central to my post, because what I’m saying is that unless Tony comes off the board, he will still have complete control over IFI and all its subsidiaries. This is because the board has only two people on it, and Bob has proven himself to not stand up to Tony as is evidenced by the many witnesses who have posted in these pages.
Please don’t help Tony fool the entire community that stepping down as CEO is enough. It is not.
Please don’t help IFI get a new CEO that is hand-picked by Tony and will be under Tony’s control.

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Yes. As Chuck Glick put it in his statement,

the only gracious, and professional outcome of this entire ordeal would amount to the full liquidation of Mr. Norman’s interest in IFI; along with his indefinite removal from the community at large.

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A secretary of a board of directors can absolutely be a voting member of the board.

It’s also possible to have non-voting members of a board of directors.

In my opinion, Jared’s post does not undermine your post in any way.

Idk about for Texas, but for a Virginia business, the question of board membership may not be knowable from the company’s public disclosures alone. You would need to see the company’s bylaws, which would define board membership and the voting powers of the board members

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I don’t believe that, nor do I believe I’m incorrect to suggest that a secretary is very much a member of a corporate board.

I do acknowledge that Warren Weeks is seemingly no longer a member of the board, but that doesn’t negate that according to the latest records, he is.

I’m not sure why you think anything I’ve said is doing this. I think providing evidence of what we say is important, and providing counter evidence to things other people say is important, too. We need to respect the truth, even if inconvenient to the (very valid) larger point.

I have no intent to undermine your post. There’s lots of great points in there.

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