Stock History:
WSC was incorporated on February 8, 1973. It is assumed that bylaws similar to the attached were soon adopted. The first 31 shares were issued in November 1973.
From the beginning it was the full intent to place transfer restrictions on WSC stock shares. This would have limited ownership to active members. Mistakes were made:
- There was never any serious attempt to follow the By Laws and recover shares from members who left the club. This resulted in the current situation where about 2/3 of the shares are in the hands of ex members and their families.
- The requirements of the NC General Statutes 55-6-27 to clearly place a notice of a restriction on the share certificates were never followed. This resulted in an unenforceable transfer restriction. The notice has been included on all shares issued from WSC since 2002.
- A 2002 attempt to buy shares back from non members to improve the balance resulted in 24 shares being purchased by the commodore and his family, further exacerbating the imbalance. The then board refused to block this transfer.
- This issue has caused many hard feelings.
A now discontinued effort to buy shares back from non members had some success.
Shares have been bought and sold by WSC for $250 for at least 15 years. In 2008 there were about 335 shares outstanding. The value of WSC property is estimated at more than $1,000,000 producing a book value of about $3000 per share. Don't get too excited -- upon dissolution the lawyers would steal most of it :-(
The imbalance between selling price and book value concerns many of us.
Conversations with about 50 nonmember shareholders while trying to find lost shareholders convince me that the shareholders pose no threat to the future of the club.
Continuing to serve our customer base is the only way to ensure the long term viability of our club.