schaef - we agree it is not a scam. Have absolutely no desire to "kill the milk cow" (in fact, have just the opposite desire).
Have questions (while answers are welcome, obtaining asnwers is not the primary intent of asking; see last paragraph for explanation):
1. What is the current state of TATF operations?
2. How many people are currently employed by TATF/Raleo, etc?
3. How many have had recent corespondence / reply (e-mail or phone call) from tree owner relations or the Brunner's?
4. How many employees do they currently employ?
5. Is there anyone that is satisfied with information they have about the investment they have made with TATF?
6. What is the greatest determinant of future tree growth?
7. Does anyone know the details of the management of their trees?
8. If one were to assume that the current initiative will be very successful, is everyone confident that their trees when harvested are capable of producing wood volume to take advantage of the potential?
9. Has everyone on this board seen their trees and evaluated them professionally?
10. What is the financial impact of overdue thinnings upon those trees that are not scheduled to be thinned?
11. How were the initial projections determined (for earlier tree owners) before Raleo was stood up?
12. How was it determined that younger trees would be valuable enough to justify the projections when TATF first began to plant trees?
13. When it became obvious (by TATF admission) that earlier tree owners would not reap the projections under which they bought trees, what market research indicated that Raleo would be so successful that would justify the projections at the time?
14. What internal metrics does TATF have to grade the success?
15. How often are the metrics of trees measured and when/if the metrics do not pan out, what process do they follow to make adjustment?
16. Is there any tree owner out there that is satisfied with the level of information they have received about their investment(s)?
17 Is there any tree owner out there that is completely satisfied with the performance of their investment?
18. Is there any investor out there satisfied with the responsiveness of TATF customer service?
19. How many tree owners (not by name but by number) have received legtimate distributions (not counting the Brunners and not counting "tree credits" in lieu of real distributions)?
20. If there is anyone who believes that they either know the answers to the any of these questions or are satisfied not knowing (for whatever reason), what is your true connection to TATF and/or the Brunners?
21. When are your trees scheduled to be thinned?
22. What is the management plan for your trees?
23. Is TATF currently attempting to sell wood and, if so, what quantity, for how much, and do the tree owners that may benefit know who they are?
24. Why does this board exist and thrive?
25. Is there anyone who comes here gullible enough to assume that what a bunch of predominantly anonymous posters say should sway their opinoins about TATF over and above their own personal experiences?
26. Given the level of detail posted here and the capability of this board to allow those with similar experiences to confirm (or deny) similiar experiences with TATF, is there anyone here who truly believes that those who post here are all malicious competitors trying to defame TATF? If so, can any such person provide documentation that TATF has provided greater information to those who participate here than what they can glean on this board?
27. Does anyone truly believe that those who post here intend to have a negative effect knowing that this will also have a negative effect upon their own investments?
28. What if TATF knew (or could/should have known) the details of tree farm management and did not disclose this info, allowing tree owners to naturally deduce things about future thinnings and distributions that were a stretch, at best?
29. What if tree owners relied upon this information and when it became apparent to TATF that they could not deliver, they not only did nothing to preclude the projected results but further promoted unrealistic expectations with “snazzy” marketing in form of TATF website, tree owner's news, “new special opportunities”, etc.
30. Despite past and current performance, given the level of comfortableness with answers to above questions, how many tree owners are excited about making future investments? For all that would answer positively, please see question #20 above.
No intent here to suggest a spin one way or another or convince anyone of anything -just questions to ponder. These are just a few questions postulated in a haphazard manner without putting very much thought into categorizing by subject and/or attempting to get to the meat of what is really important to ask to accurately determine the value of a tree investment. These additonal and more relevant questions do exist and if I thought about it for a while I could come up with many more questions but I digress. The point I am trying to make is not that there is desire to know the anwsers but rather that the questions (and more) exist in the first place. If any of us were running a business like TATF and took lots of funds from lots of people, would you allow such questions to be posed without answering? One final question: if the answers to any of the above questions are positive, and there is any single tree owner who does not know an answer to any question(s) for which they desire to know the answer, what is the reason that they do not know?
