Replies to post #2171 on Investing in Timber

[belmontx]

Is it lying when you repeatedly call someone a liar without quoting the lie? I remember as a child whenever another child didn't like something that was said he would call the first child a liar -- repeatedly. It was one of those childish tactics that we all grew out of when we came to realize we had to show what the person said and how it was maliciously wrong before we called them a liar. When adults use this epithet without evidence we consider them immature.

I think your posts have contained more than a few lies when you are speaking about me and others who are critical of TATF and Mr. Brunner, David Knight. Again, it seems to me that your emotions are ruling your intellect when you participate on this forum. Or do you feel you are being manipulated when I suggest that?

You apparently spend hours composing your lengthly diatribes and then expect me to go over each inane statement and explain my reaction to it -- like chasing and analyzing moonbeams.

It seems to me that almost everything you say is opinion, rather than fact, yet you rail interminibly against the opinions that are different from yours. At some point I expect you will weary of this and either stop posting, or move on to another subject. For both of our sakes I hope it is soon.

belmontx

[mattyo5]

David,

"The situation here is not good, and some people seem to be doing whatever they can to make it worse. Before I expect Steve to make a reappearance, he may need to be reasonably convinced that doing so will not just make matters even worse. And that's something that's in our hands."

no no no no no no. Steve needs to communicate to investors whether it benefits him or not. LACK of communication in general is KILLING his business, and it manifests itself here on this board as a resounding gong of negativity. That negativity doesn't stem from investors... it comes as a REACTION to a lack of relevant information FROM the farms. Based on the fact that this is a REACTION .... then the cause lies with TATF... if it begins there, it also needs to end there. TATF needs to start communicating to turn things around. Its VERY simple... ultimately the business may fail, but there is simply no excuse for Steve's and TATF's silence in these hard times. There is no excuse for not publishing quartlerly or monthly reports when you have a multi-million dollar investment business. I myself have tried to extend the olive branch to Steve. He did not and has not taken my suggestions. He is simply not interested in any way but his own. Whether we want him here on this board or not, or he comes back or not, doesn't much matter, as long as more relevant information gets REGULARLY and PREDICTABLY sent from the farms to keep investors informed. Without that, the negativity will continue here, no matter what you David say or do. This forum has extended olive branches, and had nothing but silence from TATF. it is NOT our job to "coax" Steve back here... IT IS Steve's job to do the right this by his investors... oh well

-Mattyo

[bogstomper]

Hi David,
You mention what it would take for Steve to return to this board.
I agree with you he did have a hard time and may not have been given credit when he did post here BUT if you look at some of Steves response he did not answer a number of fairly direct questions he was asked. One of them was what has been thinned, Year, Farm etc, which would give people an idea of the position of the thinnings.

I agree with you that it would not be in Steves interests to come back to this board as it is now, and to be honest I would not want him to. I spend enough time on it reading all the posts here, and as Jan said, there are better things to be doing with our short lives.

This board exists because of TATF's lack of communication with its tree owners, or at least the tone of the posts anyway.

In my business when a project is going to pot, daily meetings with minutes are instigated to turn things around. And the first thing to be said in the first meeting would be

"We are where we are!!, lets move on and sort this out"
((I don't care who is to blame for the current state really, I think all tree owners only want to know what is going on and what is being done to get all of us, tree owner, Steve and Sherry, TATF employees etc, on the road to recovery))

If TATF was a failing project in my area I would expect the Project manager (Steve) to send out Monthly updates on the current status of what is being done. ( I do appreaciate his health has not been good lately, so someone else would need to do it). You could say that this will spook "Happy" tree owners but if it is marketed correctly in the mail to all tree owners with something like "As part of our drive to give you more information on what is happening on the farms, etc,etc. etc.
I would expect it to be short and concise with points like
Volume value added equipment purchased, delivery date xx March
Equipment cleared customs xx march
Equipment seup and test batch run, problems encountered, testing to restart xx April
First batch of timber put through equipment and results were as expected
Volume processing expected to start xx May.
Interviews for sales execs ongoing, 1 offered position, one position outstanding.
perhaps Steve could setup a blog or something (and only advertise it here so as not to "spook" contented tree owners.??

If the above were to happen, and I do believe the effort would be be minimal. (Steve does not have to do it, Sherry can, One of the Managers can, the tea lady would be better than nothing) (;-)
If the above were to happen, I bet that the sentiment on this board would change rapidly, therefore removing the need for anyone to post negative comments and harm (anyone posting negative comments would then stand out like a sore thumb)TATF and possibly start the flow of money back into TATF.

I still would buy 10year old teak trees for $10 each!!!
Was very tempted by the offer that was up here a while ago, but David got in there first.

By the way I do not want to harm TATF, I love the idea of TATF, that is why I invested in it in the first place, and I would really like to visit the farms one day to see the trees.(but I would have to walk behind the horse as i cannot ride) (;-)


If anyone on this board has any direct link with TATF, Steve, please ask them if the above is possible. If TATF do not want to respond on this website with an answer they can send me a direct email to my email address at [e-mail].

All the best,
Paul.