A New Direction

I think this should be aired in the public domain:

To echo Les' sentiments, and in the light of recent discussions on the next meeting, is there really a need for a committee to meet face to face?

While you've all been agonising about the date of the next meeting, another "club" has sprung up with the sole aim of destroying this club (despite the "non-competition" claim). I'm not denigrating the new club's philosphy, this "official" X1/9 owners club deserves to have the rug pulled.

I see the need for regional organisers (someone has to sit in a pub car park on their own of a Sunday) and as we take subscriptions, a secretary and treasurer, but why do we need an elected chairman? What is the chairman's function in the club? Why can't the chairman's position be rotated around the ROs?

We are not a physical club, we have no clubhouse, bar or playing fields to maintain, why do we persist with a governing heirarchy inappropriate to a "virtual" club?

I was ready to leave, as I get no real benefit from being a paid up member (apart from the magazine - well done Rob, Mark and everyone else for your efforts) and I was fed up with the troll p*ssing all over the forum. However, following messages of support from a few members I have decided to stay and contribute as best I can.

It's time to act now, not "maybe" talk about it in a few weeks' time.

Anyone can set up an internet forum and call it a "club", as it appeals to people who always expect everything and expect to pay nothing for it. I have been thinking about how we can make a "subscription" based club more worthwhile. Currently I only see the magazine as a tangible benefit of membership. However even that is haphazard (through no fault of the Editor), as people expect "others" to provide the articles, proof read them, compile them and publish a mag.

Whilst we cannot offer a clubhouse and bar, we can offer better assistance to owners. To this end, I think we should be generally an open forum, but have a "members only" section in the forum, where for example direct technical questions can be asked, and a reliable answer expected in a reasonable time. This is similar to other Fiat based subscribed forums - I am looking forward to the troll attacking them soon!

Also, through my own company, I am willing to offer low rate hire of workshop equipment and a trailer to paying members. This hire will be fully insured through my company and I will be obliged to maintain and replace the equipment. Therefore I do have to charge something, but it will not be for profit! I currently have an engine crane, car rotisserie and trailer; more tools can be added by request. The only benefit to me will be use of the equipment when I need it, which isn't that often these days!

All non-sweary feedback is welcome.

Regards

Rachael

Going back a couple of years the Club was run without a Chairman - Mark Cornford who was the club sec also chaired the committeeeeee meetings and also organized the stand/cars /staffing at the Classic Car show at the NEC So it is not something new

I'm not getting involved in who's currently against who (hard to keep up to date with the various alliances anyway) but the last committee meeting was skype only without Chris or any other kind of chair, and to say we got through an awful lot of business is something of an understatement.
Although even a virtual club needs some kind of physical structure, if only to organise the mag. I agree with Rachael about offering good technical advice, but that also needs a structure to oversee it or all sorts will be published.
I am a member of 2 other virtual communities, both of which operate brilliantly, one was set up with a committee as it involves confidential information about vulnerable children, the other involves fans of a band and has no formal committee but people have emerged as leaders to organise conventions etc.
So what I am trying to say is that committees may not seem necessary, but for something to succeed, some sort of organising committee arises anyway, at least with this club a kind of democratic process exists, no matter how imperfect. It will be interestiung to see how long Les's forum can exist without anyone in charge, and how long it takes for people to complain when someone appoints themselves as in charge.
Not gloating, just saying that is what always happens, like it or not.
The above observation is based on 25 years research into management and leadership, btw I've got a masters degree in the subject!!

I just wanted to add my support to the idea of doing what we can to heal what is obviously broken with this club.

While with club organisation I have always to date taken a silent back seat approach, I do love getting the magazines, I use the forums a lot and have had times of being active online. Also the offical owners club is required for my insurance, which is very important to me.

So I am inspired to do my bit to try and help make this club the best it can be. After all if we were the kind of people who when something broke threw it away and bought a new one, then we would all drive modern cars. We don't we see value is something classic and do what we can to make it as good as it can be.

I agree with the suggestion of a public/private section to the forum, I actually think we lost something when it went subscription only. As I recall the reason for this was to stop online slanging matches and for that we lost a good number of regular posters who dropped this forum. Having an active forum will keep people wanting to come back and read it, which will keep it more active - it's one of those feedback loops.

I do also ask that this thread not turn into another slanging match over who's forum is better, or whatever else might be said (and possibly moderated away).
Please lets keep this for constructive comments about the new direction, which is of course the subject of this thread.

Well said Alex!

I call upon all lurkers to speak up - now is the time!

We shouldn't be afraid of an open forum, we should look at the example of Xweb - firm but fair moderation. In addition, as I said we need to provide tangible benefits that club members are willing to pay for.

Cheers R

Hi

The other Forum which I look at frequently is the Alfaowners.com one. It is open, but it's moderators seem to act quickly and robustly to anyone breaking their rules. Their rules can be viewed here:- www.alfaowner.com/Forum/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_the_rules . They are worth reading since there is seldonm trouble with this Forum, which is why I and others (Tiff) seem to still look at it whilst almost abandoning this one.

I would suggest that if we had a similar set of rules which had been policed robustly in the last few years then we would not be experiencing the problems we are now having. If the Forum (or even parts of it) were open to all then we would have to be similarly robust on what we allow in order to not drive away genuine users and watch the Forum plumb the depths it has descended to recently. I see no other way to keep the genuine users from departing.

Instead of this we seem to have recently made it more difficult for moderators to take action against inappropriate posts and users.

Ian

Further to my original post I confess I have jumped the gun a bit by announcing changes Neil has been working on for a while now: xwebforums.org/showthread.php?t=16553 .

But surely this "breath of fresh air" cannot be a problem for forum members?

In case anyone is wondering, I have not taken over by any means. I did volunteer to be a Regional Organiser, since the East Mids has been without one for a while and I happened to read the bitter complaint made by another member on Facebook and the chorus of negativity it provoked. And you will also note I am actually trying to fulfil the role rather than sling mud.

Cheers R

"LOL"

Glad you enjoyed flip flop guy!