>From the desk of Ken Streeter...
This morning two topics have come up relating to the
Vintage Triumph Register (VTR):
1) VTR's involvement with Joe Curry's request to put
together a Spitfire database.
2) VTR's practice of giving VTR membership names and
addresses to local VTR "zones" for purposes of
meeting requirements for becoming a VTR "chapter."
I'd like to answer each of these in turn, separately,
even though there is a bit of overlap between them with
respect to personal privacy issues.
1) Joe Curry requested some assistance from VTR in
putting together a Spitfire database. This request
is clearly in keeping with the intent of the VTR Vehicle
Registry. The request came to me via email on the order
of two weeks ago. Since this didn't exactly fit my area
of expertise, I forwarded it on to three other individuals
within VTR directly related to the request: the President,
the Spitfire consultant, and the Vehicle Registrar. Each
of these individuals is electronically connected, but
not all read the "triumphs" mailing list. Some read email
only weekly, as they do not use email as a part of their
real employment. I also sent an email message to Joe
relating that I had dispatched his request, including
the President, Spitfire Consultant, and Vehicle Registrar
on CC: so that Joe would have their email addresses to
contact them directly, if needed. Apparently this message
was not received by Joe, or was received after he mentioned
that he didn't get a response from VTR. I personally
apologize for our lack of efficient response in this matter,
but also beg for your understanding. Admittedly, I probably sat
on the request for at least a week before responding, simply
because I have been too busy to get to it, and it got buried
deep in one of my electronic mailboxes. I truly don't
recall the timing of the matter, as I probably receive
about 5 emails each day relating to questions or requests
regarding the VTR WWW site, VTR brochures, or VTR services,
in addition to the hundreds of messages from this mailing
list, and simply don't have sufficient space to save copies of
everything.
[ I would point out at this juncture that VTR is a volunteer
organization. Everybody on this mailing list earns just
as much for keeping VTR running as the VTR Board, Vehicle
Consultants, and miscellenous other volunteers do -- $0!
Being a volunteer organization, VTR does not always respond
to requests for information as speedily as may be done in
other organizations, volunteer, government, or commercial.
In order to improve in this area, however, we need to have
more help from Triumph enthusiasts such as yourself. VTR
welcomes assistance in all areas -- if you are see an area
where we are doing poorly, and can help, please let us know!
Even if you can't help, at least let us know -- we might not
have the people resources to do anything about it, but at
least we'll be aware of the problem. ]
Anyway, back to the issue at hand... What I expect will
happen at this point now that Joe's request has been
forwarded on to the appropriate individuals, is that, at
some point in the future, as time permits, the VTR Vehicle
Registrar will talk or correspond with Joe to find out
what specific information he is looking for. (I don't know
if this has happened yet; I presume not, given Joe's message.)
I presume that what will come of this is that Joe will be
given the list of Spitfire VINs in the VTR Registry, probably
including build dates, and any other car-related information
VTR has. Owner and membership information will probably not
be released, in order to protect the privacy of those with
the Spitfires. (More on this in the answer to question (2),
below.)
2) Chris Lillja noted VTR's practice of giving VTR membership
names and addresses to local VTR "zones" for purposes of
meeting requirements for becoming a VTR "chapter." This
is, as far as I know, the only circumstance under which
VTR gives out membership information -- where an official
"zone" wants to find more VTR members in their area. Even
in this case, VTR may have performed the mailing on behalf
of the local chapter, I do not know. VTR adamantly refuses
to give out the membership list to vendors, and even to
members! The reason for this is that many VTR members would
like to have their privacy protected, whether it be from
unwanted correspondence (junk mail), unwanted calls, and the
possibility of exposure to theft by a criminal seeking a Triumph
or Triumph parts. Even for programs which would clearly
benefit many members, such as the "Members Travel Assistance
Program," the complete membership list is not published.
Rather, there is a special signup for those members that would
be willing to have their name, address, phone number, and
other information widely distributed in the "Travel Assistance
Program."
--ken
VTR English Channel Editor & WWW Maintainer -- http://www.vtr.org
PS: If anybody out there knows HTML, writes well, isn't readily
overwhelmed, and has a few hours of free time, I can send you a
log of nearly 1000 messages from this mailing list that I've culled
over the past year or two. I'd be looking for you to go through
the list and group all messages which relate to a single topic that
interests you into an article. (You would need to let me know which
ones you're working from, so that other volunteers don't duplicate
effort.) You'll need to contact the initial authors for permission
to reprint on the VTR WWW maintenance pages, and then put together a
single cohesive article from the various messages, along with any
appropriate graphics (some may need to be scanned, researched, etc.)
and write it in HTML using the VTR WWW template. I could use as many
people as volunteer, as I could easily see 100 articles resulting from
this effort. Any takers?
--
Kenneth B. Streeter | EMAIL: streeter@sanders.com
Sanders, PTP2-A001 |
PO Box 868 | Voice: (603) 885-9604
Nashua, NH 03061 | Fax: (603) 885-0631
|