Gerald Van Vlack wrote way back on Friday:
"My concern... is that in my opinion we have too many individual special
interest
Triumph Clubs in North America. Each of the clubs, then compete for membership,
resulting in too few members for any one club to be really healthy enough to
carry
the banner for what we all enjoy, namely our Triumphs...."
Healthy competition perhaps. Is VTR really unhealthy, or just not as big as it
would be if VTR and TRA merged? I'm a local club member but I'm not a VTR or TRA
member (TRA's marketing does remind me of Groucho). I *was* a VTR member and a
british-cars mailing list member way back when I had a TR6 project, but now
with a
TR4 daily driver I get my fix with this email list, the car magazines (I've cut
back to T&CC and Automobile), and driving events sponsored by various local
clubs.
No matter how large the national club, I probably wouldn't join. Really, how
could
I have time for a national club what with all the email I have to read from the
Triumph list? ;-)
But maybe there is a huge market of Triumph enthusiasts just waiting to be
snapped
up by VTR and friends. I meet Triumph fans every day it seems when I drive my
car
to the elementary school, grocery store, and Starbucks all over Denver metro.
When
I meet someone who seems really interested, I mention the email list, the local
club, and VTR too. I'll bet if I carried a card with contact info for all of
these
I'd get a few new members each year. Aside from ads in the back of British Car
magazine I don't remember seeing a recruiting message from VTR. How do the clubs
market to new members? What more could they do to draw in these passive
enthusiasts?
--
Steven Newell
Littleton, CO
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