[Fot] VTR & FoT

[Bill Babcock]

You wrote the email I thought of writing but decided not to.  
Personally, the only clubs I really want to belong to are the ones  
that have a bar, a restaurant (good one), a pool table and a library  
(in my case that's the Arlington Club, a truly great establishment  
here in Portland), and the ones like the FOT, where no twinkie with a  
claptrap P.O.S. excuse for a LBC gets up at every meeting and rants  
about parliamentary procedure and whether or not they have a quorum to  
decide on tuna fish sandwiches for the picnic.

I always thought the VTR existed to document the provenance (however  
modest) of cars. The rest seems kind of ancillary. It's not the cars  
that are diminishing, it's the members--if nothing else they are  
kicking the bucket. No disrespect meant for those that love their  
clubs, but   unless these clubs get a lot more interesting, and figure  
out ways to get the self-important twinkies to shut up, there won't be  
critical mass of people younger than 60 taking part.

FOT part of VTR (or any other "real" organization)--perish the thought.

On Sep 24, 2008, at 12:40 PM, John Macartney wrote:

> Andy Mace wrote:
> This does raise an interesting possibility, were FoT members so  
> inclined: perhaps we could become some sort of "Special Chapter" or  
> "Affiliate" of VTR?
>
> I take a very 'broad church view' on issues like this, essentially  
> summarised as follows:
>
> 1. It doesn't really matter how you use your Triumph (or Standard)  
> and because of that, there should be room in your local or national  
> club to accommodate your usage preference.
> 2. The vehicle parc is getting smaller each year and current owners  
> are getting older. This largely explains the diminution of club  
> memberships
> 3. A surprisingly large number of cars will outlive their enthusiast  
> custodians and will need to have 'a home'
> 4. Clubs (national or local) need to recognise this - and its my  
> perception in the UK that clubs don't adequately do this
> 5. There will come a time when the vehicle parc and custodian base  
> is so small that clubs as they currently stand will probably not be  
> viable as heretofore. This begs the question
> 6. What plans are national clubs making to address that inevitable  
> eventuality?
> 7. No-one can confidently expect to substantially 'grow club  
> membership.' The vast majority of cars that will survive are already  
> known. Barn-Finds will become ever more infrequent
>
> With regard to point 6, my perception of the evidence as it relates  
> to the UK (and probably elsewhere too?) is "nothing at all."  
> Additionally, for as long as clubs and others continue to provide  
> 'free' technical information on "How to .....?" projects via the  
> internet, clubs will continue to diminish in size.
>
> Rant off
>
> Jonmac
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
>
> http://www.fot-racing.com
>
> Fot mailing list
> Fot at autox.team.net
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot
>

Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
Billb at bnj.com
503.936.7660
www.bnj.com

Editor
Ke Nalu e-Magazine
Paddlesurfing's Web Journal

Bill at kenalu.com
www.kenalu.com
blog: www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/fot/attachments/20080924/e4b48d9d/attachment-0003.htm>