[Fot] VTR & FoT

[John Macartney]

Bill Babcock wrote:
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. 

Hey, Bill - we've got twinkies like that in the UK too! I refer to them as paid up members of "The Chipping Sodbury Dynamo and Starter Motor Appreciation Society" 

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

Well, it's come to my notice over the years via this list that the VTR isn't always the most popular with certain individuals, and in a democracy everyone should be able to speak their mind. However as I don't want to get involved in the whys or wherefores, I'll try to keep foot out of mouth. If FoT is happy on its own then fine, if FoT feels association with a national or local club is desirable, that's fine as well. In the UK, the Triumph racing fraternity usually belong to one of two national clubs (Triumph Sports Six and/or TR Register) but because that's the way we do it here, doesn't mean North America should copy.

Perhaps its time for me to go into the fallout shelter.......

Jonmac


  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



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  Bill Babcock
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