[Fot] VTR & FoT

[Bill Sohl]

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Porter 
  To: John Macartney 
  Cc: Bill Babcock ; fot at autox.team.net ; bdischer at blakedischer.com 
  Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 6:15 AM
  Subject: Re: [Fot] VTR & FoT


  John Macartney wrote: 
    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
    Ultimately, the question is one of value added or lost by such an association. FoT is, by nature, very _ad hoc_, while the VTR is dominated by rules and a governing body.  
    That alone will grate on some.  Right now, one can be a member of one or the other, or both, without either group interfering with the other, and any cooperation between the two is entirely voluntary.  That seems to me to be the ideal set of circumstances.
    Cheers.
    Michael Porter
    Roswell, NM
    -----------------------------

    As both an FOT and VTR member, I say the current relationship between FOT and VTR is just fine.  Each addresses a different set of objectives and goals. 
    I was VTR president for 8 years and I think VTR, as a club, does a great job doing what it does.  So does FOT.  The trouble with just the concept of a formal affiliation is that it usually ends up looking like one entity is then subservient to the other.....and I don't think FOT or VTR wants that.

    Just my 2 pence.

    Cheers,
    Bill Sohl
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