<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">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. <div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>FOT part of VTR (or any other "real" organization)--<b>perish the thought</b>. </div><div><br><div><div>On Sep 24, 2008, at 12:40 PM, John Macartney wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div id="role_body" bottommargin="7" bgcolor="#ffffff" leftmargin="7" topmargin="7" rightmargin="7" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; "><div><font size="3">Andy Mace wrote:</font></div><div><font id="role_document" face="Arial" color="#000000" size="3">This does raise an interesting possibility, were FoT members so inclined: perhaps we could become some sort of "Special Chapter" or "Affiliate" of VTR?</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">I take a very 'broad church view' on issues like this, essentially summarised as follows:</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">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.</font></div><div><font size="3">2. The vehicle parc is getting smaller each year and current owners are getting older. This largely explains the diminution of club memberships</font></div><div><font size="3">3. A surprisingly large number of cars will outlive their enthusiast custodians and will need to have 'a home'</font></div><div><font size="3">4. Clubs (national or local) need to recognise this - and its my perception in the UK that clubs don't adequately do this</font></div><div><font size="3">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</font></div><div><font size="3">6. What plans are national clubs making to address that inevitable eventuality?</font></div><div><font size="3">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</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">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.</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">Rant off</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">Jonmac</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3"></font> </div>_______________________________________________<br>Support Team.Net<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.team.net/donate.html">http://www.team.net/donate.html</a><br><br><a href="http://www.fot-racing.com">http://www.fot-racing.com</a><br><br>Fot mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Fot@autox.team.net">Fot@autox.team.net</a><br><a href="http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot">http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot</a><br><br></div></span></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(118, 15, 79); font-size: 16px; ">Bill Babcock</span></div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Babcock & Jenkins</div><div><a href="mailto:Billb@bnj.com">Billb@bnj.com</a></div><div>503.936.7660</div><div><a href="http://www.bnj.com">www.bnj.com</a></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#010000">Editor</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#010000">Ke Nalu e-Magazine</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#010000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><i>Paddlesurfing's Web Journal</i></span></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#010000" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><i><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></i></span></font></div><div><a href="mailto:Bill@kenalu.com">Bill@kenalu.com</a></div><div><a href="http://www.kenalu.com">www.kenalu.com</a></div><div>blog: <a href="http://www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog">www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span> </div><br></div></body></html>