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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=mdporter@dfn.com href="mailto:mdporter@dfn.com">Michael Porter</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=standardtriumph@btinternet.com
href="mailto:standardtriumph@btinternet.com">John Macartney</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=Billb@bnj.com
href="mailto:Billb@bnj.com">Bill Babcock</A> ; <A title=fot@autox.team.net
href="mailto:fot@autox.team.net">fot@autox.team.net</A> ; <A
title=bdischer@blakedischer.com
href="mailto:bdischer@blakedischer.com">bdischer@blakedischer.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, September 25, 2008 6:15
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Fot] VTR & FoT</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>John Macartney wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid:020701c91eed$a716edf0$0201a8c0@Bevan type="cite">
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<DIV>Bill Babcock wrote:</DIV>
<DIV>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>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>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" </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>FOT part of VTR (or any other "real" organization)--<B>perish the
thought</B>. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Perhaps its time for me to go into the fallout
shelter.......</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Jonmac</FONT><BR>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.
<BR>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.<BR>Cheers.<BR>Michael
Porter<BR>Roswell, NM<BR><FONT face=Arial
size=2>-----------------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Just my 2 pence.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cheers,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bill
Sohl</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>