I remember a lot of this from the early days although I wasn't around the yahoo site at the time. I was just starting to use the internet and had been on email lists for a numner of years prior to this time period so web sites were something new for me. A lot of ideas have come and gone since then but after all that has been said and done, a lot more has been said than done. That's the norm for things like this.....
There's been a lot of work done by what really turns out to be just a few people with others coming and going along the way and it's easy to forget how much effort has put forth by these dedicated members . I really can't say enough about their efforts BTW.
We really aren't there yet though.
If you look at what we do have, you see the site first and foremost. The site is as good as it gets and improvements come along to keep making it better. Right now the site is the club and the club really isn't quite there, yet. Yes, we have a president and a few board members and some dues paying members and a yearly mag but it's still not a real club, at lest not yet. Since we were set up to be international in scope we have no real identity to a certain place. Joe's PUB is as close as that gets and that's not bad at all but it's still not a real club, at least, not yet.
Part of why we're here ( and not somewhere else ) is the way the club was set up. I came a bit later than this time peroid so I wasn't part of it. What we have is a president, vice president and board members at large. What this means is they could all come from the same country or even the same town. While this seems OK on the surface it doesn't work as well as what I was more familiar with which was the 190SL Group. They have several regions across America and Canada with a board director from each region. There are no other regions in other countries probably because most of their members are living in the Sates but it's a very well run, strong organisation.( I believe they maintain somewhere around 70K in their account these days.) They do have members all over the world though.
Regions give structure to a club with the parent organisation providing funding or support for regional activities. A real club has a convention with a judged event while the regions hold smaller events. I would like to propose that we look at a regional structure with the US divided into 4 areas ( north east. south east, north west, south west ) and Canada as the fith region. Europe could have GB, northern Europe, Southern Europe and two members at large from any country in the world. This is only an idea an of course the charter would need to be changed if this were to ever happen.
I would like to propose that the board keep us more informed about their activites and the finances of the club. I would also like to see a monthly or bi monthly Presidents report as well as a place where we can ask questions or provide input.
So, great marks for the site ( wwoooo hooooo )
Not full marks for the club.
At leas, not yet.........
I would also like to encourage everyone to start talking more about the club and where we want to go in the future. The site is doing just fine but now it's time to turn our attention to our organisation. Dorian has been kind enough to foreward all his archives to us so that makes us the caretakers of what has truely become a real legacy. The tech manual ( which is a club thing ) continues to grow and this will be a valuable tool for everyone when it's completed.
We're not doing too badly at all. We just need to move to the next level......
