very quiet on the help forum here

[steve.s]

Hi All

i've noticed its been pretty quiet on the help and advice forum.

would this be because of the member only access?.

i think Martin for one is not a member (sorry if wrong Martin) but did contribute to the advice.

anyone any comments?

[Daniel Shane]

He may well of answered questions but nobody is asking questions to be answered.

If people want to be part of the club forum then just join the club. Hosting cost money as does the club mag and the shows the the DOC attend.

I give my time for free. I admin and back up the forum, attend events at my own cost and help people, just for the fun of helping.

So I think the club should be able to have private areas, it all adds to the benifits of being a member.

Dan

[Guinney1971]

just to echo Dan's comments, it was decided at the 2007 AGM that certain areas
of the forum would be restricted to paid up members of the UK DOC only to
give people who pay for membership better value for money.

As many of you know, I'm in my first year of looking after club funds, and
its amazing just how much our little organisation costs to run, and how valuable
all the subscriptions are. Also,everyone involved also gives up their time free
of charge to do this, but hey, we enjoy it! :wink:

We want to recognise people who make the effort to support the club by
giving them better value for their money and make it worthwhile, which not
only extends to the 4 issues a year of DeLorean News (now in full colour at
no extra cost!!), but also club stickers, tax disc holders (should be in stock soon)
and also access to technical areas of the forum.

We are not alone in restricting areas of our forum, many car clubs have the
same policy, and some forums you cannot even access at all, not even to browse
around and see if its 'for you' unless you are approved by the site admin first!
At least we are not completely 'closed doors' and do allow people the opportunity
to browse the Club Website and some areas of the forum plus to see what we are about
before making a decision on whether to join our merry throng or not

Hope this helps,

Claire
Treasurer DOC-UK

[Tourettes Tony]

i agree as well, the other perk you get is reduced admission fees to a few of the car shows, i personally think that £25 is good value for money and i get the chance to have a few beers with my mates :wink: and without people joining the club it may be a struggle to keep going TT

[NickT]

I've had a v busy week programming and commissioning a control system.

Maybe it's quiet because the sun has been out for a change

NickT

[Guinney1971]

lol, yeah, it often does go quiet on the net when the suns out

I made the most of last Sunday by doing a load of work in the garden - today
I've been out and bought the seed potatoes, shallots, herbs and garlic plants -
but with snow forecast for tonight, I'll leave it till one evening next week or
next weekend to plant them out

Got a weeks hol booked for later on this month - hah, you never know, I might
even get around to dragging Flopsy out of the garage for a bit of tlc.....

[NickT]

It'll take you a week giving tlc to all of your cars !

NickT

[steve.s]

Hi Yes i know what you all say.

However i don't want to be controversial, but i for one do not mind paying to be part of our club, but non members viewing the forum.

i used to look at the US forums for info on the car just because of my interest. I still do on DMC news etc, which has a huge amount of info, but of course do not subscribe.

does any one else think this?

[Guinney1971]

NickT Wrote:It'll take you a week giving tlc to all of your cars !
NickT

lol - well big thanks go to Julian (bandit on here) for helping to sell the Corsa,
so we're now down to 9 cars - and that week off I'm having in a couple of weeks
will hopefully be put to good use finishing off scrapping the Cavalier Diplomat
and weighing in whats left..... so then we'll be down to 8 cars.... :wink:

Steve - it was a tough decision regarding access to the forum, but of course
we are always open to suggestions on how to improve things for club members

[Chris Williams]

steve.s Wrote:Hi Yes i know what you all say.

However i don't want to be controversial, but i for one do not mind paying to be part of our club, but non members viewing the forum.

i used to look at the US forums for info on the car just because of my interest. I still do on DMC news etc, which has a huge amount of info, but of course do not subscribe.

does any one else think this?

As Claire and Dan have mentioned this decision was arrived at via a vote at the AGM, so it's something that has been acted upon as it was requested by the members. There are at present about 250 (approx) registered users of this forum. Probably less than half actually have looked at it or posted since registering. There are about 110 DOC members that can access all the information on hear, so in balance that probably only excludes 20-30 regular users. At the end of the day this club costs a lot to run, infact as I'm sure ChrisP and Bozzzy would testify the postage bill alone is huge, not forgetting the cost of the website and forum, magazine printing and postage, Postage has gone up again, (this week) this will add another £24.00 to the cost of postage on the magazines (per annum) which is absorbed by the club. One of the main things I wanted to do was get a clear set of rules or 'constitution' to follow, this has been printed in the last magazine. This allows any member to put forward any suggestions to be voted on at the AGM (you dont have to be there) so should there be enough bad feeling about this issue then we can have a vote on it. Both by show of hands and postal, just so long as it is put forward by a club member. Please remeber this is an owners club so everyones input is more than welcome. I hope this clears this issue up a bit
Chris

[steve.s]

Hi all

yes don't get me wrong there is no bad feeling at all, just wanted to keep everyones interest, and of course promote the car and club.

its a shame that more members do not log in occasionally as there is much useful info.

i've collected plenty regarding my BAE turbo which is sitting on my garage floor!

Regards

[Chris P]

Following on from Chris W and Claire, Things are bit different from a couple of years ago when Dave H and myself were more involved with the club, by running our own small businesses, this gave us the time and opportunity to "merge" some of our daily time and costs with club duties. When I used stamps, envelopes, paper and printer ink on a daily basis, we were not too worried about trying to recover every few bob from the club. But as Chris says, postage costs are raising every few months and the costs of "web hosting etc " have increased significantly. We can no longer expect club officials to subsidise ( financially) their unpaid, time consuming club duties.

We are doing OK as a very small car club, we have always "punched well above our weight", for a one make club, we do brilliantly, but we do need paid up members to continue. Simple as that.

(your ex secretary for 8 years).

[Guinney1971]

well said ChrisP

Whilst my own involvement is not as time consuming as ChrisW's, it has certainly
been very enlightening for me to have control over the club funds - and I
can really appreciate all the hard work that Dave Howarth and Chris Parnham
have put into the club, and indeed continue to put into the club, for so long.

However, this club could not continue without its membership, and this is why
we must do everything possible to support the membership, attract new members
to the club, and give members great value for money, without compromising
the financial position of the club.

Thank you to everyone for your support!