The Future of the Club

General Elite, Eclat and Excel discussions.

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bash
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by bash »

Chris you deserve to be proud of this forum, its easy to use and easy to search, unlike most others I have come across, you do a brilliant job and its a real credit to you. But, as much as my traditional Yorkshiremans values come into play when it comes to 'owt f'nowt' you shouldnt be out of pocket. Where would we be without someone of your calibre, I wouldnt have a clue where to start and still wouldnt have a clue if I was told because it would be straight over my head. In my view it doesnt want to turn into something like the tvr car club though where its a secret squirrel club unless you cough up cos that stops the casual looker doing some research with a view to buying a car. Perhaps some of the profits from club merch' should be directed your way ( thanks to Angus for this).

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by RED BARON »

I would be prepared to pay a membership fee as I have already made a £20 donation to the admin in the past to help keep the site running. That said the site should only be open to view or ask for help to the members not the free loaders.

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by barker_001 »

Chris Hopper wrote:I have no intention to stop hosting it; I really am quite proud of how good a forum it is.
Thank you Chris for confirming your position on this, and thank you for the time, money, and effort you've put into providing reliable hosting.

I would be happy for any of the three options - donation, fee, or advertising - in order to keep the forum going. It certainly shouldn't be at Chris's expense.

I believe that keeping the forum going is absolutely key to the survival of the Lotus Elite / Eclat / Excel community. We are such a small group of people compared with most clubs/forums that we all need to pull together to ensure this happens. Facebook, while good for immediate posts, pictures, comments, etc., is a transient experience - not everyone wants to engage with social media, and it's almost impossible to find any posts or information from the past. The forum, on the other hand, has become a huge repository of easily searchable information, help, contacts, sympathy(!) and in most cases general bonhomme that should not be lost.
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Lotus-e-Clan »

I'm aligned with Bash and Brian's above comments. - Thanks Chris for keeping the forum going! 8)

I don't mind paying as long as it's formally transparent what I'm paying for. That said, I'm not mad keen on supporting another (formal) classic car club-type structure. I already subscribe to three. Club Lotus (since 1980), Clan Owners Club (since 1979), and the Imp Club Ltd (since 2000).

The Imp Club has a forum which in recent years lost *major* membership and forum activity to what is now a massive free to access Facebook Group. At the Imp Club's forum peak, during the period 2000-2010, there was far more activity (which also catered for variants like the Clan and G15) than there has ever been on here, but unfortunately aggro/friction/resentment arose amongst the more serious 'clubbie-types' over access to the forum jewels (a rich source of technical info) by non-paying members, So the non-payers just went off and formed a FB group and dragged a significant number of the more social, moderate and capable Imp enthusiasts with them, never to return.

The Imp club forum is now only significantly active when fights break-out about how the Club money is spent - Ok there is more to the Imp Club than just the forum, - there's a professionally-produced monthly mag and a formal classic club structure based around limited company status (which has been the source of some serious aggro - created by miserable pedant-types about end of year accounts).

We've never witnessed disputes about club-type issues on here until recently, mainly because it was never intended or perceived to be a club.. pseudo club status just 'happened' by osmosis...once money accrued through various sales (eg calender, & Amazon shop) and various informal donations.

I enjoy reading and contributing to the forum and would miss that as an 'outlet' if the forum folded, so I'm willing to support forum activity with an appropriate formal subscription. But I'm not keen on joining, or supporting, another formal club...because formal clubs tend to attract typical pedantry behaviours. I would also not want to restrict technical info to paying members only.
Peter K

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by bash »

I agree with Peter. Too many clubs go down the route of 'the peoples front of judea' etc and its a real shame, the fact that we are informal makes it a group of like minded friends, most of which we never meet, but thats what makes this group what it is. I dont mind informally giving a donation if thats what it takes. I wouldnt want things to change in any other way personally. As for facebook, I will never go on cos Ive got better things to do than poking a piece of plastic all day (sorry phone fans) to find out what somebodies goldfish have had for thier dinner.

Bash
Ps, I wasnt having a pop at the TVR guys cos thier social scene is brill, but try and get on thier website if you want to see what I mean. Just for the record Ive had a TVR vixen, 3000m, S1 Tasmin hardtop, S2 tasmin hardtop, 350i and a 390se in the past. If you want to see a proper fight go on some of the Hillman sites but wear a hardhat.
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by wrxseeker »

Thanks for all your hard work Chris.

I would be happy to pay an annual fee to access the forum to cover Chris's costs.

I think everything worked brilliantly as it was to be honest - with Angus stepping down it would be great if there was another volunteer to organise things like show attendance, merchandise etc.

This would be the simplest solution.
Last edited by wrxseeker on Tue Nov 26, 2019 20:26, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Ray-s »

8) Yes many thanks Chris I too am up for any one of the three..Ray
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by KevW »

I like the forum the way it is, ie informal, friendly and free to use. I've never been much of a structured club bloke.

Having said that I agree with others that whilst I am very grateful to Chris H I feel cheeky having him fund the running of the site from his own pocket when he doesn't even own an Excel. I'd be content to pay an annual fee in order to reimburse him.

Call me a Luddite but I also intend to be the last man in England to open a Facebook account :lol:
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Cappies85Lotus »

Can I also add my voice to the 3 options that have been thrown into the ring. I have no objection to any of them.
Having only just recently joined I have appreciated the many comments and advice on the matters I have posted on a couple of matters regarding my Excel.
Where would I turn to or who else would provide such useful information. Specialist garages would want to retain their knowledge on the basis that we would use their services to carry out the repair. Information direct from owners who have worked on the cars themselves is invaluable to this forum and should be kept alive.
As a group of owners we should not be the beneficiary of anyone providing this forum a service for free ( unless that is their express wish )
There are about 1700 members on here and if each paid a £1 that would be £1700. Any member not wishing to pay such a small dirously amount for the privilege of using this forum ( rather than a membership fee ) really shouldn't be a member (in my opinion ) and access all of the information provided.
I always have believed in paying for any service provided. Perhaps that is my old business head - but generally nothing is for free.
If it is decided that it will be discretionary donations only, I will contribute.

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by tonypoll »

I'd also be happy to help with funding.
Also, do we have someone with the skills who could be a back up if anything happened to Chris?
Tony

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by don.hasi »

1. advertising: yes
2. income of the partslist: yes
3. club merchandise: yes

If there is need of more: please drop us a note

Because I am active in greater lot of forums it is not easy to throw the money to all of them. But I regard this one as a warm home. So it has a special place among the others. But also because and through especially the efforts Angus provided to the board.
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

in light of the fact that it would appear people are forking out money from their own pockets

just thought Id mention this


"I'll be glad to offer them a FoC, no strings attached fully featured hosting account if they are interested? TLF already does this for several other Lotus clubs inc LEC and Autobahnstorners etc. "

after the outage the other day.....and also due to the fact its free

Bibs at www.thelotusofrums.com has offered you/us this free hosting

what do you think???

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Johnwindwood »

theelanman wrote:in light of the fact that it would appear people are forking out money from their own pockets

just thought Id mention this


"I'll be glad to offer them a FoC, no strings attached fully featured hosting account if they are interested? TLF already does this for several other Lotus clubs inc LEC and Autobahnstorners etc. "

after the outage the other day.....and also due to the fact its free

Bibs at http://www.thelotusofrums.com has offered you/us this free hosting

what do you think???
That sounds like an excellent idea to me!
Kind regards

John

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

my look at 'your 3 things'

yes Id be happy to pay to help for the web stuff......but how much is it......
we also now have an offer for free hosting from Bibs......excel.net would not be swallowed up by another site but would be a free stand alone site......free hosting/security/and all the latest bells and whistles.........after all this is the site that's tied up to the factory

advertising.....I do agree that if a company is advertising they should pay a nominal amount
if someone is making parts for the good of the community then no...(like the window frames)

club attire should be done by one person say once a year.....get the orders in and buy using a standard agreed logo
I cannot see the point of the club holding stock as this has cost someone at some point
in my view.....what you do is in Feb/March start a list that will be made mid April and on peoples backs by the end of April
Polo for £15
Tshirt £12
Fleece £20
Rugby Shirt £17.50
Coats from £25
these prices have no margin on them and are all good quality...........

I have been a member of LotusElanCentral since the beginning and we have had many ups and downs......
we now use the free hosting that TLF offer and its great........
we dont charge a fee........but we have set up a paypal account that people can donate to..........
its amazing how that works as people seem to pay for the advice......it tends to follow that if a new owner needs help and gets it....
then they have no problem just chucking say £10 donation in
Likewise we have a collection of spares all over that place......but the mod team know where this stuff is......and its generally been donated by members/ex members for the good of the 'club'.........these parts are given freely with an unwritten rule that should the recipient find them of use then they'll pay for them...again into the 'club' paypal account......this is then used by the 'mod team' to use for the benefit of the club
for instance........at this years castle combe it was the 30th anniversary of the M100 and the 20th anniversary of Lotus Elan Central.......so we had a party and got some guests along........Mike Kimberley/Peter Stevens/Barrie Wills/Phillipe Adams (Ex Lotus F1 driver).........and we paid for their accommodation in a decent hotel......Im not saying this is what you should do but.........
say in 5 years time.......you had a 50th a Castle Combe......if you had money in the pot you could get MJK and Ollie down and pay for them as a thankyou for the car which gives you the real joy of driving

a someone once said to me......
"its a virtual club......I expect virtually nothing"

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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

re the garments

Polo for £15.....100% cotton
Tshirt £12.......100% Cotton
Fleece £20.......full heavy duty
Rugby Shirt £17.50......100% cotton
Coats from £25

all in sizes XS to 4XL
all chest Logos would be embroidered

in addition you can have
Personalisation
Small embroidery or print (FREE)
Additional print/names 1 colour small (£3)
Back shoulders print 1 colour (£3)
Full back print 1 colour (£4.25)
Additional embroidery (small)(£3.75)
Embroidered individual names small (£5.50)
Individual sealed Polybags (£0.20)
Back Shoulders text embroidery (£8.50)
Photoprint (£6.75)

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