Hey Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
StagByTriumph
Jedi Warrior
Offline
Andrew Mace said:
Well Andy, you well know I have, as I previously said "In My Not So Humble Opinion", very strong opinions on that. I can not disagree more with your statement.
My members prefer to pay by PayPal or credit card on line for the convenience as a service to them, and they have repeatedly told the Founder, myself and the board over the years not only verbally, but by their repeat actions of payment on line year after year. Our members have been able to pay via PayPal since 2001 and appreciate the automatic email reminders. A club growing from 60 members to well over 320 in 7 years are hardly "impulse joiners"!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif
As such, those who join VTR on line are FELLOW TRIUMPH ENTHUSIASTS for chrissake !! and I resent your statement labeling these enthusiasts as impulse joiners in a public venue as this forum, certainly as a VTR Charter Member! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif
This exchange venue called the Internet is a social community just like, and on equal ground with any club. I attempted to make the VTR board understand that concept about 10 years ago when I signed up to assist Ken Streeter as the first VTR "web maintainer". With the VTR board in place at that time, there was no support, even admonishment that the Internet and web site was a toy. I could go on in some serious flaming regarding the treatment of those laboring long hours to put these tools in place, but that would be a waste of everyones' time and bandwidth. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif
Now there are new enthusiastic people on the VTR Board with new ideas and new attitudes in welcoming ALL Triumph clubs, All Triumphs, ALL enthusiasts, and the VTR web site is now what it was envisioned to be over 12 years ago. There was more information exchange on the Triumph mailing list and Stag mailing list in the mid 90's in one day than was written up in TVT in a year. That is simply a difference in fact of media; hard copy quarterly print vs instant communication.
And these lists still thrive more than 12 years later. Why? Instant community, instant camaraderie, quick support, high perceived value. Those qualities are what any club, any forum, or any mailing list needs to be in order to be successful. None of them benefit one bit from naysayers.
Now, In My Not So Humble Opinion, I will say why the VTR is so important to all the Triumph Clubs in North America, so extremely important. It is because VTR holds the only factory charter in North America to preserve the Standard Triumph marque and all its predecessors and branches.
We can look on this as a dying bequeath from Standard Triumph charging VTR with the mission of protecting, preserving and promoting as originally stated in the mission of the Triumph Sports Owners Association for North America.
VTR then is not an umbrella organization, it is a foundation organization upon which all our Triumph related clubs in North America are built.
Lets face it. We collectively in Triumph Clubs are ALL Triumph enthusiasts sharing one common bond - Standard Triumph motor vehicles. We are all sharing the exact same interest and love, Standard Triumph motor vehicles!
I am not saying we all must be part of the same club, but we sure as heck are all part of the same community! Local clubs, National clubs, the Internet forums and email lists are all PART of this single community brought together by one single marque. Whether anyone believes it or not, we are all related by this common bond and common interest.
VTR 2007 saw more common interest come together in the form of Triumph Clubs than ever before in VTR history. Why? Because some of us have been a continuous thorn in the side of VTR to do something other than minimally cater to their own "direct" membership. It has taken over 6 years to begin to turn this tide and begin to recreate VTR as the support organization it MUST become. If Vernon Brannon is to be credited in changing the direction, bloody wonderful!
VTR is so much more than 2500+ direct members, two dozen or so Board members and vehicle consultants and six bimonthly magazines! It is over 65 Triumph Club chapters and British Car Club zones across North America, the majority of those chapters and zones average over 100 members each. It is one of those Chapters who plan, organize, and successfully execute the funfilled 3-4 day regional or national conventions, organize monthly drives and gatherings in their areas, not the VTR board. But are these just numbers? No, it is the community of Triumph ENTHUSIASTS there that needs to be recognized REGARDLESS of other club affiliation and built upon for the benefit of Triumph preservation and promotion.
THAT needs to be mission and the FIRST words always to support and promote this community as a whole.
I for one will be joining my fellow enthusiasts in having fun and promoting and preserving Triumphs in the Nevada Desert at Triumphest 2007. Lets all go and have some great FUN!!
