Ohhhh boy, this is a sore subject for me and it is opening old wounds.
Here is the scoop with the VTR web site from what I can gleen from scattered information:
Until three years ago I was the VTR web site maintainer
(actually 6 years ago for three years). Basically I busted my ass to keep up with the site changes, and had an action plan in implimentation to streamline the site maintenance, add subject area helpers (web spinners), also have it hosted on a commercial server for free. It was however a labor pain of love.
After banging my head against the VTR board brick wall for too long trying to get the features approved by the powers that be, I decided the ratio of volunteerism to stress combined with no forward progress and bleeding out the aural passages where too high, so I resigned whilst bringing on a helper.
The helper was Jill Kallos, a top knotch commercial professional Web page designer who is also a Triumph enthusiast, and is responsible for the existing format you have known and loved for the past three years. To cut to the chase, she successfully implemented many of the list of changes Ken and I developed; and Ken Streeter, humble founder of the VTR site, successfully moved and improved the new classifieds implementing many of the upgrade features as we had been discussing for years to a commercial high speed server able to handle all the traffic. Some other features I was pushing to get established; have a MS Netmeeting feature set up so VTR board meeting could be held online in virtual face-to-face; Members only sections that so many clubs now utilize to support and catalogue their technical information was also on the list including archives of TVT and TSOA newsletters with search engines.
The VTR web site is a very successful site achieving well over 50 thousand hits per month. Yes, All was right in the Triumph Globe until the VTR site server crashed last year, a privately owned piece of equipment. that should have been the reality check and have cause for alarm.
This type of catastrophic failure was exactly what I was trying to design out of the VTR site by going to a free, non-advertising, commercial class server such as provided through Hemmings Motor News, and have automatic shadow web site for backup, and regular off site backups of the site programs.
So where we are? server is offline, and it is sole sourced to a single private entity to recover, whatever its status, at their own expense of time and money. That may work for a small club of years ago playing with the web, but today, many many more people rely on those sites as their main source of information to support their hobby.
In addition, Jill has become completely fed up with the same old never changing VTR politics that the "Web site does nothing for the VTR so it gets no support" even though it generates a huge amount of world wide Triumph related traffic and visibility for the club. Many think the web is a toy, and all ths interest in VTR is generated through the TVT newsletter circulated to direct VTR members only and advertisements in a few Magazines. Right ... 4000 annual members compared to 50k hits per month.
Hum, seems like I wrote this same diatribe just about three years ago ...
The VTR has such great potential to be a world class organization. Someday I hope it will be. For now it is thanks to all the great VTR chapters for keeping the club alive, that is where the real kudos need to focus.
Just some of my not so humble opinion ...
Hi 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! >> 
