Quote:
The problem with the club at present (in my view) is that it was a traditional club, membership subs, chairmen, secretaries etc, which died. The Secretary (Tim Boles) asked me to revive it via the vehicle of a website and I decided to add a forum.
So, who makes the decisions on names, aims etc? Tim maybe? But Tim doesn't partake to frequently in the forum side of things. He's still away on business so I'll try and pin him down on his return to discuss his input in the Club's future etc etc etc.
At present, it feels like there is no captain of this ship, but we've bolted a small block Chevy engine to it and its off on its own course.
Thoughts?
My thoughts on this are that the UK
needs a "club" for Camaro owners, whether that takes the form of a club with subs, president, secretary, chairmen etc really is irrelevant at this point in time, as the interest in it is, at this moment in time is very small.
The problem, as I see it, is that the "club" started quite some time ago, it probably generated a lot of interest, but because people couldn't interact with each other, it died to the point where if you clicked on the link to the "club" nothing new was ever posted. I used to look in from time to time, but gave up in the end. Since its relaunch with the forum, it seems to have generated a bit of interest in the early days but again seemed to become a bit stagnant, probably due to a lack of people knowing of its existence & that it's actually getting posts on the forum now, hence my asking if it could be publicised in magazines, on other forums & links to this site.
I frequent various forums, but have found that the successful ones such as lateral-g.net & protouring.com are both run by individuals, which started out as a hobby site, only to grow to being a full blown online community with 1000's of "members". They have a few moderators which look after the boards' posts & the whole web site is overseen by the webmaster. ( I guess that Tim is the webmaster in our case). They don't have a joining fee, but funds are raised to maintain the web site by dealer sponsors & banner advertising.
I'm not averse to joining a Camaro specific club, but if people are paying to join a club then they'd want to join something that is heading in the right direction, with momentum, direction & a future. Unfortunately, at this moment there's not enough activity here to warrant people wanting to pay to join.
Does Tim want to be a part of this community that he's starting? he obviously has a soft spot for the Camaro, but I guess that with a heavy schedule he doesn't have free time or access to the internet to get involved. A forum really is the flagship of any "club" as a way of promoting that "club". To me it feels like Starskyknight
IS the webmaster of the "club", as he certainly seems to be doing his best by setting up this web site/forum, running it & by trying to generate interest in it all. Maybe if Tim doesn't have the time to be a part of the "community" on a regular basis, he'd let starsky look after it in its entirety?? He may not have a Camaro, but his hearts in the right place by owning a 'Bird
I guess that at the end of the day it really is Tims decision as to what he wants to do with the "club" & for us to see where he wants it to go in the future, be it with a committee & subs, or to keep it informal as a community. It'd be a shame for it all to die yet again, the Camaro deserves better than that. It may be that there is "no captain of this ship, but we've bolted a small block Chevy engine to it and its off on its own course", but lets try & get it to a point where we have a captain &
is steering this ship but with a big block
for power
, cheers......Nige
Edit:- might be an idea to email all the people that have already registered on the forum to give them a gentle reminder of it's existence & ask them to post updates on their cars & projects??