Sell me VOA UK

[8.4L 154]

So a big jump in the finances of the UK club with approximately £35 per head fed back from VOA.

What's the plan guys. How does the UK club intend to spend the money and run itself for 2014?

[Fatboy 18]

No Idea yet, a Discounted Track day might be cool, Signage might be good for any car meets, summer B-Bcue somewhere? Monies toward some club trophies? I know we are a small club but it would be nice to encourage some new members that might like to be a bit more active?
UK club rally of some sort? We could ask Tom if he fancies doing a monthly news letter :D

[Fatboy 18]

Would be good to know what the American and Canadian regions do with their monies? It might help us decide to do something better?

What I will say though about ANY club is its about what Club members put into the club that makes it. If people sit back and just want to read a magazine then fair enough, but really I prefer to be out there promoting us all at Car shows and events. I do know from speaking to some UK non club members I have met over the years that the Old UK club was not for them.

So hopefully a new club with a new name may encourage people to sign up :) I know there is also a debate going on at the moment about the Viper SRT Trucks, as you know we have at least one truck owner who enjoys the UK club :) I would like to see more SRT Viper owners join us, I'm sure we could learn a few things engine wise that they could bring to the table?

[Fatboy 18]

What would YOU like to see?

[XSnake]

Sometimes a lunch or dinner somewhere and the club would pickup the tab. Discounted track day would be cool also.

[8.4L 154]

Well the tab for Luton lunch being picked up by the VOA. Member only for basic membership and member and gust for Mamba was something I had come up with this evening, Chuck in an AGM before lunch and I think we would at least see more VOA members attending. Also give a nice sales pitch for other events later in the year.

[Fatboy 18]

Sounds good to me :)

[8.4L 154]

sounds like a start to me......I still think there is scope for more money to be spent on the membership rather than overheads and slush fund. I don't know how its been run this year and I'm not sure how much I should comment as I haven't been a member since I was met with silence from some and hostility from others over my comments last year. My feelings on the clubs finances haven't changed though, and for me to decide to re-join I want to see a commitment that the vast majority of the cash back from national will be spent on worthwhile benefits to the members, and that the overheads of running the club are small and controlled. My biggest gripes last year was the lack of engagement in the discussion I tried to have and the concept of a large slush fund to be used as and when.

I guess what I'm asking with this thread was. The UK club has now completed its first year as a financed club, how's it worked out for the membership and how's it going to be twice as good with double the cash next year?

[Fatboy 18]

I think Neil is going to let us know the financials at the Christmas meal :)

[8.4L 154]

Oh well, I tried to foster a discussion, I honestly wanted it to be positive as I truly want to see the club grow and prosper. Mark, you say any club is about what the members put into it, last renewal time and this year, I have made more suggestions into the club than I did in the previous 9 years, proposals on how the club could be run to bring more benefits, attendance and in a fairer way to those that join than those that don't, each and every one of them have been met by silence from the committee and the vast majority of the membership, things just continued on the path they were on. There was never any counter proposal or explanation as to why it wouldn't work, or if there are other things in the background that I'm not aware of. Both online and at events its been just as if I hadn't said anything, everyone is ignoring the crazy bloke in the corner, and that doesn't make me want to send $115 into the pot.

I had never been more enthusiastic about giving back to the club, at Luton Lunch I was asked to look into getting the UK website up and running again and to include our own private forum, and despite my feelings of not being a member of the club at this point I did put a reasonable amount of time into it, I found GNU licence software to run it that wouldn't have cost the club anything, I built a prototype forum on my own servers at home, they were fully functional from my own network but had some minor issues when accessed from the internet which were caused by it being set up on a private network with a different address than it was on the internet, but these could have easily been solved and I was looking into the cost of hosting it property when things went quiet from the club, and I'm ashamed to admit I let my feelings about the previous club discussions allow me to quietly not take it any further.

But again a new membership year and a new national club has tempted me to enquire on how things will be for 2014, deep down I want to be part of it, but again the silence, The discounts from vendors and insurance mean nothing to me at the moment, there seems to be a good amount of money coming back to the UK per member yet there seems to be no comment about what to do with it, nothing to tempt me to re-join, not even a consideration of some ideas.

So that's it, I'm attending the xmas dinner, hopefully I wont be sat at a table on my own in the corner, I hope to be at Luton lunch and other events as I still consider everyone friends and as such I can forgive our differences, If this becomes the last post on this thread then I will try and make it the last post I make on how the UK region is run, and will wait to see what the UK region becomes and decide if I'm missing out that way, it would be nice to be a VOA charter member, to have had membership no 3, but in the grand scheme of things they are minor and insignificant.

[Fatboy 18]

I do 'Get it' Dave :)

I too get bloody frustrated with the lack of input from the UK members. To be fair works crap for me at the moment and sadly I've got time on my hands, this is one of the reasons there are so many posts from me ;)

I was hoping for more input from others including Ade, Neil etc but they are busy lads at the moment so I can understand why they have not been so active on the web. I do know that Ade, Baz and Neil are having a meeting at Baz's home before attending the Christmas Meal, hopefully they will be able to bring us up to speed on the current Club accounts and Membership.

The UK Viper scene is, as you well know a small group of people which, because its been a small group have become friends over the years. This can come over as sometimes being a bit clicky to new people attending events or meetings for the frist time. Some people like a club atmosphere, some don't. I do my best at car meets and Shows to meet new Viper owners and encourage them to join us, but its not easy when there are so few of us in the UK and the fact that we are spread out over a large area.

The Group of friends thing has also been interesting over the years that I have been in the club. As you know and clearly state, people are attending club Christmas dinners and Luton lunches not so much as members of a club but as a group of friends! I'm not sure this would happen in a larger car club? We have had the discussion on this new site about Viper Trucks, Andrew and Jenny come to mind. Never been allowed to join the VCA, but they choose to hang with the UK Viper car crowd and have become friends and are part of the main group :) There has been a deafly silence from other UK VCA members, which has been sad as healthy debate is to be encouraged :)

Fantastic to see Speed and Stealth join the VOA, and of course Mark, Baz etc

It would be very hard for our little group to start introducing rules to our small group along the lines of Members only please. I'm trying to be as diplomatic as I can here.

Please stick with it Dave, its a new club and hopefully a new beginning for us all
See you at the Christmas meal
Mark :)

[Speedandstealth]

Thanks for the mention.....I've been a member of 'other' car clubs and always wondered what it was like on the intelligent side of the automotive club scene???....now I know and it's great!

[Fatboy 18]

As another event Idea, Mitch's Northern Run thing seemed to go down well, with a car run around the Yorkshire Scenery and overnight Hotel accommodation.

We might be able to do a similar thing, weekend break with overnight stay at a Hotel or country house B&B? I did one many years ago with the Cobra car club in the New Forrest, Great weekend :) Could also do a point to point rally type thing with overnight accommodation or a weekend in Northern France? Day trip to Reims and back, Photo shoot of Vipers along the old grandstands, pick up a few bottles of wine? Spar weekend break? Zandvoort trip (for the hell of it), why not!

We could do all these things if people are up for it?

[8.4L 154]

Well I wasn't the last post here so I wont bugger off yet,

I totally agree that the club should be inclusive of anyone with an decent interest, after all at this rate I'll be an "outsider" too. As I understand it the VOA will cater for associate members at the local level, I'm not sure of the outcome on the rule you couldn't be a regional associate if you were eligible to join national (ie viper owner), but I think it was going down the route of being removed from the bylaws as it was leftover from the VCA, But we have Andrew and Jenny who are more a part of the club than many, We have Nick (vrod) with his prowler who has less chance of a club of his own than we do with such a rare car in the UK, even if the prowler doesn't have the same heart of the viper it was built along side it by the same family and has the soul of CAAP and the Viper family. Its good that there are some new members, welcome (from the outside) speedandstealth, but I hope that is not used to justify not questioning or changing as some are leaving too...

Do I want to see these people alienated, no way, I don't want them to be charged more for an event than it costs. I would like them to join up as associates, but the same as me they need to see a return on their investment to do so, some events should cost them less as a member or give them some other value added benifit.

And whilst I'm trying to be diplomatic, the committee members are friends, they have a tough job foisted upon them by us, but I think its unhealthy for us not to make suggestions and to be scared to ask question in case they throw in the towel. But how much time does it take to post "yeah great guys we're looking into it, keep the ideas coming and we'll get back to you" (its about 30 seconds loll) and after all two of them have higher post counts on here than me.

Its great they are having a meeting so I will await the outcome, But as fun as you are mark it would be nice if this wasn't just between the two of us.

I'm going back to the naughty corner now lol

[Speedandstealth]

Maybe this is a good time to wipe the slate clean and start again?
I've been on pistonheads from the start and read a lot of the posts that were quite heated.....whatever the differences between the owners the common interest is the cars and getting the most enjoyment out of them, be it polishing, driving or just looking at them.
I'm hoping that the new club brings the UK viper enthusiasts / owners together........there are so few of us!

[Fatboy 18]

Well Said :)

[VIPER BAZ UK]

We are looking into things and one that I bought up was a club site again with a link here for the forums rather than piston heads.. New start and support and use what we now have here thanks to Maurice Janni ect ect ....

How would you feel taking on the web design and running Dave ????

Its been a strange year or two in the UK with different things ..So with the fresh start lets look forwards and build it better.....

Baz

[Fatboy 18]

OK, Question, why would we need a UK site when we now have our own UK section here which unlike the "Other Site" is not locked out to anyone? I also believe many of you now do Facebook, I personally have no interest in that site or format, but the younger generation seem to like it! It was good of Dave to take up the task of looking into restoring the old website, but I'm not sure why we would need it now?

I want to try and support this place, not move away to yet another website! Thoughts?

[VIPER BAZ UK]

It would be a UK site with the forum links to here and a link to the VOA.. But what about all our own history over the years like the personal records for 1/4 miles, BHP, top speed ect How to import a viper.. Potential buyers may just do a search for UK VIPER CLUB not knowing about the VOA....


Just ideas Mark..

[Fatboy 18]

I'm all for Ideas mate :)

All sounds interesting :)

[MADMAX]

ALL GOOD STUFF GUYS WITH CONSTRUCTIVE IDEAS AND VALID COMMENTS.
I personally feel a UK website of some sort/function is important and will only help compliment the VOA website.
As viperdave has done so much work on this already (didn't realize this) it's a no brainer.
I also want to see a fair distribution of club funds so members get there share - one thing that might be good is to have some new club jackets with new logos etc.
Also have funds contribute towards lunch at our most popular event in Luton at the beginning of each year :)

So keep the ideas coming guys-n-gals - all positive feedback is gratefully appreciated.

[8.4L 154]

Hi Ade, welcome to the forum :lol2:


Great to hear the feedback and that plans are afoot to see a fair distribution of the regional fund, but you can't all get new jackets now, I have only just managed to get thin enough to fit into the last one without looking like I'm sneaking off to the bowling alley, and no, not the maternity ward either:0

On the subject of the web site, a thought crossed my mind (probably sparked by marks comment of too many sites), that we may be able to leach off the hosting here, we have this forum so all we would need is somewhere to put some static pages, I have posted in the suggestions forum to test the water but am a little worried it may get lost in there or not given much importance so if appropriate it might be worth one of you escalating to the powers that be, as I'm sure we're not the only ones that just need a little bit of web hosting to carve out as our own, rather than paying out again for a whole package from some other supplier.

[Fatboy 18]

That sounds good Dave. One thing I did discuss with Ade is that if anyone is doing any form of Work for us, its only fair there is some kind of Remuneration. This is another area where monies could be used. Lets see what they come up with at the Christmas meal :)

[8.4L 154]

No money needed for me, If I have expenses maybe but reasonable time is done for the benefit of the club unless it becomes my full time job. hmmm well I suppose possibly it already is lol....But many have done loads previously without taking any money out as far as I am aware, so I see no reason I should. We may need to pay for professional services from outside the club, but that's different.

[VIPER BAZ UK]

Sound like a plan and maybe something to take up when the VOA has settled in....

All work was done FOC even when Paul covered it it was done through his company..

[8.4L 154]

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[Fatboy 18]

Welcome to the VOA Dave, Happy Christmas :)

[8.4L 154]

newbie here lol

hey how do I get the bonnet up, spent ages upside down under the dash and cant find the release anywhere!

[Speedandstealth]

newbie here lol

hey how do I get the bonnet up, spent ages upside down under the dash and cant find the release anywhere!

Don't think bonnet describes anything other than a baby hat in the US!?....now if you want to know how to lift the hood that's different?!
If you find out let me know :p

[8.4L 154]

Don't think bonnet describes anything other than a baby hat in the US!?....now if you want to know how to lift the hood that's different?!
If you find out let me know :p

:D see told you, newbie here,

[500RAM]

Happy new year to you all, we are registered as enthusiast's but deo's any body know if we as truck owner's can actualy join the VOA,

Andrew and Jenny