Members Benefits

[V Mad]

I agree with some of the opinions expressed here that people need to know that there is a tangible benefit to joining the SOC.

This forum is a fantastic advert for the SOC and surely is responsible for recruiting AND retaining many new members. If we change it, this must be throughly thought out first, or we may lose this benefit. Makingaprivate section is potentially dangerous as posters may not bother with using the public section, so potential new members may not join. It works well now so lets be very careful.

So what other real benfits can we offer that the public would not receive?

My other club, the Sunbeam Tiger Owners Clubsends out very useful free publicationseach year with a magazine issue, so this saves on postage. The main publication is a full list of cars, and a full list of owners/members. Very interesting for a rare model such as the Tiger.

For the SOC, how much would it cost to reprint the technical articles and distribute them to members? To absorb the costwe could replace one or more issues of the magazine, with a technical reprints? If it was too large to send in one go, it could be split and sections inserted into the mag each month.

I am sure there are many other good ideas which could be funded through reduced costs of magazine issues, that would be far more attractive than the status quo.

[NickA]

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V Mad wrote:

<snip> Makingaprivate section is potentially dangerous as posters may not bother with using the public section, so potential new members may not join. It works well now so lets be very careful. <snip>

I would expect the moderators to move posts out of or into the correct forumn if they've been posted into the wrong section. Anything technical doesn't belong in the SOC member only section, at least this how it works on the other forums I'm a member of.

V Mad wrote:

<snip> The main one is a full list of cars, and a full list of owners/members. Very interesting for a rare mdoel such as the Tiger.

Potential data protection issues? not sure I want my details posted to all and sundry and I assume you'd need the permission of the individual members before passing on their details

V Mad wrote:

<snip> For the SOC, how much would it cost to reprint the technical articles and distribute them to members? To absorb the costwe could replace one or more issues of the magazine, with a technical reprints? If it was too large to send in one go, it could be split and sections inserted into the mag each month.

Not sure I want any more paper, I'd rather access details online or via pdf'sbut I can see where you're coming from

[carlfuss]

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Hi

On the subject of the technical articles, they are in the members area on the website as a searchable resourse, and soon will be joined by the majority of the Kingpin articles, again as a searchable database.

Carl

[claral]

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I understand that there are economies of scale regarding the printed magazine, but i would guess there would be significantsavings if a percentage of members requested the magazine electronically, as a down-loadable pdf file form the club website or other secured access.

I would be happy for the saving to be passed on to the tooling fund. if the saving was significant then some of this could be passed on to the subscriberas an incentive to sign up.

I would be happy to have the magazine sent electronically, i am sure several others would as well.

On the subject of having two or more forums, it is wrong to assume that administrators would sort and move posts to the correct forum, this is too much to ask of volunteers, i have a feeling that they already spend a lot of timeon what is often a thankless task. (thank you by the way!)


Alastair

[NickA]

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claral wrote:

<snip>
On the subject of having two or more forums, it is wrong to assume that administrators would sort and move posts to the correct forum, this is too much to ask of volunteers, i have a feeling that they already spend a lot of timeon what is often a thankless task. (thank you by the way!)


Alastair

Perhaps recuit a few more administrators then; as the forum's population grows so will the work load.

[V Mad]

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claral wrote:

I understand that there are economies of scale regarding the printed magazine.........
Alastair

Just because there are economies of scale it does not mean we should spend so much on the magazine.

Example: If Halfords offered you a saving of 50% on car wax/shampoo if you spend over £150, would that be an appropriate use of your hard earned? No of course you wouldnt; for that money you could get a Tom Tom.

Same with the club. If you halve the number of mag issues, theprinting & posting costscould save up to £47,000 and if you then take off half the advertising revenue (half of £14000)we would still have up to £40,000 to spend. Even allowing for economies of scale that is a heck of a lot of money that could be spent on real members benefits.

[Andrew S]

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Chris you absolutely right on the savings but there is the other side to it. If I was told that now I would be getting 6 mags instead of 11 and knew this was because it was saving money, I would upset as I would actually be getting less for my membership. This of course is based on the mag being produced in the same format. We need to be giving the existing membership more not less and then it makes it even more attractive to new members and a no brainer to join.

Another club I belong to has a bi monthly mag and there is nothing better than openingyour March mag and seeing a photo of the Christmas do. Its a waste of space and when I get my mag every 2 months it all seems out of date and no news.

[V Mad]

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Andrew, that is a good point about getting less; reduced issuenumbers would need to be more than offset by all the other benefits that should be offered, which would be easily achievable with such a large funding.

If thechanges were well explained to members, and theywere informed or consultedwell in advance, I feel most would welcome it. Plus each magazine could be a bit bigger without costing much more. Of course there will always be the members that will initially not want the change, but I think they would be persuaded in the longer term, and more new members would be attracted. About old news, the news is already well over a month out of date, and what news can't wait an extra month?

It is a risk, but something needs to be done about the magazine expenditure.

PS: When the committee take an action to review something like magazinecosts, do they rely on one person to report? If so this is unrleiable dsue to possible bias, lack of knowledge, experience etc. A small working party with the task of producing a detailed reportmay be safer. Just a thought as previous opinions seem to rule out any significant cost reductions.

[whereufromnosecity]

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How about for starters, giving members the option to opt out of receiving a hard copy of the mag and have it available through the members area of the web site, this would save money and the environment, i think it would be easy enough to sort out a simple letter to every member asking for a tick in a box (yes/no)and posting back, not sure on how easy it would be to put the mag in a pdf file format

Just an idea and properly been considered before, but I for one would prefer this option

Stu E