Changing the way the club runs

[ctrlaltdelboy]

Hi Kev

I guess your referring to this

Non NSX related items may be deleted - this is not Exchange and Mart.

I'll lay myself on the mercy of the 'may' part of that rule then and hope it stays :wink:

regarding contributions to running costs - great idea, I suggest you appoint yourself treasurer, keep all runnning costs seperately logged somewhere and 'sell' membership upgrades to forum users at an appropriate price - benefits of membership could be:

1. a sense of pride in supporting the community
2. recognition of 'paid member' status in the avatar section by use of different titles
3. exclusive @nsxcb.co.uk email address?
4. priority booking at club organised events?
5. your suggestion here

can we continue this OT branch of the thread in the general or website discussion section though please?

[DamianW]

oooh, be *real* careful here, is all I'll say. Seen where this leads in the Lotus community and I don't much like it.

I don't mind donating to running costs, but can we try and keep the club at the informal level its at now please?

[ctrlaltdelboy]

Damian

any chance of a link to some details of what we need to be careful about?

Kevin, can we snip this thread into 2 seperate ones please as we have gone way OT in this one!

[DamianW]

Ok for one thing being seen to organise events can have liability issues. If you are seen to organise a track day on behalf of members then you can be held liable if something happens. I've seen other clubs come along and try and turn the whole thing into a limited company to try and get round this, but it all ends up a complete mess with the club no longer really serving its members (seems to me).

"Selling" membership upgrades sounds to me like charging members, and suddenly the club has gone from being the real nice informal, laid back, thing it is now to something quite different.

So I'm happy to donate to Kevin for the website, but lets keep the club the way it is!

[BrownBear]

I agree with Damian - Happy to help out with the costs but I like the informality....

[ctrlaltdelboy]

looks like we're beginning to get some good opinions on this - thanks Kev for re-locating this discussion as a new thread.

sounds like some very good reasons to keep things informal and on a donation basis, although I do question peoples inclination to make a donation and for how much. Maybe if next to the donate button Kevin showed a regularly updated figure of nsxcb running costs shortfall/surplus for the year this might be a way of encouraging donations?

[Kevin]

OK, here's my thoughts on the subject.

I agree totally to the replies above. I like the informal way things run now.

It was my idea to start the web site. Until then we were using a free Yahoogroup facility.

As stated before in other posts, I don't do things for the NSXCB to make money. The parts I sell, the website I run, doesn't bring in a penny.

It was my decision alone to do the web site. There was one before using my internet account, but that was limited to what my ISP provided so I got this web server instead, hence the costs.

I have held off asking for contributions, as apart from the forum there isn't much else here. I am working on a new web site, which should have some more features. It uses a web system, that in itself costs money. Then I feel we shall have something worthy of contributing to. I am also all for displaying the costs of the website, and any contributions received so everyone knows what is going on. Maybe if money is left over, we can have votes on what to do with it.

As the club was founded on a 'co-operative' basis I don't feel I have the right to start charging outright for membership. I also don't want to be compelled into running something and providing value for money either.

I've noticed a few people sign up to the forums, and have their only post in the for sale section. Seems like the site is good enough when people want make some money, but not always contribute in the 'club' fashion I hoped. Unfortunately I don't know what I can do about that.

So I think things should stay as they are generally. Though I am always hoping of more suggestions for meetings, track days etc etc. In the future we could do some 'merchandising', if there is enough interest in NSXCB shirts, stickers that sort of thing.

This web forum was a bit of an experiment at the time. I think it has worked, we have more members than ever before, and I believe people do get something useful from it.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

[mcibuk]

Kevin, firstly you need to be congratulated about how succesfull this forum has become - membership is increased substantially since i joined earlier this year and the breadth of discussion topics is great and informative and at times passionate!
For my part it seems reasonable to expect the running costs to be covered by the members for their benefit. Donations are certainly 1 way but i wouldn't a subscription be appropriate?

[Kevin]

Donations vs Subscriptions.


I'll refer back to how the club started, it cost nothing and was founded by about 8 original people. The web site was my decision and I was willing to take the cost on.

My main aim is get as many NSX owners to know each other as possible, paying for membership may jeopordise that.

Cost wise if every member donated £5 it would actually cover the costs for about 5 years! It's hardly worth going to the effort of setting up a membership scheme for such a small amount.

There are other ways to rasie revenue. Traders could be asked to pay for adverts in For Sale. We could also sell merchandise and the proceeds go towards the site costs.

I don't want to make the costs thing a bigger issue than it is, really I don't.

[mcibuk]

Let us all know how to make a donation and i for one will gladly contribute.
I also think the idea of merchandising would be great!
Anyone thought about or had regional tye meetings to discuss these ideas?

[sportyking]

Hi guys,

I am new on here but suspect when I get an NSX it will be the best (and last) true quality car I ever own. To that end I tried to make a contribution and start a hopefully long relationship with the club but the damn Paypal rules wont let me. Because I have my credit card and email details linked to an old used up unverified paypal account it will not accept a direct (outside) payment from me. I have no desire to ever become involved with Paypal again for my own reasons, so is there any other mechanism for making a voluntary contribution possible? Cheque, bank transfer?
Edit: Not wanting to be a pain on my first post, I just renewed my account and contributed, but it still may/may not be useful to know if there is another way of doing this

Apologies for it being a bit off topic but I see you are talking through the future of contributions. As a current "outsider looking in" I think you have a great formula with the informal arrangement of the club, now will someone leave and sell me their pride and joy :lol: .

Ritchie[/b]

[Greybloke]

I for one am very happy to contribute £ to assist in the general running costs, in this valuable and fun site. I dont think there are many here who would not contribute on an informal basis, just keep matters simple.

Thanks for your work so far :D