The Future of the Club

General Elite, Eclat and Excel discussions.

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richardw
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by richardw »

Many thanks to Chris Hopper for his reassurances.

At the NEC show, four of us formed a group to take on the running of the club following Angus' decision to step down. We were forced to withdraw last week as we weren't able to get any information to support the handover. As our interest was and is to preserve the forum and the information it contains, we hoped that this would allow others to step (back?) in and enable continuation of the forum. The four of us are: Ian Hissey (igg-hiss), Stu Bagshaw (Hawaiis0), Gill Windwood and myself.

Now Chris Hopper has made contact, it seems clear that it should be possible to reach a successful arrangement with him, and the essence of the Club's services can be preserved. I spoke to the other three members of the team last night and we are all in agreement. As well as continuing the forum, we want to develop the club's role in attending events and in recognising, protecting and preserving the important Lotus heritage represented by the Elite, Eclat and Excel. We also intend to have a more open style of management, with resources and efforts shared between members so that no one individual has to bear too much pressure - as may have happened in the past. We intend to offer members the opportunity to participate actively in the development and operation of the club once the transition process is complete.

I'm encouraged by everyone's positive resonses to Chris's statement, and thank theelanman for his offer from TLF. We will review this with Chris Hopper. An important part of our plans moving forward are to ensure that Chris is remunerated for his expenses in administering the forum as his role is critical.

Finally, both Oliver Winterbottom and Mike Kimberley have been very concerned about recent developments threatening the future of the club and are supportive of our efforts to continue its work. We value and respect their commitment, and I hope we will soon be able to demonstrate to them that we will have security for the future of the club and renewed focus on the cars and the Lotus heritage they represent.

Once we have had conversations with Chris Hopper, we'll post an update.

Stu Bagshaw
Ian Hissey
Gill Windwood
Richard Woollaston
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Pete Boole
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Pete Boole »

richardw wrote:Many thanks to Chris Hopper for his reassurances.

At the NEC show, four of us formed a group to take on the running of the club following Angus' decision to step down. We were forced to withdraw last week as we weren't able to get any information to support the handover. As our interest was and is to preserve the forum and the information it contains, we hoped that this would allow others to step (back?) in and enable continuation of the forum. The four of us are: Ian Hissey (igg-hiss), Stu Bagshaw (Hawaiis0), Gill Windwood and myself.

Now Chris Hopper has made contact, it seems clear that it should be possible to reach a successful arrangement with him, and the essence of the Club's services can be preserved. I spoke to the other three members of the team last night and we are all in agreement. As well as continuing the forum, we want to develop the club's role in attending events and in recognising, protecting and preserving the important Lotus heritage represented by the Elite, Eclat and Excel. We also intend to have a more open style of management, with resources and efforts shared between members so that no one individual has to bear too much pressure - as may have happened in the past. We intend to offer members the opportunity to participate actively in the development and operation of the club once the transition process is complete.

I'm encouraged by everyone's positive resonses to Chris's statement, and thank theelanman for his offer from TLF. We will review this with Chris Hopper. An important part of our plans moving forward are to ensure that Chris is remunerated for his expenses in administering the forum as his role is critical.

Finally, both Oliver Winterbottom and Mike Kimberley have been very concerned about recent developments threatening the future of the club and are supportive of our efforts to continue its work. We value and respect their commitment, and I hope we will soon be able to demonstrate to them that we will have security for the future of the club and renewed focus on the cars and the Lotus heritage they represent.

Once we have had conversations with Chris Hopper, we'll post an update.

Stu Bagshaw
Ian Hissey
Gill Windwood
Richard Woollaston
Marvellous - Thanks guys :D

Pete

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theelanman
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

should you require assurance as to the nature of the offer of free web space feel fee to ask Mike Kimberley his thoughts on 'thelotusforums' as well as 'LotusElanCentral'.....Im 100% certain it will put your minds at rest......
LotusExcel.net would still be a singular entity but together with many other Lotus Websites
there would be no financials....and no interference.....itd still be down to Chris (and a moderation team if he wishes to do it that way)

John
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by John »

I would be happy to pay an annual subscription to get full access to the forum and parts list. Not bothered about merchandise, and I don't like sites plastered with adverts. View only access, minus parts list, could still be free?

I don't see how we can expect hosting, forum management and event attendance on any other basis and it's a credit to Angus and the others who have made this possible in the past.

John

Kerry
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Kerry »

I too would be happy with all three. It I s certainly not fair for Chris to pay for things out of his own pocket and very sad to lose Angus who put a tremendous amount of time and effort into this forum

tonypoll
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by tonypoll »

Thanks for taking the lead in this. I'll support your efforts.
Tony

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DavidOliver
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by DavidOliver »

I am very relieved to have access again to this Forum which I enjoy because of the friendly members who rarely get into cockfights as larger car forums do. We are the right size and in view of the limited number of our cars it is not likely there will be a membership number variation. I would not like to be swallowed up by integrating with a larger Lotus group although suggestions would indicate TLF is not like that on offering a Hosting service.

First many thanks to Angus, I hope he is listening, and I believe he will continue to scan this Forum but is unlikely to want to return to his previous position. Now we must learn from our mistakes and make sure no-one is pressurized by work overload or criticism, it is great for someone else to do the grind but I believe in sharing to avoid abuse.

My comments on The Future of the Club

1. We seem to have a four man volunteer group (to be accurate one woman and three men), may I suggest that Chris Hopper makes it
Five. Committees should never be more than 5 and preferably 3 or 4.
An important inmediate step is to designate a single Funds administrator.
2. Funding. I do not like advertising at all. I am sure the volunteers can establish an annual expense chart, to include Hosting costs.
I am in favour of member donations to maintain a balance of say 1000 pounds, as a starter, then we can see how to establish a non-
profit making Forum without being cash-strapped. Either by recommended donation level before an obligatory annual fee.
I believe should money of any size be accrued it can destroy the Forum from it´s present functioning.
I support free access, maintain the current (and obligatory) Parts List charge, pass over to a private entity the Forum clothes bother,
not bother with a spares/tools store held by an individual as this is just hassle when you can ask for it on the Forum. Special needs
like window frames can be passed to say SJS, Angus (many thanks) has already done the very hard work of gaining us these frames.
3. How can we guarantee a hard copy of ALL our Posts, the information is priceless, and a huge PLUS as a selling argument to new
buyers which raises car value.

Again many thanks to Angus, not forgetting the less visible Forum volunteers that helped over years to set up our great Forum.


Dave the cog.

CHRISYD
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by CHRISYD »

I also would be happy to pay an annual "subscription" to keep the forum going, short of turning it into an actual "club". We all sound like we want roughly the same type of forum so it shouldn't be too difficult to sort out.
I REALISED YOU CANT LIVE WITHOUT A LOTUS!!! Until now :oops:

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theelanman
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

just as a thought......
as has previously happened with 'clubs'

if you start having fees....and therefore finances.....you will need to have a treasurer and produce accounts
if you have voluntary donations then you can probably get away without

richardw
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by richardw »

In my opinion, however a club is financed it is wise to have accounts, in order to demonstrate that revenues associated with club activities are being used to cover costs and for the benefit of the club. Otherwise, clubs may be run as private businesses but these are by their nature less open to the membership.

Richard
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Lotus-e-Clan
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Lotus-e-Clan »

richardw wrote:In my opinion, however a club is financed it is wise to have accounts, in order to demonstrate that revenues associated with club activities are being used to cover costs and for the benefit of the club. Otherwise, clubs may be run as private businesses but these are by their nature less open to the membership.

Richard
I for one have no appetite to join another formal club. That appears to be the preferred direction of travel for a (small?) nucleus of members that enjoy being 'counselled' and who co-incidently enjoy attending club-like activities.

I will take a proper view once we've had a forum referendum on the degree of support for the formation of a formal club with accounts. And then before committing I'd want to see the formal democratic election of the club 'committee' (with published CV's) rather than the adoption by osmosis of a well-intended, but self-selected, band of brothers.

The inferred direction of travel seems, to me at least, to be a substantial leap from the essential need to financially support of the running of the forum - to which currently I pledge my support.
Peter K

Johnwindwood
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Johnwindwood »

Lotus-e-Clan wrote:
I for one am most concerned that this forum/club/organisation-whatever we want to call it-does not fail.

I for one have no appetite to join another formal club. That appears to be the preferred direction of travel for a (small?) nucleus of members that enjoy being 'counselled' and who co-incidently enjoy attending club-like activities.

I will take a proper view once we've had a forum referendum on the degree of support for the formation of a formal club with accounts. And then before committing I'd want to see the formal democratic election of the club 'committee' (with published CV's) rather than the adoption by osmosis of a well-intended, but self-selected, band of brothers.

The inferred direction of travel seems, to me at least, to be a substantial leap from the essential need to financially support of the running of the forum - to which currently I pledge my support.
All fair comments Peter. Perhaps you could suggest a different way of proceeding? At present this forum is rudderless-there is no one monitoring the day to day operation in terms of problem solving as Angus used to do all this. It is great that Chris is still onboard, but I feel that he may not be wanting to take on "day to day" operations.

My concern is that I don't want this forum/club/organisation-whatever we call it, to fail.

I am more than happy to propose you for Committee, for instance.
Kind regards

John

John Windwood

1984 Lotus Excel (1985 MY wide body)
1952 Austin Sheerline A125 Harold Radford Shooting Brake
1949 Austin Sheerline saloon (Parts car)
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
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theelanman
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

my view......and only my view.......
we go with the free hosting.....by TLF....as its free and does not 'swallow' this forum up
we give donations rather than a fee to a nominated account/treasurer

other than that the forum continues as is

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Lotus-e-Clan
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by Lotus-e-Clan »

I'm voicing a preference. I didn't expect to be (or maybe I did?) 'shamed' out of voicing a preference by the standard social media 'put up or shut up' stance. :| That's the kind of stance that only reinforces my unwillingness to support the official transformation of this community into a formal club. If I had wanted to help *run* the forum in any capacity I would have made it known, I've been around this place for a while now. But that does not mean I don't have an interest in *how* it is run.

If you want to go ahead with your plan and do have the support of the majority then that's OK by me. But, before I give up and move-on, I can offer you a secondary preference (assuming my first preference is unsupported) which would be for a two tier subscription. One at the higher level for 'Club activities plus Forum support', and the other for 'Forum support only'. That way everyone can be catered for.

I guess the wholesale transfer of this forum to the Lotus forums as suggested by theelanman would circumvent the need for the formation of a structured club and the potential issue of forum moderation would be solved too? :)

For me the current issues and proposed remedies only serve to highlight the greater loss of Angus's support! :(
Peter K

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theelanman
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Re: The Future of the Club

Post by theelanman »

Peter
not at all.......you are only being given web space.......
you would be in complete charge of it
you would need the same amount of input as now........
the lotus forum are only offering you free webspace nothing else........
they dont want your name or to be in charge of the site in anyway shape or for......
I hope that helps.......
Im just thinking of ways to avoid accounts/fees/money/more work and effort......
I just thought itd have been easier......
I dont mind if you/we do or not..........just thought 'free' was good
cheers
Gareth

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