VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION Forum Questions Business Process

The specifics of what was proposed with the New Business Process have not been detailed. I will list some things and hopefully Bill Barker will add to this and correct my errors. This is what we wanted to create:
1. A club owned membership database
2. Web Site Management
3. Member Only access to parts of the web site which can only be done if we have a membership database
4. A photo gallery
5. List of items in the VCCA Library
6. By-Laws on the web site
7. Judging criteria on the web site
8. VCCA logo items for sale to raise money. Both for National and Regions
9. Acceptance of credit cards for Dues, Items for sale, Meet Registrations, Tour Registrations.
10. Classified Ads
11. Membership Roster
12. Judging Results Database
13. Links to Region Web sites
14. Technical Library

Against side of the Fence:
These board members voted against this for 2 reasons. One - they simply did not want to expend the time and the money. Two - they could not explain it to the membership, it is a very complicated subject.
I like to think it was this simple and I like to believe no one voted against it due to personal financial reasons.

FOR side of the Fence:
1. Look at the 14 things listed we would get!
2. Bill Barker put in maybe 400 man hours getting this system created. He did this for free. If we do no not take advantage of this - then someday we could be paying someone $50,000 to $100,000 to re-do what he did for free.
3. Those maintaining our membership records currently manually are reaching an age that they may discontinue these services at any time.
4. Maybe one percent of our members use this chat site. We do not need to change anything for our current membership. But we better make these massive changes for the future membership.

Joe Smith
National Board Member

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your comprehensive explanation.

I challenge any of the board members that are against this proposal to come here on the chat site and present their case.

The longer this remains in limbo, the more severe the cure.

We need immediate action.

agree 100% with Ray in his interpretation of Joe's New Buisness Process post. its time for VCCA to leave the 20th century. mike

I don't dispute National Board Member Joe
Smith's figure about VCCA members usage of Chevy Chat.....

Let's presume he is correct. Then I'd say were "we're" going to have one helluva hard time getting anything done here in CC. I can't imagine anyone in a leadership position of anything paying much attention to a "fringe" one percent faction.

Bill.

Let's just suppose we use the last posted figures for National Members and Members on the Chat Site. The latest new member is 43,272. We acknowledge that a very high number of those members have dropped out or failed to renew, ect. The last number on the Chat Site is 5144. Again, many of those have dropped out or at lease not active. Those figures say that approximately 8% of the membership is on the site. However, as with any organized club, 10 to 15% do all the work while the remainder sit back and complain. So, because of that, do we quit or continue to charge on and try to get the train back on the track?

Good math, Ray. I agree, you're never heard if you don't speak up. Let's continue to straighten the tracks and keep the train going (into the future). I've only been a VCCA member and registered on the Chat Site for a little over a year, but most of what I want from a club has come from the Chat Site! Let's keep VCCA and the Chat Site going. What Joe Smith has to say certainly has some merit. By the way, what's the percentage saying things should stay the same?

I tend to go along with the figures Ray has put forth....

Ken, That percentage (those not making an appearance here) is a big question mark, since they rarely ever communicte with anyone except the G&D editor (their G&D didn't come , why? my add didn't appear this month , why?) Etc. or the membership secretary, here are my dues for my magazine!

Those doing the work of the club have to work around those, not against them but in spite of them. Also we always should have their interest in mind after all they are just as important to the big picture as any other member. We should try to communicate our goals to them as we see them at meetings, meets an where ever we can, present a honest view of our goals and let them decide their worth to the club in general.


The board of Directors are aware that the squeeky wheel gets the grease. We need to really set up some squeeky noise. I do think that in the last few weeks the Board of Directors have seen that this place is alive and active. We need to always conduct "our work" in a positive and productive manner.

Thanks Joe, we need to see you here more often. Thanks for giving us a list of some long term goals. We have something positive to work with.
I also think that ,as in the past the volunteer force will be able to generate a basic database that can be used to get us striking out down the road to the 21st century, rather than back toward the 19th century.

One more thing, If I or any of us decide to step up to the plate and run for National Office we could do worse than use the 14 points listed as "some of What I am for" information, don't you think?

I also would like the membership data to be kept secure with in the "need to know area" I don't particularly want every Tom, Dick and Harry and parts vendors to have access to the information other than what is already published in the 2005 roster. Anyone that pays dues already has that info, it isn't secure. So the argument against a database of that information as something to do with a privacy act is hog wash anyway.

I would propose that there might be better news than indicated by Ray's math. I think we have to factor in a time element.

The 43,000 members of the VCCA have come and gone over a period of 45 years. That’s a long time. 8,500 are currently members. Statistics from other similar car clubs show that the average member stays in a club for 4 to 6 years.

If we apply that same logic to this chat site, the 5,000 members on the chat site have come (and gone) over only 4 years. Let's take a conservative guess that 60% of them have been members of the VCCA. So 3,000 Club members have joined the chat site over (only) a 4 year period. Surely, we get better retention here in a short 4 years than the Club as a whole has had for nearly half a century - for instance, many people who have joined the Club in the 1960’s or 70’s have literally died of old age.

If our hypothetical population of 3,000 VCCA members that have joined the chat site have a half-life of only 4 years, then fully 1,500 of them are still currently registered. That would be 17.5% of the Club’s membership being registered here. I’d be willing to bet it is actually higher than that.

The far bigger problem, as Ray identifies, is that only a very small percentage ”˜do all the work,’ or are active. And if you study the actual postings in a typical string in the chat site, most of them are basically meaningless give-and-take. And many of those who are registered members don’t actively participate, make postings, or even visit here very often. But speaking of our members, I’ll GUARANTEE that if you could get hold of the real statistics, that the younger the member, the more likely that they are in here. And where does our future lie?

MrMack said it well - progress is not at the expense of the existing Club members. It does not harm them, or impact them at all really. It is for the future of the Club, and the younger generation.

So, keep "squeaking."

Don Williams
National Board member

The 14 items listed are fantastic; looks like a lot of people are thinking the same as most of us.

Has Chatter ever been advertised or an article written about it in the G&D?

I sure hope I didn’t vote for any of the “against” voters….but I bet I did since I didn’t know their positions on these issues before the election.

Is there any way we can see the motion forms that were submitted to the BOD for these 14 items?

Why do we have to wait until the minutes are put into the G&D before names are attached to the “for” and “against”? If the minutes don’t come out until after the National Meet we will lose a great chance to talk to the members of the BOD that attend the National Meet and voted against these items.

Wouldn’t it be a great chance to maybe change some minds? Aren't most of the members of the BOD attending the meet?

Thank you Gator.

Where is FOTW when we need her/him?


NG

Louis C. I think it is important to note that the Board of Directors did vote to accept and implement the Business Process Team's proposal. What was voted down in Flint was the authorization to sign a vendor contract that would allow us to begin developing a new electronic database. The existence of a new database would provide us the opportunity to develop the 14 concepts Joe Smith identified in his list.

When we discuss motions, it needs to be noted that there are 2 types. The first are motions made by members of the board for consideration and voting on by the full board. The second type are the motions submitted by general members, referred to standing committees for review and recommendations, and then presented to the board for a final vote.

While we did not get 100% of the board to support the Business Process Team's proposal, we did get a majority - and as a result the vote passed.

There were not 14 separate motions that resulted in Joe's list. Those items are simply a list of things we hoped to accomplish by improving the business operation of the club.

Leigh Wilcox
National Board Member

Thanks to Leigh Wilcox for providing that information.

It's always good to clear up "confusion" that often seems to come from the same old source, regardless of the name used.

Bill.

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish." Euripides

As true today as then.

Hey louiator,

For one reason or another, I'm thinking about letting you slide on that one.

We are hopefully attracting some younger members (we better be) who are computer literate and because of this we should see an increase in the number of chat room users. I have a friend who just purchased a computer and will become a regular in time. He has been a member for years.

After a bad experiance with a Basic programing class at a local Votec school back in 1980 (the teacher was a dork) I didn't want to have much to do with a computer, except to write articles on the word processor. Then my job got to the point that I was dragged kickng and screamin' into the computer age. When Windows came out I clung to my DOS system until it was completely obsolete.
I can understand the reluctance of some of the older chaps to join the computer literates and surf the ether-paths of cyber-space. was it the chap at Nike that said? "Gitter done!" ...wrong guy?

Commodore 64..... where are you?

I think that was "Larry - The Cable Guy."

Seems like O - Kepi just quoted him in a recent post someplace here in CC.

Spelled something like "Git 'R Done!"

Bill.

xlii,

yep, it's git 'r done 'round here...has become our football team's mantra during games..


epi

O - Kepi,

Often better to borrow somebody else's "idea" rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. Your football team's mantra is a good example!!

Bill.

As I was looking through my less than $30 2006 Membership Roster I had a

One more point, there could be a way to insure that only members have access for the site:
several pages of the site directory could be assigned to "authorized" Monitors and they could scan the profile information and compare it to the 2006 roster and updated list included in the G&D and if a profile did not have a current valid VCCa membership number simply delete that person from the log in screen and use an automatic log out feature when you leave the site. Maybe the moderators could be assigned some work and then they would earn their pay. This would not be an ideal situation but it would satisfy the Board of Directors decision to close access to the site for anyone that is not a VCCA member until an electronic database could be created by volunteers or a paid contractor. If security is a question the "monitors" could look at several pages and email the names of those needed to be deleted to the administrator and he/she could do the deletions, a few each day, doublechecking any that the administrator consider questionable. Where there is a will there is a way.....

mackie,

I don't know what the existing electronic database contains, but that "field" may already exist...once a field exists within a database, it can be used as a primary or secondary sort parameter...if a new electronic database is created, it would have to be decided what fields to include...


epi

According to the by-laws rule about members having inspection rights to the club's records has anyone applied to inspect the membership data base? Or is that an issue as to whom owns any such existing database? Also it is a pleasure to hear someone use terminology I understand, fields,sort,primary, secondary,etc.,

...Just curious....

mack the only fields that you and i know about are the ones that the oreo cows graze on the black ones with the white stripe around the middle .