New site and forum going well

**The Slug** · 11-11-2011, 09:32

I thank you all for your comments........

Andy I like the "As for the news letter it is great and I think it still should be produced......................"

This is not a moan just trying to find out where we are going wrong.....
What I'm trying to say or get at is that very few members take part in the newsletter, we have only the same few who send in articles, only 1 person took part in the compertitions, no one has replied to the photo caption questions, and we have yet to receive any articles for the next one. (Mick is doing some I know, thank you). We have asked for Photos and lets face it most of us have a photo and a story that goes with it, but even that request has failed to deliver a picture.

How can you continue to produce an item that you receive no content for? (Getting content has always been hard I know.)

As A club we have made a commitment to produce 4 a year, maybe the content needs to change, I dont know.... but in its the present form it does not appear to be hitting the mark, it's just not getting a responce from people, folk are just not engaging with it.

Lets have a discussion on what the members want from a news letter, and are they prepared to commit to support it with content, as we have said before it does not need to always be about the car's..... those that build and drive them are just as intresting as the car's.

**catswhiskers** · 11-11-2011, 11:54

Hi Ian,
Having been a previous editor, I fully understand your feelings of frustration. It was always a moan of mine that too many people were prepared to sit back and let others do the work. But then, I also came to the realisation that maybe other factors played a part in the reluctance to contribute. Many people are very modest about their goals and acheivements and don't like 'bragging' about them. Others simply seem to think that they cannot write anything that would be of interest to anyone else. We need to break down this misconception. Everyones experiences can be of interest to the members whether it be comical, serious, despair or anything else. This is, or ought to be, a shared community where we can all learn from others experiences, mistakes, innovations etc.
I can't remember a time when there were as many builds being undertaken at the same time so surely, the pages should be bursting with stories.
I shall certainly keep atricles flowing in regarding my build experiences and whether I do it right or wrong, I'm willing to share that for the benefit of others.
Remember we need to learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
Rant over, thanks again Ian.

Mick

**peteracs** · 11-11-2011, 16:33

Hi Ian

This is just my 2 penny worth on the newsletters.

I am a very new member here (appear to have found the club just as the new website/forum went live). The Forum is invaluable in getting dialogues going and being able to contact folk who can help etc. The newsletter should be viewed as something different, for me something to take 15 mins or so out away from a screen and read an interesting article.

I have also now been a member now of the LMC for a couple of years and receive their newsletter which regularly has reprints of articles from years ago. So as an idea for future issues, maybe there are some articles in old publications that folk know of which could be included? (I know copyright issues will have to be sorted, but worth looking at). One I remember from the 70s in CCC was a drivers impression in a UK rally, not technical, but at the time made you wish you were there. I realise long time members will not be exactly excited about this prospect and if I am in a small minority as a newmember, then maybe not appropriate.

I also assume that I am not the only new member who is unsure of the full history/evolution of the Strat replica market and the companies/characters involved in it. Also what different parts were used and what folk use now as the older ones cease to be available. There are afterall a fair few books charting the evolution of the original cars over the 10 years or so they were used in anger, but as far as I know nothing on the next 30 years and the evolution of the replica market. (I know I run the risk of being shot down over this as there may well be something out there, but not that I know of at present. Admittedly, I have only managed a few of the back issues of the newsletter so far).

I realise long time members will not be exactly excited about this prospect and if I am in a small minority as a newmember, then maybe not appropriate, but you did ask for ideas....

However I hope this is useful, and would be happy to help given my very limited knowledge of the Club and the Stratos market at present.

Peter

**The Slug** · 11-11-2011, 17:04

Hello Peter,

All Ideas are welcome and you wont be shot down by me........ if you need to see the past newsletters then dont forget that all of them are included in your membership under their own section on the forum, you will need Adobe reader on your PC to view them but that is free to download from www.adobe.com.

**peteracs** · 11-11-2011, 22:12

Hi Ian

I have been working my way slowly through them when I manage to grab a minute. I think it was a great idea to have them available for folk like me who are new to the club to see what has gone before and to see how things have evolved. One question I do have if I dare ask is, what happened with the old forum. I have seen some references to it and sounds like you may have been held to ransom and still have no access to its contents?

Peter

**ChrisCar6** · 11-11-2011, 22:45

It was privately owned and not a club resource, and it looks as if the owner didn't keep up the payments, and the host has closed it down.

WRT newsletters, I haven't read the most recent one yet! I have bits of articles going round in my head, but the time to commit to paper/doc file eludes me. I had hoped that VR software would be the answer, but it isn't!

**ProtoTipo** · 12-11-2011, 08:24

I will be sending an illustrated technical article for the next newsletter.

I think the newsletter is the chronological history of the club, so it should carry on.

There's something about an electronic version of a newsletter compared to one printed on paper.
For some reason I don't bother to read the electronic version, or tend to skip through it. Maybe that's just me?
I do realise that a printed newsletter is not workable because of the expensive and labour.