Steve's right - and I still have most of the emails that flew baak and forth
when the whole thing came to a head a few years ago. Steve mentioned the
Roundel as a proper club magazine - I'm not familiar with Roundel but will
offfer the Porsche Club monthly as a favorable comparison - PCA issues it
monthly and it's 1st class all the way - from photography to editorial
content. There's no reason The Star couldn;t be an equal to the other club
mags. - now that Frank Barret if not going to be the publisher in the near
future. In the past, the club paid all the mailing expenses and Mr Barrett
was allowed to keep all the advertising revenue! A *very* lucrative deal.
I don;t have the numbers in front of me but I did an estimate of the amount
and it was well into 6 figures.
I made a proposal to publish The Star back when the contract was renewed but
was late getting it to those who made the decision. I somehow missed the
announcement telling the deadlines so it became a moot point. But others
did offer publishing alternatives but in the end Mr Barrett continued as the
publsher.
It was at that time I let my lengthy membership with MBCA expire - also -
the fee had increaded from $35/yr to $45/yr without any recognizable
increase in benefits.
Here's a short quote from some of the email from back then <<"Toad Hall and
Frank Barrett reap
over $300,000 in profits while the club swims in the red ink of a deficit of
about the same amount. Coincidence? I think not.">>
I thought the above is interesting -
Anyway - let;s hope you are elected and can work to bring about change.
Take care - we shouod hear about the election pretty soon, right?
Larry T (67 MGB, 74 911, 78 240D, 91 300D)
www.youroil.net for Oil Analysis and Weber Parts
Test Results http://members.rennlist.com/oil
PORSCHE POSTERS! youroil.net
Weber Carb Info http://members.rennlist.com/webercarbs
Porsche Road Test http://members.rennlist.com/roadtest/
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve MacSween" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 11:21 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Joined MBCA (can we lose the sudden attack of the
caps,guys?)
Gary is telling one episode that concerns him. There are numerous others,
involving people now passed into memory from previous lists.
I can assure you that had you been present back when that certain cabal
effectively seized control of MBCA, you *might* not argue this issue.
Unless you condone cronyism, extremely lucrative untendered contracts to
pals, refusal to be accountable to membership, etc., as legitimate club
executive behaviour.
Let's not be sidetracked by MBCA being a 'club'. Its chapters are indeed
clubs, some more grassroots than others (our local one is a bit too
SL-focused for my palate). Rather MBCA is a rather large business
enterprise
involving a big chunk of cash.
Oh, and just to turn your crank: I have been in writing/editing/publishing
for 20+ years. For the money paid to the publisher, The Star is a
miserable
disgrace, lacking in depth, vision and any form of real meat-n-bones
content. If MBCNA did not feed it high-quality editorial and image content
it would barely pass muster as part of the auto trader family. You can
print
crap on nice heavy gloss paper, but it's still crap.
Check out The Roundel, the BMWCA publication. Comes out twice as often
(from
memory), top-notch editor and you can actually enjoy it even if you don't
own a BMW. I used to look forward to getting it. My Star editions ended up
in a pile on the living room floor. Couple of years later I sold them on
eBay.
I still have my Roundels, and I have not been into BMWs since the late
1990s.
Sorry, guys, you are getting ripped big time.
Mac
Oh I'm a gonna need the Kevlar and Nomex now
on 10/9/06 9:57 PM, Hendrik Riessen at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Yes but you are condeming a whole organisation because of the actions of
a
few people and then calling them names on a mail list. Sounds like you
have
some issues and using Kaleb's list to vent your anger.
Of course there is going to be members who are only interested in having
power and playing games but there are also a lot of good people involved
with the MBCA who genuinely are fans of the Star marque. I think you went
into the club with some pre conceived ideas of what it would be like and
when you found out it was the same bullshit only a better class of car
you
got sour. Just about every club has power struggles and major a***holes
who
f**k it up for others. The only way to deal with people like that is to
beat
them at their own game, eventually others will see them for what they are
and then it will be payback time. However if there are no decent people
left
in the club then the a***holes have won.
And how can they get the FBI onto you? I know democracy is pretty much a
thing of the past in this brave new world we are forging for ourselves
but I
do not think the FBI wants to get involved in a bitchfight. Unless you
are
not telling us the whole story.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Hurst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] JOINED MBCA
I just don't associate with this kind of group. why would i want to be
in
a
club where bob beltz and george murphy try to get the FBI after me
because
i
don't agree with them? I am as puzzled why any of you would want to
belong
to such a club as you seem to be puzzled why I would not want to be. I
just
don't get involved in this sort of unbalanced stuff.
But I'm basically for liberty. you want to associate with this sort of
thing, then i'm all for you doing so. I, however, will not.
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