WEB SITE :- whats happening ?

[crazylegs]

Anyone know whats going on ?

[waynestoyotamr2]

No idea?

[kaiowas]

All I can tell you is that I'm no longer involved. After many hours of hard work I had the test site up and running for the 1st of December as per the agreement from the AGM.

For reasons known only to themselves the committee then decided that 3 weeks before their deadline for a launch date was a good time to discard everything I'd done and start from scratch with a professional web designer.

As you can probably understand, being shat on from a great height pi$$ed me and vix off somewhat and we have both now withdrawn from all of our involvement with the club.

[coverco]

All I can tell you is that I'm no longer involved. After many hours of hard work I had the test site up and running for the 1st of December as per the agreement from the AGM.

For reasons known only to themselves the committee then decided that 3 weeks before their deadline for a launch date was a good time to discard everything I'd done and start from scratch with a professional web designer.

As you can probably understand, being shat on from a great height pi$$ed me and vix off somewhat and we have both now withdrawn from all of our involvement with the club.

If that is true and I have no reason to believe it is not, then in my opinion you have every right to be annoyed. It would be nice if the committee members gave their side of the story, after going to Tatton last year I have been considering joining the MK1 club but stories like this really do put me off

It does appear from the outside looking in that there is one group of people driving the club forward and another pulling it back, shame really but that is what it looks like to a non member.

[waynestoyotamr2]

Interesting comments Tommy.

In your view, who is the group trying to drive the club forward, and who is the group holding it back?

Just trying to scratch beneath the surface on what seems to be quite a broad comment.

[coverco]

Interesting comments Tommy.

In your view, who is the group trying to drive the club forward, and who is the group holding it back?

Just trying to scratch beneath the surface on what seems to be quite a broad comment.

It was probably a bit broad Wayne, but the people I come into contact with on the forum seem to be very enthusiastic about the MK1 club. The need for a website and perhaps a self contained forum is well overdue, why ask someone to do a website and then move the goalposts at the last moment? I have not met all the committe members but have met some people from the club, it appears that some members don't come on the forums which in my opinion in todays internet based world is a bit strange to say the least. For a national club to survive it needs to use the internet and all its advantages to the full, these are just my opinions of course but if from what I read if I feel this way then you must assume that others feel the same way too

I am a member of Round Table and we have struggled over the last few years to get and maintain members, all clubs are the same so the use of every available resource to get new members is important, and once you get the members keeping them is also important. We have found that you need to make people feel special as part of a group but it is not advisable to make it into a clique

[waynestoyotamr2]

A good insight Tommy - thanks.

You're spot on when you say there are so many enthusiastic people around that love the Mk1.

Many many people have also found it easy down the years to have a whinge about how crap the Mk1 Club is, especially me actually! My key thoughts about this is because of how the club was ran historically and how it has grown its membership (and subsequently dropped significantly). But the infrastructure and the way it was ran in the background never matured to match the membership numbers and the club on the whole just never modernised itself.

I too have had bad experiences of the Mk1 Club, I could list them. All I will say is the people that caused these issues and previously held the club back are no longer involved. Down the years we have failed to embrace people that we needed and because of that the club has lost out and has also had its reputation damaged by chit chat, rumour and half truths.

IMO 2008 was an absolute catastrophe for the Mk1 Club. Yes, I had a massive whinge about it and so did many others, we all know that. But at the AGM only 15 or so people attended and of that 15 or so only a handful offered to take on responsibilities and start trying to sort things out!

I dont want a crap Mk1 Club. Neither does the Committee. You talk about enthusiastic people on this forum? They dont come any more enthusiastic than Karl_T and Lou who are doing literally working miracles on the club magazine, Richard Brett who's infectious enthusiasm with the regalia etc... is so refreshing, Jinxy and his better half that have taken on the technical advisor and national events co-ordinator positions and are making good things happen in the background ready for 2009. Mik Sheavills' overall experience within the club is invaluable and of course myself, well I dont want to big myself up too much! (JOKE!)

So, I guess what I am trying to say is we are all working like madmen (and women) to get this club sorted and back on track, dragging it kicking and screaming not into 2008/9 - but actually just into the modern era!

But you know what? Its a big job. Make no bones about it.

[vix]

All I will say is the people that caused these issues and previously held the club back are no longer involved.

Whether he meant it that way or not, I'd just like to make it known that i was not one of the people holding the club back. Thanks.

[SySanguinary]

As you can probably understand, being shat on from a great height pi$$ed me and vix off somewhat and we have both now withdrawn from all of our involvement with the club.

Sad news to hear. I feel the club really needs to sort it's communications out very quickly indeed. Over the last few years a number of good people have left the club due to similar circumstances and quite frankly at the moment it needs all the help it can get.

[crazylegs]

So when is the site due for completion ?

[kaiowas]

1st of Jan apparently.

[SySanguinary]

1st of Jan apparently.

I see you haven't mentioned the year.

[crazylegs]

GREAT NEWS, its been so long since a web site that functioned was available we have all forgotten where it is. how many years is it ?

[SySanguinary]

I remember discussing it in 2005 at the weekly Loughborough meetings. Blimey, didn't realise it was that long ago.
Hopefully it will surface at some point but I still reckon the top bods need to organise themselves very quickly otherwise the website may come too late.

[Tony jinxy froude]

Just a little input from me, i echo what Wayne has said, in the past the club has been held back from modernisation, this has had a devestating effect on the club over the years & its members who quite rightly deserved better than they were getting for their membership fee's, hence the reason that we had started to put in place some 2 years ago the first of these plans to get the club an up to date modern interactive website with our own stand alone forum which was probably one of the most significant single changes within the club, fresh committee members with a younger & more forward thinking idea's to drag the club to where its should have naturally evolved, as with anything that has had years of neglect its impossible to get it all sorted overnight, but we are nearly there & all the committee have been run ragged behind the scenes trying to make your club something to be proud of.
We had assurances from phil that the website he was designing was making progress, at the 2007 AGM phil had 80% of it done, during the previous year we had told the membership that a new forum was being worked on & would be ready soon, yet another year of empty promises to the membership regarding the lack of website unfortunately has had its undesirable effect, so much so that by the 2008 AGM & a record low on membership numbers & still no website & a very unhappy membership we gave phil an ultimatum, that if a beta version of the website be ready for the committee to view before the 30th Nov with a fully usable version be ready for 1st Jan 2009 we would have to seek professional web help, we simply couldnt go on promising members any more & not delivering, any club that has no faith in its committee will soon cease to be a club at all, hence the reason for the deadline, Phil himself will fully admit that he didnt have time to devote to the new site & had virtually lost interest in making it happen & couldnt give the membership a predicted timescale of when the site would be lauched, we then decided that with phils comments regarding the site timescale it would be foolish not to seek out the work of a professional web designer as we felt that at the time the site would not be ready & we were not prepared to issue another promise to the membership yet again regarding another delayed website date bearing in mind that by the afternoon of the 30th Nov we still had not heard from Phil. A couple of weeks before this we had met an ex MK1 owner & pro web designer at the NEC who had said that given the short space of time he could still get a site up & running by 1st Jan, we got him to do a few home page shots for us to look at & he had this done in less that 2 days, on the evening of 30th Nov Phil sent the committee his unexpected link to his new website, to say i was unimpressed is an understatement, this was echo'd by the majority of the committee, the site content was actually quite good, however the site itself looked very dated & had no wow factor & felt that those loyal members who had been promised a superb, fully functioning, modern website by 1st Dec deserved much better, so as the LeMans chritmas party was looming an open invitation was made to all the committee to attend an imprompu meeting where we could decide on who's site to go with, Phil, Vix, Karl & Lou were unable to attend, all the other committee members were present & it was a unanimous decision to go with the pro designed website, we knew this would upset phil, but all agreed that as a valued committee member we would like Phils input on the new site, This was put to Phil via phone call made by Stuart our chairman & Phil declined the offer, shortly afterward both Vix & Phil resigned from the club via email.
This may sound like im getting at Phil & Vix, but this is simply not the case, i bear no ill feeling towards either & have always regarded them both as friends, the only thing i have done is to speak out regarding Phils site, this was done with the memberships interest at heart not my own. Jinxy

[crazylegs]

what is important is that this is now progressing. we need that google search to come up with a bright, modern and fully functioning site that holds the interest of the searcher. for the past 3 years we have had nothing worth looking at.
there is no need for any bad feeling we should all have the same aim, to get this club moving again. it was, in hindsight, perhaps to much to expect someone to have done on a volunteer basis.
lets get this moving and go forward to the best year we have had. its not the only thing but its a big start.

[vix]

What's important to note here, is that Phil and I haven't thrown our toys out because the committee didn't use the website he built. We perfectly understood what was agreed at the AGM (without us), that the deadline was 30th Nov, and if no site was produced we would seek a professional. I already had a few people in mind. However what wasn't communicated was the fact that a professional had already been sought, and suddenly it was decided to put to the vote Phils years of hard work against three static images produced by a professional web designer.

This wasn't agreed at the AGM. i didn't know about it. Phil didn't even get sent the e mail about it.

This is why we left. Lack of communication can only result in failure for any organisation, no matter how posh a website they have.

[Tony jinxy froude]

Phil himself volenteered to do the website, & was approached by at least 2 different people during the following 2 years to help him out & phil declined their offer of help both times.

[vix]

Was that a reply to my post? If so which part?

I don't remember anyone offering to help, and there was nothing for them to do anyway.

[Tony jinxy froude]

Vix, with all due respect here, as soon as the phone was put down after Stuarts call to you both regarding the decision regarding the website, you both resigned, not by phone call, which would have been the honourable thing to do as Stuart had done regarding tthe decision to go with the pro design, but by email, so if as you say your resignation had nothing to do with who's design we went with, rather than comunication, it certainly didnt come across that way.
How long could we have left it for a website to appear before we issued an altermatum to Phil ? 1 more year, 2 years ?, we had already waited for 2 years & still nothing appeared, it was already cutting it fine for a beta version & a full version to be ready in time & that was from a site that already had 80% of the work done, how long before we could leave it from the 30th Nov for a full alterative site to be ready for 1st Jan... virtually no time at all .
the previous post was in answer to Kev by the way, & i understand you were approached by Max who offered his help, the other person escapes me at the moment, so you were offered help & declined it.,if there was nothing left to do, why did it take another year to get a beta version to appear at litterally the 11th hour, theres no face lost if you ask for help, but plenty if you decline & it goes t1ts up like this has, Jinx