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. Why penalise the majority for a "handful of long term users" ? Yes, there are possibly a handful that wont join the club whatever.. Trying to force people to join up in my opinion wont work either though. (Not sure who the handful are, but I can only think of the recent Lord benny thread. Nothing more than a witch hunt, shameful! Can't see that sort of membership recruitment working at all!) ..and traders having to pay £120 up front to see if they can muster a group buy.. we're totally losing the plot!

After searching the hidden cameras at Norman's place I have found the moment he realised the broadband had gone down followed by him searching for a wifi signal around the house http://youtu.be/mLNrLI3OBwg

"That's what I'm like in your Westfield when you drive normally!" (Mrs guest, 2012) See what I have to put up with??? You all find it funny, but this is what I have to live with!!!

I suspect that we all have the same intentions for the club, but fundamentally the committee can not please all members by doing nothing or making any change. The committee has put a lot of effort over the last year to determine what we believe is the best solution to several 'issues' that exist right now. These issues can appear to be small on the surface, but behind the scenes may have caused major issues. Ultimately the committee will be judged by their success or failure within anything that is done, and can be changed by vote at the AGM. These changes have been discussed by the AOs for feedback before communicating to the members. In the past with the best intentions the committee has not always found the time to explain their actions. We all have lives outside of WSCC after all. However it is the intention of the committee to be as open as possible and communicate in the clearest possible manner. But we cant please everyone. However in the interests of communication, let me discuss some of the thoughts behind the process further. However for the avoidance of doubt this isn't to open a hornets nest, or start an argument. b. The maintenance in the “Links” page of the main club web-site of a reasonably comprehensive list of suppliers of goods and services appropriate to the build and maintenance of kit-cars. A simple way to update links and request addition of links will be set up in due course. The committee wanted to ensure there was a way to give benefit to WSCC members to ensure that the information of possible companies existed. That other companies other than sponsors and the new trade members has some way to be shown to members. In addition in future these links would aslo indicate any special rates and deals negotiated for club members by the WSCC committee directly or indirectly via another member. This was specifically to avoid a closed shop culture for sponsors. However sponsors and trade members would get various additional services as part of their sponsorship or trade member fees. c. The creation of a new membership status (“Trade Member”) costing £120 per year The committee was mindful of the issue that lied between a regular member and sponsor. The costs and higher end features of a sponsor was too much for many small traders. Sponsors packages include speed series sponsorship, magazine adverts etc and many also supplement further the revenue this gives to the club with more advertising (larger adverts). But to have a situation where members cant be traders, so as to differentiate the sponsor benefits and prevent a free for all wasn't to the benefit of members. Therefore a trade member was created for online promotion only of the company in specified areas and to allow them to respond to posts with services they offer. This was set initially at a much lower than sponsorship, but also with a difference in the service obtained. This should allow the club to retain sponsors, as well attract traders who in turn may go up to full sponsorship if they see benefit in their association with the club. There has been real and significant interest in this offering. Thus far sponsors feedback is also supportive. d. The establishment in the Boardroom of a new Trade section in the Advertisement area, in which Trade Members might freely advertise appropriate goods and services. As above. e. That both Sponsors and Trade Members should to be allowed to offer their services, where appropriate, in responses to Boardroom threads seeking technical or sourcing advice. As Above. In addition it meant that trade advertisers that engaged more with people would like see more commercial success. Therefore it encouraged engagement with our members, which has to be a benefit to members who require third party services. f. That, in future, members wishing to organise “bulk buys” for the good of the membership must arrange for the chosen supplier to become a Trade Member and make the offer directly in the Trade section of the Advertisement area. The committee wanted to ensure the new policies were as black and white as possible. There has always been criticism if policy is judged not to be applied equally at all times. However rarely are things black and white. We wanted to remove as many of these issues as possible. We considered that on many bulk buys the per item costs and benefits to a trader would be outweighed in many circumstances. We were also worried about the ramifications of individuals risk and effort to organise many bulk buys and wanted these to be organised more directly by commercial companies where possible. Ideally many of smaller bulk buys that have occurred in the past that would not work under this scheme could be done under a members discount scheme advertised via the links or the committee. This is the preferred vehicle where possible. In addition there have been bulk buys in the past where members have done a lot of leg work and organisation and in exchange they get 1 free from the company involved. This is usually up front discussed as part of the bulk buy. However we woud prefer that the company does this work as part of normal business, and the cost to the company of 1 free be put into the bulk buy reduced cost for all. g. That advertising by a member “on behalf of a friend” in the Members’ Advertisement section be discouraged except where the “friend” is another named member. All other such advertisements shall be moved or made to the (renamed) “Ebay links” section. It will be made clear that all adverts in this section are ”outside” of any control of WSCC. The committee wanted to ensure that non IT literate members could benefit from boardroom advertising via other members or their AO etc as this is reasonable. However also adverts can be of benefit to the members. Therefore we wanted to open up the Ebay links area so that adverts that would previous run foul of the rules could be placed. As a club we have some duty of care on adverts that we permit. So in this area it would be re-iterated that they are non club adverts and outside of any WSCC control. The Committee considered the status of “Forum Users”. Recognising that it was good to allow potential members to experience the offer available to members, but also the disruption which has been caused on the Boardroom by a handful of long term “Forum Users”. The committee does not want to be forced to go members only. it was decided that FUs should be limited to tenure of 30 days or 20 posts (whichever comes first) from join up. It was further decided that, during their “trial tenure” FU rights should be extended to enable them to reply to member advertisements, to post in the “Ebay Links” section, and to send and receive PMs. After this time they will have a choice of becoming a member or becoming read only. The Committee would also look at the feasibility of offering an online trial extension for 60 days for a fee of around £10. The committee wanted to take some control on Forum Users. We didnt want to go members only, but ultimately we are a club of members, so long term Forum Users couldn't continue. The majority of issues leading to some very serious problems have come from some forum users. We wanted to try to achieve a balance of allowing people to experience the site with more features, but also limiting access after the taster period is over. Clearly having these users reply to members adverts is a benefit to members and like to lead to full club membership. Further posting adverts in the current Ebay section could benefit members looking to purchase. The written proposal from Mark Stanton to establish a facility for boardroom banners for Sponsors (and which could be additionally purchased by Trade Members) was approved subject to there being no “pop-up” advertisements. MS wanted to help ensure sponsor revenues for this year and also put an additional differentiator between sponsors and traders. Whist sponsor revenue is not as high as membership revenue, sponsor revenue is as important as all other revenue streams for the club. The Committee considered how best to support of Area Organizers. Scott undertook to send the AOs’ details to Paul so that he could write to them to begin dialogue on best practice transfer, etc. It was decided that the changes to the boardroom structure would be communicated to the AOs, and then to the boardroom prior to implementation. It was further decided that a new Committee post of “AO Representative” be established The committee perceives that a negative impact of the boardroom is that it has caused some reduction to the support to Areas. Therefore the committee is looking at separate project in this area. The Committee considered other aspects of Boardroom usage: Recognising the need for banter among members, but desirous of keeping the technical areas of the Boardroom on topic, the Committee decided to introduce a new Boardroom section (“Stuff and Nonsense”) for that purpose. The chat section would then be limited to on topic chat relating to WSCC. Moderators were requested to move frivolous threads posted in other sections to the new section, and to remove frivolous posts from serious threads in other areas where they threaten to “hijack” the thread. Chat is one of the areas of the board that causes issues. The committee thought that car related chat should be separated for OT stuff and nonsense. In order to “depersonalise” moderation decisions on the Boardroom, anonymous moderator status should be introduced. All moderation is subject to discussion between all of the moderators. All moderation is done behind the scenes by multiple moderators. In most cases the pulling or moderating of posts will have been decided by at least two moderators. Some posts will be hidden immediately for various obvious reasons. However by one individual ultimately doing the deed to the post, it has been seen in the past that unfair personal attacks against individuals has occurred. It is hoped this process can avoid some of these issues. However the committee hopes that these changes will reduce moderation requirements. The committee believes the forum has a low level of moderation compared to many Internet forums and wishes this to continue to be the case. ETA: There is already a process in place where ex-members are given free membership for a period of time, by application to the committee. This is specifically to thank those who have put in much of their own time and effort over the years for the club. These people not only continue to be members on the forum, but also will receive magazines, be able to attend area and national events and obtain club discounts for the period time.

Will be there with paddle for **** creek

mmm have you brought another monopoly set for Christmas then Scott ?

The guys a moron , I can think of much better ways to impress than drive her around in a peniztranzplantz

the annoying thing is if you take out the massive amount of posts that have occurred since the game started, id have been well close

That looks as if it's giving birth!

I found one tonight, not sure if it was the one you had in mind but navel gazing has never been so much fun

Ha, storm indeed, that wasn't thunder, that was the sound of the committees notorious black helicopters launching a rocket attack on Norm's Internet connection. (Thanks Tanya, hope your dad's back in touch soon! I'd say he won't know what to do with himself without the 'net, but is suspect he'll just knock out a building project or two!)