Those of us that are members of 6pack and the VTR will have noticed the
beginning of the debate about consolidating into an uber organization. I
don't know if this has come up in the past but Vernon Brannon raised the topic
in the previous issue of TVT and the June issue of TVT carries one letter of
support. In the latest issue of the 6Pack publication Corey Sherman likens the
idea to the rise and fall of the British car industry in the 50's and later
(BMC et al). And yes I agree that it was odd that Vern brought this up and
shortly after resigned his position.
When I first read Vern's open letter a few weeks ago I thought the idea had
some merit. My background is membership in the UK TR Register and the Triumph
and TR clubs in the USA seemed fragmented to me with no single organization
having critical mass. The UK TR Register on the other hand is large enough to
have a permanent office, full time staff etc and that is reflected in the very
high quality of a monthly magazine that equals many commercial publications.
Probably like many of you I pay subscriptions to my local group, 6pack and
VTR. Each of these organizations puts out a newsletter at various intervals.
Newsletter quality is ok but none are comparable to the UK TR Register
magazine.
The big questions seems to be what is the right level of aggregation, what is
the right structure and how does the money work. An organization of green '69
TR6's is too low a unit, all British cars is too big a unit. My personal
opinion is that the VTR is about the right level. I have an interest in all
Triumphs in general and all TR's in particular and given a choice of going to
one long distance event a year I'll pick the VTR over 6Pack.
I understand that we live in a very large country and that regional groups
like mine and yours must continue and that we must have special interest focus
on the models that we own and care about like TR6's but could those needs not
be met as well or better than today under an umbrella organization like VTR
that would leverage the scale that would be achieved (magazine, member
services, discounts) but retain the autonomy of the local groups and models
?.
For example what if there was a commercial quality magazine published every
month that contained reports from all the regional groups, technical articles
and general news and info along with vendor paid ad's and member sales/wants
?. The web based forums would continue as they do today to support the model
specific communities. That would mirror what the UK TR Register has in place
today. The TR Register of America, Stag, 6pack etc would all fold into the
VTR but would evolve to provide model specific focus and history and archive
info (vehicle registry etc).
On the other had would that create a VTR that was just too big ?. What if 2000
people wanted to attend the annual conference..
I have no vested interest in the outcome, I don't sit on any board, I don't
edit any magazine, I'm just a TR6 owner wondering if the Triumph community
should evolve and if so how. I think the 6pack is a great community to have
that discussion as we seem to be one of the most active and best connected
groups.
Thoughts ?
Stan
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