Dash Plaques

[Behemoth60]

A few years ago, in an attempt to boost membership among our chapter, our chapter began collecting TLCA dues as part of our local chapter dues. This has helped increase TLCA membership among the Rocky Mountain land Cruiser Ass. from about 6, to over 20. One of the draw backs is that there's a bit of a lag between paying our dues in Feb, and actually getting our TLCA membership. I finally got mine last night, and looked at the 2005 dash plaque. I noticed a few things.

1. The 2005 TLCA Dash Plaque sports a beautiful rendition of Old Glory.
2. Old Glory is not really Land Cruiser related.
3. Old Glory is the official flag of the United States of America.
4. I am not a member of the United States of America club.
4. TLCA is a club of international members.
5. International members pay a significant premium to be members, but rarely get to go to TLCA events due to being, you know, international.
6. TLCA is driving hard this year to increase membership, and the largest untapped potential market for new members are the huge community of highly under-represented international Land Cruiser owners. Heck, the top prize for the TLCA raffle to support the drive to 4000 membership program was donated by an international company, owned by internationals, of whom one is yours truly.

Confused at first, I soon realized that the plan must be to make a series of dash plaques with all the flags of all our international members, wherein each year a different flag will be represented, creating a collectors series of TLCA Dash plaques representing all the national flags of all our members. The only way to collect every collectable dash plaque is to keep renewing that membership. Cool. I love that idea. Maybe the country with the most members next to USA will get their flag on next year, then the country with the third most members in the third year, etc. Awesome thinking, TLCA. I'll definitely renew next year.

If you can believe it, some of my fellow international TLCA members actually thought that the American dominated executive of the TLCA were indulging in selfish nationalism when deciding to put their flag on the dash plaque of this international association which receives unquestioning and unwavering support from some committed international members. I heartily defended the honor of the TLCA executive to some rather indignant fellow chapter members, and resolutely support the TLCA's actions as merely the tip of a glorious membership drive program which is inclusive all it's valued members. It was a tough sell, but I think I won them over in the end. Next year, they'll see that I was right.

Peter Straub
International member number 7571
President, Rocky Mountain Land Cruiser Association
located in an Ununited State in the Americas

 

[nuclearlemon]

i guess it's all in what you get out of it. for the first five years i was a member, i couldn't attend any tlca events because i was in chicago and they were all in california....but i met great people and i learned a lot. so to me, it was worth it.

 

[wngrog]

If you can believe it, some of my fellow international TLCA members actually thought that the American dominated executive of the TLCA were indulging in selfish nationalism when deciding to put their flag on the dash plaque of this international association which receives unquestioning and unwavering support from some committed international members. I heartily defended the honor of the TLCA executive to some rather indignant fellow chapter members, and resolutely support the TLCA's actions as merely the tip of a glorious membership drive program which is inclusive all it's valued members. It was a tough sell, but I think I won them over in the end. Next year, they'll see that I was right.

Peter Straub
International member number 7571
President, Rocky Mountain Land Cruiser Association
located in an Ununited State in the Americas

Peter. I hope you are kidding.

If you think anyone did this to "indulge in selfish nationalism" you are mistaken.

I did not think about it until I stubled upon this thread and you are 100% right. I am sorry as a BOD member that we as the TLCA were not more politically correct in thinking about putting an American flag on an international organization.

How can we make this right to those that were offended?

 

[Chef]

Uhhh...this is gonna sound pretty lame probably...but I'm not a dash plaque guy, and haven't seen one in probably 6 years. I opt for the stickers. Poor excuse, but it's all I have. I was not Pres when those were made, but apologise whole heartedly to anyone who was offended, and would be glad to send a sticker to replace your dash plaques if that would be acceptable?

We are working on next years dash plaques right now so this is timely, thanks for bringing it up. It is not in the plan to include any flags. Next year is TLCA's 30th Anniversary, so we're working on designs to reflect that. Minus any flags.

Though I was not involved in the design of the current dash plaues, I feel pretty comfortable saying there was no agenda behind them, that that we at TLCA feel badly about not having considered our International Members feelings more carefully.

Thanks for bringing this up. If people don't voice their opinions, we don't know when there's problems to fix. Please do let me know if TLCA stickers are something that would be an appealing substitute for our flawed dash plaque effort, and we'll do better next time.

Chef

 

[dawg]

Youve got to be kidding ....I will leave it at that.......

 

[Ratpuke]

You have got to be kidding ....I better leave it at that..........

I dunno. Peter's *never* sarcastic about anything. I'm scared of him. So are the trick-or-treaters in his neighbourhood at Halloween. Simply scary.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

You have got to be kidding ....I will leave it at that.......

Ten posts and thats all you have to say??????????

Opinions are the largest part of this forum, please elaberate on your feelings please.

 

[Chef]

I'm not taking this as a joke.

I can empathise with this viewpoint, and am willing to do what I can to make it right.

Alan

 

[trainrech]

How 'bout the Japanese Flag, in honor of the producing country of such a fine vehicle?

Ok, ok I'll just go join the

 

[informationjunky]

Hey, I think it would be cool to have a border around the plaques with the flags of the countries of all active TLCA memebers....sort of tlca and here is the countries our memebers live in.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

That'd be a lot of stuff to stick on a 2" dash plaque.. But could be used for other purposes!

Peter.. I promise the next dashplaque won't have a flag on it! Just for you big boy!

 

[Green Lantern]

Alan and Nolen may be taking this seriously, but I'm not...

I tend to slap the Texas flag on everything. But, if y'all want to avoid flags, I can switch to the Alamo!

Lighten up... it's only a truck club. Y'all also know that I'll help you 24/7 if you break down in my neck of the woods.

Happy Trails! N

 

[Behemoth60]

All kidding aside, which is difficult for me...

There was considerable objection when I proposed that we collect TLCA memberships as part of our local chapter dues. It was a close vote with the only heated debate we've ever had on a topic in our 8 year history, but the chapter decided to support the TLCA in this manner. Afterwards, I actually had people ask if they could be part of the chapter but not pay the TLCA portion, or if they could still hang out with us if they didn't pay at all. No, and No, were my answers.

The issue is that many of my fellow Canadians do not feel that the TLCA is an organization which works for us. Considerable funds collected from our dues are donated to some land use orgnaizations that do not represent issues in Canada. We pay a premium in terms of currency conversion to pay those dues, and before we moved to bulk shipping of the trails, we also paid another premium to even get the trails. It just seems to many of my compatriates here that there's simply no value to being in the TLCA with the single exception being the Trails, which can be purchased for only $18 for a year.

Some comments from our local mailing list about the dash plaques...

"It's a small thing, really, but I was pretty disappointed with that plaque this year."
"'disappointed' would be charitable. "
"you can only imagine what passions were stirred when I saw Betsy Ross's bit of nationalistic fluff on my dash plaque."

So, no, I'm not kidding that some people were a bit torqued to get this dash plaque. As their relentlessly elected representative, I am here to voice that opinion on their behalf and take the brunt of the 'You're Kidding' responses. As someone who has relentlessly supported the TLCA, strong arming our members into paying dues they would rather not part with for a benefit I can scarcely articulate, I am asking for a bit of sensitivity to the fact that just as the Land Cruiser itself is intended for the Gloabl Market (except Canada since 1989), the TLCA should likewise have such a perspective, even with things as seemingly insignificant as a Dash Plaque. You could loose the memberships of Canadians from something like this. You must remember that the only thing us Canadians have as a national identity is that we're not Americans, so something like this touches an indignant nationalistic chord in us.

Kuddos to Chef and Wnrog for asking the only important question... How to make this right? An apology is probably all it would take. I mean, it's just a dash plaque after all. It's not like we're demanding reparations or anything. You probably won't see Canadians on TV burning their dash plaques in the streets shouting "Death to the TLCA".

An inclusive perspective which permeates the little details would make everything right. Maybe before sending the next cheque, ask the Blue Ribbon Coalition, United 4WD and Tread Lightly what their plans are to support Canadian issues next year. We sure could use their help now as 90% of Calgary's local trails are in Jeopardy due to something called the Ghost Access Management Plan... there may not be a River Shiver 2007 as a result. Things like that.

Peter Straub

 

[Green Lantern]

Thanks Peter!

Officially, I want to apologize to you and anyone else offended by the 2005 dash plaque. As stated earlier, if you can suggest something to make it right, please do.

This year is the first year since I became a member of TLCA that we even have people interested in designing our dash plaque.

Please voice your thoughts and ideas on what you want to see. I don't know if Eric's committee has finished the 30th design or not. I am certain that those 2005 plaques were ordered because we needed them, not because we wanted to push any political agenda.

I'm not being sarcastic. I really appreciate your feelings. I want to encourage everyone to participate rather than complain. I am very impressed with you because you accepted a nomination for the President's job and stayed with it through the election. I am certain that all of the elected members of TLCA would welcome you to help design TLCA material.

I hope everyone understands me. If you want an impact, participate up front. The elected positions are unpaid (except Casey, cause he can go to jail). All of us have day jobs and we try to solve problems quickly, cause we'd rather work on our trucks.

Call me if you want. My number is listed in Trails, so's my email. The next meeting is July 28th, get your delegate to raise this up and offer some solutions. I hope this helps.
Happy Trails! N

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Just for my own information... are membership numbers available based on the membes Country? I would be interested to see where are members are...

And dash plaques... do we still get those?

 

[Chef]

Kurt;
Jacki at membership should be able to run "members by country" for us, I'll ask. Any in particular you are interested in?

Yes, you may still get a dash plaque if you choose. The design for next year's 30th Anniversary Commemorative plaques should be just about done-haven't heard from the committee for a couple of days.

 

[lowenbrau]

I think I remember the last time we identified TLCA numbers by country. Canada had the second highest membership to the US with a measly 4% of the total. Its no surprise that a dash plaque designer would forget that not all TLCA members are American. If it were a US club, having the flag on there would be darn fine thing to do. The fact that it hasn't been a US club for nearly 15 years means that it really isn't cool there even when full 90 % of the members are US citizens. TLCA turned a corner in 1991 when they voted the Coastal Cruisers in. From that point on we became an international organization. The International Cruiser Meeting which drew over four hundred Cruisers to its event in Germany last year is coming to North America next year. Europeans are putting their rigs on a ship to travel across the ocean to meet with North American Cruiserheads. Something big is going on here folks. Our little club of four thousand is about to grow again and it won't be the the introduction of the FJ Cruiser that does it! I believe the little dash plaque thing is nothing but a wakeup call for all of us to realize that this internet thing has brought a bunch of nations together with one common bond. I'm proud to know people the world over that I call friends and I met only because I drive the same brand as they do. Its time to figure out how we can add value to being a TLCA member such that every Land Cruiser enthusiast the world over will want to join and proudly display his dash plaque.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Thanks Peter!

Officially, I want to apologize to you and anyone else offended by the 2005 dash plaque. As stated earlier, if you can suggest something to make it right, please do.

This year is the first year since I became a member of TLCA that we even have people interested in designing our dash plaque.

Please voice your thoughts and ideas on what you want to see. I don't know if Eric's committee has finished the 30th design or not. I am certain that those 2005 plaques were ordered because we needed them, not because we wanted to push any political agenda.

I'm not being sarcastic. I really appreciate your feelings. I want to encourage everyone to participate rather than complain. I am very impressed with you because you accepted a nomination for the President's job and stayed with it through the election. I am certain that all of the elected members of TLCA would welcome you to help design TLCA material.

I hope everyone understands me. If you want an impact, participate up front. The elected positions are unpaid (except Casey, cause he can go to jail). All of us have day jobs and we try to solve problems quickly, cause we'd rather work on our trucks.

Call me if you want. My number is listed in Trails, so's my email. The next meeting is July 28th, get your delegate to raise this up and offer some solutions. I hope this helps.
Happy Trails! N

Apology on my side of the line not needed Nick, I know its a oversight and these things happen all the time.

Cheers beers and wine, all the best.

Rob

 

[Gundy]

Peter's right...

of course. TLCA muffed this one. Not with bad intentions,
I'm sure. I think we all love the international flavor of TLCA.
Thanks to members like Peter for keeping us "USA centrics"
on our toes.
Score one for Canada.
If ya'll were here I'd buy you all a round.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

"just about done-haven't heard from the committee "
it's done.. waiting on final critique then print.. Way different. should not be country specific..