Just food for thought ...

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65swb45 said:
2. RUBITHON.

I think it would be interesting for the BOD for 2009 to pick ONE [any one really, I have no preference] of the other current TLCA sanctioned events and politely ask the sponsoring club to consider making it a national event. Find out what the club has to say about it.
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one issue there is that events are often the main source of income for a club, so i really don't like the idea of the bod picking an event to make their own. for rising sun, we make a good amount of money off cruise moab which we then donate off to various land use causes. ask brc, united, tread lightly, clear creek county and boulder ranger districts, cohvco, and the four wheelers that use our trails how they'd feel if instead of rolling that money into keeping trails open and in good safe condition, we gave it to an association that, for the most part, does nothing for land use (which is one of the things being discussed).

i have no problem with using a percentage of our events to keep tlca going, but i really think cruise moab money is best spent the way we are spending it now. we've been among the very few clubs to get in on the good side of the boulder ranger district (very very very anti access) for our work done on jenny creek, but that took lots of money. we're now getting ready to deal with this years donations and one thing being considered is setting aside money for a possible adoption of iron chest (possible only because even though the trail has been around for decades, it technically does not exist). ask our land use guru, bill morgan, how much more willing the ranger districts are to deal with you when you walk in and say "we've got this much money set aside right now to do these projects...all you have to do is let us take care of this trail". remember, brc and united can't fight their legal battles without funding either. heck, we've donated to help fight battles to keep moab open, otherwise, there wouldn't be a cruise moab.

off my soapbox now...
 
nuclearlemon said:
one issue there is that events are often the main source of income for a club, so i really don't like the idea of the bod picking an event to make their own. for rising sun, we make a good amount of money off cruise moab which we then donate off to various land use causes. ask brc, united, tread lightly, clear creek county and boulder ranger districts, cohvco, and the four wheelers that use our trails how they'd feel if instead of rolling that money into keeping trails open and in good safe condition, we gave it to an association that, for the most part, does nothing for land use (which is one of the things being discussed).

i have no problem with using a percentage of our events to keep tlca going, but i really think cruise moab money is best spent the way we are spending it now. we've been among the very few clubs to get in on the good side of the boulder ranger district (very very very anti access) for our work done on jenny creek, but that took lots of money. we're now getting ready to deal with this years donations and one thing being considered is setting aside money for a possible adoption of iron chest (possible only because even though the trail has been around for decades, it technically does not exist). ask our land use guru, bill morgan, how much more willing the ranger districts are to deal with you when you walk in and say "we've got this much money set aside right now to do these projects...all you have to do is let us take care of this trail". remember, brc and united can't fight their legal battles without funding either. heck, we've donated to help fight battles to keep moab open, otherwise, there wouldn't be a cruise moab.

off my soapbox now...
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All your points are valid;that was one of my points in bringing it up. I imagine the story would be similar everywhere the TLCA turned. So, given that making a 'current' event national is not likely, and there hasn't been the manpower to start another national event [not that there could never be] you end up with Rubithon as the single national event. Not a deliberate decision by the BOD; just a default.

And so the 'event' tie to a national Toyota organization stays weak.
 
For the tinsy-winsy fee for membership this is my opinion:

Ask what you can do to help ? Quite bein a pansy who complains about TLCA
If participation is required I guess I'm out cause I miss alot of events due to I got a family and all
By the same token I have been to some events and not seen some of you?

Who is anyone to think they should set rules or have attendance quotas, every single TLCA member has the right to participate to whatever extent they want, some may never get outa bed, thats the thing we call freedom.
I am just glad that those on the BOD have taken time outa their lives to put effort into TLCA. I think for the low cost one should not be lookin at the TLCA and baggin on it, be glad it is there or see ya.

I get the impression from some of you that TLCA owes you something, WT?

That is sure not the TLCA I have been exposed to. What do you want, someone to hold yer hand ?

When did all the disention arise ?

Hope you folks don't feel the same about the USA as you do about TLCA

For christ sake, add to it.

Is the TLCA broke ? Are funds being misappropriated ? What exactly is the beef, get specific.

So monies could be save din certain areas according to some people but if the club aint broke what is the difference ? Is there a need for the funding that has been overlokked ?

I think you all do a dam fine job and I'll say it again, is there anyhting I can do to help ?
 
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To answer some of Mark's points directly:

1) I work for TLCA at about half the industry rate. This is to say, I donate about half of my time to TLCA. Could someone work cheaper? Sure. Someone could volunteer all of their time, I suppose. If TLCA could find such a volunteer, they'd be foolish to not take advantage. But there is certainly an argument to be made for continuity, especially when that is paired with consistent delivery, on time, of a quality product. And for what it's worth, I was asked if I wanted a raise the last time my contract was up and I declined.

2) The layout and design work for Trails is done at about 75% of the industry rate with the nod going to steady work in a fairly unpredictable field. The designer works for less because it's income he can count on. Could we find someone to work for less? I bet we could. Would that mean we'd still have a beautiful, on-time magazine every time? I doubt it. Putting this magazine together is far more complicated than most can imagine. It requires experts in their field and people who will work odd hours and donate a lot of their time. That's a rare combination.

3) The print industry is indeed conceding to a tight economy and we can now print up to 6,000 magazines at the same overall cost, an improvement over what was 7,500. This is to say, if we can round up some more members, our print costs will come down on a per magazine basis.

4) As to lower cost alternatives, the e-zine (Alan's idea) will roll out soon. I'm very interested to see where this takes us and firmly believe that it will have a positive influence.

Thanks for the input, Mark.

TJK
 
Yes, there is something you can do:
Volunteer your time to be part of the solution.

I'm all for people donating their opinions here, but people, opinions are cheap;)
In what is essentially a volunteer staffed and operated business, if you want to make a difference, you need to be willing to step in and shoulder some of the work load. Having served on the BOD, Kowboy is familiar with what this entails;)

Could Trails be done cheaper?
Todd's already addressed this. I agree with everything he's said, and will add this...I've been around long enough to remember when Toyota Trails was delivered one, two...heck, even three and four months late. This made membership *really mad.* This made selling advertising, and collecting ad monies *really difficult.* Right now we have a first class, award winning, high quality magazine that's been published on time, every time, for many years since Todd took over.

As far as an "electronic Toyota Trails" saving money...well, it will, and it won't.
Here's why (Todd, feel free to correct me if I get parts of this "not quite right")
Printing TT isn't cheap, we all know that. What you don't know, is that the rate we get is based on printing 7500 copies. We get a "bulk rate" based on that number. If we printed more, the cost per would go down some. We've been hovering around 4,000 members for some time now...so, we'd have to grow by quite a bit to hit the next level of cost savings.
Developing an e-zine thru some of the software we're considering is as easy as uploading the print format pdf's...cheap. Not much additional cost...
But we've got the print costs about as low as we can get them at this point: not much savings to be had there.

We are committed to producing TT in electronic form. I think many of us would like an e-zine verions of TT to read at work;) and other places where a printed magazine is less convenient.
Some of the issues we're wrestling with:
What should an e-zine cost?
What should it cost in conjunction with the printed mazine?
Should there be a "non-TLCA member rate" for the e-zine?
Current thinking is that there probabvly should be...when properly marketed, it could reach people we currently don't reach. These peopel then might want to become full members, attend events, recieve the printed magazine....

This is all fun stuff to think about and develope!
Both the e-zine, and the new website have the potential to develope substantial new revenue streams.
This is good news.

thx-alan
 
As far as "alternate national events'' go...

Rubithon brings all profits back to TLCA. This year, that was $10,500+ dollars.

Most of our chapter hosted events-Cruise Moab, Lone Star Round Up, Flat Nasty-use their events as their major fund raisers for the year. The folks that I approached about running their events as "alterna-national events" were none too excited about the prosect of turning their profits back to TLCA. And justifiably so, really...that's a tough thing to ask!

It is possible to develope "National Event #2" somewhere where it might be more accessable to our Mid-west and Eastern TLCA members...but, we need a venue, a rasher of hardworking volunteers, and a lot of discussion about how to make that palatable to both TLCA and whomever might want to do all the work it would take to get it done.
 
Chef said:
As far as an "electronic Toyota Trails" saving money...well, it will, and it won't.
Here's why (Todd, feel free to correct me if I get parts of this "not quite right")
Printing TT isn't cheap, we all know that. What you don't know, is that the rate we get is based on printing 7500 copies. We get a "bulk rate" based on that number. If we printed more, the cost per would go down some. We've been hovering around 4,000 members for some time now...so, we'd have to grow by quite a bit to hit the next level of cost savings.
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Correct except that the magic number is now 6,000, so we're closer to savings than we have been in the past. Perhaps the e-zine will drive membership levels to new heights and we will eventually see a cost saving as a result.

TJK
 
I am calm.
I edited out the cuss letter, darn you picky Kowboy.
Chef, who would you refer me to to contact regarding volunteer ?
Who is the rep for the west now ?
Long live the landcruiser.
Why are we here again ?
 
Our club tried an e-newsletter, nearly 100% of people opted for the snail mail as well. The e-mail version takes an inordinate amount of time to get sent to everyone as there are so many different filters, spam gaurds, quantity limits that is is reduced to sending like 10 at a time and even then some were just not getting it. I tried different methods and programs and the bottom line was that I found it almost impossible to get 70+ e-mails to receive consistently. Any insight on how to accomplish this is greatly appreciated.

Is there anywhere on the TLCA website to tune in to these types of discussions ?
 
This type of thing is typically developed at the board of directors level. So, you could run for office, or become a chapter delegate...or start threads here...
 
Thanks Alan. I am going to read/learn/listen to eevrything on the TLCA site so I am more informed about all aspects of the org. This could take awhile.
 
Chef said:
Having served on the BOD, Kowboy is familiar with what this entails;)
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Indeed sir ... I openly admit I couldn't handle the politics of the club. :frown:

But the minutes of the BOD meetin's were typed in a timely fashion and posted for all TLCA members to review ... thus presentin' the opportunity for any member to see what was goin' on ... whatever happened to that concept?

peesalot said:
I am calm.
I edited out the cuss letter, darn you picky Kowboy.
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Thank you sir ... please carry on. :beer:

:flamingo:
 
peesalot said:
Our club tried an e-newsletter, nearly 100% of people opted for the snail mail as well. The e-mail version takes an inordinate amount of time to get sent to everyone as there are so many different filters, spam gaurds, quantity limits that is is reduced to sending like 10 at a time and even then some were just not getting it. I tried different methods and programs and the bottom line was that I found it almost impossible to get 70+ e-mails to receive consistently. Any insight on how to accomplish this is greatly appreciated.
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toyota trails wouldn't be emailed out. instead, members would log into the website and have permission to view it. that way you don't have to deal with filters, etc.
 
Get it now, thanks Nuclear. Some times it takes awhile for me to see a light, any light.
 
Wait a minute Nuclear, your from Colorado. Were you sittin on that rock by Hatfields rig at Rubithon watchin me change my driveshaft, laughin. You guys made quite the peanut gallery.

Sorry, hi-jack off.
 
FWIW,

Chapters use events for different purposes. Party, membership, charity, etc.

I've been involved with the Round Up since day 1. We try to just break even. If we make money we spend it on food, the band, or the raffle. This factoid is only important in that we aren't trying to make money. We're trying to raise enough money to have a great party.

HTH
Happy Trails! N
 
If our goal is to get people excited about this club, then we absolutely need to work on the logistics of a centrally and easterly located premier T.L.C.A.. event set. Sure it's gonna take some work, but I think it's kinda like voting. If you volunteer to help make it happen and it doesn't work, well, you can complain then. If you don't volunteer to help, then you haven't earned the right to complain, though you will almost certainly be the first and loudest to do so.
I think one of the things I'd like to make a priority would be to begin bringing something like this to fruition. There is some fantastic marketing possibilities tied in with this, and that would go a long way to helping make it happen. Plus, I'd like to expand some other marketing opportunities I've seen, and I think Art's enthusiasm will really help to make some of that happen, all of which leads us to becoming a richer, fuller, more particapitory club at many different levels.
I'm excited about this chance to possibly serve as president, and really change some things to help move us forward.
 
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