avo site been cut

[RS2000CUSTOM]

At a Committee Meeting held on October 15th 2006 it was decided that The AVO Owners Club would only sell spare parts to members of the Club. This follows an examination of who was buying from the Club and what benefits there were by being a member of the Club.

To simplify matters the following statement sums up the policy:

“If it bolts onto a car, you have to be a member to buy it from the AVO Owners Club”

This policy does not effect Regalia items and models etc.

You do not have to be an AVO car owner to become a member, Associated Membership has always been available. Please speak to us for any clarification you may need. Membership forms are available in the 'JOIN' section.

If you have an AVO car and were to display it on any of our Stands at the regular shows in the summer months you would get more than your membership fees back in the form of show tickets.

The AVO Owners Club attends as many summer shows as it can, we do not insist that cars shown on our stands are concourse examples. If its on the road, lets see it.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you may have.

Thank You.
AVO Owners Club Committee 2006.
_________________
Alan
AVO Club Chairman & Website Officer

Fair enough but why not let people know what you have to sell ?

It may influence someones decision whether to join or not.

[plentysideways]

i cant see how the forum being members only would put you off being a member?

I was a member of the avo some years ago and to be brutally honest thought that for me it was a waste of money. Yes i did recieve the occaisional copy of HAVOC but that was it. It also appeared to me (I can only speak about my own experience) that the club was very "cliquey" and if you were not in the clique then tough. Possibly it was partly me being shy as it does take two to tango. so as i didn't feel i got anything worthwhile in return i didn't renew my membership.
However, of late i have been using their forum, as stated in my previous post in this thread, and had began to feel that attitudes had changed. There does seem to be a group of people who were willing to offer help encouragement and advice to anybody who needed it, irrespective of whether they had avo membership or not. An appreciation of anything avo seemed to be all that was needed and I think this is the best way to encourage people to come forward and contribute to any community. In fact i had decided last night (after the prompt help i recieved off other forum (dont know if they were avo members or not) members) that possibly the avo owners club was not as inward looking as i used to think and cared more about peoples enthusiasm for the cars than whether or not they had membership of the club. Today i am wondering whether the smirnoff had clouded my thinking.

When all is said and done i totally respect the fact that the forum is owned by and run by and paid for by the AVO owners club, and is theirs to do with as they wish. If club dont want their forum to be accessible by anybody who is not a paid up member then i fully respect that decision.

None of what i have stated above is aimed at any one person, it is purely my own opinion based on my own past experience

Happy new year to one and all

[morcheen]

ba humbug

why be so sneaky about it i wonder? could have let people know even by e-mail,then at least they would have some time to join if they wanted to.a very odd way to ask members to pay or else. not very christmas spirited. scrooge springs to mind

[plentysideways]

why be so sneaky about it i wonder? could have let people know even by e-mail,then at least they would have some time to join if they wanted to.a very odd way to ask members to pay or else. not very christmas spirited. scrooge springs to mind

It's my ball and i'm taking it home springs to my mind

[Smudger]

Ho hum, here we go, lets have a pop at the supremely 'cliquey' AVO lot!

Any club is as good as its membership, cliques appear in EVERY club, it's natural I'm afraid. Personally, I don't think the AVO club is any worse than other clubs I've been involved with. I guess there are members who have known other members for 25 years or more and if that makes them a tad on the cliquey side then let's go and shoot the lot of them for being so friendly with each other eh? Damn cheek!

Martin, pull your neck in mate, you're talking rubbish man! I expected the "I was just about to join but now I must reconsider" and I have to tell you that it's a load of bollocks! If you want to moan, join the club, go to the next AGM and have your say... As a member you are totally entitled to that - as a non member I'm afraid you have no say in the running of the club!

The truth is, the club is not forum based and unfortunately we have to keep our paying members happy - we have had people moaning about non-members using a site that the members pay for and as a committee, it was difficult to argue with that point!

Over 95% of the posts on the board were by members who were paying for the other 5% to use it for free. Apologies to the non-members who make up that 5% but as a club we have run things slightly different to the typical web based forums.

If you think that is reason for you not joining the club and not taking your car to National Day then I really can't understand you mate... But I will respect your choice!

Someone has to make decisions, sometimes they are popular and sometimes not. It's a difficult job - but someone's got to do it!

Oh Dave... Why show people all the parts they can't buy? Most people have the nouse to know that almost everything is available if you search for it and I'm sure that some people (even the ones on here!) can always get their mate who has stumped up their AVO membership fee to get the parts they need... It ain't rocket science is it?


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

[Rallyman72]

I was a member of the avo some years ago and to be brutally honest thought that for me it was a waste of money. Yes i did recieve the occaisional copy of HAVOC but that was it. It also appeared to me (I can only speak about my own experience) that the club was very "cliquey" and if you were not in the clique then tough. Possibly it was partly me being shy as it does take two to tango. so as i didn't feel i got anything worthwhile in return i didn't renew my membership.
However, of late i have been using their forum, as stated in my previous post in this thread, and had began to feel that attitudes had changed. There does seem to be a group of people who were willing to offer help encouragement and advice to anybody who needed it, irrespective of whether they had avo membership or not. An appreciation of anything avo seemed to be all that was needed and I think this is the best way to encourage people to come forward and contribute to any community. In fact i had decided last night (after the prompt help i recieved off other forum (dont know if they were avo members or not) members) that possibly the avo owners club was not as inward looking as i used to think and cared more about peoples enthusiasm for the cars than whether or not they had membership of the club. Today i am wondering whether the smirnoff had clouded my thinking.

When all is said and done i totally respect the fact that the forum is owned by and run by and paid for by the AVO owners club, and is theirs to do with as they wish. If club dont want their forum to be accessible by anybody who is not a paid up member then i fully respect that decision.

None of what i have stated above is aimed at any one person, it is purely my own opinion based on my own past experience

Happy new year to one and all

I've been a member for some time (11 years actually) - at first I found it exactly the same as you - very clique and I spent several National Days just wandering around on my own with no one taking time out to talk. Again an element of natural shyness (who moi?) perhaps led to this along with my preference for the cars competition history as opposed to being a bufty. Nowadays it seems very different to me and I find them, on the whole, a friendly lot with just one or two who are 'stuck up'. Funnily enough this seems to be more prevalent amongst the bufties. Please do not get me wrong because I really admire the dedication of the guys who build these better than new cars but it is not, for me, what an AVO car is about. Mine will die one day - but it will be in its natural habitat rattling through the trees of a Forestry Commission plantation.

I am a regular forum user and have always (despite taking some flak from the forum admins) tried to help anyone posting on the club site given that I have been around Mk1 Escorts since 1972 and have built a couple from bare shells. Having said that I also understand your comment about the club, and their membership fees, paying for the website.

Each to their own perhaps is my view and we will let time see what impact this really has. Oh and Steve has summed it up quite nicely in his posting as well.

Happy New Year to all

Richard

[lee bishop]

well, there is some right clever fu**ers here too, so im sure as tech info goes, this is prolly the place to be anyhoo. i have no doubt a lot of active avo members come here too. as for any other info or bits for sale im sure too that the circles around this site would come up trumps. best site ever this one

[daytona_2000]

hi smudger
it was just the way it was done.
i tried to help poeple on the site members and none members a like .
and yes not denying sometimes with my own interest at heart, being i sell a lot of mk1 parts.
but it is a bolt out of the blue , surely you cant deny that you think this will **** a few poeple off.
who where the members that where moaning, what with free advice coming onto the site from none members.
over the past few months alone i have helped and offered advice to more members on the site than you can shake a stick at .
its a shame , thats all i am saying.

[plentysideways]

When all is said and done i totally respect the fact that the forum is owned by and run by and paid for by the AVO owners club, and is theirs to do with as they wish. If club dont want their forum to be accessible by anybody who is not a paid up member then i fully respect that decision.

with what i had previously written kept in mind, i do agree with daytona-2000. surely notice of what was about to happen would have avoided this scenario and would have given people the choice of joining because they wanted to rather than they felt coerced into it if they wanted to continue contributing to the forum.

i also agree with smudger when he states that cliques happen in every club. that could be one of the very reasons why this particular bulletin board is hugely successful. as lee bishop said, best site ever this one.thanks dave

[RS2000CUSTOM]

Well any AVO members or non-members are FREE to register and play here !

More the merrier I say

www.rallyesportescorts.co.uk

We all have an interest in Old Skool Fords

Mainly Escorts but of course we can be impartial to Capri's Cortina's Trannies etc etc etc

[plentysideways]

i also agree with smudger when he states that cliques happen in every club. that could be one of the very reasons why this particular bulletin board is hugely successful. as lee bishop said, best site ever this one.thanks dave

what i mean is that this isnt a fee paying club with all its associated politics, cliques and private agendas and thats why it's so successful

[Smudger]

what i mean is that this isnt a fee paying club with all its associated politics, cliques and private agendas and thats why it's so successful

You won't get any argument from me there!

See my posts on the thread when you debating becoming a club with all its associated politics!

http://bbs.rallyesportescorts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16142

[morcheen]

who's in charge here?

a smaller club/forum will just be getting smaller.not good for any ford lover i think.why such an under hand way of going about it? what's the big secret? a very hamfisted way of getting people to be members so this was the best way to do this,decided at an avo meeting? i would not like to know what other ideas they had if that was voted the best.little hitlers

[taffr]

why not have a members only section like the RSOC do, and have the remainder of the site accesable to people who may be thinking of joining the club, surely this would attract more members by giving them a carrot, if they like what they see they can stump up the membership fee and access it all, works well with the RSOC , that way you keep everyone happy

[richy c]

i was a member last year, but havent re joined,no point.ive managed for nearly 20 years before that. this site is a lot better, well done.