Hens get everywhere

Chicane having a dust bath. All our chickens have Triumph names. Must try to get pictures of Toledo, Bonniville, Gloria and Dolly as in Dolimite.

Garage Doors Fitted

Now for the electrics.

Big TSSC tent

If we want a big tent covering all Triumphs should we be more open about other clubs and their events. I know the Racing is already a joint enterprise.

How about listing all the Nationals held by the other clubs. In my time I have enjoyed the TR do at Malvern and a couple of Dolomite SODIT national events.

back from the wood yard

My car gets pressed into action. The chaps at the wood yard were either amazed or horrified to see me putting the timber in through the sun roof to bring it home.

eBay treasure - from George

Just back from trip down to pick up some stuff from George. http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZweedyx Keep an eye out for some more bargains he has lots of stuff from 3 bonds (mk2 vitesse). All the money from his selling goes to the Parkinsons Disease Society.

Meeting him took my mind off this current TSSC club politics. Enjoy your Triumph today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Karl sets up business

Karl the workshop chap from Canleyclassics has set in business. http://www.kdtriumph.com/
With all his real hands on experience he should be able to offer an excellent service.

I have had quite a bit of work done on my Vitesse over the years by him at Canley Classics and can recommend his handiwork.

Emails exchanged

Emails exchanged

to Jason

Have got home from a day in office and settled in for the evening. Now I
find an email from David Aspinal. Think I will leave until tomorrow to call
him.
Having read his message on TSSC message board I think I had better sleep on
it. He does not seem to have answered either of the questions. Why
restrict advertisements, why the club has such an odd arrangement to publish
the magazine.
To say that your statements were inaccurate but not to say how or why leaves
the matter unresolved and the members such as me in the dark.
All the best

to Steve, I too am sleeping on it - I have drafted a response to David. He's
been economical with the truth, has not apologised nor, as you say, actually
answered the issues. I don't think this can be put to bed until he does.
The way I see it -
I asked a question about a statement in some minutes.
David tells me that statement was printed wrongly.
Unfortunately that's been interpreted rather loosely by saying my post was
inaccurate.
The statement hasn't been publicly corrected nor has the question been
publicly answered.
I think we have to keep pressing - his idea of private answers to public
questions is crazy - he's as much admitted that he'll answer the question
privately to individual members but not openly on the forum, how daft is
that, "I'll talk to 10,000 members individually but not as one"

Thanks for your support, keep flying the flag!
Jason

No problem

Must have been a temporary fault as I can still view and post. Goody.

tssc missing post

I don't mind at all but David Aspinal seems to have taken a exception to it
- both to you posting it and what I said! I had another call from him this
morning another hour plus, I must have spent over 4 hours on the phone to
him in total over the course of this episode.
He seems to flit between understanding and dogmatic in an instant - he still
hangs onto the idea that by censoring things he'll stop people talking. He's
a small businessman used to doing things his way and I honestly think he
needs to just take the blinkers off and look at things with fresh eyes. The
membership has an interest in debate, has a right to talk and if anyone
takes that away they will be upset!
He was a little exasperated with me this morning, because I won't just shut
up - as I pointed out it's my Blog and I'll say what I like I'll keep it
light hearted and legal but other than that it's whatever I fancy putting up
there :-)
The trouble is in trying to stop the thread he's created a sh*t storm out of
all proportion to the original question - it now becomes a principle. He
still has to answer all the questions and issues this episode raises. What
are the procedures for taking a post down, or suspending a member or
answering questions about the workings of the Club etc?
Interestingly I have to write an Area News tonight following our area
meeting Tuesday when all this kicked off - I have to mention it as it was
the hot topic of conversation, I wonder if I'll be censored in print too?
I'll only know when the next Courier drops through the door!
Jason
Want to see what I've been up to? Check out Jason's Blog -
http://chinn.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Weblin [mailto:steve.weblin@virgin.net]
Sent: 07 April 2006 09:07
To: chinn@ntlworld.com
Subject: Vitessesteve: freedom of information
Stephen Weblin has sent you a link to a weblog:
Jason - so the story continues. Hope you do not mind me quoting your latest
blog entry on my blog and the TSSC message board.
or at work weblins@aforbes.co.uk
Blog: Vitessesteve
Post: freedom of information
Link: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.com/2006/04/freedom-of-information.html
--
Powered by Blogger
http://www.blogger.com/

lock out or site gone down?

I have just tried to view the TSSC site to read the much anticipated message from David, but can not see the site.

Is there a problem?

freedom of information

Poor Jason seems it is still not sorted. I quote from his blog http://chinn.blogspot.com/

TSSC access - why I'm not quite ready to return
I thought my access was "sorted" today but it needs some manual intervention at HQ to restore everything and that will have to wait for the staff to come in tomorrow. I do hope my profile, photos and info remains intact.I've had another chat with David tonight, he called to say that he will be putting up a statement on the message board and I will be restored. He did say he'd run it by me first, I'm working at home tomorrow so I should be able to give it some attention.I've said that taking down posts without explanation and without addressing the issues raised doesn't answer anything and leads to the kind of anger and frustration that I experienced.The questions that have been raised remain mainly unanswered so I hope David's statement addresses them - saying "this is not the place to raise it" doesn't really work and as I consider the TSSC board IS the place to raise issues I will continue to do so. If people aren't allowed to air their views there, then they'll do it in public forums - you can't solve a problem by denial. I do respect the views of the CoM but I would like the same respect for mine. If the CoM consider the post inappropriate then they can remove it and deal with the issue personally, I don't necessarily object to that but they must talk to the poster and sort it out, not stonewall people.My Blog will always have the unadulterated truth in it and the comments people post are not vetted although I do have the option of deleting anything offensive.I believe in the freedom of information and consultation with members - I don't believe being on the CoM gives you the right to make decisions with complete immunity from question. Members should never hesitate in questioning. I don't believe in a Utopian society where everyone is consulted on everything but as far as practically possible people should have the right to be heard. Decisions need to be made but justified and public to the members.My discussions with David have been amicable and forthright and I am grateful to him for that. He probably won't thank me for pointing this out but if anyone has an issue they can write/email him with it and he has promised to respond. If you don't get a satisfactory response to your post, send it to him and ask. He is quick to point out that although he's the General Secretary he doesn't get paid.
# posted by Jason : 8:22 PM 0 comments

Lets hope that he and the TSSC can come to an amicable aggreement.

TSSC Secret police

Just seen this.

Missing Post Posted By : Trudi Prettyjohns, 05-Apr-2006, 1:21pm

The reason for the removal of the thread titled "Web and printed advertising" was due to inaccurate statements and in part, a breach of confidentiality. Some valid questions were asked but unfortunately they became caught up in the deletion. Questions and issues of this nature should be directed to Council Officials so that factual answers can be given and not aired on the messageboarad. The messageboard is not the medium to use when seeking information of this nature. Contact details: David Aspinall, General Secretary 01986 895633 (between 7pm - 9pm), TSSC HQ 01858 434424, Julie Sewell, Public Relations Officer 01986 894805 (between 9am - 9pm)[ post a followup ]
1:29 PM

Is that an answer?

TSSC - Missing Post

Missing Post Posted By : Trudi Prettyjohns, 05-Apr-2006, 1:21pmThe reason for the removal of the thread titled "Web and printed advertising" was due to inaccurate statements and in part, a breach of confidentiality. Some valid questions were asked but unfortunately they became caught up in the deletion. Questions and issues of this nature should be directed to Council Officials so that factual answers can be given and not aired on the messageboarad. The messageboard is not the medium to use when seeking information of this nature. Contact details: David Aspinall, General Secretary 01986 895633 (between 7pm - 9pm), TSSC HQ 01858 434424, Julie Sewell, Public Relations Officer 01986 894805 (between 9am - 9pm)

what is going on?

A fellow TSSC member Jason Chinn http://chinn.blogspot.com/ has recently tried to add a post to the TSSC clubchat MessageBoard -

No matter, here it is again

I said -

I've just read the Notes of the Council of membership meeting that dropped through my letterbox last week. Why have the COM decided that only traders who advertise in the Courier would be allowed to advertise on the Club website? This seems like a quantum leap backwards. Who are the COM aiming at with this weird ruling and why?

Stephen Weblin said -

This should be a club for the benefit of the members. Many people live in cyberland now - why are we as a club looking to restrict relevant advertisers from our website?

Andy Cook said -

I agree, Surely if a trader want's to advertise on the website only but is still prepared to pay for it then this is still a source of revenue for the club, by turning him away we are turning down revenue that we otherwise wouldn't receive at all. I'd have thought that the margin on web based advertising was really good as it must cost a lot less to add anadvert into the website than to arrange for printing in the Courier.

Another couple of car clubs that I belong to are totally internet beased are mainly funded purely through web advertising, in fact the membership is free unless you want to advertise stuff for sale or make a dontaion. Therefore it appears to me that going totally web based obviously works as a business model for a car club.

As I understand it most of our TSSC annual membership fee goe's on Courier printing and distribution costs so maybe the club need to consider whether sending out the Courier as a monthly magazine to all members is viable in the longer term. It may be more efficient to have an opting out option with a discount on memnership for those who opt out and then just have the Courier available on line to members who want to download it or read it on line. Just a thought..........

Ian Mulford said -

I have always thought that a magazine a month is a bit excessive especially as there's often pleas for more contributions to fill the pages. Most clubs I know of have quaterly magazines. Surely that would save a lot of money.

Tim Scrivens said -

I agree with most of the points on this thread, the direction that the CoM is/was heading was a main reason why I stepped down from being a Director.

I strongly believe that the TSSC should be a car club first and a business second, unfortunately at present the situation is reversed. Whilst it costs money to run the TSSC, I'm not convinced that revenue generating should be no.1 prority.

A degree of respect for some members of CoM mean that I cannot say too much about the ins and outs of decisions made at council level.

Claire Hill said -

I personally look forward to receiving the mag every month. Also for members who can't make it to meetings etc it is a way of keeping them in touch with what their area is doing. Would anybody advertise in the private ads if they knew it would take three months to get to fellow members? Surely this would just push even more onto ebay.

Mark Astley said -

I agree completely with Claires comments, however if it was a cost saving that would be required then why not reduce the glossy Courier down to bi-monthly or quarterly and pack it with good quality articles and for the intervening months print a low tech area news report compilation along with the small ads and camping/event ads and booking forms like we used to get a few years ago. Trade advertisers could still pay as before but maybe reduced rate for simple black/white ads.

I would miss my Courier every month though.

Tim Scrivens said -

Mark, again, a possible solution but not a viable one.

The Courier is created in an odd manner, it is created 'in-house' by an externally controlled and owned company, and cutting the number of issues of The Courier would only mean that the TSSC would have to find other things to fill the Courier production time with - so, as you can see, there will be a saving on print and mailing costs but still a couple of people to pay all year. I believe that there has been an agreement to produce the Courier in it's current form upto the next 5 years, so it's a no go, again as the money's already been spent.

I said -

"created in an odd manner" I think that describes the working of the whole club very well. "created 'in-house' by an externally controlled and owned company" isn't that a contradiction? The whole point of outsourcing something is to diverst yourself of the fixed costs associated with producing that something :-)
It would be really interesting to see the real accounts of the club, the ones published to keep the members happy don't really make a lot of sense and are generalised beyond being useful. I'm not an accountant nor do I run a business but just looking at things like cleaning costs I have to wonder, why is it so expensive?

.....

I think that covers it all, we can carry on now.







DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL - To post a followup, click the link below -

http://www.tssc.org.uk/messageboard.asp?board=clubchat§ion=general&topic=20060404145704281990372&post=20060404145704281990372

=======================================================================


And it has been removed again.

Very odd.

Big brother is watching

Big brother is watching or TSSC Message board deleted thread. It makes you think when a webmaster jumps in so quickly and deletes an entire thread. What are they trying to hide?

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 08:14:57 +0100
From: "Tim Scrivens"
Subject: Web and printed advertising



=======================================================================

Tim Scrivens - http://www.tssc.org.uk/profile.asp?profile=92/38984A

Has added a post to the clubchat MessageBoard -

Mark, again, a possible solution but not a viable one.

The Courier is created in an odd manner, it is created 'in-house' by an externally controlled and owned company, and cutting the number of issues of The Courier would only mean that the TSSC would have to find other things to fill the Courier production time with - so, as you can see, there will be a saving on print and mailing costs but still a couple of people to pay all year. I believe that there has been an agreement to produce the Courier in it's current form upto the next 5 years, so it's a no go, again as the money's already been spent.

Tim

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL - To post a followup, click the link below -

http://www.tssc.org.uk/messageboard.asp?board=clubchat§ion=general&topic=20060403110309105024371&post=20060404081454281968765
Message: 10
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 09:33:06 +0100
From: "Jason Chinn"
Subject: Web and printed advertising



=======================================================================

Jason Chinn - http://www.tssc.org.uk/profile.asp?profile=84/09631

Has added a post to the clubchat MessageBoard -

"created in an odd manner" I think that describes the working of the whole club very well. "created 'in-house' by an externally controlled and owned company" isn't that a contradiction? The whole point of outsourcing something is to diverst yourself of the fixed costs associated with producing that something :-)
It would be really interesting to see the real accounts of the club, the ones published to keep the members happy don't really make a lot of sense and are generalised beyond being useful. I'm not an accountant nor do I run a business but just looking at things like cleaning costs I have to wonder, why is it so expensive?

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL - To post a followup, click the link below -

http://www.tssc.org.uk/messageboard.asp?board=clubchat§ion=general&topic=20060403110309105024371&post=20060404093304281971536