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RickDavis · 07-25-2011, 08:31 AM

I just received the August Blue Beret in the mail.

I think they skip July due to the international and could not recall getting an e mail notice about the august issue.

Sure enough it is not online. I thought we were paying big bucks to an advertising agency to do this?

On the brighter side there are some critical letters permitted in the letters to the editor but of course no answers of substance

dwightdi · 07-25-2011, 10:51 AM

Ask Fred. He is in charge of getting it done.

Ed Emerick · 07-25-2011, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickDavis

I just received the August Blue Beret in the mail.

I think they skip July due to the international and could not recall getting an e mail notice about the august issue.

Sure enough it is not online. I thought we were paying big bucks to an advertising agency to do this?

On the brighter side there are some critical letters permitted in the letters to the editor but of course no answers of substance

Hey at least you got one, I'm really wondering why I am paying my $20 VAC dues right now.............

Buttercup · 07-26-2011, 08:14 AM

Ed,

Sorry to hear you are disappointed at the quality of service you are getting from the VAC. Although the topic is actually about the WBCCI, not the VAC at all, I am willing to help you out. I can have an immediate refund of your $20 issued to you and we'll call it good.
A lot of people are working hard to provide additional services to the members of the VAC. You are a past president, so you already know how hard it is. Well, with less of a membership base to draw stories from, etc... you get the picture. So, sorry we do not measure up. I'll get your refund to you ASAP. PM me your PayPal and I'll get it to you straight away or I can send you the cash, your choice.

Ed Emerick · 07-26-2011, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buttercup

Ed,

Sorry to hear you are disappointed at the quality of service you are getting from the VAC. I can have an immediate refund of your $20 issued to you and we'll call it good.
So, sorry we do not measure up.

Tim, thanks for the very kind offer but no need, I will ride it out for now. Not paying dues either here or in the WBCCI removes my ability to point out needs for change. I'll stay on the inside. Remember it is the communicaiton process that let members know what is going on, and help draw people into the club. There is not much of that going on right now.

Hope you can figure this out, its been a long time in the works.

Frank's Trailer Works · 07-26-2011, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Emerick

Not paying dues either here or in the WBCCI removes my ability to point out needs for change. I'll stay on the inside.
Hope you can figure this out, its been a long time in the works.

Maybe you should had said "we". Being in a club is a group effort. It takes everyone working together. Tim is just one guy and he is looking at a serious hill to climb. He could use a lot more support than he gets.

You can blast me now. I am standing tall and willing to take it.

Nuvite-F · 07-26-2011, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 62overlander

Maybe you should had said "we". Being in a club is a group effort. It takes everyone working together. Tim is just one guy and he is looking at a serious hill to climb. He could use a lot more support than he gets.

You can blast me now. I am standing tall and willing to take it.

Frank, that's quite an amazing statement, coming from you, who are no longer a member of either WBCCI or VAC, and were very vocal about leaving.

Perhaps you are not aware that Ed is a past president of VAC, has hosted who knows how many Region 7 VAC rallies, will be helping with the next one this September, and leading a caravan the following week (the second caravan he has led this year).

The point being that Ed has done and is doing a lot for both WBCCI and VAC--don't think for a minute otherwise.
.

Frank's Trailer Works · 07-26-2011, 07:55 PM

... as said before, if the VAC was it's own club, I would be a member. I joined the WB to be in the VAC not the other way around.
I am a strong believer in "WE" not "me." and that is my point Nuvi. Twist it any way you care to. I also might add, I admire your new found determination. It will come in handy.

Nuvite-F · 07-26-2011, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 62overlander

I also might add, I admire your new found determination. It will come in handy.

To what "new found determination" do you refer? I'm just about out of determination. I plan to pretty much freewheel when I have completed my unit officer tour of duty (soon).
.

Buttercup · 07-27-2011, 12:02 AM

Ed,

Again, this is not a thread about the VAC – it is about the WBCCI's Blue Beret Magazine. And really, I am serious. I am willing, and in fact nearly compelled, to refund your dues. I would hate to have you around solely so that you could poke the current leadership just so you can push us in a direction you want. That is not how it works anymore. Personally, I would rather lose you as a member, than to have you stay on as a throne in the side of the VAC just because you can point to all of us who are carrying the torch that we are doing it all wrong. I don't need that kind of help – I really don’t!

I know you were a past president of the VAC and all. But times have changed since you were at the helm. We have to scrape to get people to write articles for the newsletter. Heck – we had to take the tough decision to replace the “technical adviser” because as of yet, we have received no submissions for the newsletter to date. You aren't getting enough VA's? Help a brother out and start writing! Personally, I am tired of ghost writing half the articles for the newsletter – I am running out of ideas.

We are dealing with a changing demographic and loss of membership primarily due to losses within the WBCCI. But to compensate for the losses, WE ( the collective of people who are now dedicating our free time toward the VAC) are finding new ways to reach the VAC membership. And that includes a new monthly newsletter to all members – email and snail mail, of the activities going on in the club. In fact, you should have received a copy in the last few days. That is just one step being taken by the people who are volunteers working to keep the spirit of the VAC alive.

At the International Rally in Du Quoin, I saw Past Presidents who were offering constructive comments about the direction the VAC is taking. We all listened to them with respect because the comments they offered were done with respect.

So, just to be clear on this... I volunteered to be an officer like you did. It meant a commitment of several years of my life, as have the others who are currently giving of themselves for the VAC. And I for one feel that the effort I and my wife are putting fourth to put together the Vintage Advantage and the VAC website (as well as now the new web site for the entire WBCCI) is just not going to be properly serviced by the passive aggressive vitriol that comments like the earlier comments offered are spreading towards the VAC. If you have a true, continuing contribution to give – I am ready to accept it. But if all you have is a toxic dart to throw because you are not happy with the service we are contributing then yes, I will indeed issue you a refund – promptly! Past president or no – a new team of folks are running the show and doing their level best to service the members. If our effort for you is not good enough then I will be sorry to see you go. But go you will. I want to see members stepping up, not kicking teeth. I am sure at this point we have a full understanding and respect of the situation we each are in and also trust that we have a mutual respect and support of each other. Yes? If so, lets push forth to keep the VAC thriving.

Tim

Ed Emerick · 07-27-2011, 06:11 AM

I apologize to the list as I have hijacked this tread and I am asking the Moderators to remove the posts that follow the first post made.

I will move my comments to our "Home" forum for further discussion later this afternoon.

Again sorry for the hijacking of this thread.

silverleeper · 07-27-2011, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Emerick

I apologize to the list as I have hijacked this tread and I am asking the Moderators to remove the posts that follow the first post made.

I will move my comments to our "Home" forum for further discussion later this afternoon.

Again sorry for the hijacking of this thread.

There is no need to remove any posts. It is not the first time a thread has gone "off topic".

It might be a good time to start a VAC thread if this discussion continues.

Back to the topic then...Blue Beret Online

jimmickle · 07-27-2011, 09:39 AM

Still not online!

RickDavis · 07-27-2011, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmickle

Still not online!

As I recall we only had $5k in the budget the first year and then $15k for marketing after that. Maybe it all got spent on handout cards??

dwightdi · 07-27-2011, 10:44 AM

Ask the new president what he has authorized the Marketing Committee (Fred) to spend on what. To my knowledge, Fred signed a contract with Constant Contact, Issui (helps with publishing and hosting Blue Beret on line), bought the handout cards, and advertising service from his son. Facebook and Twitter are no cost.

Buttercup · 07-27-2011, 11:20 AM

So, I am looking into the whole Marketing Committee - BB thing and what I learn is that the club is paying something like $400+ per issue to have the BB put online. To me that is a waste of money. Apparently, that money buys a new page layout on the BlueBeretOnline site to say that the issue is there and to put in links on all of the advertizes pages. These links are likely tracking links so we can report back to the advertisers how many click throughs they get.

I am thinking that this is a waste of the club's money. I believe a better and more cost effective plan would be to use the new club web site to display the BB and for a team of individuals – probably the Electronic Communications Committee – to put the links in the BB. The cost savings would be whatever we are paying Richardson Advertizing to do that for us now - $4400 per year. We shut down the BlueBeretOnline site because it cannot be bringing in more members than it is costing.

My thought is that generally speaking, the club should never have to pay for a service that one of the members can do for free. Putting links in a PDF is one of those things. We can do that. My question is, what other things are we paying for that the membership could be doing for free.

RickDavis · 07-27-2011, 11:32 AM

For a while prior to the BlueBeretonline site coming into existence the BB was available on the club website. I assume it was just a case of some one scanning it into a PDF and making it available.
I see no need for a fancy flip pages site. In fact when it first came on there was no way to download the mag and save it. That was corrected in a couple months after I and I am sure many others complained.
This is one more example where keep it simple is better and far less costly.
I do think it needs to be online for the members in a basic PDF as I do download it and save it each month.
I personally believe that if we can fix the club problems there is little need for a marketing committee as we would be the best promoters available.
The problem is retaining members and that must be solved from within

Buttercup · 07-27-2011, 12:39 PM

I just looked and it appears that BlueBeretOnline is down - it goes to a 404. The root site redirects to http://blueberetonline.com/Blue_Bere...blueberet.html - and that doesn't work. They must be working on it now.

The site uses Issuu to display the newsletter and for many, that is a nice interface for reading the newsletter. I like it.

The BB is available for download as well (when the site is up).

The HQ staff actually produce the BB from the information submitted. They insert some of the links in the PDF. Richardson takes it from there, adds more links to the advertizers and uploads it to Issuu - the August Issue is there now actually. Issuu is free - it costs nothing. So, again, we could be using that service and eliminate the BlueBeretOnline site and someone to put in links. We start doing that ourselves and save the club money. That money could be used to actually recruit people or create some king of collateral - anything! But as it stands now, this is a waste.

Tom Nugler · 07-27-2011, 01:10 PM

I would agree with Rick that a simple PDF would work out the best for the BB on-line.
The flip pages were distracting and made it difficult to nail down any specific section or story you were looking for.

We still get the hard copy to keep in the trailers magazine rack. However, it's primary consumer is my wife's parrot who thinks its his favorite on the road chew toy.

Tom