Pulse of your club…

[lisa_spyder]

I think if the non-paying members thought in terms of not having access to this BBS they would be quick to pony up the more than fair fee.

Yes Bob...the members of this board have it good! See what we have done downunder with ours - no TYP901 membership, no posting rights on our board! Sound harsh? Maybe it is...but it's our members' funds that pay for the board...everyone else can look as much as they like, but if they have a need to use the board, they must join the Australian TYP901 Register first. And yes, our membership grew too when we announced the new board and the rules (although not all members have signed on to the BBS yet).

This can't be done here...this board has evolved and grown beyond implementation of such a rule. I still think there are ways though to ensure that users contribute $$ so that the minority isn't supporting the majority so much.

Love the BBS - but own a 72 T. I know, I know, I can still join. But I suspect I'm not alone in feeling a little funny about joining an early "S" club and not owning the central pice of hardware contained in the name of the club. And not only do I envy the S cars, I love your logo too. Saw one on a silver 72 S Targa at the Pomona show last Sunday - very cool!

Nope, doesn't exactly work for me either....no-one can force you to join and neither should they. However, nothing is stopping you from joining except your own hesitation...hell I don't even own an early car anymore, yet I am a paid up and proud member of Early S and I am also the Secretary of the Australian TYP901 Register, a club we set up for owners and enthusiasts of early 911s and 912s....the "T" badge on your car doesn't diminish you or your love for the car...and it's all about the cars and keeping the faith and ensuring these cars gloriously all outlive us .

Cheers,

[daepp]

I understand all of your collective points about joining - and I will make a donation. However, the original point was how to get more to join. If you want greater membership, perhaps broadening the breadth of early model cars would meet your goal.

[mike walker]

I understand all of your collective points about joining - and I will make a donation. However, the original point was how to get more to join. If you want greater membership, perhaps broadening the breadth of early model cars would meet your goal.

I joined with a T. You can't beat the info from this board. Its worth every penny.

[Zedone]

Ive only owned my T for 2 months and ddnt hesitate to support this fine resource for all early 911 owners. I plan on proudly showing that maaahvelus grille badge out back too, S or not.
What's the diff? They are all fine examples of the early breed.
Glad you are willing to accept all here.

[gymmoe]

Chuck, I thought about this along time,and I remember references to the 356 registry about membership numbers on an earlier thread. Do you think that they would have as many paid members if it was the S90 registry or the Carrera2 registry even if they said all 356 owners could join? I'm a proud owner of a 1972S and I've been a member with this registry for a long time(membership#161),and I love the logo and grill badge you designed(it's mounted on the engine grill of my car ) but I do understand why some owners of non S cars might be hesitant to join because of our name. When you look at how anal(smile) we are about our cars(wrong seats,not original,numbers don't match,etc.), logically some T owners might think it's not really okay to join an S registry. Its easy to have a early 911S and say we include all early cars in our S registry, lets face our name EARLY 911 S REGISTRY does sound very exclusive. I do think that when Vern and Besti started this they were trying to find all the early S cars and owners out there. Look at the E REGISTRY,how many Ts and Ss are registered there,few if any,why because it sounds very exclusive, same with the 912 REGISTRY. Now there may even be another site with "so" or "self" called experts,some sort of inner circle of RS guys . I think that our name(I know we have work hard for it) should be changed to EARLY 911 REGISTRY, its just deleting one letter, then we would trully be inclusive much like the 356 registry and the club would have more money(quarterly ESSES could be full color) because most would want to now buy the new grill badge that you'll design and the old one would become collectable. If we change the name there would be no reason for a person with a non S car to join. Another added benifit would be that owners of 74-77 cars would most likely join also along with 78-83 owners because alot of people call these cars early now also, and our cars are considered vintage. Yes this is just my 2 cents,well maybe a nickel,from an early 911S owner. JIM

[scooter]

Hey let's just put a "Apostrophe" between the 911 and the S.

Voila.......the Early 911'S Registry!

Works for me.

Probably has already been thought about.

Anyway that's how all the other then S guys should look at it even without the (') Early 911s Registy.

Okay now everyone can join.

I did last year.
Scooter
71E

[daepp]

Yeah - What Jim said...

Seriously, I'm not that eloquent, but I think he hit the nail on the ehad when he referred to how anal we are about our cars. For example, I waited to buy for ten years until I found an all oroginal (paint, seat, carpet, matching #'s) Porsche I could afford. Joining an "S" club just seems like I'm trying to be a poesur.

But a club for early 911's - what would be so wrong about that? Isn't that the car we are all so enamored over anyways?

[kenikh]

This is the same argument I have heard for years (I was a lurker long before joining). I actually chose to wait for an Ess because of the people on this board. I haven't felt any compulsion in the past regarding the club needing to change names, but I've flipped: it is about time to bring the club up to speed.

T and E cars were arguably not that special in the past, thus the focus on the intrinsically more desirable S. There were a lot more of all of these cars then than there are now. That day is gone and now ALL long hoods are special, rare and valuable. Just look at the $35K T cars that have recently sold. The club served the purpose of perpetuating the longhood love in conjunction with providing Ess drivers a place to congregate. It still serves that purpose today, but to a much broader audience than it ever has.

The readership of this club's forum proves this is no longer an Esses only club (it hasn’t been for a very long time, other than in name). WHY do we still call it that, then, when people consistently say they aren't joining because they feel marginalized? Paypal has helped membership numbers, so why not take the second most pervasive piece of feedback regarding why people aren’t joining? I think it's time that the T, E and S Registries come together.

We all live in the same house, why not make it official and marry them all together? There's strength in numbers, there’s $$$ in numbers and there’s more opportunity in numbers. I think it's time that the heads of the three great powers (T, E and S registries) to come together and figure out LONGHOOD strategy moving forward, whether that be a unified club or not. United we stand, divided we...keep having conversations like this one.

Until next time…

(Edit) 911's Registry is possessive, meaning the Registry belongs to a singular 911, which is syntactically weird. Technically it should be 911s Registry, which means "of all 911 cars". Wait, isn't that already the name of the club?

[72targa]

So who's going to talk to these guys (or girls) and tell them to give up their registries?

http://www.911t.org/
http://www.911e.org/
http://home.comcast.net/~68911/home
http://www.wheelerfolk.org/stuff/default.htm

My vote is to leave well enough alone and continue on with open arms to our T and E (and L and "no letter" and...) brethren.

[Porsche]

I would agree that broadening the scope to the early 911's Registry would make the club less exclusive to 911S's. I've also suggested to the Australian TYP901 register that maybe they can go international as an alternative.