sounds awesome! way to go!!

 

Laurie, I am happy that our opinions hit home for the board members. Hopefully the positive trend will continue and the MCA will grow into a national club that all of us can be proud to be associated with. I am also pleased that you are taking the responsibility to help recruit Western Clubs in hosting MCA events out here.

 

Just got back from the board meeting in Atlanta. Didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm a little braindead, but I'll try to summarize what happened. To start off, Bill Johnson, MCA President, asked me to make 32 copies of the entire post from the MCA survey I did a month ago to distribute to the board.

To make it as plain as possible--VMF rocked MCA's boat!

After about 10 of us went out to dinner Friday night, we had a bull session in the hotel, both old and new members, all from outside Georgia. I began handing out the printouts at that time and people were amazed and delighted to see what you guys said. That post is going to have long- and wide-reaching effects. I heard nothing but extremely positive comments regarding it because you guys put into print what a lot of people had been thinking.

At the bull session we came to a number of conclusions about the best way to approach the board meeting. The main points were that MCA needed to plan, improve MT, enhance the website, and spread out into the rest of the country. Around midnight we finished, yet some of the people told me they went back to their rooms at that point and really read the replies to that survey.

Next day we had the orientation and board meetings. To summarize quickly (I know this will be discussed more here) MCA is going to:

1. Greatly expand the capabilities of the website to make it interactive, allow online applications and purchasing, put the judging rules and other info online, etc. They will be spending $6-8,000 to improve the website. A company called ICG Link had the winning bid. If you have any suggestions for the website, please let me know and I'll pass them on.

2. MT will be improved by cutting out some of the current garbage and putting in more technical articles. They are asking for tech articles, car articles, etc. This is your chance to get your name in print--contribute an article or two. We want to build up a file of articles so there will be plenty to use.

3. MCA wants western National Shows. I have been assigned as liasion to the western clubs, so I'll be contacting your clubs about hosting a show. I can provide info as needed.

Finally, there is a real, and new, sense of cooperation visible among the board. No, we are not all touchy feely happy, there are still obvious problems, but they are being faced. The board knows what the members want, they know what needs to be done, and they are finally taking a proactive approach to resolve the issues.

If this keeps up, I may even convince Bob to join MCA. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

More to come.

 

WHAT?!?! They didn't hire Red 5 to do their webwork? Awww....

I didn't even have a chance to bid it! ;-)

-bob

 

Very nice to hear, will certainly look forward to some positive changes.

 

Laurie,

If they are looking to do Western National Shows, I would highly suggest doing one during the Hot August Nights of August here in Reno. That would be really kewl to have at that time. There are alot of folks that come in to town around that time. Generally, I have been disappointed that there are not more mustang owners, but that could easily be rectified with a National Show at the same time. It may also save some folks some bucks so they could attend both events.

 

I didn't know this was in the works until Friday night. A number of people who know websites were unhappy with the winning proposal. I mentioned you and said that your company should be contacted, but it was too late. However, if this doesn't work out for whatever reason, I'll make sure you get a chance to put a proposal in.

 

Is there an MCA club there that could be the host? That is one requirement. MCA will not put the show on at the National level, I have to convince a a Regional MCA club to do so. However, support will be provided by MCA as they do for all Nationals.

 

That's what I was thinking /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

No regional group in the area and IMHO it would be a terrible time and place to hold such an event. Sorry just one opinion.

 

Nice to hear the comments, let us just hope it can go somewhere. What most do not realize is the amount of work,, cars and bodies it takes to do these things.

If all they want to start out is Regional Shows that should be fairly easy to do in a number of areas and has been done through the years. In some cases a fresh new face might get you past a focus on old differences and heartaches.

Email me and we'll "talk"

 

Thanks for trying Laurie...

-bob

 

Maybe a vote of optimism is called for.....evidently the MCA has been unsuccesful in getting the Reno Mustang Club under its wing....

Perhaps Mr. Speegle could direct his efforts into that area....he sounds like he has much experience and influence in the hobby...

Reno is a great travel, convention, gambling, racing, vacation destination and has the infrastructure to handle such events as you envision...they do it all the time...Hot August Nights being one small example and the Reno Air Races (my fav) being another...

I'm happy to see the response you garnered with your efforts....when your outlook and sincere optimism has permeated the width and breadth of the organization, IMO, it'll be an organization I'll have no hesitation in joining.

My best wishes to you for much continued success!

 

Laurie for President!

Good job. I'm proud to know you.

 

Yeah Jay, I feel so used now ;-)

(just kidding btw!)

-bob

 

Good work Laurie ...

Sounds great, maybe everyone will benefit in the end

 

Great Job Laurie!! How's it feel to be newly elected to the board anfd to go in at your first meeting and make such a big splash. You will be a valuable asset to the MCA. Keep up the good work!!!

 

There are several events that are held in Reno besides Hot August nights that would attract mustang owners. The Air races is certainly one but it is just as big as Hot August nights. Please don't forget there are also several towns south of Reno that may even be more appropriate. The Karson Krusers do a Run-what-ya-brung show that is very successful. This area also offers a great location with lots of things to do. I am not saying it is something that has to be, just that its a great place to do it. Does Sacramento have a local MCA club? Certainly Camachinist is correct in that to increase membership you have to enlist local clubs to join in the fun.

 

Great job Laurie!
We have few MCA members around here. With the work you've already begun, I can convince a few more to join. Maybe in a couple of years we can host an MCA meet during our annual Intermountain Mustang and All Ford Stampede. We are an MCA Regional club and last year MCA financially supported our Autocross as one of the first driving events they support.
Thanks,
J.

 

Good work, now lets us members Laurie out where we can.
I agree with others as to trying to set something in Reno its a natural.

 

Way to go Laurie, sounds like things were quite positive at the MCA metting. Keep up the good work there.

 

Does Sacramento have a local MCA club?

Yes, you'll be happy to know they do

Carson is a cool town....stone's throw from Tahoe too (one of my favorite places....usually try to stay there during the air races)

Wasn't there a dragstrip around there somewhere.?...Tonapah or somewhere out there in the desert *G*

 

I think Fallon had a dragstrip. Thats about an hour away. The next bestest place in Nevada would be down in Las Vegas at the NASCAR Speedway.

 

yeah, where the flyboys are....I remember now....it's been 10 years...

They had just opened the Vegas dragstrip in the new location the year I quit racing.....the bracket finals were there that year....

Can a married guy miss his racing?? *G*

 

for website design i would suggest hat it be nothing like ICG Link's home page. They use everything that i dispise in a poor website.

First off the playing of music, i can't stand web sites that have audio. I'm already listening to something else on my computer so it just makes noise. This is like a car with too many sub woofers.

The next thing is the over use of animated graphics. Animated graphics on a web page is like a ricer with thise big decals all over it. It does nothing to truely increase performance and is annoying to look at.

Finally the text on the page is just plain hard to read.


For $6,000-$8,000 your probably getting 2-4 weeks of work. With that i'de expect you will get a 1 minute flash video with a bunch of silly mustang graphics that wil look very cute the first time you see it and by the 5th time you go to the web page you won't be able to hit skip intro fast enough. You will also get a lot of cute graphics to navigate from page to page. I went to some of there portfolio pages and it took 30 seconds just to load what should have been a simple page!

Laurie, follow the money. This company was not selected based on competitive bidding! These jokers are somehow connected to the person who did the selection. Either that or the people doing the selecting are complete idiots.