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Charlie Cartwright
United Kingdom
64 Posts |
 Posted - 04/09/2018 : 10:15:29
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A note from your Treasurer
This year (2018) the bulletin subscription is only just covering the direct production costs and therefore makes no contribution to our general overheads.
Although we expect production costs will increase for 2019, the committee have decided to cover any shortfall from reserves brought forward and revue again at the end of next year.
The Triple M register is part of the MG Car Club but there are a number of bulletin subscribers who are not members of the MG Car Club. As treasurer I urge everyone to join the club because members subscriptions are essential to support the continuing financial viability of our club. Details of how to join are on the MG Car Club website.
Charlie Cartwright Treasurer.
Charlie Cartwright |
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DickMorbey
United Kingdom
3678 Posts |
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LewPalmer
USA
3244 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 14:48:42
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Although I continue to be a member of the MGCC (and subscribe to the Bulletin), the cost of being a MGCC member is becoming unjustifiable. At GBP 70 per year, there is very little benefit for an overseas member to warrant that kind of cost.
Lew Palmer
PA1169, PB0560 |
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sven
Sweden
431 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 16:46:27
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I am on the side of Lew on this matter
Sven
MGCC member... |
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chapelfarmer
United Kingdom
242 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 18:35:14
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Wow £70 is a lot! Maybe the cost is due to prices for mailing Safety Fast around the world? Since this seems mostly concerned with much more modern MGs perhaps a digital-mag version could be offered for overseas members? I do find the relationship between the MGCC and the Register / Bulletin / Yearbook a bit hard to follow but as I understand it the Club is a necessary for the others to exist and for that reason alone seems to me to be worthy of support. It’s also of course a champion for the marque, its history and the future of historic vehicles. Even when you add the UK costs for all of the items together (club, bulletin, yearbook) they don’t really add up to more than I pay annually for UK membership of ‘another well known car club’ and provide a lot more by way of stimulation, expertise, fun and contact. I appreciate that it may be different for overseas members, it would be a shame if they were priced out of the Club for want of a presumably-simple digital fix? Or perhaps they value the paper SF more than I do...
john |
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Charlie Cartwright
United Kingdom
64 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 18:48:03
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It is a lot of money. One view is that overseas members should pay less because they have less access to club events etc. compared to UK members.
I wanted to publish some figures to show members where our money goes but the main club Directors went berserk and my post was censored.
Basically I estimate that about half our subscription goes to producing safety fast and the rest is a contribution to main club overhead costs which include support and facilities for the Branches and Registers.
I did write a letter to safety fast on the subject but that too was censored by the Directors.
Charlie Cartwright (Cornwall).
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tholden
United Kingdom
1638 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 20:45:08
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Charlie your comments are somewhat disturbing. Why on earth is the MGCC not prepared to say, or allow you to say, how membership fees are spent ?
I must say I like the concept of a non safety fast level of membership. It is a great idea. I would sign up for that and would be happy to have no SF and to pay a much lower level of membership fee just to continue to support the Triple M Register.
TH |
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Simon Johnston
United Kingdom
6144 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 20:56:37
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Could not the financial details be put in the MGCC members' section and aren't they available in the members' section of the main Club's website? As for a non Safety Fast level of membership, I suspect that the economics of that wouldn't work. And when all's said and done, the fifty odd quid that membership costs would barely buy a decent meal out for two so it's hardly excessive.
Simon J
J3437 |
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chapelfarmer
United Kingdom
242 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2018 : 21:36:29
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oops I didn’t mean to propose a non SF membership - just the option for overseas members to receive it digitally if that’s what’s driving up the cost of their memberships. I guess though that, in line with Simon’s point, the economics of smaller print runs might make that non-viable. I imagine greater minds than mine have already been applied to these conundrums!
john |
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LewPalmer
USA
3244 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 01:35:02
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I think I misspoke, for which I apologize. I quoted a membership of GBP 70. If I am not mistaken, (which never happens <grin>), it after PayPal fees and the exchange rate was about US $70. That is still almost twice what I pay for any other membership, including the Octagon MG Car Club.
Lew Palmer
PA1169, PB0560 |
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John James
United Kingdom
963 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 09:17:31
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I question whether half of members' subscriptions goes to producing and distributing Safety Fast!.
Certainly in my day (I left the MGCC 8 years ago) the production of the magazine was done on a nil cost basis by a company who arranged and kept the advertising revenue. I doubt if this has altered.
Yes, postage is an expense, but bulk rates are extremely competitive, both for inland and overseas items.
So, one needs to look elsewhere, perhaps at Kimber House costs? |
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chapelfarmer
United Kingdom
242 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 11:18:40
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Owners of slightly less old MGs are of course able to access high quality digital periodicals: the superb 'Totally T Types 2' is - miraculously I often think - free to subscribe to and, since it covers cars back to the TA should be of interest to any pre-war MG owner I'd have thought. Not suggesting as an alternative but a great complementary treat in your inbox!
Kimber House did a sterling job for me when my J2 came back from a long stay in NL and Belgium and needed its original Exeter registration to be reinstated. MMM committee members verified the car and Kimber House sorted out the DVLA. It was my first experience of MGCC and I was really grateful for both the generosity of time (MMM) and the admin / desk work (MGCC).
john |
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leckstein
USA
411 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 12:03:42
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I always thought that overseas members who were members of affiliated clubs were also considered MGCC members, although without Safety Fast. In the early 1990s the MGCC launched an effort to establish "Centers" in North America without checking with the existing North American Clubs and Registers. It was a fiasco. The MGCC spent a fortune on the effort.
I flew to the UK on behalf of all the NA clubs (who paid my airfare) and met with the MGCC directors to urge a pull back. One of our arguments centered on the fact that we were already affiliated members and our numbers were included in MGCC figures for worldwide membership. Perhaps it was just a PR issue to be included, but the MGCC eventually abandoned the NA effort.
I have always considered myself an unaffiliated member, and for awhile I also paid dues to the MGCC in order to get Safety Fast. After a year or two, i stopped as Safety Fast offered nothing for members like myself.
I do get the Bulletin and pay the subscription price as it related to all MG Triple M cars. And this Forum is second to none!
I do not know what the current status is of the North American clubs and Registers in relationship to the MGCC today. I hope it is still the same.
Mike L |
Edited by - leckstein on 05/09/2018 12:32:06 |
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Westbury
United Kingdom
2010 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 14:32:09
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I would like to feel that being a member of the MG Car Club is important to me but I just haven’t got that feeling ! (Though I used to be a member.)
For me it is not a cost issue but the MGCC is now a total irrelevance and I feel sad that that is the case. I am lucky to have two MMM cars though I do like lots of other pre and post war MG models. However, the fact that the current Chinese owned MG saloon cars no longer represent what an MG should be weighs heavily on me to the extent that I have no wish to become a member of the club.
Chris |
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Malcolm Eades
United Kingdom
379 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 15:04:43
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How can the MGCC be "a total irrelevance" when this very website and forum are services provided by the MGCC?! For a fully paid-up member of the Club of nearly 40 years standing it is a tad irksome to read opinions like this when it is my subscriptions and those of many other loyal members that support the infrastructure that makes all this possible.
As for linking Club membership to the present Chinese ownership of the marque, I'm afraid the logic escapes me. It sounds like a bizarre version of guilt by association. As far as I can see, the cars in my garage are unaffected and are still great fun to drive. And the people who own similar cars also seem unaffected: they're still fun to be with, especially at CLUB events.
I have always had sympathy with the idea of an on-line Safety Fast! especially for overseas members and affiliates but the economics are inescapable: the fewer you print, the more each one costs.
It is the great irony of the Club that the success of the marque meant that production stretched over a very long period, so it means that the single-marque Club has a lot of ground to cover because there are models of all ages which attract different support groups. Wouldn't life be simpler if we all had a Lea Francis or an Armstrong Siddely. Inevitably SF! can't satisfy every niche of its readership every month but the whole point of the structure, including Registers, Centres and Groups, is to ensure that every one of those niches has a delivery channel for the services that are of special interest. If you are reading this, you are using one of those channels and it is evident that a fair number are doing so for free. Mr Webmaster: maybe we should have a donation button like Wikipedia!!
Malcolm
M Type
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chapelfarmer
United Kingdom
242 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2018 : 15:08:51
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" the fact that the current Chinese owned MG saloon cars no longer represent what an MG should be "
That's a big point maybe? I did go to look at one of those Chinese jobs re first car for offspring. Hmmmm...... relative to its European contemporaries it didn't measure up the way I imagine a (for instance) badge-engineered 1300 did in its day to ,say, a Beetle or an MG Metro vs a Renault 5.
Safety Fast does seem like quite a rolling advertorial for them, I wonder whether that's in danger of putting other people off? Perhaps SF should find out quickly! (although I'd assumed that MGCC was taking a hefty shilling from the new owners in return for the coverage and that this was keeping membership costs down? Maybe I'm being naive!).
john |
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