Panther Platform Association Inc. (long)

[JerseyVics]

I know this has been mentioned, discussed, tried and failed in the past but I want to give it another run past all you guys and see if maybe we'll finaly get the ball rolling in the right direction. I personaly tried doing something with my site, www.jerseyvics.com but offering a page up for all the guys from around the globe with Vics and Marauders just didn't get me anywhere near the goal and it never would have if I were continue to do that. I always refer people to the forums because its a resource but forums alone are not as significant as a club would be so we really should consider the possibilities.

I'm talking of course about a Global Club for the Panther Platform owners (Ford Crown Victoria, Police Interceptor, Mercury Grand Marquis, Marauder and Lincoln Town Car owners) where we would all belong to "officialy" and act as one membership when represented somewhere among other clubs.

I know well that everyone is very loyal to crownvic.net especialy all the Crown Vic/Police Interceptor folk, and the Marauder owners are equaly loyal to the mercurymarauder.net site and thats a great thing, I'm not suggesting we should change anything about the way the forums are right now or in the future, I'm just saying we should define ourselves as a community a little better. Things are great the way they are right now, but I still feel like I don't belong to something that expresses my car interests.

What do I propose we do? Well I definitely don't have any experience with car clubs, but I know for one we should be Incorporated. That involves money, so we would need annual fees. The money would need to be put to places like to pay for the forums that support the club which would be the expenses on the sites by Rob and Steve of crownvic.net and Logan on mercurymarauder.com Other expenses such as business cards, or member ID cards, club letterhead, banners, etc. Would be provided for by the paying membership, which as I see it, is growing. What do the paying members get in return? For one discounts on tuner parts as well as OEM parts out there. There are a number of official businesses that are or will cater to Panther Platform owners in the near future. As forums we might not be able to take advantage of that but as an organization we can certainly get significant discount and everyone would benefit from that. If say my annual membership to PPA was $20 bux, I'd get that money back in a hearbeat if I were to buy a set of Kenny Brown subframe connectors at a 10% discount or a set of Sean Hyland Motorsport long tube headers for even 5% off... or something more common to everyone, a Dennis Reinhart chip slightly cheaper than what its base price is now. There certainly are benefits of being an organization, vendors are more willing to do business with you.


How can we ensure everything is run properly to the best interest of everyone, we definitely would need officers. There are a ton of people from CVN and even mercurymarauder.net that I've met already that specialize in fields that many other clubs out here have no idea about. We have lots of smart and dedicated people here and they can contribute by dedicating their time to a good cause. I can think of three high ranking officers already that would be perfect for the task since they already successfully provide good forums: Rob, Steve and Logan... whether they are up to the challenge is up to them, but the idea is open to everyone and the best qualified person should take the spot for a period of time decided upon by the membership... we'd certainly need to set up a lot of rules to put all this in effect. And the whole process would not take overnight either.


It takes months to Incorporate something, and we'd need a few more months of fundraising to just get our resources up to afford registering the club. I think its well worth it.

I know I'm leaving stuff out of this proposal because I can't think of all the posibilities right now, but there is a lot to it so I would appreciate all input. We can even look on other organizations or club and avoid their mistakes, learn from what has already been done and try to improve on it. The main thing is to get it to work. I just want to belong, I'm super busy to go to all the car shows lately because of work, but I still want to respond that I belong to the Panther Platform Association if someone brings up car clubs in a conversation, you know?

What do you guys think?


--Russ

jerseyvics@aol.com


PS. to moderators: I know there may be a better section for this proposal but I'm posting this in the Lounge where the majority of forum visitors would see it. thanks.

[Logan]

Biggest problem is always getting dependable, committed people to actually DO all that stuff...

[LightningVic]

I would love to be in a panther club. I would also love to get discounts .

[JerseyVics]

Originally posted by Logan
Biggest problem is always getting dependable, committed people to actually DO all that stuff...

That has been the biggest problem so far, no one wants to commit.

how can we overcome that though?

--Russ

[SergntMac]

Remember the 80/20 golden rule of volunteer organizations, 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people, and the rest just cry about what's wrong with the organization doing the work. Another problem would be that the platform is too diverse in its applications, I would expect us to rarely agree on what's true, right, or, correct.

Noble thought, Russ, thank you. But, IMHO, you would be better off beating yourself in the head with a hammer. At least you could stop that when it starts to feel good.

[Marauderman]

Like Sarge says--the 80/20 thing--Volunteer Fire Depts. have the same problem....getting dependable people...and trying to change that 80/20 % problem........what JV proposes is something on the scale of an org. that can make noise ..like the AARP does in Congress.. and gets attention ...but in a little smaller scale...and his thoughts on all of this should not go unnoticed or thought about...my initial thoughts to cir***vent some of the problems would have the "officers" a paying position--not big mine you but a very small amount --smiliar to what typically local politicians ( who have other day jobs) get to help pay or defray from their expenses or time for doing "this job"(volunteering) whatever you want to call it ..cause it could not necessarrily be a full time position in the begining....the idea of the "paying position" puts more legal control over it to perform and be held accountable..

..again ..my .02 cts worth..

[WolfeBros]

I'm with Sarge on this. The platforms are way too diverse and the reasons for buying, owning, driving them would be all over the place.
What usually makes car clubs and enthusiastis go is the little niche that we belong in and the feeling of pride and ownership that goes with it.......much like the Marauder folk here.

Couple that with getting people to run the dang thing and chart a course that everyone would want to follow is.........well.....almost impossible for a group that big and divided. Small clicks would develop off to the side with similiar interests (just like in real life) and taaaaa daaaa......you are back to the smaller clubs only inside a big club. If you can pull it off it will be a full time job to run it.

my .02 c

[Menace]

USA USA USA

[Menace]

GLOBAL CLUB

[RF Overlord]

Once again, Wolfe, you took the words right outta my mouth...

How about a little more emphasis on "clubby" things like Craftypoke Industries' pads and pens, LML's...erm...musical entertainment, maybe some bumper stickers...no...wait...I meant WINDOW stickers; something discreet....maybe jacket patches (no, not for the leather)...things that would be available only to MM.net members. It's not a full-blown "club", but might at least foster a sense of "belonging"...

[Billatpro]

I think you are to quick to diss this idea, personally I would have an interest in this kind of thing. some of you may have heard of the MSRA, here in MN. This club began as from this very same seed, it must be one of the biggest car clubs on the planet1

Talk diverse interest! holy rainbow's bat man, every walk of life, every kind of car in every sort of "interpitation you could imagine. Just because the platform is diverse does mean we can not co-exsist in a common bond and purpose "enjoying our cars" and thats what it's really all about.

Some people are just not joiners and thats ok. some of us are and thats ok. Don't dump this idea JerseyVic just because you get blown off here, It could work and I would be willing to put forth some efforts to make it happen.

[WolfeBros]

RF, you, me and the Sarge seem to sail in the same waters. Most of the time anyway. Thats not a bad thing .......I think.....

[JerseyVics]

You guys are right and if you look on crownvic.net there is same attitude for the proposal... but like I said this has been tried before on CVN and failed... perhaps its because there wasn't enough discussion on the idea.


That I think is step one.... setting out on establishing something that most of us can agree on. there are always those that join because everyone else joins, and there are always those that oppose it, I'm not going to force anyone to go along with it, but if you pitch in ideas we can make it work, and we can look on all the other clubs out there and build on their ideas.


I personaly don't have any experience with it, but I'd be willing to do 90% of the work if I have to, I'm dedicated. I will just need that other 10% to guide me in areas that I really have no clue about.


Any accountants, lawyers around? Whats the best state to register a Non-Profit organization?


let me know,
--Russ


PS. I myself haven't thought all this thru, as you can see its a work in progress and we don't have to rush anything! The key is to maintain autonomy of the individual forums that excist and any clubs that excist... As an official business its much much easier to get business from other official businesses, that means discounts, which would benefit anyone. I guess thats the ultimate goal, and as a proud owner of a Panther Platform whether its a Vic right now or a Marauder a few years from now, I just want to belong to something excusively for us.

[MAD-3R]

Delaware