Morris Minor Owners Club

yeah yeah Andrew - pretending it wasn't censored....

I don't want to be in your shoes when she notices you deleted her thesis!

We've just been PMing - I've grovelled, and I think we're still mates I think you probably know me better than as a person who'd delete that

passes Andrew a bigger shovel

Aaaagghh!!

This one's going to run and run, I can see it now

It'll be that talk of the 2010 national I can see it now

I am a member of the MMOC

I am about to be a bit of an antagonist - so sorry in advance.

I got into the MMOC because I bought a Morris Minor and did a google search. Hey presto, the MMOC... and more to the point.. the forum!!

I instantly joined the club because I was so impressed by the helpfulness and great community spirit demonstrated by the people I'd met on the website... thinking if this is a reflection of the club as a whole then its worth joining!

As a member what i want out of a club (and my membership fee to pay for) is an environment where:

Tips can be shared,
Cars and parts can bought and sold,
Research is carried out on the best insurance deals, parts, fluids, dealers etc, and
Meets are arranged for club members to have fun and admire each other's cars.

So, the first one I needed at the time was to know who to get my insurance from. AON is the one the MMOC puts forward. Ok, so I did some research for myself and... Oh. No its not the cheapest and it doesn't offer anything more for your money than, say Footman James. Ok, so my membership fee obviously didnt go into someone researching that!

Meets and rallies. As far as i have seen so far, these are arranged by volunteers and attendees pay to go, so my membership fee isn't going here.

Next ones... a place where cars and parts can be bought and sold and tips can be shared.
The Magazine! The magazine can be quite a diverting read! I enjoy it and its got some good tips, once a month. But hang on, don't the advertisers pay for their adverts? My money isn't paying for the mag....
So, the Website? An excellent forum for sharing advice quickly and thoroughly. I can ask a question on here and get 15 different viewpoints within the hour, all of which are useful.
But it turns out the people keeping this going are volunteers. Its not even a paid position?! Good grief. I just hope their broadband connection is paid for or I'm calling Bob Geldof.
I dont know how much it costs to have a php site (Can anyone answer that one?) but I hope its a sizable portion of our membership fee, or I dont know where its going?

Maybe its paying people to do research into manufacturers and traders to keep them on their toes and protect club members? Oh. No, it can't do that, cos that risks a libel case.

Hmm.

So, I think you can gather from that that I have benefitted greatly from the MMOC and I really like it BUT I'm not really sure about whether I'll renew my membership.
Everything I need is here and better! (But my fee is not paying for it). Everywhere I'd like my membership fee to be spent, it doesn't seem to be being spent...

Oh hang on, if I dont, I'll lose the money off I get with some traders. Is that alone worth it? Not sure...

There, i told you I was being a bit of an antagonist , but that's cos I'd really like someone to answer.

Actually... The yearly accounts are given out each year with a copy of Minor Matters. They are also detailed at the AGM in November where you can ask questions and they are all explained.

AON offers the best 'package' and are brilliant when you make a claim. Some of the cheaper companies are not as good overall if you have to make a claim.

The MMOC rallies are 'protected' by the MMOC's public liability insurance (about £5M I think) which is paid for by the members subscriptions.

The website (server space, bandwidth usage, etc) IS payed for my the members by the MMOC but it's a tiny amount compared to the production of Minor Matters.

But it turns out the people keeping this going are volunteers. Its not even a paid position?! Good grief. I just hope their broadband connection is paid for or I'm calling Bob Geldof.

True, they are all volunteers. Not a paid position at all. and my broadband connection is paid for by me and not the MMOC.

All the monies do tie up.

Cam wrote:Actually... The yearly accounts are given out each year with a copy of Minor Matters. They are also detailed at the AGM in November where you can ask questions and they are all explained.

AON offers the best 'package' and are brilliant when you make a claim. Some of the cheaper companies are not as good overall if you have to make a claim.

The MMOC rallies are 'protected' by the MMOC's public liability insurance (about £5M I think) which is paid for by the members subscriptions.

The website (server space, bandwidth usage, etc) IS payed for my the members by the MMOC but it's a tiny amount compared to the production of Minor Matters.

But it turns out the people keeping this going are volunteers. Its not even a paid position?! Good grief. I just hope their broadband connection is paid for or I'm calling Bob Geldof.

True, they are all volunteers. Not a paid position at all. and my broadband connection is paid for by me and not the MMOC.

All the monies do tie up.

Thanks Cam. I think you have summed it up quite nicely, but I would just like to add the following in respect of Minor Matters.

I do not think that anyone can dispute the very high quality of this publication which has been recognised widely as one of the best Club magazines available, and received awards as such. Naturally to produce such a magazine has its costs, as does its wide circulation. All of these costs have to be borne by the club. Of course the revenue from advertisers does help, but it is still a substantial part of the Clubs costs.

However in addition to the high costs involved in producing Minor Matters, there are also a great number of other items that have to be financed by the MMOC which, as Cam has said, are detailed in the Club accounts, a copy of which is circulated to all members each year.

But bearing in mind the very high costs involved in running a Club such as the MMOC, which provides so much for its membership, I personally feel that its relatively low membership fees offer extremely good value for money.

Indeed I am a member of the MMOC and hopefully one of our local Potteries Branch (if they're a nice bunch of chappies and chapetts(?)

We'd like to think we're nice! We're not all boy-racers, but we're not all old fogies either!

Currently looking for a green traveller for Wifey's birthday, and we'll probably join once we're Minor owners...

Great. You won't be disappointed.

I have to confess to thinking that Minors are quite nice, and that's about it. Wifey is the true obsessive, she's wanted a green traveller since her teacher in primary school gave a her a lift in one 25 years ago.

My particular obsession is Caterhams, but the entry costs of ownership are rather higher

JimK wrote:I have to confess to thinking that Minors are quite nice, and that's about it. Wifey is the true obsessive, she's wanted a green traveller since her teacher in primary school gave a her a lift in one 25 years ago.

My particular obsession is Caterhams, but the entry costs of ownership are rather higher

Interesting. Our youngest daughter, although her everyday car is a modified moggie, likes going to various track days. This is her in a Caterham during a recent visit.

http://www.richardlindley.co.uk/donning ... _20611.jpg

Back to topic, ie "Are you an MMOC member?". The Poll doesn't appear to have changed much lately, so come on all of you that have not voted, lets see if we can get a far more representative result

I think my membership may have lapsed - I need to check

Tut, tut

No more takers?