pcar928fan

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone I am James Morrison and I have been nominated to run for President of the 928 Owners Club. Let me give you a little background on me.

I have been a 928 fan since I saw my first one live and in person in 1992. It was a black '88 5spd. I bought my first one (dark blue '88 auto) in '96. It has been an all out love affair ever since. Now I have 10 babies...all 928's. My surrogate children are grown up so I just play with cars now! Love those kids more than my cars even!

I am a Charter member of the 928 Owners Club. My membership number is 51. I attended the '98 Frenzy in VA, the '04 OCIC in Wichita, the '09 OCIC in Dallas and many 3rd Coast events (thanks Chuck and the rest of the D/FW crowd for putting those on!) I really wanted to be at this past OCIC but financial issues (with my '95 GTS actually) forced me to cancel those plans. I have been an active DE participant and instructor for years and in '06 I raced my 928 GT2 class PCA club racer (Mark Anderson's old car) at TWS. Alas money and time have never been concurrently available so I only get the GT car out to the track for DE type events on occasion now.

MY EXPERIENCE

I organized the Austin 928 gang many years before there was a 928 Owners Club and we had a heck of a following. It was 1997 when we got things rolling! I think there are only 3 of us left from that original group who still own 928's. Several have moved out of the area and had sold their 928's even before moving and the "local club" started to dwindle. We did lunches and dinners and drives all over the hill country! Great times! I was a member of the local PCA at that time as well.

I was VP, Concours Chair and President of the Hill Country Region PCA from '98 to '03. The year I was president of HCR we won the membership award for fastest growing Region of our size in all of PCA (I'd say in the US, but PCA regions are also in Germany and Canada). It was a proud moment for the Hill Country Region for sure. I took our premier event (Porschedillo Concours) from an average of 15 cars to 52 cars the last year I organized it (led this event for 7 years).

I have been the Central Texas Regional Rep for the 928 Owners Club for the last 4 or 5 years I guess. With the encouragement of the D/FW group we set the 2nd Saturday of the month as our regular meeting time. We have moved the place around a bit and I organize a drive in the spring and fall (when the weather is cooler) for our local gang. We have had as few as 6 and as many as 25 join us for lunch! Over 35 when the D/FW gang comes down!

In June of '10 a call went out in search of a new 928 Owners Club Membership chairman. I volunteered for the position. I have spent at least 2 hours a week EVERY WEEK since working on behalf of the 928 Owners Club. I have recruited a couple of folks to help me out from time to time when we have a huge influx of renewals or new members. These folks will take over in the future should I become President. We have had 236 new members join since I took over. That is a 50% increase vs the 2 years previous. The current members roster is roughly 635 members.

WHY JOIN THE 928 OWNERS CLUB

Some have asked what they get for their money... As noted, some neat renewal items, some you might like, some you might laugh at. I think we have chosen some pretty cool stuff actually over the last few years. The Owners Club forum looks much like RennList now, so it is comfortable for anyone currently on any of the forums to use and enjoy. There is a great tech section there with all the fine articles from Dwayne as well as info from other members. I believe it was Stan who started this and the Road Side Assistance program a few years ago and it continues to grow. So, if you are a member and traveling you can go online and find folks along your intended route and keep their contact info handy incase you experience a break down. Very cool. I don't know of any other club that has this. It has been used several times that I know of to great effect and with great success. Of course all of the financial info and membership info you seek is easy to find there for full disclosure.

VISION FOR THE 928 OWNER CLUB

As Andrew noted you also get a discount with 928sRus on your order as a 928 OC member and I agree with Andrew that it would be nice to see that expanded to include other vendors. (This may be a good place to talk about the things I have "sold" that are 928 related because there seems to be some confusion... Most of you are aware of the calendars I have shot and the DVD and the watch. Let me say, here and now that I have made ZERO dollars on any of those items. I did them for the love of the 928 and as projects I always wanted to try. Any time the calendar [and I hope in the future the DVD] produces profits I donate them to either the Austin or Williamson County Humane Society or to the Scholarship fund at my Alma Mater named for one of my fraternity brothers who died of cancer 2 years ago. I don't make money off of these projects...I have a real job that pays my bills.)

Of course you get sponsorship of various events around the country (and world if requested) and that is mostly in the form of T-shirts. It is a logical way to advertise the club and provide a nice item to remember your event. Terri does a lot of work on that getting great Logo's together for the various events.

FUTURE PLANS

If elected I will dedicate more time to the Regional Reps who have volunteered to get things going at some level in each region and to find RR's for areas that are not well served right now.

I will also be spending time with the folks who have volunteered to write articles for the club to see if we can get some regular 928 "Content" on the website in more of a journal form so that you will have even more reasons to come visit the 928 Owners Club Forum!

Happy to serve! All the best!

James

SeanR

Thanks for posting this James.

docmirror

James, I have no dog in the hunt. Wish I had seen you at OCIC 2012.

polecat702

Thanks for the post!

Jon B.

You've got my support bud! BTW, you may want to post this on the OC site, I honestly figured I would see it there first. I understand the care you're taking though.

pcar928fan

^^^^^^
Thanks for the reminder! I do need to post it over on the 928OC site!

James Bailey

James owns enough 928s to be his OWN CLUB ! That alone might make me question his sanity and objectivity about 928s. Until the club helps pay travel expenses it seems a bit harsh to be too critical about those who for one reason or another opted not to attend certain events.
And getting discounts from vendors while popular does little for the vendor. Some operate on around a 20% margin and giving up 5% of the gross sale is actually more like 25% of their normal markup. Most 928 owners with a quick Google are going to find the major 928 parts vendors pretty quickly or learn about them on Rennlist. Where is the value to the vendor ?
Not being a 928 OC member I do not have to decide who I would vote for if I were.

mickster

I have not made up my mind. I nominated AO last time around. I have organized some NY events as the regional instigator and James has been very supportive and helpful as has Stan, Gary and Greg.

Whoever wins, we need to get more people joining. Only 1/2 or less of NY attendees are members of the 928 OC and they did not even know it existed.

Join and volunteer y'all! I am busier than ever but I look forward to hanging with my 928 buddies and driving! Offering support when fixing, etc.

pcar928fan

Michael, it is I who am thankful for your help and support and willingness to step up to the plate as your local Regional Rep! You have done an AWESOME job!

BTW, we find the same thing is true in Austin... Many 928 guys are NOT members of the OC! I extol the virtues and reasons to join, but sometimes it falls on deaf ears.

Jim B, I agree with you. To expect any officer to attend events that may be thousands of miles away with out paying for their trip is unrealistic. If my trip had been paid for to OCIC this year I would have attended, same for SF last year. I had solid plans to attend BOTH of those events and then life intervened.

Jon B.

If I didn't know James personally, this would be my reason for voting for him at this moment. James has been nothing but supportive of anything I have asked about as a Regional Rep.

This isn't a dig on Andrew at all. I just don't know him at all (never met), and James has and has proved his loyalty to the OC. Period.

928mac

I have not met James or Andrew so I can only judge by what I read on the forums.

As a moderator at 928oc my job is very easy as everyone seems to respect each others opinions, ... so far.

The most heat that I have seen, seems to be at election time and other then that it is very quiet.

You can easily see who post at the forum and who dose not by looking at the number of post each member has.

I am relativly new with a Join Date: 01-09-2010
My post are 2,393

I would challenge any and all of you that comment to check all the nominees, including the trustees to see who engages the forum and who dose not.

if the prez was the newest member with the most post it might even be me, but I would hope that it would be a long time original member that helped build it from the ground up annnnd! someone that remains active from the beginning to-date.

With post alone my opinion would be very oneside.

I like the owners club because no matter what I say or how dumb a question I may ask, the remarks are respectful as every member should be entitled to.

I like the owners club because they are trying to catalog repair info in one place to help us new owners as well as all owners.

I do not like the fact that sometimes I am the only (MEMBER) there, all day.

I agree with DR that OC and RL should work as one but I hate the fact that the past issues (which I no not) seem to be buried deep, even in his post.

• I hope that more members become active so that oc has a little more chit-chat during the day,

but more than anything

• I hope that the club gets someone who sensorially cares

and is not voted in by there buddies and I would say that to both running nominees

I would like to Thank RL and most all of you, for your help. and constructive criticism, and for your guidance, as you have helped me a lot. Thank-you

May the best man carry the club to new heights

928porschepatrick

James i'll vote for you!!!!!!!!!

Dean_Fuller

James...can you tell us what your plans are as far as bettering the club? Your opening comments only defended your Calenders and DVD sales. Of which I don't know why thats even an issue....Can people not make any pocket change for their time spent on a project?

My membership has lapsed but would rejoin if it really is a benefit. When I joined back in 2008 I received a T-shirt and then never heard another word...no emails, letters, updates.... When I looked into the list for travel and help along the way most were not members any longer. I even forgot there WAS ( very little if any traffic ) a forum until reading lately.

I am thinking about giving it another try. I will say that competing against Rennlist is like a family owned business setting up shop across the street from a Walmart.

linderpat

As DR says, the 928OC should not be in competition with rennlist,pelican or any of the other well established forums. Instead they should point to these places. The OC forum will never develop the database of info available here and created over many years. Look at the struggles with traffic and relevance (as to the 928) on reutterwerk, and that site was brought online by no less than the founder of this site (John D for the newbies).
So I hope neither Andrew nor James try to beef up the discussion forums on the OC site, becuase that will not work and will be a waste of energy and effort. Instead, use these sites to promote the OC and point to the OC site for the great resources it offers (tools, DIY write-ups, events, tech assistance lists, etc). Maybe even have the 928OC assume the Registry, and get that up to date too?

pcar928fan

Dean,

I know my post was very long... If you read the last two sections I think you will find the answers you are looking for. The bottom line is to expand the tool "rental" (free rental...deposit required) program for members, increase the Regional Rep contacts with their area members getting them to at least plan a few GTG's each year so the locals can get to know each other, and to tap the volunteers who have agreed to write 928 related articles and put that in some sort of journal form on the 928OC Forum. That is it in a nut shell. All of the current programs will continue as they are for the time being. IE support of large regional events (Hell, OCIC, Frenzy, etc).

Hope that helps and I hope we can get you back in the OC and I'd love your vote and support. Your work and dedication to the Marvin Martian car is amazing to me! The work you have done and put it to it is FIRST rate and I just LOVE IT! I hope to see it in person sooner rather than later!