Thanks for the reply Dave, dont worry I did not see your post as being personal and thanks for explaining and giving me the opportunity to address the issues you mentioned
1) Sorry about the edit - it was actually only a single word changed, in hindsight and as you poited out not a great idea as it makes it look like I was trying to hide or to dishonestly change something. I wanted the post to be from my experience as an 800 owner coming into rover800.info and not from the point of view as involvement with the owners club. In one paragraph relating to the website I mistakenly used the word "we" instead of "they" (the edit). The reason being is that I am not officially a club commitee member. I did offer to make the website and have helped with graphics and technical stuff and such like and so when referring to the website I used 'we' in error.
2) As far as I am aware (and I may be wrong as i was not involved)- the size of the stands at the NEC is decided by the show organizers, not the owners club. I dont know how the cars were selected and I dont really mind as long as they were there... we have had lots of opportunities to take our cars to events this year thanks to the owners club and the incredibly enthusiastic Tanya (who is a club comittee and founder member). Although I missed the Drive It Day because of the fuel pump problem whilst driving there, I really enjoyed the BMC day at Gaydon and its nice to have the little 1986-2016 sticker too.
3) With regards to wanting to rule the world - the Tony Bennett song came to mind which is a favourite on a clear sunny day in my 800
I have a job to manage my own life at times. I do realise I rocked the boat by suggesting that rover800.info associated itself with the Joint Rover Clubs and that it set of a snowball of fun and games. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I still think its a good idea. I suggested it because I was frustrated at having such a lovely car that I could not take into shows unless I parked with the other oddballs....and... I was genuinly concerned for the future of 800s in general ( for reference that thread is here:
http://rover800.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13389 it doesn't all make sense as some comments seem to have been removed). As for the owners club....I had no involvement with the idea of forming an owners club and it was as much of a suprice and good news to me as the rest of us. The way i see it the only difference is between the club and .info is that I have donated £16 that will go to promoting the cars and have also given some time - both of which has enabled us to go to some shows and helped increase interest in the 800 series. For me everything else is a bonus - the news letters, pens, stickers, insurance etc.
4) Very good suggestion regarding gaskets.
5) Like you, I hope the "them and us" feeling that exists with one or two members here can be overcome.Avoiding that is the main reason the owners club does not have its own forum, but instead directs all new members to rover800.info. The club website links direct to here and new members are directed here in the automatically generated email sent to them when joining. The facebook page for the club is seperate, but generally only used for club announcements and news - for everything else the .info facebook page is used (I certainly use that one more than the forum these days).
Anyway - once again I appologise for any offence I caused in my replies and thanks for your tactful responce Dave..
SJG wrote:Darren
There was very little about the show, the cars or anything for this year, on here or the owners club site.
Its a good point you make about the website lacking all the relavent information. Rather than just posting the various news pages, maybe a dedicated events page should be included so everything is available at a glance. Be better than relying on only social media.