The future of the SAAC

[J_Speegle]

.................... As paying members we could be looked at as stockholders in SAAC. How about letting us know how the club as a whole is doing, financials, membership, things that anyone who is paying for membership to a organization would expect. I  hear these things from my local region on a regular bases but not from the national. It would have been nice to hear from  whoever is on the board of directors, as to the current status of the club.

Remember this is neither a traditional car "club", like your regional, many national or local clubs, nor a publically held business/company with shareholders.
We are SAAC members like some of us are members of Costco or Sam's Club but unlike those businesses the records are not published or made available since they are privately owned from my understanding. Nor is it a requirement since it is not.

[shelbydoug]

Aside from listening to Jim Owens, a true gentleman, the banquet at SAAC 43 was a complete wast of time. Well not totally, the food was spot on. I'm tired of the Shelby American come buy our new cars sales pitch whenever they are involved in a event. As paying members we could be looked at as stockholders in SAAC. How about letting us know how the club as a whole is doing, financials, membership, things that anyone who is paying for membership to a organization would expect. I  hear these things from my local region on a regular bases but not from the national. It would have been nice to hear from  whoever is on the board of directors, as to the current status of the club.

When I ran my region I did my best to keep everyone informed.

Judging by the presentation and the reaction of the crowd I have to assume that no one had any questions about anything including this Forum. That was the time and the place to ask. If you held your tongue then everything was ok with you?

[69mach351w]

Lol, I knew that would happen. Seems nobody had the balls to confront the hierarchy 

[427heaven]

Well said Z..... There are a few that just don't understand the cicumstances, there are a few of us that are very vocal and most don't want to comment on the hard line issues. This is the future of the group so it will be interesting what others feel about how we should continue from this point forward. For starters I would want someone that could and would willingly assist in answering leadership role questions for the group. Radio silence in this instance is not a good thing. An observation here is that as the cars become ever increasing in value, peoples expectations become more focused in all things being a little more professional. If we were dealing in 3500 $ Honda Civics then we could park them in the gravel pit or muddy roads at the conventions,tolerate NO refunds for families that cant make the conventions, No parking organization,quality food vendors, some of these cars are 1,000,000 large and need some thought put into it for over night security etc. Now it was mentioned earlier about 2.0 after 45 years of having a smooth forum outlet why with modern tech did we go backwards with this picture posting format? There is no simple answer to any one problem but at least an occasional answer from the hierarchy of whats going on will calm a few nerves-

[6s1802]

"Traditional" car club or not it would be nice to hear from the board of directors once in a while as to the status of the club. When SAAC first started Eber would give a treasury report, weather it was accurate or not, at least it was there.

[Bigfoot]

"Traditional" car club or not it would be nice to hear from the board of directors once in a while as to the status of the club.

Wurd

[greekz]

I do not recall a question and answer segment during the banquet Saturday night.  Unless someone asked questions ono on one in private.  The program seemed well structured, but ran a little long.  Surprisingly, there were no questions for the four former Shelby American employees.  Maybe because it was eleven o'clock.

Greek

Ran a little long is a understatement . The 45 minute advertisement for how great Team Shelby is was a little excessive IMO. They are a like minded needed group ,yes. Glad they were there,yes . Brother and sisters in arms sure . I did start to get the feeling I was being prepped for something with those series of testimonials . The slide show given by the heavy accent British/Scottish? guy with the super thick accent talking about bringing Team Shelby to the British isles seemed to go on forever with irrelevant facts it seemed to me. That did me in. I was wore out and left at 10:30 during the speech about the Lonestar.

I was taking the high road.  I could have done without the lengthy British Isles presentation as well, or cut down to about 5 minutes.

I hope nothing I said was out of line. It wasn't meant to insult anyone just to convey observations and contex. Given that you took the high road means I took the low road?

Not at all, Bob.  I think you took the correct road.  Your observations are right on.  By taking the high road I took the easy road.  Sometimes I really do not like to speak my mind, because it might be taken the wrong way.

[Don Johnston]

The speaker presentations used to start before dinner was over.  This one was long due to lengthy Ford and SAI dog and pony shows.  Part of those were fun, but I did get bored with the Ford sales meeting pep talk and the SA pitches that went beyond what they were producing.  The worst was the clueless Team Shelby presentation (I am a member as well).  Best SAAC rebuttal ever to someone who has no sense or knowledge of Shelby history, the person, the SAAC founding principles, the factories, the people). The fact that the current and past SAAC board and membership did not walk out showed a lot more class than the presenter.  I do not know how much Ford and TS had invested into this event but I think they forgot the title of the Convention. 

I did my Q & A personally afterwards to the very accommodating individual panel members. 

[Bigfoot]

So did anyone there glean anything from the Powers That Be?

[gt350shelb]

Yeah
It would be good if Powers That Be (PTB) could chime in about the present and the future.
We are losing the audience here......
And that's critical.

That  is 100 % true ...... 

[6s1802]

All of us old school SAAC folks knew going into this thing it was going to be a team shelby show. If this is the trend of future conventions I don't know if I will be attending any more.

[shelbydoug]

There is no way that Kopec or anyone else doesn't know the feelings of the membership. It should have been addressed at the Convention either voluntarily by him or by approaching him about.

That is the situation with Ron and the running of this forum as well. Do you think it was coincidental that all of a sudden, two weeks out, the picture issue was resolved? He didn't want to have to deal with that in personal confrontations at the convention.

If the membership didn't deal directly with these issues at the Convention when everyone was there, then you missed your opportunity. Silence just gave them all a vote of confidence to whatever they choose to do. That's just the bottom line here.

[Alan]

What's the opinion of you all in comparing Tulsa with the SAAC convention?
Max

[gt350shelb]

There is no way that Kopec or anyone else doesn't know the feelings of the membership. It should have been addressed at the Convention either voluntarily by him or by approaching him about.

That is the situation with Ron and the running of this forum as well. Do you think it was coincidental that all of a sudden, two weeks out, the picture issue was resolved? He didn't want to have to deal with that in personal confrontations at the convention.

If the membership didn't deal directly with these issues at the Convention when everyone was there, then you missed your opportunity. Silence just gave them all a vote of confidence to whatever they choose to do. That's just the bottom line here.

this pretty much sums it up/ have had those  conversations /  ideas / not any more

[Greg]

I don't mean to beat the same drum but guys & gals you have to remember, this is a business of which you do not own.  Once I personally found that out, coupled with the fact that the ownership doesn't ever say anything to the subscribers/customers it changed my expectation.  Every person that pays their money must understand that you can have an opinion but only the person that owns the business opinions matter.  In other words, as long as you pay they will continue.  I'm not advocating mass exodus or forming another company, I'm simply saying that this is no different than your cable company, satellite provider, car wash, restaurant, etc....  you either keep paying because it meets your expectation or you don't.

I do believe more people would benefit if the SAAC was a true non profit club with an elected board because I think people get tired and new blood does bring fresh ideas.  I belong to the Fairlane Club of America and it seems to be a truly fair and balanced club.  The board seems to listen and the members get along.  The club puts out 6 paper magazines a year and has a national meet. 

I think the SAAC laid a good foundation, my question is.... where is the company going?