AMCA Membership fees to increase to $40 in July

[Rubone]

I subscribe to a couple of MC magazines from the UK, "Classic Bike" and "The Classic Motor Cycle", each of which costs more than the AMCA dues. And they are just magazines (the best out there in my opinion) with no other benefits. AMCA membership is a deal. It costs 40 bucks for a small family to eat at a fast food restaurant!

[46EL]

I have a few questions (about 9) about the AMCA Facebook page? Do you have to be a Club Member to join the Facebook page?
And wasn't the original thought of that whole Facebook thing to try and bring more younger members to the Club?
Has it helped? Has there been an increase in Membership? Or has it resulted in some people being happy they can get
their fill and see a few old motorcycles and event dates on that page? Maybe enough of a fill so why bother joining the Club and paying the 40 bucks
to get another magazine that eventually sits on a shelf?
Does anybody else think that maybe the Facebook Page should have been for Club Members ONLY?
Maybe creating motivation to get others to join the Club to get involved? Just my opinion? Just wondering how others feel? 46EL

[fillibuster]

It's too early to tell. It's like an experiment that undergoes a slow development (depends on whose clock you use).
I don't see any harm, and even if non-members happen to frequent the site and view our favorite stuff for free I don't care. If they are real AMCA material they'll join up and participate. Meantime, Facebook offers exposure, gets our name out, and I'll have to say I've seen stuff on Facebook that kinda ups the ante on cyber enjoyment. Check the "old photos" thread lately?

[kjsisterson]

I'm new to this club, but have been in others.
What I want from a club is something that I can't get elsewhere, or on my own. I can jump on my bike and ride out to the Boonies hoping to run into someone on an old bike.
By myself, I can't get a personal tour of a museum, or if there is a motorcycle event and I want to volunteer, or get back stage so to speak, it's easier when it comes from a club.
So accounting for lets say additional $15 dollar chapter dues, a total of $55 is worth it to me, and I get a nice magazine with content suited to my taste.
AS far as Facebook goes, it's not that content rich, so it really is just a doorway to the club. If you want people to come to AMCA events, or chapter events and get to know us, then you need those things on facebook, or it's not a gateway at all.

[fillibuster]

I'm new to this club, but have been in others.
What I want from a club is something that I can't get elsewhere, or on my own. I can jump on my bike and ride out to the Boonies hoping to run into someone on an old bike.
By myself, I can't get a personal tour of a museum, or if there is a motorcycle event and I want to volunteer, or get back stage so to speak, it's easier when it comes from a club.
So accounting for lets say additional $15 dollar chapter dues, a total of $55 is worth it to me, and I get a nice magazine with content suited to my taste.
AS far as Facebook goes, it's not that content rich, so it really is just a doorway to the club. If you want people to come to AMCA events, or chapter events and get to know us, then you need those things on facebook, or it's not a gateway at all.

If I could make a "task-specific" donation to the club it would be for a massive overhaul of the club's library. You are on point when you say that Facebook is a gateway to the club. The library could (should?) be an open book, IMO; open the cover and view it for hours. Find something you want.
The club could make public to all, the topic covers, and make public to all members the entire contents.
The books and the contents are a very small offering, currently. They could be much more.

[tfburke3]

If I could make a "task-specific" donation to the club it would be for a massive overhaul of the club's library. You are on point when you say that Facebook is a gateway to the club. The library could (should?) be an open book, IMO; open the cover and view it for hours. Find something you want.
The club could make public to all, the topic covers, and make public to all members the entire contents.
The books and the contents are a very small offering, currently. They could be much more.

I think the Library has lots potential .Maybe a section for winner circle bike photos or photo section like the video feature.
I think you should be able to go to the AMCA website and see a picture of say a 47 chief,or a 36 knucklehead etc.(or a 1980 Suzuki,but that's another subject)
Tom

[exeric]

You're opening a can of worms when you talk about the library. I agree that it should be a first class knowledge center for our members but that takes. . . Ready for it. . . . Volunteers.

This was all discussed at great length 5 or 6 years ago. The library has also been a money pit, with no direction, or promotion. Again, that isn't all the clubs fault, you have to have volunteers, or one individual that is passionately committed to the project.

I suggested that Winner's Circle bikes should be documented by the owner with tons of pictures, and comments. For this, the owner of the bike should be given a special award, and recognition in the club magazine as an incentive for going to the trouble of documenting their bike.

There should also be some way to encourage people to scan photos, and publications for the member's benefit. However, that never goes anywhere as you can see on this forum, very few people make the effort to put up pictures.

Personally, I think most of our members are lazy, apathetic and perhaps selfish, and have no interest in sharing what they have. I have posted many pictures, and documented my bike builds. I think it is critical to our club to share what we know, and what we have in the way of literature, and pictures. Unfortunately, you can see that very few of our members think that way and the generous few like T. Cotton, Cory, Shaky Jake, Duffey, Chris Haynes, Sihr, Mark Masa, etc, etc. are not getting the credit they deserve. Sorry for the rant. . . I feel better now

[BoschZEV]

A comprehensive on-line library is a great idea. Except...

I have at least a few hundred sales brochures. If they averaged only 5 pages each, it still would take at least 10 min. to scan each one, combine into a pdf, give it a useful name, and upload it to a site. Adding that up, it represents approx. 40 hours of full time work.

The site itself would have to be protected against unauthorized people hacking into it and uploading spam, because that certainly would happen otherwise. The security would have to be much more comprehensive than just that of allowing registered AMCA members to upload.

To digress for a second. On the subject of "security" of websites, there isn't even a link on this Forum to take someone to the AMCA homepage. One might think the "Quick Links" button would contain a link to the mother homepage, but no, the AMCA site is secure from anyone finding it from this Forum. (boy, am I going to be embarrassed if I've been staring at the link and just haven't noticed it).

OK, so say the security problem is taken care of. Since it's unlikely I would sit doing nothing but scan for a full 40-hour week, that work might take a few months to accomplish. That means I would have to devise a system to keep track of what I scanned and what still remained to be scanned. Meanwhile, unless an appropriate "registration" system were put in place to keep it from happening, someone else could be spending their time scanning the very same brochures. And that's just the brochures. I also have hundreds of workshop and parts manuals, each of which is many more than 5 pages long.

Having at least some experience in organizing and archiving information, my guess is that at a minimum it would take a full time IT/library specialist several years to develop an organizational structure, set up the software, and tweak it as problems were identified. And that's assuming the IT/library specialist not only was good at their job in general, but was able to learn what motorcyclists needed in particular. If they weren't good, it would be a few hundred $k of good money after bad before that might be apparent enough that action to replace them was initiated. Even if they were good, If they got a better job offer a year into setting things up, it would be almost like starting from scratch for their replacement.

The point of this isn't to discourage the idea of an on-line library, but to illustrate that it would require a lot more careful thought and time to implement than just getting volunteers to agree to scan their collections (as if that wouldn't be a lot of work just in itself).

[tfburke3]

A comprehensive on-line library is a great idea. Except...

I have at least a few hundred sales brochures. If they averaged only 5 pages each, it still would take at least 10 min. to scan each one, combine into a pdf, give it a useful name, and upload it to a site. Adding that up, it represents approx. 40 hours of full time work.

The site itself would have to be protected against unauthorized people hacking into it and uploading spam, because that certainly would happen otherwise. The security would have to be much more comprehensive than just that of allowing registered AMCA members to upload.

To digress for a second. On the subject of "security" of websites, there isn't even a link on this Forum to take someone to the AMCA homepage. One might think the "Quick Links" button would contain a link to the mother homepage, but no, the AMCA site is secure from anyone finding it from this Forum. (boy, am I going to be embarrassed if I've been staring at the link and just haven't noticed it).

OK, so say the security problem is taken care of. Since it's unlikely I would sit doing nothing but scan for a full 40-hour week, that work might take a few months to accomplish. That means I would have to devise a system to keep track of what I scanned and what still remained to be scanned. Meanwhile, unless an appropriate "registration" system were put in place to keep it from happening, someone else could be spending their time scanning the very same brochures. And that's just the brochures. I also have hundreds of workshop and parts manuals, each of which is many more than 5 pages long.

Having at least some experience in organizing and archiving information, my guess is that at a minimum it would take a full time IT/library specialist several years to develop an organizational structure, set up the software, and tweak it as problems were identified. And that's assuming the IT/library specialist not only was good at their job in general, but was able to learn what motorcyclists needed in particular. If they weren't good, it would be a few hundred $k of good money after bad before that might be apparent enough that action to replace them was initiated. Even if they were good, If they got a better job offer a year into setting things up, it would be almost like starting from scratch for their replacement.

The point of this isn't to discourage the idea of an on-line library, but to illustrate that it would require a lot more careful thought and time to implement than just getting volunteers to agree to scan their collections (as if that wouldn't be a lot of work just in itself).

Well I don't know much about websites,but if the hired help can build a site to post videos I thought photos would be nice.
Perhaps instead of focusing recruitment efforts on Women and young members(and I like both),the BOD should try to attract(HIRE?)Historians,Photogaphers,Librarian etc.,or maybe people who have these skills are already on the Magazine payroll.
Tom

[exeric]

The following link is an extensive dialogue about an AMCA virtual library. Just about every aspect was covered, and had the participation of many members who no longer contribute anything to this forum (for whatever that is worth). I think this library concept has been made too complex. Scanning documents is simple, and easy, hosting sites are free, and it doesn't all have to be done in one session. A virtual library can be a growing entity that can be added to, and improved with member contributions. If things are mis-catalogued, or misplaced; they can be copied and pasted where they belong. Just like this forum, an administrator can monitor the contributions, and correct mis-catalogued items. . . But, this has all been talked to death, and without enthusiastic support from members, and the BOD; it is a moot, and pointless subject.

http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...t=amca+library

[BoschZEV]

(boy, am I going to be embarrassed if I've been staring at the link and just haven't noticed it).

A kindly soul sent me a PM pointing out where the link is. At the bottom of the page where I never look, because important links are always in obvious places like the top of pages labeled with names like "Quick Links." Further, unless the cursor is placed over it/them it appears to be a single "contact us" link to send emails to the webmaster. So, I'm not embarrassed for not having found where it was hiding from view.

[BoschZEV]

The following link is an extensive dialogue about an AMCA virtual library. Just about every aspect was covered,

I started to read the thread but the ranting and raving made me give up before getting to the end of the 2nd of the 11 pages.

I think this library concept has been made too complex.

It's true that describing all the steps in how to tie one's shoe can make it sound too complex to hope to do. On the other hand, it's also true that it's possible to describe a complex project in a way that makes it sound simple to accomplish. Based on my own experiences, such as they are, in my view building a virtual library that deserves being called that definitely is a complex project requiring serious financial resources.

[exeric]

I started to read the thread but the ranting and raving made me give up before getting to the end of the 2nd of the 11 pages.

And that is why one person's vision of a virtual library is doomed to fail. If you had read further you would have read some great ideas, and very sensible, workable concepts but those are one person's vision. I believe a library should be set up using this forum template, with categories representing the major marques. Contributors would dictate the best route, and it would be a flexible work in progress, that could change, and grow over many years because of many members ideas.

[fillibuster]

I spent about 30 minutes one day, at MacDoctors, trying to get my laptop to load pix off my camera with the intention of sharing stuff with the rest of you. The exercise was a bust. ..... But I did something else: I took few manuals to my printer, ordered and received copies, and a disc for each which I sent to Bill Wood. (months prior I'd sent a book to JJ Cerilli) . I'm not sure whether anything developed from this contribution, but I can't notice any difference when I access the club library. ..... I have close to $60 invested in that contribution, so I know I've tried. And I can't help but wonder why we canonize philanthropists who donate to the Foundation, .. to what benefit? So again, if I felt compelled to fund something, I hope that it could be a real, real library. .... I'll just send in my whole camera.
Eric, I have to disagree with you on the "lazy, apathetic", whatever that was. Most of us are just plain illiterate.

[D.A.Bagin]

I wonder if it is possible to link photobucket to the library with Winner Circle bikes. I have a 68 O.P that is 99.5 or more pts and I have photographed it and it is on photobucket. If it is possible people could photograph their bikes at leisure, load them and have a link in the library to the pics.