[DML] DOA will remain D-O-A

["John J. Schulz / DTOUR Inc." <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<snip> "Since Ron Ferguson took over and I accepted the Vice-Presidency, I have been
able to concentrate on the areas where I think we need the most help.
Namely the magazine and the website. We do need our leaders, but more than
that, we need doers." <snip>
 
Josh - with all due respect, the DOA has written it's own future, and confirmed it with your response above. I write this with ALL due respect... 
 
I was a member of the DOA originally, and dropped out when I saw my dues going not towards the "association" of car owners but rather towards an attempted lawsuit against James Espey. We all know what James has done for this community of car owners. (Much more than the DOA has done through it's entire existence!) A petty lawsuit because some board member did not like his view or comments or whatever the silly reasons for that suit were at the time. That's not an association I would want to be a part of and put my money (or actually, where NOT to put my money towards) elsewhere. That is when I left. Lawsuits? Really? Despite the 1st Amendment! Sorry, too elite for me!
 
Now to your comment above -  Quote JH: "I have been able to concentrate on the areas where I think we need..." Stop there for a second. As VP, it is NOT where YOU think the organization needs to go - it is where the membership body (not the "board") would like to see things going. There have been several suggestions already - to follow YOUR ideas is misguided at best and damaging to the organization at the least. It suggests the meek (the membership body) shall follow the elite (The VP's desires, or the mandates of the board in general). Again - no disrespect intended. Likewise, not what I would want out of a "car club".
 
You also mention "We do need our leaders, but more than that, we need doers."
True enough, and it is my impression that the leaders are looking for the doers to come from the membership body. WRONG! The doers are (or at least should be) the leaders of the organization, in this case the board of the organization, yourself included. Your continued participation in these DML discussions suggests you are a doer - what about the rest of the board? Do they hold honorary positions only or too busy to address the responsibilities of their positions for this organization which the general community (myself included) hold that the board simply is not there for the "common car owner".  
 
To offer the explanations such that the bylaws are available to the members (only?) tells me I can not see those "bylaws" until after I join your organization and part with my hard earned money. I call that playing "Secret Squirrel" stuff... Why not open up the books - especially if you have federal IRS requirements attached to the organization and file documents with either the state of California or the federal government, are they then not also a part of public record and subject to the freedom of information acts? Why the general impression of being an insider's organization shuttering out the non-members with exclusive elitism. Make yourself visible to the community (in all respects) so that the community may see what they are missing and to decide for themselves that "hey - I WANT to be a part of the DOA - they are doing things I WANT to be a part of"... The conceptual image of the DOA being made up of a board, in California, serving only those
 same board members alone, no matter how misguided this image is, still remains. No simple task to change this image, and no excuses to the contrary will change this impression. Your actions and the actions of that board need to change, and change towards offering the community of owners and enthusiasts what THEY want from THE (not your) "association"...
 
Those that know me know I am a car guy - last count I had 16 cars, three being DeLoreans. I have seen several different "clubs" perform essentially the same functions for the car ownership and enthusiast communities. Trust me, the DeLorean community is no different than any other car ownership body, but the DeLorean Owners Association is by far the most dysfunctional organization. Because of it's history, acknowledged here repeatedly, it also has the most difficult task of rejuvenating itself. Ignoring the wants and needs of the ownership body will never resurrect the DOA from it's own ashes as long as that same ownership body is dictated to with the wishes and desires of the board expecting the car ownership body to start contributing to make the DOA something special and respected. Won't happen this way! If you follow a Utopian view that all the car owners and enthusiasts would band together, join forces, create all the things their community would
 like to have created, and share all this creation amongst themselves, then you would indeed have an ASSOCIATION, but it would NOT be the "DOA" - and your "job" would only exist if that same community desired your position to exist, and to be filled - through election - by you. The present DOA structure is basically doing things backwards! 
 
As others have mentioned, the DeLorean community actually DOES have a "DOC" (sorry for the BTTF pun) and not a DOA. The DeLorean Owners COMMUNITY is made up from a DML, owners in Arizona, Illinois, New jersey, Ohio, etc... vendors who every owner already knows... (add in any other aspects of participation you choose - the "DeLorean Car Show", etc. ) This also costs the community nothing in the form of dues. I have seen and personally contributed financially to this community by MY choice, to further this community and continued success for entities like the DCS.
 
A collective group of people who have a unique automobile in common already exists. The DOA is D-O-A because it has been replaced by all these other DOC outlets, which, like it or not were in fact created because the DOA was NOT responsive to its Community. As to paraphrase an attitude from the DOA - "if you don't like what we are doing, do it yourself" - THAT created the DCS which Ken runs so well WITHOUT the DOA! (Good going, Ken!) 
 
In short, the DOA was destroyed from within by its own elitist attitudes and has become obsolete because of what it forced an alienated membership body to create on their own!
 
Again, no disrespect intended. No - you will not see me joining your DOA. I see no benefit from it, and frankly do not want to be associated with an association who has a history which continues to haunt it. Remember when the Delorean automobile had the cocaine jokes attached to it? (Still does, actually, but less frequently as the car's image has shifted more to the BTTF crowd and a younger following, and the cocaine joke are fading into history and fogotten for the better.) Like it or not, the DOA has a very negative history attached to it. Good luck removing the stench of your past.
 
To borrow a phrase from a movie - "If YOU make it - they will come" - Is the magazine and website actually what the community wants? I think not. (Both of these already exist, in multiple forms, by the way.) Is this what you want? Yes, by what you have already stated and have been quoted here on. Drop the attitudes and have YOUR board start listening to the community. One car club I belong to has a slogan. It goes like this - "You come for the car, you stay for the People" - With the history and attitude (in general) the community perceives of the DOA, the DOA will remain D-O-A until the PEOPLE are addressed. You ARE personally trying to address this community, but you are in fact still offering nothing to the community in the process. You appear to me to be asking the community to make your organization functional to support your title.
 
A COMMUNITY already exists, just fine on it's own. a DeLOREAN Owner's Community!
The DOA is dead. It will remain dead and a laughing stock of "car clubs" because of its own dysfunctional nature. Those trying to save the DOA will keep the haunting memories alive to ensure the DOA never becomes what they would like it to be... The DOA board did it to themselves years ago! Every time a "new" DOA is discussed, the discussions end up being the same, and admit it - if history is ANY indication, the DOA can not move beyond its own past. 
 
The DOA has become the DOC (DeLOREAN Owners COMMUNITY) and will remain such at a cheaper rate (no mandatory dues) with better content than what the DOA could ever hope to become.
 
Again, no disrespect intended.
 
Respectfully,
John J. Schulz

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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