In November the Jaguar Owners Association-Montreal held a regular monthly meeting during which a presentation was made and discussions were held as to what direction the club wished to take in 2004 with regard to affiliations. This discussion was promised to the membership and executive two years ago when the decision was originally made to re-join JCNA on a trial period (JOA-M was one of the founding clubs in JCNA in the mid-1950's and ran as an independent club in the 1980's and 90's). Several options were outlined to the executive and members including:

- renewing JCNA membership for 2004
- affiliating with a large local club
- returning to fully independent status
- affiliating with an international club such as the JEC or JDC

One decision was arrived at immediately: with no desire to run a concours, slalom or rally and little satisfaction with the current version of Jaguar Journal it was decided that renewing JCNA membership "en masse" was not a desired outcome. The members present then agreed that they desired a monthly, printed newsletter or magazine of reasonably good quality and of reasonable cost that focused on restoration, maintenance and repair along with articles and stories of a "folksy" flavor describing real people with real (driving) cars. A two-step process was put into place:

1. contact one of the largest Jaguar clubs in the country (I'll leave the name out so as not to ruffle any feathers) and ask them if they would entertain the idea of welcoming members of JOA-M as subscribers to their (relatively high quality) monthly newsletter. The proposal included possible synergies between the two clubs including sharing of responsibilities for the generation of articles and stories for the newsletter. The proposal was contingent on "Club X" offering a "bare bones" membership rate that did not include membership in JCNA. After discussion (but not a vote) at the executive level of Club X it became obvious that the hurdles were too high to overcome if this initiative were to succeed. Briefly, the idea died on the drawing board due to "JCNA Corporate policy 201.5" which states that clubs such as Club X are not allowed to entertain memberships that do not include membership in JCNA. Another interesting comment was the idea that Club X is already strapped for resources (newsletter, activities, concours, website etc.) with a membership of 300+ and adding another 60 or 70 members (albeit distant members) would further tax the situation. I'll leave it to the reader to draw inferences from the fact the one of the largest and most successful clubs in the country are having problems finding enough volunteers to perform the basic tasks required to keep a club afloat.

2. the "plan B" in case the initiative with Club X failed was to approach the Jaguar Enthusiast Club with the idea of becoming an affiliate (largest Jaguar Club in the World with 20,000+ members and an excellent monthly magazine). Upon receipt of our proposal, Nigel Thornley of the JEC was highly enthusiastic and a plan was hatched for membership renewals for 2004.

To keep the process as democratic as possible a 3-page renewal letter was sent out to the membership in early December outlining 4 possible choices or levels of membership renewal in 2004:

1. membership in the local club only with the monthly local newsletter for CDN$25 per year.
2. membership in the local club as above combined with membership in JCNA and 6 issues of the Jaguar Journal for CDN$50 per year (a $10 reduction over last year's fees).
3. membership in the local club as above combined with membership in the JEC and 12 issues of the JEC magazine for CDN$85 per year.
4. Membership in the local club, JCNA and the JEC all for $110 per year.

As a goodwill gesture, representatives of the JEC had sent us a box of current JEC magazines by overnight courier and a single copy was included with each membership renewal package for perusal. The vast majority of JOA-M members had never seen an issue of the JEC magazine before.

Renewals were received in a relatively short time and the final tally indicated that just over 80% of the membership chose to receive the local club newsletter combined with the JEC magazine. A sterling bank draft was sent to the JEC and local members received a comprehensive welcome package with a copy of their first JEC monthly magazine within 10 days.

13% of the membership opted for local club membership only with the local monthly newsletter. Of course, that means that only 7% of the membership opted to renew their JCNA membership for 2004. Membership renewals were stable from year to year with approximately 6% growth in new members.

Our club is happy to participate in this "experiment" as guinea pigs. I will be canvassing the members as to their level of satisfaction and publishing the results.

Daniel Thompson
2004 president - Jaguar Owners Association Montreal

Submitted by silver007@shaw.ca on Tue, 03/09/2004 - 13:09

Gentlemen,
JCNA services the needs of the vast majority of North American Jaguar owners in many ways, and does it for a very reasonable price indeed.
Events are sanctioned, National Awards are presented in many different categories indeed and I do not want to list them all.The Jaguar Journal is sent out to members and produced for about two dollars per copy.

JEC, of which I have been a member for about ten years or more, services the needs of Jaguar owners in North America in the following way.
Provides members with a great magazine ( apart from content like I unfortunately noticed on page 13 of the August issue, this showed a group of people at the JEC Stand wearing NAKED BODY SUITS WITH ALL APPENDAGES IN VIEW,). I have never seen anything as gross in a supposed quality magazine before, and I am sure Mike Cook would not allow such utter garbage to appear on one of our fine bi monthly magazines.
JEC lists 20,000 members, although they fail to acknowledge any Canadians on their count, I suppose they feel we are superflous to their needs anyway, whatever. If you wish to travel to England I am sure there are things you could do with the membership.

To myself living in North America, JCNA satisfies my needs for activities, JEC merely gives me extra reading material, and at a much higher cost also,

Art Dickenson.
1983 XJS GT \"Silver\""

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 17:00

Daniel,

My apologies for characterizing the action as a slap in the face. But I still don't really get it. And, for having read all your prior posts, I still don't understand what it is you think a North American Jaguar Club should be. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could explain your vision to me.

Nothing would make me happier than to bring about change that would broaden the appeal of the Jaguar club and increase our membership ranks significantly. Any guidance you can provide on how to make that happen and how to make this or any other club more relevant to Jaguar owners all over North America would be appreciated and welcomed.

Steve

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 16:59

Gary and Steve,

Two points:

- has it occured to anyone that 80% of any car club's members desire just that: a magazine!

- I agree that North America is bigger than England, but what if there was a "JEC" for New England, with own magazine and events? How successful do you think that would be? We have already seen that the "challenge championship" does not work as a national event, so why can't North America have 3 or 4 really strong regional clubs?

Daniel

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 16:51

Steve,

Whoa! Let's back up for a minute. There is no "slap in the face" going on here. Nor is there any attempt to attract attention. It would have been very simple for me to scrape together a few members who were willing to pay the dues to be JCNA members, send in the roster renewal for 2004 and not say anything about multiple membership levels or JEC affiliation or anything else. What JCNA doesn't know won't hurt it, right? But why? I'm doing things like this out in the open, no BS, no hidden agendas. Perhaps (and this is a big leap of faith...) others may learn from the experience.

I have a vision of JCNA that differs markedly from the vision that others have and the current structure of JCNA. Is that a sin? I've already outlined in a previous post what the basic outline would be of my "ideal club". Quite frankly, if I was retired and had about 80 hours a week to spare I'd take a shot at doing it myself. But I don't, so I'll go my way and JCNA will go its way and everyone will live happily ever after. I will continue to maintain my JCNA membership (as I do my JEC, JDC, Jaguar World and XK Club memberships), but I will not "push" the members of my local club to maintain theirs if they do not wish to do so.

Tell you what, change the bylaws to allow local clubs to have multiple membership levels and we will have made a start. But there would be a long road after that, because my vision of a national marque club involves just that: a national marque club, not a collection of local clubs. It is my belief that JCNA (not the local clubs!) will, at best, continue to muddle along in mediocrity or, at worst, vanish within the next ten years.

My opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Thanks,

Daniel

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 16:50

One more thought -- Just how many events do you expect JEC to run on the North American continent this year? Next year? JEC is primarily active in England, and runs some events, mainly tours, in Europe. That's it. All you get in North America is a magazine, that, while it is interesting reading, contains little if nothing of relevance to what is happening on this side of the pond.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy reading JEC's magazine. But when it comes to Jaguar related events on this continent, I look to JCNA and its affiliates. Not JEC.

It's easy for JEC to be a centralized club with centralized leadership and activities. Most of its membership is concentrated in a country about the size of New England. Almost all its members and all of their activities are within a day's drive of where everyone lives. There's no need for local or regional clubs to provide activities beyond those provided by JEC itself.

North America is different. First, it's what, maybe a 100 times bigger? (don't hold me to the numbers, you get the point.) Thus JCNA's structure and also its mission are different than a club like JEC. I'm sure there are some aspects of JEC that we could learn from and adopt for JCNA. But expecting JCNA to look, feel and operate like JEC or JDC in England, I believe is unrealistic.

Steve Weinstein

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 16:24

Daniel,

Unfortunately, I do agree with Gary on this issue. JCNA membership is not optional for members of JOAM. I'm a Jaguar Touring Club member and through it a member of JCNA. I'm also an associate member of Jaguar Auto Group - NJ, and a dues paying member of JEC and JDC. In fact, I'm the US East Coast representative for JDC. All I get out of JEC and JDC is a magazine. But I expect and get more out of my memberships in JTC, JAG and JCNA.

As I have told you in the past, I understand the JOAM issues with regard to assessing "value" for it JCNA membership. If, indeed, you are not running a concours, slalom, rally or other event that would bring you within the perview of JCNA competition rules or insurance coverage, questioning the value of return on investment is understandable. However, as I and others have said, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's explore ways of making JCNA relevant to you and the members of JOAM.

It is very distressing to me that JOAM is effectively prodding JCNA to revoke JOAM's affiliation. I don't want to see our region lose what has been a vital and vibrant affiliate that has produced an outstanding leader who potentially could have helped take JCNA in new directions. We've all waited, hoping to hear you set forth new ideas to help find that new direction. Instead, we get what can only be termed a slap in the face.

If the slap was intended to get our attention, fine. You've done that. Now tell us what it is you wanted us to do once you got our attention. However, if the slap was intended only to project a high degree of disfavor for JCNA a corresponding proposal to fix what is perceived to be broken, I don't think you can expect JCNA to respond in a positive fashion to the provocation.

Daniel, my sincere hope is that you and the other members of JOAM will reconsider your position and "re-up" with JCNA (I know you personally paid to be a JCNA member -- we'd like the rest of the club to do the same as well). I, for one, very much want to see JOAM and you remain vital, contributing members of the JCNA family. Anything less is a step backwards, not forward.

Sincerely,
Steve Weinstein

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 15:56

Gary,

Thanks for the "official" reply. Of course, this eventuality was foreseen, and the plan put in place was simply to have the remaining JOA-M members who have paid their 2004 JCNA dues becoming members of the Ottawa club. I will contact Nelson Rath with this information and also speak to the executive of the Ottawa club about the additional members (including my own membership).

Two points to consider going into next week's JCNA annual general meeting:

- if JCNA is planning on sending a letter to the members of a particular club, no matter what the topic, it would be considered polite to ask the permission of said club's president or executive BEFORE sending such a letter. Last time I checked the Montreal club belonged to us, the members of the club, and not to JCNA.

- a "corporate policy" or "bylaw" or whatever it is called telling clubs that every one of their members HAVE to pay $$'s into JCNA coffers or risk the exclusion of the entire club is just plain ridiculous. I know nobody will have the guts to bring this topic up at the AGM in front of the delegates but what a load of malarkey this particular rule is. Is it any wonder JCNA has a poor reputation, even amongst its own members? Interestingly, the JEC has not asked our club for a copy of its bylaws, nor has it asked us to sign off on a copy of the "JEC bylaws and corporate policies", nor do they have the slightest interest in how we run our club, how many levels of membership are available etc. A welcome breath of fresh air.

Sincerely,

Daniel Thompson

Submitted by ghagopian@jcna.com on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 15:17

JOA Montreal Members,

In the past we have welcomed your choice to affiliate the Montreal club with the JCNA.

Our rules for maintaining affiliation require annual payment of dues for each and EVERY Montreal club member. That's the only way we are able to support the JCNA network providing services, competition programs, and your affiliate oriented bi-monthly magazine. Those are rules set out in the JCNA By-Laws, to which you agreed.
Maintaining several types or classes of membership within the JOA Montreal, without JCNA dues payment, would void your affiliation agreement with the JCNA.

Those wishing to maintain JCNA membership, could do so by joining Ottawa, Ontario, or JANE in the USA as your primary club, or by becoming "MALs". (members at large). This approach would then allow you to become an "associate member" of JOA M, while maintaining JCNA membership.

I urge you and the JOAM leadership to reconsider the decision to maintain multiple membership classification without payment of JCNA dues for all. Having been a past member of the JEC and the JDC, I cannot imagine the wisdom of sacrificing North American membership in favor of a distant and more expensive club, whose only available benefit is a magazine comparable to the one you're already receiving.

Sincerely,

Gary Hagopian
JCNA President

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 14:20

Hello Steve,

The Montreal club has not asked for "disaffiliation" from JCNA. So far as I know, the proxies are valid. For those 90 some-odd percent of members who did not choose the JCNA option, they are no longer card carrying members of JCNA. The club is intact, thriving even. It's just that the membership has voted "with their feet" as to where the best value lies.

Hope this clears up any confusion.

Daniel

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 03/08/2004 - 14:10

Daniel,

Please explain what all this means. Are you telling us that the Montreal Club is disaffiliating from JCNA? That only 7% of the Montreal club members will now be members of JCNA? I understand from what you said that most of your members are now members of JEC in England. But does that mean that they have all dropped out of JCNA?

Just curious, since you sent me a proxy to vote the Montreal club's votes at the AGM. But that may now be a moot point if there is no Montreal club affiliated with JCNA anymore.

Steve Weinstein, JTC-NJ
JCNA Northeast Regional Director