Ask Rontam how many times I told him , going to talk to you soon, message ya as soon as I can. In terms of Officer / position matters. if anything he should be really pissed the most. but he is not.... well i dont think... once again Rontam for waiting on me. that goes to everyone. I am slow...

And Rontam, I swear I am going to call you in a few days hehe j/k I really am. the back log has cleared.

Cheers


I agree, and this is why I am keeping the group buys small and not permitting unauthorized group buys on behalf of the club. I will not commit to a large scale group buy unless I have confidence in the vendor and the officer / volenteering running it. Because at the end of the day... its the club that takes the heat if something goes wrong.

Now once the club is completely structured, you can replace the words, .... I have confidence in.... and replace it with All the officers. Its much better to work as a collective vs. one person calling the shots. But in a time like this where we lack structure... I would like to say I am doing a ok job at moving in the right direction.

I hope that you would agree?

 

My question is how come when someone wants to do a small group buy to help people save a few bucks, they were kinda asked (not using the word demanded) to have a cut towards "the club"

on another end point. If it wasn't trying to be a business how come there's two-tiered sales. For example the tires there were a price for people who have bought before and another price for new customers.

 

I made an edit to my previous post I think when you were typing this so it might address the first part. but i will take another stab at it. This was something mentioned also earlier in the thread.

Technically speaking. While on Evolutionm.net if your are talking about group buys and organizing buying and selling, you must be a Vendor, END OF STORY. The problem with us is, we are attempting to work with evolutionm.net to intergrate a club structure on to such a large forum. This is Beta. So all the authority to execute group buys in theory can only be conducted by myself. What had to take place so that I can do it? I, on behalf of the club had to pay for Vendor Status. Since it was the only way to be compliant with the governing rules. Vendor Status isnt exactly cheap I should remind you as well, but it was fundamentally important in order for us to proceed. This is a work in progress. Getting back to what you said about .....

"My question is how come when someone wants to do a small group buy to help people save a few bucks, they were kinda asked (not using the word demanded) to have a cut towards "the club""

I think you are refering to me. If someone post something that looks like a group buy. I know it might be a well intended gesture. But EvolutionM moderators will not see it that way. Would you rather have me say it to you kindly, or would you rather be banned for a week. So to add to my burden, I also must policy the forum and screen for these kinda things.

I would hope you wouldnt take it personally. But while talking to evolutionm.net, they have been extremely lienant when it comes to serious situations. And some things have come very close to derailing the entire evolutionm.net and toronto lancer club relationship, indirectly of course but still.

If you or anyone else has taken offense to this policy that i have executed, I am sorry. I am not trying to control who does what, my problem is , I have to ensure that everything goes smoothly, since there is alot riding on this all the time. i am not against anyone benefiting for organzing a group buy. But there are a strict set of conditions that must take place before a group buy can get under way. Sometimes, the person who wants to do it, isnt organized, sometimes I think the group buy is to big or ambitious / risky, sometimes, it has nothing to do with the person who wants to organize, maybe the clubs efforts are temporatly focused elsewhere.

When it comes to taking a cut of the action, I am not against this. To be honest, I rather someone who is commited and well compensated for performing a club service. Vs. someone who says they dont mind doing it for free. eventually they will get bored and either will quit, or may work counter to the overall club effort. its not the good nature of members that is in question here. But since we are talking about a club with a lack of structure, its not as easy to turn on a dime and impliment new strategy. Some will say if you look at where we were 2 years ago, vs. today, some will say its a big change. But if you look at the short term it will always be skewed, people may say we are moving to fast, some will think we are moving to slow. the fact of that matter. The speed is what it is.


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Going point, the two tier system, was my attempt at exploring a membership structure. It wasnt a failure but i realized the administration efforted need to run that was going to be to large to apply in the future so outside of the tire group buys . it would not work.

The logic before hand was to take some profit from the persons first large big ticket purchase and use it towards club maintainance / operations. So that if they returned for a second purchase of tires they would pay the absolute minimum.

What actually was implimented achieved its goals during the winter buy because some of that exceed is being used to further reduce the summer / allseason tire buy. If i keep this system stays in place then you will see tire prices progressively move lower as a whole for everyone, inside tier buyers and regulars.

Again, to answer the overall question of business / profit. These group buys for tires are paid directly to the Dealer, the club does not take profit in hand, the levy / profit we get is reinvested as credit. not retained by anyone other then the seller / vendor of the tires. Which I might add is now expanding to more Mitsu Dealerships

Bottom line: The initial idea was to use this as a way to set the Membership structure of the club, but it proved to difficult to impliment across the board. It would complicate things more then anyone would like.

Does this make sense?

 

/rant

also as a method of fundraising for the club I think it would be a better idea just to sell club-based things such as plate covers and vinyls to cover for "club overhead" as opposed to on products which others are trying to get as cheap as possible.

 

unfortunately, its not easy to administrate over the club since its always expanding. For example the EVO X wing of the club.

sorry if you found it to be a rant. But instead of shooting points back and forth, I felt the long version better bringing everyone else all on the same page.

 

what club overhead are we talking about? I dont see a specific TLC board? instead its piggy backed off evom...
If the vendor fees are so outrageous then why not go elsewhere?

I think many will agree $600 for just a lip is outrageous, hence why I could see you needing to lower it again and again. I guess its a lesson learned, get full payments up front so your not stuck with a crap load of lips which depreciate as the economy does. Being the guy running the GB its a risk you take which ever way you do it.

I'm not picking sides but just figured I'd throw some questions out there from what I've just read from above.

I'll throw this out there as well, why are we supporting overseas company's when we can be putting money back into our own economy? I know of many businesses on this side of the pond who would be more then happy to fulfill our aftermarket needs.

I know of many car clubs who run with minimal to no income. The GB profit is used as savings and instead turned over that much more to the members.

 

what club overhead are we talking about? I dont see a specific TLC board? instead its piggy backed off evom...
If the vendor fees are so outrageous then why not go elsewhere?

The idea was to do exactly that piggy back off of evolutionm.net There are pros and cons but I humbly believe that this course was the best one for the club 2 years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sigh... unfortunately economic policy has become really outta wack at the governmental level. the past 8 years has shaped economic trade that gives an advantage to other up and coming economies. I am sure we can go back and forth all day on this topic everyone has a point of view. Unfortunately. Things will not change overnight. I honestly beleive that the American / North American market can rapidly add jobs and reverse the current trend if the adopt the "Fair Tax Policy" It basically gets rid of income taxes for business and persons, and replaces it with a flat sales tax. The positive side to this is that if the government does it right, it would cause business and and more specifically factories to come back to the USA. No income taxes mean, healthy profits, so long as you can control your inputs. It has its negative points as well.... but its very interesting.

Personally I would love for there to be more vendors that do more special projects. such as RRM and WORKS etc... etc... Especially in Canada, but the way things are here, taxes are high and our market is greatly influenced by our southern brothers. You can make the same argument about Tuning " Tuning is sooooooooooo expensive, I am not paying $1600 or X amount", sprint booster " That is not worth 300$ dollars" or anything else. Its a value argument. Two each his own.

Generally speaking, Some only see one side of the equation, and ignore the other side. There is a cost to everything, and the market place is what will determine the cost of something. Business vs. Consumer. What is good is you can have buyers that are willing to pay a higher price for good and there is always a seller that will push their product or service for a lower.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I think many will agree $600 for just a lip is outrageous, hence why I could see you needing to lower it again and again"

It didnt help that Winter was super bitter. Looking back, I would have more success waiting until now to sell them. sigh lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

government will never take out income tax, they might lower it a bit but will never lower it by a lot or take it out...its their primary source of income w/o that = smaller government = less public services, basically a lot of publicly funded programs and stuff wud be gone...u'll see more pot holes in toronto and u'll begin to see more ghetto area from lack of government upkeep for buildings

best thing to do is i think try to rally up enuff interest to attact potential canadian aftermarket auto part producers to invest in R&D for the lancer and produce locally, that way we get cheaper shipping, cheaper parts, no customs...this would force the US companies and oversea companies to lower their price to accodate for the customs we have to pay to make their product seem more attractive, giving us the consumers more choice and a better price range =)

 

I've made a few friends and alot of connections through the club, it started with a bunch of Mitsu guys chillin and shootin the **** and evolved into a more structured format not too long ago. The way I see it is if there is an item I want in a group-buy and it's a decent price i'll get it, if I can get it cheaper somewhere else then i'll do so. There's nobody forcing you/me to spend $$$ through the club.

 

So far I feel that the club is all about helping each other out with mods/special projects that you would like to do to your car to make it your own. I know I've asked my fair share of questions on this forum and have always been able to find help/direction. I think a lot of the group buys that have happened so far is just guys who want to give back to the community. At least that's my take on it so far.

Sure you may be able to get parts cheaper elsewhere, but the thing to remember is that members don't have full control of pricing. It is the vendor that makes the decision on prices and we as members try our best to pass on the savings to everyone else. I mean would you raise heck if you were looking for a tv and found out somebody got a deal at futureshop 6 months ago on the tv you're look for? Would you demand that you get the same deal? It does come down to timing. Nobody is forcing you to participate in the group buy but usually it does turn out to be cheaper than if you went out on your own. At least that's been my experience.

It does take time, effort, and persistence to make sure a group buy goes smoothly. Also, for anyone who organized a group buy before, I'm sure you'll know how many people will hound you to get their product from you ASAP and there is a lot of follow up to do. It's just a factor that people don't really notice until they've been put into that position of organizing a group buy.

 

the way i see it.
if u are interested in a group buy and the price is good, go for it.
if u can find a better price from some where else, and do not wish to contribute to the person organizing the group buy. then go for that
if u have a better deal, let people know, let them decide.
=) simple as that

 

(off topic) blancy how is that lip holding up. Still driving mission impossible

 

honestly man the lip iss doing greatt haha the hockey tape is holding up
gives me a confidence boost when i go up now...tho i do have to replace
the layers of tape every once in a while. =D hows urs?

 

TLC baby!

 

meeting place, Kennedy Commons, WED's nights --- so i heard!