Battery Vehicle Society

I've just received the latest club magazine. After the departure of the last editor I wondered who would take up the poisoned challis. The answer is no one. The old guard have won their campaign."Plugged In" appears to have been replaced by the antiquated "Battery Vehicle Review".

Nikki and partner got the website into a dynamic form but it seems to have stagnated since their departure. Kelvin went out in a blaze and John has gone in a more subdued manner.

If this is an indication of the direction the club is following (charging backwards into the past) I for one will not be renewing my subscription.

Sad to say, I know exactly what you mean. My wife asked me this evening why I still bothered with the BVS and she looked at the copy of the parish magazine with disgust.

Come subscription time, I can't see me renewing unless things improve.

In an age where you can get better and more up-to-date information on the web, and have other clubs and societies around that cater for their members far better, the Battery Vehicle Society doesn't seem to have a point any more.

FlossyThePig wrote:... The old guard have won their campaign."Plugged In" appears to have been replaced by the antiquated "Battery Vehicle Review".

...If this is an indication of the direction the club is following (charging backwards into the past) I for one will not be renewing my subscription.

The direction the club will follow after recent events depends on you, me, and us, all of us, the members.

This mythical old guard apparently campaigning for BVR is a figment of someone's imagination. The mix of older and newer members I see on the committee currently would like to give members what members want, but in order to do that the Society will need volunteers to do it.

I for one am thankful that those responsible for BVR (who do not have the technical skills currently to do PI) were able to leap in and see to it that members got something to read for Dec/Jan. I hope that a new Editor will come forward so that we can return to more Plugged Ins for future issues of the Society magazine, but I am grateful to anyone who gives up their time to do things for us.

I hope that in the coming year we can find/elect a good team of motivated committee members, representing the full spectrum of our membership, to take the society forward positively through 2009 and beyond.

With the support of our loyal members, I believe we can rise from the ashes of the tumultuous year that has been 2008 and move on to better things in 2009. There are so many things the BVS can do, for our members, and for the wider community. I for one, will continue to support the society however I can. I hope that others will choose to do the same.

Mary.

Will the BVS be issueing credits to its Members for not receiving the benefits of Membership
Afterall it does clerly state that we should receive a quarterly copy of Plugged in, which we are currently not.

Membership costs just £15 per person per year (£10 concessions) and comes with many benefits including:
· Full access to the BVS technical library of books, papers and videos (once joined please contact )
· Free technical advice and support with any aspect of choosing, building, converting or restoring any sort of electric vehicle on our forums.
· Industry-level technical know-how of every aspect of electric vehicle maintenance, battery technology, motor design and much more.
· You’ll also receive quarterly copies of our fabulous “Plugged Inâ€Â

electricvehicles wrote:Will the BVS be issueing credits to its Members for not receiving the benefits of Membership

Dave, I don't think this is helping matters. Surely it's better to fix what's wrong than to throw away what we've got because it doesn't quite work the way we want?

You've been really helpful to me and to others in the past and I'm really grateful for that. It's the positive contributions that people make to a forum that bring in more people and make it successful. I'm guilty myself of whingeing occasionally that the BVS is not perfect, but it is after all what we make it and it's up to us to decide what we want it to be. There is no "higher power" to complain to. We either get on with things and each do our bit, or else we turn our backs on what has the potential to be an inspiring source of news and information as well as a place where we can arrange local meetings.

Here's an idea: How about we just forget about the BVS for a bit and concentrate on building the forum? You don't have to be a member to use the forum, so let's open it up and try building numbers. The stronger this place becomes, the more influence it will ultimately have on the society, and the larger the pool of users we'll have in which to find editors and writers for Plugged In. I appreciate that existing members have paid dues expecting regular copies of Plugged In. It looks as if we may not get them for a while, but that wasn't the main reason I personally joined the BVS. I joined to swap ideas and possibly meet up with like-minded people, and I think it would be daft to throw that all away over a three-monthly magazine.

Cheers
Malcolm

Hmm.

I finally got around to renewing a week or so ago (via the helpful PayPal link) and now it all appears to have collapsed.. Sorry about that.

The website and forum collapsed at the weekend- the Society marches on. I believe it will, in one form or another, as it has done for the past 30 years. It is up to us as members to guide it forward, or let it bimble on.

Well done guys for identifying the positive in the BVS !
I just feel guilty that I didn't have the strength or inclination to get involved in negative discussions to try and turn things around myself.
But be assured I (and I am sure other people here) have 'been with you' in thoughts if not words.

Anyway, hopefully (as some of you may be aware) I am trying to improve things quietly in the background myself and as I am sure other people are.

Let's all have a 'Shout the BVS is good' midday somewhen and harness some positive energy.

Love and light,
Rob