UK quattro Owners Club

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

Apologies for what some will consider a WOB.  I think it's important.

The observant among you will have observed the absence of the Club strapline 
from my .SIG file.  This is because I have not allowed my name to go forward 
for re-election this year.  John Coughtrie, Malcolm Lake, Leon Saurymper and 
Simon Gilmore have also relinquished their positions, though for different 
reasons than myself.  The Committee now consists only of John Robinson, Roger
Galvin, Adam Marsden and David Preece.
 
I have come to disagree more and more with the Club's actions in pursuit of its 
objectives.  We had 700+ members last year, yet considerable time was spent 
organising an overseas trip for just five of them.
 
My judgement was confirmed by the advertisement of a Pearlescent White 20V RR 
in the March Newsletter.  As the advertisement states, it was placed by the 
chairman himself.  It is not, however, the 20V that he normally drives - it is 
one that he bought some days before the newsletter went to print.

I made my concerns known to him in a letter last week.  So far, I have not had 
any reply other than an abusive phone call.

My specific concerns relate to his privileged position not only as chairman, 
but also as newsletter editor - in which he is the natural contact point for 
people approaching the club either to join or to advertise a car in the 
newsletter.

He has not yet denied to me that he obtained the name and address of the seller 
in this privileged manner.  He has also not denied not having passed the name 
to other members he knew to be looking for a 20V ur-quattro.  He has not denied 
exploiting the seller's desperate need for funds, and he has not denied adding 
GBP6000 to the GBP14000 purchase price before advertising it - concealing the 
fact that it was a bought-to-sell car - in the newsletter.

If I subsequently receive any of the above denials I will, of course, post the
fact here.

The newsletter goes exclusively to members.  The effect is that one of our 
members will be asked to pay GBP6000 more for a car than they would have paid 
had the contact simply been passed on.  GBP6000, of course, that will line the 
chairman's pockets.  I do not believe this is within the spirit of the Club.
 
Thus I have decided not to serve on the Committee this year.

-- 
 Phil Payne