What are the facts and what are
the options?
The key facts are the:
New arrangements for producing the Club's monthly magazine, Safety
Fast!, were made in September 2005
A contract for producing a cut-down Safety Fast! and supplying a
copy of a copy of MG Enthusiast to each Club member was a commitment
made by the previous Board without consultation with the Club's
Council which was due to meet the following month. As part of those
arrangements all commercial advertising (and advertising income)
ceased in Safety Fast! and similarly very nearly all the feature
articles and reports so the net effect was a much reduced Club magazine
both in content and number of pages. The content is now simply monthly
columns and periodic newsletters from Centres, Registers and Branches
of the Club and other Club announcements and reports. You will recall
that only a few years ago Safety Fast! won the motor club magazine
of the year award for its editorial content, features and general
professional quality. What an astonishing reversal!
Cost of the new publishing arrangements with Octane Media
It is considerably greater than the previous costs when Safety
Fast! was published as an in-house magazine at Club Office. That
increased cost has been a major factor in both the increased subscription
rates applying from May 2006 and the current adverse financial performance
of the Club reported in the interim statement issued recently in
Safety Fast! by the Club Treasurer.
Relaunched MG Enthusiast
The reality is the relaunch of MG Enthusiast was only really commercially
viable with the contractual commitment and support of the Club to
take and pay for a minimum number of copies of the combined magazine
package each month until June 2007. The Club received a windfall
increase in new members last Autumn of around a 1,000 as the existing
magazine subscribers were offered free Club membership for the residue
of their magazine subscription period.
How long is the Club bound by that contract?
The terms of that contract provide for an earliest opportunity to
terminate in June 2007 for which notice would have to be issued
by the Club in December 2006. So a decision point will be only two
months after the next Council meeting.
Seeking members' views
As part of a step change in approach to communications and consultation
with Club members, the present Executive Committee wants to seek
members' views on the Safety Fast! arrangements. That process is
mainly through through the Centres, Registers and Branches (CRBs)
as they are the members' representatives at the Club's forthcoming
Council meeting.
V8 online survey
We feel it is important members have good information and can express
their views so they can be included in the decisions taken over
the next few months by the Club regarding Safety Fast! and the Octane
Media contract. So we have set up a convenient online survey so
members can express their views on key issues and there are sections
on the survey form where you are free to set out any views you have.
Many members have done so!
Safety Fast! motions tabled for debate at the
Council meeting on Saturday 14th October 2006 at Gaydon
Two motions have been tabled for debate. They are set out in full
below.
If you have any views on the T Register motion below, you can contact
the T Register through their contacts webpage at www.tregister.org
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What are the key issues and areas of concern for
Club members?
In essence the issues and concerns boil down to:
What type of Safety Fast! do Club members want?
Are Club members satisfied with a cut-down Safety Fast! or do they
want to return to an award winning motor club magazine with a full
content of features, reports, commercial and classified advertising?
Increased cost
Are members satisfied their Club is paying around an additional
£7.25 a member a year for the combined magazine package?
Subscribing to MG Enthusiast
Would members prefer to decide for themselves whether of not they
subscribe for a commercially produced specialist MG magazine or
are they happy for that decision to be made for them together with
any increased costs reflected in increased annual Club subscription
rates? If there were two Club subscription rates, both with a revived
full feature Safety Fast! but one with the addition of a copy of
MG Enthusiast and the other without, would you choose the combined
package? Naturally some V8 members might respond "it depends
on the surcharge for adding MG Enthusiast to my subscription package".
So our Online V8 Survey will address that matter.
What is your assessment of the quality of MG Enthusiast?
This is clearly a value judgement for each member based on their
individual review of the quality and personal interest of the range
features, technical articles, motor race reports, advertising and
style of the magazine.
Online V8 Survey of
V8 members views and concerns over the new Safety Fast!
arrangements
Do take
time to complete our compact survey form and by all means
add any additional comments or views you may have.
Online
V8 Survey Form
Report
on survey responses
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The responses received from a number of V8 members within the Club
to the new Safety Fast! arrangements have been mixed. They have
ranged from dissatisfaction with the form and content of a cut-down
Safety Fast! and demands for its restoration. Very few V8 members
have expressed delight with the new combined package of a cut-down
Club magazine and a copy of MG Enthusiast. Without a proper survey
of members' views (see note below) using professional market research
methods, reader surveys may have a bias towards those satisfied
with the magazine simply because those dissatisfied are less inclined
to respond to such surveys and often simply suffer. Sadly some will
vote with their feet and let their Club membership lapse.
News of the MG Enthusiast survey
See preliminary information released by Octane Media in an email
we have received from Octane Media.
MG Enthusiast
survey results
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Motion
from the T Register
Council instructs The Executive Committee to
inform Octane Media by not later than 31st December 2006 that the
MG Car Club Limited wishes to cease the arrangement with Octane Media
dated 29th September 2005 whereby the MGCC members receive a copy
of MG Enthusiast and to start planning for the publication of a new
and improved "Safety Fast!", the first copy of which is
to be published on 1st July 2007.
Council also instructs the Executive Committee to further report to
the March 2007 Council meeting on progress with the new and improved
"Safety Fast!" and the options regarding production and
advertising.
The
T Register reserves the right to amend the Motion in the light of
any proposals or Motions relating to the arrangement with Octane Media
that may be put forward by the Board prior to Council.
The T Register also request that an item be added to the Agenda for
Council reporting on the results of the recent reader survey undertaken
by MG Enthusiast including specifically those questions relating to
Safety Fast!
See amendment
Assessment
of the motion
This motion is based on the view that the cut-down Safety Fast!
is not acceptable in terms of content and quality as the monthly
magazine for a motor club which has a long tradition of producing
a good quality Club magazine. This is underlined by the Club
receiving an award for the best motor club magazine only a few
years ago. The motion requires the Executive to make plans for
publishing a new and improved Safety Fast! from July 2007 and
to serve notice of termination under the present contract with
Octane Media. The motion is silent over the possibility of the
Club negotiating concessionary subscription terms for MG Enthusiast
from July 2007 for any Club members who might wish to subscribe
for that publication. |
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Motion
recommended by John Dutton (Club Hon Treasurer) and Malcolm Eades
(Club Vice Chairman), who carried out the review of the Safety Fast!
and the Octane Media arrangements, and recommended by a majority
of the Club's Executive Committee members:
That the Board be mandated to re-negotiate
the contractual arrangements with Octane Media so that the net cost
of the magazine to the Club is reduced to a level that the Board
regards as acceptable. If an acceptable cost cannot be renegotiated,
the Board is mandated to pursue the other options available and
return to Council in March 2007 with further recommendations, including
revised budgets, for Council's approval.
Assessment
of the motion
This
motion is effectively an agreement to agree which is of itself
an undesirable format but it also begs the question "what
is an acceptable cost"? Is it for example a renegotiated
net cost no greater than the cost of producing an in-house Safety
Fast! or some other figure to be decided at a later date? Another
area of concern is the option of issuing a notice of termination
would be deferred to March 2007 which may mean termination may
not take effect until September 2007 involving a further 3 months
of additional cost under the arrangements.
The report was released to the Executive Committee members only
two or three days before their monthly meeting on Monday 11th
September 2006 at which two directors had previously given notice
they could not attend. One director unable to attend was Victor
Smith who nonetheless submitted his views to the Club Chairman
in writing. He felt the the time for considering the report
was unreasonably short and that he had concerns over the analysis
set out in the report and could not support the recommendations
without substantial amendment. One of the authors of the report
has responded stating they could not have produced the report
sooner. |
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Amendment
to the T Register motion
Council acknowledges that some members of the Club are satisfied with
the current monthly Safety Fast! and MG Enthusiast package because
they consider MG Enthusiast an attractive and interesting magazine
which they are keen to receive, but some Council members are also
aware there are many Club members who do not share that view. Accordingly
the Executive Committee is instructed to negotiate a concessionary
subscription rate with Octane Media for MG Enthusiast so that
Club members who wish to receive MG Enthusiast on those concessionary
terms can do so, and to establish a two tier Club membership subscription
system. The lower subscription level will be for members wishing
to receive only Safety Fast! on a monthly basis and the higher tier
for Club members wishing to receive both Safety Fast! and MG Enthusiast
on a monthly basis. Council requires the Executive Committee to report
back to Council on progress on the concessionary rate negotiations
and on establishing a two tier membership subscription system at its
next meeting due to be held on or about March 2007.
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webpage was created on 24.9.06 & amended 17.10.06 |
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