Yeah, sorry about that! I didn't mean to cause any confusion, I was a little vague on purpose because I wanted to see what ideas would come up.

But since we have a lot of newer members on these forums, maybe some more background would help clear things up.

Everything Earl said is correct. I'm going to break down 3 of the SVX groups you may or may not be familiar with.

1 Northwest SVX This is the group I started for all intensive purposes in October 2003. This is the group this thread was about. I had tried to start a similar group and web site in the past, but nothing from that carried over (members, etc). The main purpose of Northwest SVX is to give some identity to SVX owners in the Pacific Northwest that wish to meet and do car related activities. I.E., to take us a step beyond a group of owners meeting informally and give us a little more structure in both events, and who we are as a group presenting ourselves to the public (ability to request group discounts, have events reviewed in local car media, etc). The best way to keep a regional group like this united and informed in this modern age is through a web site, www.nwsvx.com and of course these forums. The web site is where we present ourselves to the public (already one of our members has "advertised" our group by welcoming members of dozens of car enthusiasts groups, media, and shops to view our site and see that we do exist and we have big plans). The web site is also where we will eventually have a photo archive of all the past events, with dozens of pictures contributed by all members. Personal lockers are cool, but how much cooler would it be to be able to go to one page and see all the best pictures of an event in one place, along with written summaries of the event and highlights. Of course this part of the site isn't just for members, this is where potential new members will look to see just what this group does, and hopefully they will like what they see enough to join us at a future meet. Which brings us to the web site is where we send potential new members to read and see what kind of a group we are, to give them enough information to know what to expect. In the past the alternative was to leave a card on a windshield that directed a newcomer to these forums, which worked for most of us, but for every one member here, how many potential members turned away because they were confused by the system, read some posts and didn't really see what the point was, were turned off by some fight or arguement going on, or maybe even never logged on to the site because the card didn't tell them enough. NWSVX.com is user friendly and full of information, and in fact is updated enough so that in theory a member never has to visit these forums at all if they are not into online forums - they can just log onto nwsvx.com once in a while and see the dates and locations of upcoming meets. Of course if they become a member, they don't even have to visit the site, they will receive meeting notices in their email.
Beyond the web site of course the hope is that by being part of a semi-official group such as Northwest SVX, we strive to put on more interesting meets and events. If we do our job right, some of these events could become traditions and as word spreads, owners will come from farther and farther away to be part of them. The rest will be history.

Point at hand: Northwest SVX is not a legal entity, I call it a semi-formal organization because as long as we all think of it as a group, present ourselves as that group, etc, we kind of have that club mentality. To make things more official would require some money for legal stuff and lots of red tape (you can tell how much I know by how I use terms like "legal stuff" ). We are probably never going to be so large a group as to require such actions and I think we would all like to keep things simple. So that said, I had floated the idea of a "premium membership" (basic membership in Northwest SVX will always be FREE) past some people that knew about "legal stuff" to see if it could fly. My thought was that a member could upgrade from free status to a premium level for say $20/year and get some extra benefits like a free decal, their own web page, etc. I was told that this might put us in some bad positions, by having someone pay for membership, there are then issues with whether the organization is registered, and possibly insurance liability at the meets! So that is why I am trying to stick to the donation idea and was told that as long as it was from person A to person B (currently me) that there is no problem and things are simple. As far as expenses, currently we are looking at around $108/year. That is for AD-FREE web hosting and the NWSVX.com URL. That's my cost, there is nothing added for time (there could be no way we could compensate for all those hours, I just really love doing it for as long as it helps better the local SVX community). There has been discussion about what could be done with any excess above that line - awards, prize drawings at meets, giving Chris money for the forums(see group #3 below).


2 SVX World Network This is the first official SVX organization started in the U.S., possibly the world. The group was talked about for years, and finally put together in 2002, with a big kick off at the 10th Anniversary SVX meet in July 02. The club had the best intentions - it had an elected board (you may have heard Randy "Aredubjay" Johnson" referred to as "president" in some posts, it is because he is elected president of this club) and was going through the process of becoming a registered non-profit organization. Over $1000 was collected in donations as well, to be put towards the costs of incorporation and to help keep these forums running (at the time they were on the verge of shutting due to lack of funds, see group #3). Some of the members that donated, or those that signed up at the big kick off meeting became members. But since the kick off, nothing of note has really happened with this organization. The incorporation never was finished, it is still not an official group any more than Northwest SVX is. As far as I know, the dues paying members never received any extra benefits (Earl can correct me if I'm wrong), other than of course the knowledge that their dues eventually went to help fund these forums since the club didn't have anything to use them on. A noble cause nonetheless, see group #3 again . As far as I know, there have been no plans to revive the idea and if you go to the web site you will see the information is quite old and most of the links are dead. For all purposes right now this club is nonexistent, which is partly why I started group #1. Perhaps in the future interest will come back, but until then, it would do well to focus closer to home and the club that is doing things! (sorry, couldn't resist)


3 subaru-svx.net This isn't so much a group as it is a place to talk. It is in fact these very forums I type this message in. We are called "members" here, but we are just registered users, or members, of an online discussion forum. It is confusing that the name and logo are almost the same as group #2, but in fact they are separate entities. When the attempt was made to start and official club (#2), the parties involved agreed that some of the funds would be paid to the owner of the forums (#3) to keep them running since they provide benefit. As I said earlier, if Northwest SVX ever got into a position of having excess funds, we would certainly be happy to divert some cash to keep these forums running since our group utilizes them. In fact, we may even go out of our way to get those excess funds specifically so we can get a big donation to the forums.
So here's the specifics on this forum site if you didn't know. This site and all it's thousands of bits of information is owned and operated by generous individual named Chris (that's his handle on here too, you've probably seen him post). He was one of the members on the old Yahoo SVX group us old timers used to be part of years ago, until he and several others decided to start their own forums site - For SVXers, By SVXers. Soon after this site appeared, and with it a gradual migration from Yahoo to here. The old Yahoo site still exists, in some form, and even some of the original members stay there and avoid here religiously. But comparing the post numbers, it would seem 90% of the online SVX talk goes on right here. And every post, every picture takes up space, and space cost money. And since the beginning Chris has kept it all running nearly flawlessly. He has always accepted donations, sometimes quietly and sometimes publicly, but there have been times, especially at the beginning, when it was all out of his own pocket. Not just the $50+/month for web space, but constant hardware upgrades and countless hours of time. Just something to keep in mind, especially next time you read a post on here on how to fix something yourself and save a couple hundred dollars you would have otherwise paid a dealer. I'm not sure the status on things financially right now, but just file this info in the back of your mind in case a call for donations from Chris comes up in the future or if Northwest SVX hosts a fundraising event.


So there's the deal on the three groups of note to kind of seperate them and see the differences and needs. Thanks for reading all of this if you did, sorry for the length but some important points I think.

And back on subject, please do post any thoughts or ideas on the Northwest SVX situation. Thanks!