This month marks the tenth full year since the fledgling group was kicked off the branch and told to fly or crash.
It started from collecting the Australian email addresses that appeared on the US Syncro group register, to which I initially sent local newsletters. This wasn’t very productive for the effort required and I created the Yahoo group in August 2004. That was the start of the still existing Yahoo group.
Membership grew rapidly and topped out at over 460 but – but we had unknowingly acquired a lot of very dubious ‘members’. After some plain malicious experiences, I instituted a clean-up, after which the membership dropped to just under 100!!
I am now 80 and therefore an OFTOF – Official Terminal Old Fart. Turning 80 brings with it an automatic decimation of IQ, so I now have to make do with just 15. However, this is no excuse for slacking off.
Activity on the group has waxed and waned regularly over the years. In respect of maintaining a database and applying the housekeeping necessary to keep any group functioning, my enthusiasm has tended to wax and wan along with the general level of activity.
It has been suggested that the group should be migrated to accommodate the iPhone, iPad, iPee, iPoo, Tweet and Twit generation but I cannot see how this would improve the functionality in any way. The functionality is essentially dependant on the desire of the members to keep the group alive.
It is, after all, a technical advice resource for Syncro owners in Australia and New Zealand . It is not a social website for tweenies and it does require an attention span of more than ten seconds to function as a reliable technical resource.
The un-asked for changes to the Yahoo group website have been largely detrimental to the original function, which is entirely unhelpful, but I will enter 2014 with some housekeeping. This will be followed by asking existing members to confirm their intention of remaining members – which is bound to trim the numbers somewhat!!
Regarding the register, previous attempts to get one running have petered out. I am in the process of collecting VIN numbers and I hope that that list can be expanded into a comprehensive register, as discussed in previous correspondence with Jon, who has offered to create and maintain it.
Les Harris
Syncro_T3_Australia