I'm with Moparrbust. I'm a car guy. I like hanging with other car guys and don't see the need to pay to do that. As a user of this forum I already feel as if I'm a member of a great, elite club!

Oh yeah, and I already have stickers! Still some left over. Any takers!!!

 

I'm not a member, but did consider it and may yet at a lesser amount (meaning not a charter member). Things are a bit iffy in my industry and I'm sure many are worried about where the economy is going prior to jumping into a non sanctioned "club"

I'm all for the idea of keeping the XF group to actual owners and would like to thing there would be other ways besides fees to keep non owners out; but the reality is we can't without some measures in place. If every idea form the computer "geeks" among us has been exhausted, then so be it.

I don't like the idea of an America's only (US & Canada) "club" the purpose of the site should be to bring a relatively small group of owners of a fantastic car regardless of country. So how do we do it? A VIN registry whereby only those with valid registrations are permitted to join the forums, post, and "vote"? Maybe, but my concern would be control.

Like I said, money is an issue at this time and may be for others in this economy. I'll keep watching and when the timing is right, I'll more than likely join.

Happy driving and happy holidays!

 

Originally Posted by rhacker382


I think you will find we are a diverse group of decent, fun loving individuals who share something extraordinary in common.

A little history:
The old club really wasn’t organized with any official administrative structure, and it fell on bad times in 2007 when the originator sold his car and then handed the club responsibilities over to another individual; sadly the new manager did very little with the club as he fell on personal hardships. However, there were many of us who still wanted to pursue developing the organization. Recognizing one man could not possibly run a club with such potential and without any real organization; so, five of us did some research and discovered the club was never officially registered as a business or non-profit. We took the name, with the blessing of the predecessors, essentially we dissolved the old club because the records were incomplete, and started fresh. We determined which would be the best way to create something to last. We decided to incorporate the name and file for non-profit status and become a 501(c)7 corporation of voting members; those who own or lease a Crossfire may join and have voting rights and essentially own one vote (share) of the corporation, by doing this we have created something to last for many years.

We love our cars; and now that the Crossfire is an orphan child of divorced parents (Chrysler and Mercedes), we believe we should all to stick together. This is an exciting time for us, we have achieved approximately 40 members in short time since we opened for membership on November 2nd, 2008 and many others have pledged their support after the holiday. I anticipate we will achieve between 75 and 100 charters by January 31st 2009
I hope I have sufficiently answered your questions and concerns.

 

That copy pasted-text didn't really alleviated my concerns Valk, :-(.

It did not answer *any* of my well-intended questions on issues that should be addressed.

 

I hope the staff at CICCI can answer your questions here.
I have brought it to there attention.

 

Thank you! I hope my concerns are well founded.

 

All the information I'll ever need is already on this forum and this club already has outstanding members!

 

All of this was covered in XFi discussions previously. I recommend you take the time to read the entire thread:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=27420

The CICCI forum is closed to the public because it serves as our meeting place, where we conduct club business on-line; and, according to the non-profit law it must be closed to non-members to constitute a club under 501c7.

Simply, the CICCI forum is seperate because we need a means to communicate that we can fully control. We do not own this forum; this forum could go dark at any moment if one day the owner decides he doesn't want it anymore.

We have been, and continue to be, fully supportive of Crossfireforum. CICCI is aimed at going beyond this internet convention. So, the club and its members are entitled to a failsafe.

Finances will be transparent to members.

Regular Memberships will be $35 starting Feb. 2nd. enrollment and first years dues are included at in that price. Annual dues will be $25.

There should not be any hard feelings between CICCI and Crossfireforum; we have made our intentions perfectly clear all along. Again, all covered in the above thread.

 

All well said; and all of what you have touched on here is on our radar screen.

 

To add to what rhacker382 already posted.........

The "old" club (XFi) was nothing more than a sticker vendor and owners registry for the most part. The "new" club (CICCI) is much more of an actual club, with it's own space on the internet for all of us to convene, as well as many other perks.

One topic that I haven't seen anyone address, surprisingly, is that by being a non-profit, incorporated organization gives us a certain amount of "leverage" over the aftermarket. With XFi not being officially "recognized", we had very little pull with aftermarket vendors. CICCI is official and incorporated just like the Corvette club, this gives a bargaining chip when dealing with the makers of aftermarket goods. These vendors can look us up and see that we are a serious group, and not just a few guys with stickers that say we are a "club".

Again, not to take anything away from Redcross and XFi, (I was a member of that group too)..........but we are much more organized and recognizable as CICCI and under the articles of incorporation.

 

I personally think that the "push" for CICCI has almost gotten to the obnoxious point. It has started to dominate this site. Mighty has been extremely lenient as this sort of thing on most every other sites is grounds for banning (hawking a competitive site). So far, it hasn't been very complimentary of this site but the 'elite need a place to meet' so maybe that could be your motto....

 

I need to keep my answer short as I'm on our family holiday vacation. But felt I need to respond. It's disappointing to see that some of you feel we're competing with this forum. CICCI is not a forum. It's a car club. It's forum is just a communication means. We are all still active here. As a car club we need our own site; not to compete but to have better control over the site we use. I too agree that Mighty has been extremely generous hosting this site, and I hope it continues to operate, but we don't know for how long he will keep it. IF he would decide to pull the plug, how would we quickly resume the club's communication, and stay in contact? Why is this this viewed as an elite club? I don't get it. Regular membership will only be $25 per year. Many here have offered financial support to keep this forum running, which means you are willing to pay. So I'm sure it's not the money that bothers you.

We have stated our intent very clearly over the last year. There are many reasons why we should have an official club. All have been clearly stated. Financial statements will be published for you know where the money goes.

CICCI is your car club. Make it all you want it to be. We've all learned that a club should not be under the control of one person, no matter how well intended the person is.

I started this thread for feedback on why you would not join. I welcome the opportunity to answer any question or reason on "why you wouldn't join", and It's OK if some of you don't. I know it's not for everyone.

 

Dan - How is it out of control? We have a new club, we have our space here that was XFI that sat and did nothing? That is the only place on this forum where CICCI is being discussed. Dominate the site? How? Where? You were at the meeting in Carlisle when JD said what he wanted to do with the club, that club was 10$ and look what happened to it, he disappeared as did the guy he entrusted it to. No XFI, that left a bunch of members with no club and that can't and wont happen here. Please understand something else, none of us consider ourselves "elite", we simply took a dead organization and gave it life. We put our money where our dream was, literally. None of us thinks we are special. There are a number of people on this Forum that I hope do join for their expertise and passion for this automobile. That is what it is about, passion, not feeling we are better than anyone here, c'mon you know all of us better than that. We want a class oragnization people can be proud of and it has to start somewhere. If we were all over the forum then I would agree with you, as I do on most everything but not this time. I hope you reconsider and join. Mighty JR lenient? he could care less about this forum and it could be gone at his whim. As for those with club stickers......did JR give authorization for those? Somehow I doubt it. You are taking a serious legal risk without his permission to print Forum stickers and sell them.
End of rant.

 

The Crossfire Forum has always been a "free" club. Thats great but somebody is paying for it. That has always bothered me a little. Most "free" forums deal with advertising and gimmicks. Ours has been an open field with very little content control. Thanks Mighty JR for that.

But, as has been noted, the free lunch may not go on forever. The new, forum or Club, stands on it's own and because it is an organized Corporation, has a tangible, real, presence in the business community. That means it can bargain with strength and validity with vendors, dealers and perhaps whatever is left of Chrysler.

As to the suggestion of "elite(?)" Please let's not bring class warfare comments here. They belong in the political forum.

I for one, plan to contribute and enjoy both Forums and will happily pay the fees to do so.

Worth every penny.


franc

 

I completely enjoy this forum and find its info invaluable in maintaining my Crossfire. I can see the value in both this forum and CICCI. As long as this forum is ongoing i'm going to be checking it everyday, it's like an addiction!
That being said I can see the value in CICCI. Is it possible to join as a regular member before Feb 2, even though it will be effective on 2/2?

 

Franc, I couldn't agree with you more. I found this site in 2003 when we got our first coupe and it has been an invaluable tool since. I remember when it went down sometime ago for awhile and it wasn't fun. These cars are rare to the point that they had a short run, abandon by all manufacturing elements so we owners need a anchor in case MightyJR has a change of mind. I will not be getting rid of my two cars for many years.

 

By the way CICCI is an international car club, we now have members in the UK and Canada.

 

+1, that is exactly what I was thinking too.

 

I am a member of 3 crossfire forums this one, community.net and CICCI and I always check in at least once a day on this one and CICCI and once a week on community.net. I don't neccessarily have a favorite but this one does have more info than any of the other sites but if the curtain comes down here one day I still have 2 other sites to go to. I don't post much here but I do read almost all the posts every day and I would hate for this site to close because its still the original crossfire site for crossfire owners but if it does............???? I sure don't feel like I'm better than anyone else because I'm a member of CiCCI but I glad to be a charter member.

 

Way back in the day, before home computers, internet, etc, I was in a VW club and a mini-truck club, during my high school years. Guess what, had to pay membership dues back then too. CICCI is a "car club", that just happens to use the internet to conduct business. Back then we had monthly meetings to conduct club business. We used the membership dues to have summer outings, BBQ GTG's etc, nothing fancy, but it was nice to have these GTG's sponsored by our club, and we would invite other clubs and be the "host" club. Don't know if that will happen at CICCI, but we are new and growing, and suggestions that members have made, some have already been put into use. OK, I'm done. TY