The SOC management are elected by the members at the AGM to be on the management committee to represent the majority of the members. It is impossible to please everybody and so it is always hoped that more will agree than disagree with the management. There is quite a good principle that if you find you have a significant difference with a person, then it is better to avoid their company than to bring stress to a gathering. As regards the management, I was on it for a while and at one meeting, I told of my experience when acquiring a Scott and Joining the SOC. There was a dearth of information and a dearth of spares. I suggested that the club should look more outwards and hold out the hand of friendship by making information available. A prominent member of the management committee said NO, we must force them to join the club before we tell them anything or sell spares to them. I said, well in that case it would be better to raise the subs a bit and stock a better range of spares. No came the cry from another prominent member, folks will not renew! I said, but it is only the price of half a gallon of petrol. Definitely not was the retort. I have spent most of my life as an “Odd Man Out” and although I respected absolutely their right to their opinions, I felt that they were wrong. Richard Tann was perfectly correct when he told me that I was not a team player, but as my assessment as to what would portray a more encouraging prospect to a potential new member was profoundly at odds with the prevailing culture within the management committee, I did the only decent thing and withdrew from the management committee. I was now free to do as I thought best and did exactly as I had suggested. First a website with technical information, so that any aspiring Scott owner could understand a little of these unique machines and know that if he took the plunge and bought a bike, then technical information was available. Next I made any spares I could not buy readily. My first bike broke it’s crank in 1967 and I went to Tom Ward who showed me a waiting list of about 20 names of owners who were waiting for a second hand crank to become available and he would add my name to the bottom if I wished. He did warn me that if, after a considerable time, a crank became available, it was well likely to have cracks and its future life short. That is when I started making cranks. When my son Richard first made our website, it had an open forum facility, but as the SOC decided to have their own forum, then I closed our forum down. My philosophy was and remains, to spread the word outwards about Scotts to try and attract prospective owners to the marque by portraying a friendly, helpful and welcoming face. I realize that if a person can be encouraged to buy a Scott, then he will then join the SOC, with my full recommendation. With my great friend Steve Enticott we started our free Scott Newsletter and Steve went on to put Bill Jameson’s compilation “Technicalities” on line open access as Bill specifically wanted the information to be open access. I do realize that given the profound difference in philosophy of presentation of Scotts to the rest of the world between the SOC management and myself, that I am not the most popular member of the club, at least to the management. I can only hope that they will take the same view, that although they disagree with my philosophy, they accept my right to hold such views, just as I do in return. So the bottom line is that if the SOC forum is restricted to members only, then I will revive the Moss Engineering site forum for anyone who wishes. Our newsletter goes out to just short of 600 subscribers intended as an encouragement to buy a Scott. I have no idea how many subscribers are owners or SOC members. The objective is to fan the flames of interest in prospective owners in the wider world! Always look outwards not inwards. Roger
