Hi All, I have some thoughts on an owners registry:
If Doug King will chime in, I'd like to know why the owners registry at MSOG.org, was abandoned. There are hundreds and hundreds of M-Boats out there. If a registry is created, it needs to be search-able. This means, a dedicated software program for the registry. If there is no such program available, one would need to be written. Otherwise, it would be near impossible If someone wants to look up: 1. Boat model (all M-15's etc) 2. Hull number 3. Location (city & state) 4. Owners name 5. Year (all 1978 M-Boats, etc.) 6. other parameters??? In 2002 (maybe 2003) I printed out the registry from the .org site. I believe it was about thirty pages of owners. Problem was, lots of the boats had been sold, or the contact information was wrong. No fault of Doug's, the fault lies with the person who was on the list. When they sold their boat, changed addresses, E-mail or died... the last person to be thought of was Doug and the owners registry. Some of the folks on the list do not want to be contacted. When I made the first albums for the Photo Site, I used to ask what city the boat was sailed out of. After getting resistance, I changed the question to; "What state is the boat sailed out of?" My .02 cents: "The way it is done now, works fine, because of willing participants" What I mean is... If I wanted to go sailing or see a specific M-Boat in a specific area, I'd put the request on this E-mail list. Someone in that area would hopefully contact me or respond to the request. Historically, this has worked for us, again because of willing participants. Mark E's problem of seeing a craft and wanting the contact information. I have a business card I made up, using the line drawing of the M17 (available on the Photo Site) that I could put in the boat with a note and phone number, on the back to call me. For safety I had the card printed with E-mail and no pre-printed phone number. As Sean indicated, his website is free (for now). Who is going to pay to keep the registry up to date, and available? I can assure you folks I am out quite allot of money by the creation of the Photo Site (donate, donate, donate). If I, and Doug King, cannot get donations (thanks to all who have donated!!!) with a couple of thousand photos posted, or in Doug's case, he has our archives (and more)... I'm guessing a registry would not be very cost effective. The factory (Bob's Boat shop) could possibly create and maintain such a registry, like IM does. But even that would require quite a bit of effort. At least Bob would have the information on the recent boat builds. Lastly, Do not allow me to discourage anyone from creating a registry. International Marine (Potter Boats) was working on their owners registry. Maybe they should be contacted to see if it is going well and how they did it. I wonder how their list is searched? What program is used? Maybe it is a great idea... I also think: It will need to be thought out carefully before the first name is added. I also believe the person who creates the registry should have a stand alone Website and the ability to post in a search-able format. And, I believe the user of such a resource should help support the effort. Bill MSOG Photo Site _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
