I think I need to say something about the controversy here on Brickboard touched off by my mention of Swedespeed in the latest Rolling. I like Swedespeed. I like Brickboard. Brickboard is the official forum of VCOA. Sweedespeed is not affiliated with VCOA in any official way and is not under consideration to be the official forum of VCOA.

Swedespeed is a very interesting website and has some features that Brickboard does not, as you have noted in this series of posts. I think it attracts a different audience than Brickboard does, and I made an effort to enlist Sweedspeed's help in telling those people about the benefits of membership in VCOA. The people at Sweedespeed were cooperative and helpful. In fact, they may contribute some articles about the newer cars to Rolling in the future. There are other good websites, too, that deserve some consideration from the Club. We will probably work with some of them in the future, as well.

Jarrod and I have talked about a closer relationship between VCOA and Brickboard. So far there is no agreement on what that might look like. It is very important that VCOA expand it's presence on the web. At the board of directors meeting in January we discussed the club's recent growth, 24% this year. Much of it is a result of our efforts to attract and sign up people on line. We need to continue to do this for the long-term well-being of the Club, and we need to get better at it.

We are working on substantially revising and reworking the club website at www.vcoa.org. We will unveil a new website design in the very near future that will give the Club more web presence, and add some features that will encourage new members to join, give our chapters space to display their events, and provide enhanced functions in several other areas. More details soon.

I hope this helps explain where the Club is on this issue, and dispels the notion that VCOA is replacing Brickboard with Sweedespeed as the official forum. We are not. Sorry about the mis-communication.

Lee Cordner
President, Volvo Club of America