Hi Leroy! I'm not sure when you signed up, but your membership was added to the roster about 2 weeks ago, and you have a new forum id assigned. Visit this thread to see how to sign in.

I want you to know, not as an excuse for past behavior, but as an indication of the future, that the club roster is finally online. Up until last week, the club's roster was maintained in a spreadsheet, which made it difficult to help people if the treasurer wasn't available (he travels on business pretty regularly). Now it's possible for any of the officers or trustees to check for you.

Because the roster is now in a database, we hope to provide fully automatic online new memberships and renewals in the near future. We also want to provide the ability for members to check on their membership details, and to change some of them (change of address, for example).

I don't want to promise a timeframe for this (I'm actually on the road myself at this moment, and of course, the holidays are coming up), but we really do understand how frustrating the current situation can be, and we want to remedy it.

Sorry for the delay in replying, I haven't had access over the weekend until I checked into the hotel I'm at right now in Holbrook, AZ.

You should automatically have access to the club area of the forum, from your VBMWMO account. I'm guessing from your message that you don't. I will see what I can do from here, but it may have to wait for me to get home on Wednesday to be able to find out why.

I joined today and it would seem I do not have a membership number needed to complete the login........ what trick is required to get that?

Hi Mark. I just processed your membership a few minutes ago and you should receive an email with the information you need.

For those reading this thread, the process works like this:

* Someone joins the club by clicking the "Buy Now!" paypal button that's over on the membership page of the web site.

* That takes them to Paypal, and the transaction is handled there.

* Paypal sends me an email about the transaction.

* I look to see if this is a new membership or a renewal.

* For a new membership, I copy the information from Paypal's email to add the member's details.

* When I submit the new membership to the system, it automatically sends a "welcome to the club" email to the member with his membership number, forum logon and password. (If the new member is already a member of the forum -- which is decided on the basis of the email address -- then it uses the existing forum id and gives it the additional club privileges.)

If you send a check to join the club, then it goes to the club's office in Mass. There are two club officers in the neighborhood of the office, but it can be a couple weeks before they sort through the mail and enter the information. And if the new member didn't supply an email address, then the Welcome letter must be printed and mailed back.

The bottom line is that joining the club is not completely automated, regardless of how it's done, and there can be some amount of delay before you get your number and login id.

I did pay for a membership recently. I realize this is a volunteer board and I really appreciate all the help and information to keep our BMW bikes running. Set me up with a membership access when we can.

I paid for my membership a while ago and maybe I caught everybody on a good day but I got my registration stuff within 24 hours.

HOWEVER, now that I've joined I still can't see the 'bikes for sale' thread and a few others......when I pay for something I expect to receive said service, not find out that there is a tiered system of access. I'm calling bullshit. Just open up the forums to everyone that has paid so we can enjoy the website that I helped pay for!!!!!

Bill

I'm sorry I missed your first message, Bill.

However, I still cannot tell who you are because you haven't signed your messages nor filled in your profile, so there's no way for me to connect this message with your club membership.

The reason why you can't see the club member areas on the forum is because you are not using the forum account created for you when you joined, but instead you registered a new, public account. Only your club membership account has the "special privileges" needed to view these areas.

You can sign on with your club account by following the link that appears at the top of every forum page that begins with VBMWMO MEMBERS! If you have any problems or more questions, please feel free to contact me at webmaster@vintagebmw.org.

We do understand both sides of this issue, and your point has not been lost on us (nor is it the first time that it has been made.)

However, in this age of eBay and even the IBMWR Marketplace (www.ibmwr.org/market), we are never going to corner the vintage BMW classifieds.

Historically, our classifieds in the Vintage BMW Bulletin have been among members, and we are continuing this -- the ads posted here get picked up and included in the club's magazine. This is something that we can do that you don't get at eBay -- people who are dedicated to the vintage bikes who will read your ad. What you don't get are Nigerian spam, or people who have picked up pictures of of bikes somewhere else on eBay and trying to "sell" them to you. No cashier check frauds. With this arrangement, only people who are interested and dedicated enough to have paid a yearly membership fee will see the ads, and only those same sorts of people are placing the ads.

If you aren't yet certain about your desires, please hang out and learn more about the different BMWs, ask questions to find out what to look for and what to expect. That part of the forum is open to everyone. We feel that if, and when, you discover a real interest in these bikes, you'll probably want to join the club.