How to Save the DOA
by Dave Tavres The DeLorean Owners Association started in 1983 and helped bring DeLorean owners and clubs together from around the world. The DOA did that successfully for many years. They created and printed several magazines each year, they helped owners find parts – and each other, and they became a source of information for the media, as well as a trustworthy source of information for the DeLorean community. With the mass adoption of the world wide web (the internet,) and computers in general by the mid-1990s, DeLorean clubs started creating their own websites, email lists, and newsletters that quickly expanded their own reach. Fast-forward to today. Just about every DeLorean club in the world now has a Facebook page and/or website, and DeLorean owners can easily share ideas and communicate across the globe through a number of different ways. The DOA served the DeLorean community well for many years, but it needs some drastic changes to stay relevant. I don’t want to see it disappear. Many people that I’ve said that to don’t understand why. Most of the time, other DeLorean owners insist that the DOA is ‘dead on arrival’ and just isn’t needed anymore. And I do mean A LOT of DeLorean owners. My response to that is this – there is no ‘mother-ship’ organization that currently exists to help promote the clubs, the cars, the owners, or the passion that the world has for our cars. Aside from DMCTalk.org and DeLoreanDirectory.com, there’s not really any good, singular source of information about the DeLorean. Plus, the DOA owns a very specific piece of IP (intellectual property) that I personally want to see shared with the public, but they don’t understand how to use it, or share, properly. The ideas below are offered to the community, but specifically to the DeLorean Owners Association as a way to keep the DOA from disappearing, and to attempt to make the DOA useful to the community again. I hope everyone who reads this letter will contact the DOA (and comment below) to let them, and everyone, know your own thoughts – whether you agree with my ideas or not. The role of the DOA The DeLorean Owners Association should be an overarching “mother-ship” that exists, using these directives: The DeLorean Owners Association’s mission is to: Support DeLorean Clubs, owners, and media around the world; Be an aggregator of information with the primary focus on local DeLorean Clubs; Help expand the love and interest of the DeLorean automobile by supporting DeLorean groups. How could this be achieved? The DeLorean Owners Association should work with all of the Clubs around the world to see how (or if) they can help those clubs achieve their goals for their members, taking direction from the individual clubs, rather than trying to direct the clubs. The DOA would no longer create their own events. Instead, they would only support local clubs with their events, in whatever way they can help. Publish and maintain a collection of public information that will help individuals who own, or want to own a DeLorean to find their local clubs, organizations, and events. Why? Because local clubs will always do a better job of outreach and support than a worldwide organization. Memberships The DOA should drastically reduce membership fees, and encourage owners and fans to support, join, and donate to their local DeLorean clubs – instead of an international group. The DOA’s financial needs should be small, so memberships should not be a source of income. How could this be achieved? Immediately reduce membership dues to $5 per year for online payments, and $10 per year for those paying by check and other non-digital forms of payment. Why? The DOA should be a helping hand to the clubs. Not the ‘boss’ of the clubs. Also, with owners and fans paying a small amount each year, means more people might join, and could benefit from the information that gets shared. The primary focus of ‘memberships’ needs to be on the local clubs. Magazines Since 1983, the DOA produced around 100 issues of “DeLorean World” magazine. The DOA should continue to create the “DeLorean World Magazine,” but it should no longer be a pre-printed magazine, and it should no longer be a “quarterly” issue. Also, the DOA has a large number of already printed back-issues that could be sold at a greatly reduced price to clear out inventory, raise funds, and be used for other fundraising. How could this be achieved? “DeLorean World” magazine (DWM) should be a single issue each year, with new issues distributed in a digital format, via the ‘members only’ section of the DOA website, as well as through digital content services where readers can pay for printed copies using any of the countless “print-on-demand” services, such as MagCloud, Print Pelican, Mimeo, or Amazon CreateSpace – to easily name a few. “Print-on-demand” means readers could go to a website, enter their payment information, and a copy of the magazine would be professionally printed, bound, and directly mailed to them, at minimal cost to the purchaser, and with no cost to the DOA (with the added ability of charging $2-$5 per issue to defer costs.) Professional magazines do cost money to design and layout, so that annual cost would be covered through the suggested $5 annual membership fees, as well as advertising, direct donations, and other retail sales of the DOA, as needed. Why? The single biggest reason is simple and obvious – just about anything printed in a magazine is already old news. The web and social media now share information in the blink of an eye. DWM should become a historical record of the DeLorean community each year, recapping the big and small news of the clubs, the owners, and the history of the car for that year. DOA Websites / Technology A simple website should be created with this content: A master list of all DeLorean Clubs around the world, with links to their websites and social media,