The officials of the club Marsha and I belong to, Volvo Sports America, do a bang-up job of the hard work of running the club. They organize meets and other club events, and generally nurture a diverse and demanding crowd of members. They've done, and continue to do, much good for the classic Volvo community. They do it voluntarily, without financial compensation, and they've been doing it for many years. Those are admirable accomplishments.

VSA focuses on the P1800 series cars, and the body of knowledge about that model held within the club is formidable. The main club publication, S-E-ES magazine, does a good job of passing club news on to members, but it's less effective at distributing that vast technical knowledge -- that's just an inherent limitation of the print medium.

It's regrettable, then, that club's budding web site, rather than acting as a more responsive extension of the club's communication with members, is basically a static presence -- sort of a "garage queen" that exists only for show. After a promising start, it stalled out completely. Why?

In addition to a natural reluctance to engage the challenges presented by a new, unfamiliar medium, there's also a fear of "giving the club away" (that's a quotation from the club magazine). If the club makes information available on line for free (the reasoning goes), who will want to pay dues to receive it in print?

That's not an illogical notion, but it's a misguided one. As officials are quick to point out, a club offers far more than just a newsletter. I'm certainly not aware of any club members quitting just because information about Volvos is available elsewhere on line.

So when -- all the while having no efficient means of sharing information between dispersed members -- club officials adopt a "no Internet" policy, a valuable opportunity is being missed. When they go further, moreover, and publish statements in the club magazine telling members that the Internet is a waste of time; the knowledge is all right in the club, the irony is such that it's time for me to write an editorial.

Here are the events, as published in S-E-ES magazine, leading to those unfortunate statements -- it starts off innocently enough:

The March '98 issue of the magazine contained a letter from a member expressing disappointment in that publication: he'd expected it to be of "invaluable help" in teaching him to restore his classic Volvo, but found that was not the case. Could the magazine feature more practical articles and less "filler material," such as chatty accounts of club meets or stories about Irv Gordon?

He received a fair response from Jon Keebler, S-E-ES editor, to the effect that the club is more than a magazine; books and manuals could be bought, vendors could help with fitment questions and other, more experienced, members could be met at club events. If the member would do those things and write in about his findings, S-E-ES would then have some new "practical" articles to publish.

No harm, no foul, good point. In fact, S-E-ES does contain practical information, it's just that, after so many years, it tends to be a bit esoteric and thinly distributed. No publication wishes to cover the same material over and over.

Apparently, however, that member's sentiments were echoed by others (perhaps less politely), for in the May issue we find, not so much a rebuttal to criticism of the magazine, but more of a counter-offensive, as if the worth of the club's collective knowledge had itself been attacked. Bob Berglund's "President's Column" goes on at length about the days when when the club featured frequent how-to articles, and even offered a "compilation of tech articles from almost every issue ever published" as well as reprints of Volvo parts manuals.

That technical compilation and those manuals now being out of print, the implication (surely unintended) is a bit nonsensical: "If you wanted 'how to' articles, you should have joined years ago."

Jon Keebler appends a comment thanking Bob for reassurance that S-E-ES editorial staff still knows its job (was that ever questioned?). Then, the legendary Irv Gordon (when referring to Irv, it's practically impossible not to use that particular article-adjective construct) is featured in a piece, very humorous, but nonetheless in the tone of of "Where does that young whippersnapper get off talking about me like that" (no offense, Irv, but what they published reads that way to me).

Here we have senior club members apparently in an uproar over -- what? Members wanting more "how to" articles -- problematic, perhaps, but if there had been an insurrection by heretics, I had missed it. I suspect club members may have compared S-E-ES to the Internet one or two times too many for comfort. Was that the reason for such an overreaction? Would the club leaders even be aware of that?

At that time, I wrote a letter to Jon Keebler congratulating him on the fine job he does as editor (well, he does!) and stating my understanding that his publication, like ours, can only be as good as the material contributed. I therefore offered S-E-ES, as a VSA member myself, the free use of any of our archived technical materials written by me, and offered to try to obtain permission for the use of such articles written by others.

I thought that might help calm the waters, but no. In July (now the third issue in the thread), we find another club member, after expressing sympathy for the difficulties faced by by club officials, suggesting ways in which the club could become more responsive to members' questions and problems. He points to various Internet forums as an example of what might be done.

So, now we have that uncomfortable "problem" out in the open, ready to be confronted and killed. Game on, ready or not!

Jon Keebler's response is that S-E-ES has purposely distanced itself from the Internet following an incident in which it had inadvertently reprinted web material, submitted by a third party, without permission. That may explain why Jon didn't respond to my offer -- once bitten; twice shy. However, to me, it smacks a bit of "We struck out once, so we're taking our ball and going home."

But Jon goes on: he doesn't have time for the Internet; the twenty years he's spent "cultivating relationships" for S-E-ES represent a value that can't be found on the Internet, so the writer of the letter, having "the best of both worlds," should "stop moaning and start writing some tech tips." Whoa!

Bob Berglund's column begins with an apology for what some perceived as "brow beating" of members in the previous issue (telling well-intentioned members, in print, to "stop moaning" probably won't do much for that perception, Bob...).

As for the Internet, he'd taken a look at some Volvo sites. His impression was that "a lot of people were busy reinventing the wheel, and it wasn't always round," and goes on to cite several examples of misinformation -- errors that, he infers, would not have been permitted in S-E-ES.

One such example concerns a "bucking ES" -- if that was the one in our "Ask the Experts" column, Bob, the cause had nothing to do with, as you suggest any experienced owner should know, a "wobbly distributor shaft ... in conjunction with a very loose distributor breaker plate;" it was caused by a bad throttle switch in the fuel injection system, as we indicated. That car is fixed.

Did I miss something else? We're not "reinventing the wheel," we're developing the pneumatic tire. It's amazing how much faster it can go, and how much more ground can be covered with a set of these than with the old hard rubber kind.

There are some punctures along the way, to be sure. If one goes looking for incorrect information on the web, it's not hard to find. The beauty of the Internet is that anyone can publish whatever they want -- the corollary is that not everyone who does so knows what he or she is talking about. There are, however, many nuggets of the genuine stuff lying about amongst the fool's gold -- it's part of the adventure to discern which is which.

We're not exactly complete bozos here at VCIM, for that matter. We are as involved with our classic Volvos as any club's members -- repairing, restoring, modifying, showing, driving and racing them, as well as participating in assorted club events -- and we represent many years of cumulative experience. E-mail puts us in touch with Volvo enthusiasts, amateur and professional, around the globe; I personally send and receive (literally) several thousand such messages in a year's time "cultivating relationships."

There's a whole bunch of other Volvo owners out here on the Internet trying, to the best of their abilities, to pool their knowledge and help each other out. Compared to this virtual community, no one organization or group has a monopoly on knowledge -- not even close.

End of overreaction and counter-offensive on my part. Time out.

Actually, game over -- because there's no reason for conflict here. Jon Keebler has it quite right: club members reading this on line do have "the best of both worlds." A club is a club, and the Internet is -- well, a work in progress.

As Volvo enthusiasts, we're on the same team (aren't we?), regardless of which entity does one or another thing better than the other. How can the Internet, then, be seen as a competitor instead of an extension of the club, whether it chooses to participate "officially" or not? We're all working towards exactly the same goals.

The fact is, I'm happy to be a VSA member. I enjoy the club events I have the chance to get out to. I look forward to finding S-E-ES in my mailbox -- some issues have little to interest me; others have much; all have some. I found our 1800S from a S-E-ES classified ad, not from a posting on the Internet. I pay a bit extra for membership in the local chapter of the club as well, which gets me a second print publication by, and about, people I've met in person. It's a good deal.

My advice to our on line readers: if you're not in a club, consider joining one that suits your Volvo interests. Get "up close and personal" with other members' cars. Listen to the sounds those vintage racers make. Chat with other members over plates of second-rate enchiladas. You won't find that stuff on line. Read the club newsletter, too -- there are some nuggets in there amongst the "filler material." It's part of the adventure to dig them out.

On the other hand, here's my message to club officials (and not just VSA): I'm not writing this to make you look silly -- I'm trying to motivate you to join us on line. We have the ability to conference globally on a variety of forums -- think of the contribution your knowledge would make! There is nothing to fear -- go right ahead and expand the club web sites; make them work for you -- we all benefit. You will not be "giving the club away;" you will grow it far better than you can by dwelling on past accomplishments and telling members not to expect even better in the future.

Check out what some of the European clubs are doing with their sites. Visit the bulletin boards -- there's a healthy exchange of ideas going on; good ones, bad ones, silly ones, but all from people who are participating. There's a whole world of new members, more cars and smart thinking just waiting for you; don't miss out.

Until such time as club web sites contribute something worthwhile to the discussion, I'll thank you to stop publishing unfounded statements denigrating what so many of us, expert or not, are trying to do out here.

So, can we all play nice, now? If not, can we at least play together? Wouldn't that be a "win - win" situation for everyone?

Phil Singher, Editor

One of the beauties of the Internet is that, when an omission occurs, it is possible to correct it on the spot: VSA board members do indeed make themselves available to members, by mail and telephone. Addresses and phone numbers are published inside the front cover of S-E-ES.

Additionally, due to over-editing a long article for brevity, we published our summation of Bob Berglund's column telling members that the Internet is a waste of time as a quotation -- Bob did not use those words. We regret the error and have corrected the text.

Now, if everyone will please go back to the top and read that first paragraph over again...