IPYOA Proposal: Merge IPYOA & IPhomeport

IPY Family of Owners:

Now that we have combined the large photo collection of IPphotos.com into IPYOA.com, and now that the Island Packet Yachts factory has been closed and sold, we should consider combining our remaining resources, skills and talents into one combined and supportive web site. With that said, I propose that we work on a plan to combine and merge the web sites of IPYOA.com and IPhomeport.com into the ultimate Island Packet Yacht Owners Community. Yes there has been overlap between these two web services for many years, but IPphotos collected, sorted and stored over 16,500 photos from many, many years. IPhomeport has photos also and if we combine all these photos into one archive it will be even better.

There are two IP forums, the one here on IPYOA and the one on IPhomeport, these forums can easily be combined and merged into one, and that is what should be planned for the good of the fleet. Yes, there are different forum structures one focused around our yacht systems and cruising and one more of an open forum, this is not a problem because I have hired and worked with the best PHP database programmer located in London and with him, we can easily develop a plan to merge these two structures. There are admins on both forums and these admins would remain admins on the new combined merged site. There is ZERO down side to merging these site, zero.

I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on Island Packet web sites since I started in 1996 with MDschool and the Rock Hall Fleet, and I continue to spend thousands of dollars each year to support these site. I had Google Ads on this site as a study and it would pay about $20/month, this server costs me $40/month. I also had a donation system on this site to try to recover my $5,000 spent to import IPphotos into this site, the donation amounted to about $2K, so I removed the donation feature because I did not want to look like I was begging. Money is not the issue, I do this to help, I do this to support the owners, if it costs me a few thousands dollars a year, it is worth it, I have paid this and I will continue to pay for it because I love helping the fleet of owners.

You may have noticed that I am not active on Homeport, well there is a reason for that. The admins there have blocked me from participating because I am a "yacht broker" with Whiteaker. I am am IP owner since 1991, but yet, they block me from participating because I am a broker!. I can not post. So, I have spent my years here helping where I can. I help via personal emails, text messages, Facebook messenger, and our Facebook group. I am trying to help in every way I can. Note, the Homeport admins are NOT blocked from using IPYOA, they are welcome, and as a matter of fact, one admin has posted over 94 photo albums on IPphotos which I have stored, and saved for all to learn from.

The time is now, this summer 2016, that we should combine our Island Packet Resources into one very supportive owners association. We need to put aside the past events between the admins and we need to work as a new team for the good of the Island Packet Owners. Without the factory, it is just us left for support of the fleet.

The process should outline like this:

#1. We agree there is a need to combine IPYOA and IPhomeport
#2. We select a domain name or use one of our existing ones.
#3. We agree, admins and moderators will remain as such
#4. We agree, as in the past, this is not for profit, someone has to pick up the costs
#5. We outline the forum structure and plan a migration of data into the new site
#6. We outline the photo structure and plan a migration into the new site
#7. We outline a document structure and plan a migration into the new site
#8. We Take about 2 months to plan and migrate the above and test
#9. We roll out the new combined site and shut down the old sites
#10. We admin and manage as a team and work together for the good of the fleet.

This is my proposal, someone who is allowed to post on Homeport needs to copy and past this to Homeport for all to think about.

Lets work towards the support of ALL Island Packet Yacht Owners.

Hayden Cochran
IP Owners, continuously since 1991
IP charters started in 1986 in Rock Hall with the IP38 for a month.

Feedback welcome.

Hayden, I think your idea is a very good one and I do, indeed have comments/suggestions about it. However, I must ask firstly, have you spoken privately by either phone or email with Stuart before you brought this before the "peanut gallery" over here at IPYOA?

Chris:

Stuart and I have talked about this last year or the year before and he was in favor of this idea and wanted to do it. I did not email or call right now, but I will. I am glad you think the idea is a good idea. Thank you Chris.

Hayden

I think the administrators of both sites should talk first among themselves and then make a joint proposal to the rest of us. Sounds like a great idea. ML

So, our other boat is a Cape Dory Motorsailer and have belonged to CDSOA for a number of years now. The dues are minimal and it operates like any other organization with voting members and a board. Keeping in mind that the economic demographics are quite different from IP owners, there seems to be little to no complaining about the small dues paid every year for membership. The fleets all roll up into CDSOA and personally, I would not mind sharing the bill that way and rolling them up.

What I like about IPYOA over Home Port is Hayden does not yell at me for asking the same stupid question someone asked two years ago, even with my logic that solutions are not static and even a year lapse can change an answer - be it a new supplier, changes in technology, etc. That being said.

Maybe if the formation and combination of the groups into an actual dues paying corp entity with elected officials, we can all feel like we have a stake in the game, even though the board may only rotate between a handful of people. Hayden and Stuart can rotate the first couple of years and hold onto the Legacy as the founders.

My .02 for what it is worth.

Hayden, I'm glad you guys have talked about this. I think it will increase knowledge and camaraderie to combine the forums. My ideas are as follows:

1. Both forums should be closed with a link to the new forum (with a new name). I know you have worked hard and spent many dollars on this one, but I think a new start would be a positive step in the right direction. You have done a masterful job in organizing the photos and they should stay like that with either a link to them or integrating that section into a new message board. Perhaps, your London guy can help you with this.
2. Consider using vBulletin. I have been a mod on a big vBulletin board in the past and can verify that it works very well.
3. You and Stuart should stay as admins, however you should consider bringing in 2 or 3 moderators to help. vBulletin can be set up to have a "mod land" where the admins and mods can discuss things, privately.
4. I belong to the Cruiser's forum and there is a mod over there (a64pilot) who owns an IP38. He seems to be a nice guy and might be able to provide some advice.
5. Also, consider asking (politely) for donations from the membership on a yearly basis. I think I pay 20 dollars a year over at the Cruiser's forum and it is well worth it. This will pay for the use of the vBulletin software.

I hope this helps and if I can help in any way, please let me know. We DO have to stick together. I have some other cool ideas but will throw them in later.