AROCA Online Vehicle Register

[madram]

AROCA (Queensland) has recently developed an Online Vehicle Register. All Alfisti are invited to add their Alfas to the register. You can visit the register here: http://www.arocaqld.com/register

The Register is also looking for knowledgeable Alfisti to volunteer as "Registrars". As a Registrar, you would be required to review and verify the details of vehicles submitted to the Register before they are formally accepted.

If you are interested in becoming a Registrar, please contact the current Register Administrator (me) or any of the AROCA (Qld) Committee Members.

[John Hanslow]

Interesting proposition.  I know that there are some State stand alone registers in Australia i.e. 101 and 106 series as well as a separate historic register. 

In the Vic Club, the focus has been on register activities and development with workshops etc.  The register data is captured with club membership but we concede this process need revision.  IF manager the membership (for individual) the tak is more complex as you have to track the ownership of the car (assumed by active members) from person to person so in effect you are running two data bases. With computers I Know the 'comntrol F' find function is an essential tool.

But back to basics, I understood that the traditional role of a club registrar or the register maintenance activity was to build and improve a data base of Alfa in all the series. Previously some effort had been made to gather data and Tony McKone ( National Registrar 101 Series) has managed this for some time.

A major problem is that vehicle details are out of date.

Other issues:
- Great idea but do we want to duplicate previous work done.
- Do we work with and enhance the paper based data currently held.
- Should there in fact be a national register for each series to save duplication.
- Details do need verification as sometimes the vehicle details are misread.
- I do not see a privacy issue as the info is not used for commercial benefit, just club use (current Mtg).
- Do we need to worry about this with current models (could todays GT be tomorrows classic ?).

I am all for this and congratulate you on your idea and effort. 

There should be more involvement in such matters but I do not like doing admin tasks twice and hate following things up so just trying to sort out the big picture.

Cheers

[madram]

Hi John:

I have only been in the club for 20 years, but in that two decades Registers have always seemed to have been under discussion. They have probably been discussed since the Club's inception

Unfortunately, there seems to have been no tangible progress on an integrated approach. Which is, essentially, why the Qld Division decided to bite the bullet and with replace their own problematic paper-based system with an online system.

Being online, other Alfa owners (not just Club members) are welcome to add details of their vehicles. Or not.

All data-bases, whether physical or electronic, suffer from data integrity issues and no technology is going to solve that - as you indicated it comes back to the hard work of humans (administrators, librarians, registrars, captains -whichever term you choose) to maintain the data to the best of their ability. What is being found, however, that if an avenue is provided for information owners to self-maintain their own info, this can be hugely beneficial w.r.t data integrity.

The major benefit or maintaining the data in an electronic format is that manipulation of the data is more easily addressed programmatically. If, for example, a later series was suddenly redefined as 'classic" I would rather write a script to adjust as thousand records in an electronic file than change a thousand paper index cards

Regarding privacy, as soon as information provided by an individual is disseminated online, there are potential privacy issues. The internet provides the opportunity, previously unknown in human history, for data aggregation. It is not individual bits of information that are the issue, but what can be extrapolated from aggregated information. Consider, as a trite but possible scenario, a Financial Administrator trying to track down records of a supposed bankrupt - if they discovered that this person apparently had several rare, expensive Alfas in their possession, things may be uncomfortable for that owner. It is important that people providing information online understand that it adds to their on-line "footprint". Even this exchange between you and I on this discussion forum is now part of the data that could be aggregated about us

At the end of the day, a Register's success (be it electronic or paper-based) depends on whether it delivers value to the people providing the information. For the Queensland Division, our paper-based system was not succeeding. It remains to be seen if our electronic system will hit the mark.

Cheers.

[John Hanslow]

Food for thought.

As a matter of interst we are moving to Club-Online sometime in the not to distant future and we anticipate to transfer all past due and current vehicle register details to the new system.

Still not 100% on how we present the data but all good.

[DAMO1A]

I think it is a great idea. Well done to AROCA Qld for putting it together.  I hope it is supported by the other AROCA States Registers, Members and non-Members alike.

[w47ty]

Great idea guys. Well done and thanks. I have uploaded my details!

cheers

chris

[AGM155]

I think this is a great idea too, I'll try and spread the word.

[madram]

Thanks to everyone adding their vehicles to the register - as I am the only person acting as Registrar at the moment, the trick for me is keeping up with the new additions The timing of the go-live was deliberate; Christmas is a traditonally slow period with many people away on holidays, so this should allow the Register momentum to build gradually. Some very sweet cars being added - nice to see a 105 Automatic Coupe; have only heard of one coupe and one Berlina in Queensland. As a former owner of an automatic Alfa 75 (two of them actually), I think autos (and their owners) deserve a special Alfisti category themselves    

[Darryl]

Thanks for doing this.
And so far as what the "right" answer is - it is right enough, and its simple enough to move/transform/whatever if anyone is motivated to do something else.

[AGM155]

I'll help out Madram, I think its a good cause.

Send me a message.

[Evan Bottcher]

I've added two of our cars!  Need to look up the chassis numbers of the others...

I think this is a fantastic initiative by AROCA Qld (and presumably a lot of effort by madram!) that we should all support.  If it's successful this will be a great online resource, and owned by the club not by an individual.  This club forum was originally just put up by the Vic club, but it seemed silly not to make it a national service, and I think that worked out well.  If you need any help, then please let me know and I'll do whatever I can.

With regard to integrating with existing club paper or spreadsheet register systems, it might be useful to periodically create a dump of the register content and provide it to the register captains to do with it whatever they like?

Suggestion #2 for what it's worth - the clubs could direct new members to sign up on this system on membership renewal forms.
Suggestion #3 FWIW - clubs could provide an opt-out tickbox on membership renewal for the register information provided - anyone who doesn't opt-out could be added to the online register and emailed an account.

Sidebar: it's really important that this type of effort be owned by the club, not a private individual - the history of the internet is littered with valuable resources that have been built up by a community in good faith, that at a later date the individual who 'owns' it decides to 'monetise' the asset in some way - often by paid subscription.  Those efforts are rarely financially successful, and just end up losing for everyone.  Great to see this is owned by AROCA Qld.

[madram]

Thanks for everyone taking the time to add their vehicles to the register - the number is slowly but surely building! I have a bottle of bubbly in the fridge for when the 100th vehicle  - eventually - gets registered The Qld Club has done a promo in their latest magazine, so hopefully that will generate some action over the holidays.

Also, huge thanks to two AROCA (Vic) members - "agm155" and "damo38" who have volunteered to be Registrars. They have been quicker off the mark than me to verify and publish the vehicles as they are being added!   

Regarding Evan's suggestion #3, that pretty much echoes what I thought may be a practical way for capturing some of the info. Years back, the Qld club started capturing comprehensive vehicle info when members signed up (and asked for any changes at member renewals), but of course, without a destination for the info, the commitment to this waned. If we ask renewing members to note any changes to their vehicles that may go some way to maintaining data integrity. 

[John Hanslow]

So they are acting registrars assisting in an Australia register ?

Saves time and effort and the more who help the better.

So what about other club registers, are there any 'future' plans to capute that data ?

There are a few vehicle registers that could be used to add value.

[madram]

"agm155" and "damo38" have the status of "Registrar" in the online system - which means they are notified when another vehicle is added to the system, can view/edit the vehicle details and change the status of the vehicle record from "Pending" to "Verified" - after which the vehicle record will be visible to all.

This may be an "ageist" remark, but I am assuming these two are among the younger members of the Club (but then, everyone seems young, relative to me!) so it's great that they have put up their hand so quickly.

Any of the other official Club Registers maintaining off-line data are most welcome to become a Registrar in the on-line system - that would be excellent - with their almost encyclopaedic knowledge of Alfa Romeo, they would be invaluable.   

If they choose, they can themselves add the vehicle information they currently hold to the online system (with the permission of the vehicle owners, of course) or continue leave it up to the vehicle owners to do it. If the current info is in a structured format (eg: spreadsheets) I can probably figure out how to import it without it needing to be manually input.

Just as the other states take advantage of the excellent online forums developed by AROCA (Vic), if there can be shared use of the online system, then this is surely a win-win for all members.

[John Hanslow]

I think you are on to something here.

Will have to log on and contribute - but do not have any past details of vehicles to hand.  Have to get that from our club member secretary.

Cheers.