rumor control--has SAAC lost its use of Shelby name?

[1ntCobra]

Amy,

I can understand you wanting a fast moving organization with a slick all color publication and online registry. An organization that you can control better. An organization that you can plug in different vendors behind the scenes as you see fit.

But does the new club have to be the "exclusively licensed" Shelby club?

I cannot imagine that SAAC is making a fortune off of their members, but they have promoted the Shelby name for over 30 years, and have contributed to a very large degree on making the Shelby name as strong a brand as it is today. They only seem to promote the positive Shelby stories. I don't think they ever mention negative stories like long delays for csx4000 cars before you came in to fix things. They have long time members like myself, who have drank SAAC's "Shelby cool-aide" and continue to renew our subscriptions for decades even though they are slow to publish their magazine and registry.

For all that SAAC has done for Shelby over the years, I not only believe it is wrong to not renew their Shelby license, I really think you should consider giving them a perpetual license at no cost, so that SAAC can continue to keep the older Shelby fanatics addicted to their cool-aide for decades to come.

Business decisions happen all the time, but who's to say what the Shelby organization will have to say a few years down the road about Team Shelby? Maybe it will get cut from the budget at some point. And if the "new school" club goes away, wouldn't you like to have the "old school" SAAC club still doing their thing and officially recognized by the Shelby organization?

I think you should really let Team Shelby and SAAC coexist as licensed Shelby clubs. And let the fans pick whichever of the two or both of them as they see fit.

Ken