Good riddance to 2020; a recap and a look ahead..

[tubbs]

Hey fellas, hope you all are glad to see 2020 go. Ope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years. Now let's see, I got furloughed from work, I got laid off, then got a job at Lowes at 4 AM in the morning unloading trucks, now I will be starting a new design job at a new engineering company. My fantasy football team lost the super bowl. Fantasy baseball was canceled. My younger son had covid, my older son bought a house, got a hyper-active puppy and him and his wife had a child so that makes us grandparents for the first time. I was on a flurry building models for a while, slowed down in the summer and came to a screeching hault around October. Did get a couple of new kits, havent touched them. Belong to numerous facebook groups, barely look at them and that beings me to this group.

I have been less than a stellar member this year, let alone an owner of this group. I want to thank everyone for keeping this site going. Great participation from everyone. There are a ton of things I missed or did not participate in. Bucky did a great job holding down model of the month among other things and I thank you for that. Again, thanks to everyone for keeping Mopars In Scale about.

Now, looking forward into the future of Mopar In Scale. All you read here is coming from me and nobody else. I have not talked to anyone about things. Let's talk about Model Of The Month. My opinion is that it takes a great effort and a lot of time to do it. I would like to keep it but with a few changes. I would like to turn it down a little, get rid of the themes and just call it Mopar Of The Month. Post what you want as long as its A Mopar or Mopar powered. I do not have the smarts to post it up on the banner, if Bucky can put on the banner, then he is more than welcome to do so.

Non Mopar builds, man there was a ton of those. Dont really know how I feel about them. Lots of great builds, but we are a Mopar site. My opinion is we should keep showing them but remove them from MOTM.

As far as this site goes, yes we are not a huge site by no means. I feel a ton of people do the facebook thing now. I don't thing we will be getting a lot of new members. Had quit a few in 2020 but why people join and then not post is a mystery to me. Yea, I know, I didn't post much either.

I want to open up discussion about the site and what you all have in mind on how to move foward.

[68383]

I wasn’t motivated to build much of anything in 2020. I was doing a project for a guy but he died from cancer. I just wasn’t too into it after that.

I think most model builders might build a variety of makes and models. Although I consider myself to be a Mopar guy, I have plenty of other stuff in my cabinets to build, including figures. If you want Mopars only, I can respect that. I also think some of the volume of posts, threads and responses will drop.

There was something about the Model of the Month thing that was a turn off to me. Honestly, it was so long ago that I don’t remember what it was, but I pretty much decided not to bother with it anymore. Sorry I can’t be more specific than that. It’s just unimportant to me, so it’s slipped my mind.

My last though is to just keep it simple. (KISS principle) I like the site because it’s pretty low key. Not lots of drama, issues, etc. That’s why it appeals to me. I’m not on big sites or boards. There are plenty of Facebook model groups, including at least one for Mopars. Figure out what differentiates this site from the masses and stick to that vision. If you do, I don’t think you can go wrong.

EDIT -

For what it’s worth on new members - I had a new member message me a month or so ago. He or she saw pictures of one of my projects when doing an Internet search, joined the forum, then messaged me, asking if I’d build one for them. I thanked them for the compliment but declined due to lack of interest, and since I’m sure I’d make less than minimum wage when comparing what I could charge for a build with the amount of hours and cost of materials.

[dge467]

Sounds like a roller coaster of a year tubbs! I finally got in a building mood in the late fall. Built a few slot cars and now messing with kits. I really had no motivation since late last winter. Then I bought that Polara welding project that kept me busy all summer. I am with Dave, keep it simple. Non Mopar builds are cool with me! If you want to keep it out of the M.O.M., that is ok with me too.

[Jcon]

I build lots of vehicles and figures, military and civilian not just mopars. I came here by Bucky's invitation from our own forum which covers all genres which allows more interactivity and learning different techniques for modeling in general.

I have been frustrated by the Model of the Month here being themed which really limited it. Sticking with strictly Mopars is fine as that is what this site is but all the stipulations just didn't work.

As for Bucky being the only one who can update the banner we have all seen the result... nothing against him but he can't do it alone. As you have pointed out life has a way of changing things for all of us! You need more hands to accomplish what needs to be done with the ability to back each other up on staff.

Adding some moderators might take some of the stress off you guys. Just a thought. Of course if you are gonna slow it down by doing away with other then Mopars, you won't need the help as many will leave or only post once in a while when a Mopar hits their bench.

At the end of the day a lot of it comes down in any forum to how active the leadership is in being present and actively participating keeping the troops excited about the forum through group builds, recognition and encouragement. When those begin to wane the troops will fade away slowly until the forum dies or something changes. Without vision a man will perish.

I wish you all the best in talking with the other admin and coming up with a plan to move forward. It's a good forum, just needs some tweaks here and there to bring it up to date and make it vibrant and active once more.

[BUCKY]

I like the idea of not having themes for the MOM. "Anything MOPAR" sounds good to me, each month. I'm guilty of not being able to build as much as I would like to do. We listed the house for sale in September. Got a good offer, for $5000 under asking price. Then, I had to start repairing things I didn't plan on doing. Had to move 47 years worth of priceless junk to five different storage places! LoL
Got the house empty enough that it echoes like a cave!
About two hours before time to go close the deal, the buyer demanded another $5000 "for needed repairs". We said no! Now, we're living in an empty house!
My PC computer is in storage, so I haven't been able to take care of the MOM duties the way I'd like to. I tried to do it from this Android phone, but it's smarter than me! Hahaha
I think I'll go get that 'puter and hook it up again, as I really enjoy taking care of the MOM.
I've been a MOPAR guy all my life, but when it comes to building models, I build 'em all. Even big rigs! I think if we keep a category for Non-MOPAR models, then those of us who build everything will have a place to show them, and when a MOPAR lands on the bench, we'll already be here.
Adding more staff would help to fill in the gaps when other staff are not available. That would be a call for Al and Marty to decide. I have a couple members in mind that would be great additions,if you'd like my input. LoL
Here's to 2021....may everything just keep getting better from this day forward!!!

[mrmike]

I am a fairly low key guy, but I am branching out with being Club Secretary for my Model Club and I am on a couple of larger model sites. 2020 was a tough year for myself and everyone else and I am still moving forward in spite of Covid-19, allergies and asthma. So, removing other builds from MOM seems to make sense to me. This is a Mopar model site and MOM should stand for Mopar Of The Month instead of Model Of The Month. We can't ignore other types of builds since we all build other brands of models besides Mopars and I am certainly guilty of that! Having themes seems to still be a good thing to have instead of just lumping drag and customs and stock Mopars all into one category. I do want to see this site move forward and improve itself and I will try to be a bit more vocal so others can know what I am thinking and not keeping it all to myself.