All Lancias are lovely, but let’s face it, the history and the legacy of genius engineering design is what makes it so important. The compelling reason for joining the LMC is surely that it is the only club that can offer anything like the continuity of association with Lancia over many years.
Colin, thanks for your post - they are always worth reading and provoke one to think a bit more. Here's my "more" thoughts:
Playing devils advocate for a moment I would ask why is that a compelling reason? When we who are in the club ask what the compelling reason is we must put ourselves in the shoes of the person who isn't a member. That there are many Lancia owners not in the club surely provides some evidence that club history itself is not a compelling reason. Club history is a memory of what previous members got yesterday, not what future members could expect tomorrow - and expectations have changed.
I can think of many compelling reasons, comraderie, technical knowledge, parts swaping etc (but I am a member - have been for 20 years) - but they are so well hidden, un-publisied and in-convienient to access that only (some?) members know they are there. Prospective members wouldn't have a clue they even existed. The internet and the forum is the resource that can change that.
When you are a new owner your first port of call is likely to be the internet in todays world. Huib will send you a disc with all the technical information you need for €20, no hassel and its publisied. Or you can go on Lancisti.com and download most of the information there and then, each has a lively forum, many of the whom are LMC members giving advice (and seaking it), and they are free 24/7. To a new member that would be a compelling reason to go there and not here (and I quoted two examples in the last month).
My arguement is not so much that there are no compelling reasons per se, more what is the compellng reason to make people look? Rather like a restaurant - if the window dressing and front tables look crap you don't go in, but you may miss out on the best meal you never had ! We make it so hard to see that we run the risk of going unnoticed.
In this day and age the high street is the internet, we have been provided with a cracking front window but, apart from a few hardy members trying hard to provide the window dressing and front tables, we are bereft of encouragment, support and executive sponsorship. So we can believe we have all the compelling reasons in the world but our use of the shop window is so lamentably poor, prospective customers just walk past. It should be a club initiative.
Perhaps I should have phrased it "how do we make the compelling reasons so bloody obvious nobody can ignore us"