Yes Valerio has left.
As this departure has affected club funds which we have previously agreed to be completely open about, we need to set out clearly what actions led up to this departure and how that affected the funds.
Firstly, as per Vals request, his account has been removed and any posts either copied (if they contain technical info in the FAQ's or forum rules etc), or removed posts entirely that may contain personal info etc, again as per the request from Val.
Ultimately we think a fair way of summing up Vals departure was that he no longer felt the direction of the community and the working attitude of the rest of the team was in line with his own personal prefference. This was eluded to in Vals own "goodbye and all that jazz" post, some time ago.
There were occasions when some members of the team suggested to Val that perhaps, as a forum administrator, his posts on particular threads could possibly have been phrased a little more tactfully. This led to Val making a post to the team containing the following:
This resulted in phonecalls between various members of the team, and ultimatley the decison being made that given the attitude shown or perceived from that thread, Val should no longer have administration rights to the forum.
This decision was not taken lightly, and certainly not taken by one member of the team. As with all decisions taken on the forum that affect the way it is run or the way funds are spent etc, they are group decisions made by as many members of the team as possible who are available at the time. There were at least 3 people involved in taking the decision above.
The next contact with the team was in a telephone conference, where, along with an apology for the remarks levelled at various people in the post above, Val noted some changes that he felt should be implemented within the team, adding some minor informal structure etc. The group democraticaly decided that they did not wish to take on specific roles or structure, preferring the status quo. Val felt at this time that he could no longer be a part of the team if these changes were not adopted. This is when the "goodbye and all that Jazz" post was made by Val announcing his departure from the team.
During a more recent conflict on the boards Val requested that his account be removed or he would pursue legal action against the site. After a phonecall on Friday 14th Sept actions were agreed on how the removal would take place.
At the time of this departure, Val was responsible for some £62.80 of club funds, and the remaining stickers. Val advised that if we wished to make members aware of what happened to the funds we had his permission to use his own post to the team, rather than paraprhase our own.
As the posts states, the stickers have been lost which is unfortunate, but we do feel this is a genuine mistake, they can be replaced, and we have found another source for these so should be in a position to start sending out the stickers that people are due to for passing 350 posts, and also have them available for people at meets/shows etc in the near future.
As there are no written rules on how any personal contributions made by the team would be handled in the event of a member leaving the team, there is no legal base on which to suggest Vals actions in retaining these funds are wrong.
However as the rest of the team felt that personal donations and contribution of time/resources/materials etc. made over the years were just that, donations, and not investments - the team will be replacing this money themselves and not expecting the members who raised this money through sales of stickers to accept the loss.
It must be stated that all funds raised from sales of T-shirts and donations made using the paypal link or passed to any other member of the team are NOT included within this figure, and they are not affected in any way by Vals departure.
Val also purchased some domains recently, namely 370z-uk.com and 370zownersclub.com. These were purchased by Val from his own pocket, not club funds. Although the intention may have been at the time of purchase to forward those domains to this community, Val considers these personal purchases and that he is free to direct these domains where he wishes.
We are disappointed at Val's actions but wish to move on positively and put this unpleasant episode behind us so that we can concentrate what is important - taking this site from strength to strength.
This has been posted on behalf of all the admin/mods