Operation Frank was an Association of Land Rover Owners of Canada (ALROC)
experiment for one year (Spring 1983 to Spring 1984) in Ottawa to test the viability of an
independent chapter club. The members and officers of Operation Frank put out a newsletter and held events--some events (Spring Tune up and Oiler) are still being done today. Here are the Newsletters that they produced.
Grey backgrounds indicate issues missing from the archive. Click on the year link for a page showing all of the cover pages (and also links to the Newsletters)
|
#1
1983 |
#2
1983 |
#3
1983
Jul |
#4
1983
Oct |
#5
1983 |
#6
1984
Feb |
#7
1984
Apr |
Editor |
| 1983-4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
Mike McDermott |
Following a successful year of operation, the members of Operation Frank submitted a proposal to ALROC to establish regional chapters. The proposal was accepted and the first regional chapter, OVLR was born on the Summer Solstice in 1984.
The NLs marked in grey are ones that are currently missing from the archive. Some planned issues were not published and are marked with "N/A". The club intends to post NLs 6 months after their pubication.
The first issue of the newsletter dates from June 1984 suggesting the name of "Valley Rovers". In June the first officers were elected. A prior newsletter addressed to "Dear Land Rover Enthusiast" was sent out in May to get Rover owners together and is included here.
Fees
As with anything, dues have changed over time. The following is shows when changes occurred
- When OVLR was formed in 1984, membership was $5 per year. That increased to $10 in 1986, $12 in 1988, $15 in 1991, $20 in 1993 and to $25 in July of 1997.
- July 1999 membership rose to $30 per year for Canadians, US$25 for Americans and overseas, and $5 for associate members.
In the same time, the cost of postage for the newsletter has gone from 17 cents to 74 cents for a domestic copy. In April 2000, Canada Post decided that we should be using 9x12 envelopes and paying ninty-two cents for domestic postage, a dollar thirty for the USA and two-twentyfive for overseas members. Inflation, being inflation, this rose again on January 1st, 2001 by a few cents.
The familiar letterhead used on the newsletter, later extended to other club items, was created by Neil Brewer and first used in March, 1985. Copies of this letterhead were regularly used in the newsletter until May 1995 when a computerized rendering from Spencer Norcross was introduced along with the habit of changing the rightmost Land Rover to a different configuration as part of a contest
Starting in March, 1985 the newsletter was printed on yellowed paper, and comprised a varying number of 8.5" x 11" pages stapled together. In March, 1994 the format changed to one of using 11" x 17" paper, folded.
Editors:
There have been six editors of the OVLR newsletter.
- Mike McDermott was the editor for the first three years.
- Neil Brewer followed Mike and edited the newsletter for 1987 and 1988.
- Mike McDermott returned to edit the newsletter for 4 more years (1989 to 1992) after Neil moved to British Columbia.
- David Meadows took over editing in 1993 (Starting with the February issue). Robin Craig was the Technocal Editor.
- Dixon Kenner was the editor of the newsletter for 7 years (1994 to 2001).
- Spencer Norcross took over all production and layout for the newsletter in February 1996 and continued through May 2001.
- Shannon Lee Mannion along with Alisdair Sinclair were editors from from 2001 through October 2005
- Terry King became the editor starting with the November 2005 issue.
- Dixon Kenner has returned as guest editor for a few occasions: April, July and October 2006 and April 2007.
With the growth of the newsletter over the years, several other people have been involved on an almost monthly basis regular basis: David Meadows, Murray Jackson, Fred Joyce, Andrew Finlayson, and Bruce Ricker all are there to help get this on its' way to the membership.
