Date:         Wed, 04 Oct 95 13:51 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         EF0JPB1@mvs.cso.niu.edu
Subject:      Old Bus Registry

Folks,

A year or so ago anyone in NEATO received a pink insert in
their Old Bus Review which was a form to submit information
on their split-window bus as part joint effort with the
Bulli-Kartei club of Germany to establish an Old Bus
Registry.

Through a circuitous route they all ended up in my hands as
of this week.  I'm the lucky (?) person who gets to make all
of these scribbles into something machine readable--that
means enter all the data.

I haven't counted the forms, but by eyeball there are four
or five hundred of them, some with pictures, and each one
with a story to tell.  People completed and mailed in these
forms with the understanding that some sense of privacy
would be respected, so I'm not going to be saying that
Joe/Jane Blow has a great '49 prototype in Anywhere USA (and
jeopardize its safety), but if interesting stories come up
as I type through them, I'll pass them along.

What might be of interest when all the information is
entered is a quantitative summary of what is still out
there, particularly if the data connection with Bulli-Kartei
can be made.

If you happen to be one of the people who submitted, rest
assured this is finally getting off the ground and (4
billion keystrokes later) the compilation might be a good
basis for a class action suit against Ralph Nader for saying
these things are unsafe and should be taken off the road :).

Will keep you "posted".

-Jim Bryant
ef0jpb1@mvs.cso.niu.edu

PS. Any of you SOTO people not in NEATO can contribute as
well.  Drop me a line offlist and I'll see what connections
can be made.