EVDA can only represent its members. It can never and must never, under any circumstances, put itself forward as representing EV drivers as a whole. It does not and never will.
Matt knows my views on this...
EVDA, in its current form, has no purchase in the EV arena and will never have in my opinion until it gets its act together and becomes a professional organisation instead of an EV drivers club and talking shop. I see no value of being a member of EVDA at the moment and I hope that they don't get involved in these kinds of issues until they have the time and money to do it properly. If anyone knows anything about dealing with government and councils... doing things in a way that doesn't mesh with how they work is worse than doing nothing at all. If it isn't tackled with authority from the start then we will ruin any possibility of being taken seriously in the future.
It needs much more than a few drivers forming a club. It needs professional, active lobbying... high profile visibility, a structured PR and marketing effort, visibility at shows, conferences and workshops throughout the industry... and all BEFORE it stands any chance of being taken at all seriously by any othe organisations that matter.
We can't just cobble together something reactively when issues arise. That is just whinging! It needs a permanent and professional presence in the EV world so its profile can be built and so its credibility for EV driver representation can grow.
As things stand I do not see any good for EV drivers on the whole coming from the involvement of the EVDA as it currently stands. I hope that they do not get involved as some kind of defacto representative of EV drivers which they are most certainly not and I will be lobbying against EVDA if it tries to suggest that it is anything more than it actually is.
I am in favour of a professionally run EVDA that has built up a reputation in the industry through its activities and involvement from day to day... but I am very much against an EVDA plays at it like it is. That will do more harm than good IMO and it could seriously damage any chance of us being taken seriously in the future.
Matt, you say you are working on it... sorry, but I see nothing happening and so far EVDA has done nothing visible. How can anyone, least of all OLEV et al, give the EVDA any credibility?
If you want to be taken seriously by OLEV and the other big players then you must establish your credentials publically FIRST... loud and clear! So far EVDA has a web site that shows little activity, it has meetings in private and it is not getting itself involved openly and visibly. It doesn't make regular public announcements, it isn't regularly cropping up on other web sites and getting in front of people's noses so people can associate EVDA with EV driver issues, it isn't regularly publishing articles explaining the attitudes that it represents and the values that are important to its members and so the the industry can see how it is aligned. All your private talk amounts to nothing of value.
It is no good just saying ... your working on it... what good is that?