ics2ks

Good Afternoon, Bay Area S2Ki

After having served as a Community Organizer for the past few years, and not being as active more recently, I think it is time to see if the community would prefer a change in leadership. This thread will be to gauge the thoughts and opinions of the community in regards to electing either an additional CO to serve with me as co-CO's, or alternatively, elect new individual(s) to lead the community.

This is an open discussion, where you can voice both positive and negative thoughts, as I want to do what the community thinks is best for itself. If you think certain aspects are good/bad/should change, or have suggestions as to whom you'd like to see as your CO, please feel free to add that and explain your reasoning.

If you plan on making a suggestion/preliminarily nominating someone, please make sure that person is a registered member and not a guest.

This thread will be left open for at least a week before deciding if/when/how to proceed with a nomination and vote.

darkfalcon

Thank you, Chris, for opening up this topic for discussion. I believe as a community we will be able to find a common ground for future events, such as cruises, track-days, and local meets. I'd like to hear what our newer members (those that have gotten S2000s for the first time in the last couple of years) think what we could do better to get them more involved in the community

UnkieTrunkie

I think this^ is possibly the biggest unknown we have. It's easy for any of us who have been here a while to recall back to some "good 'ol days"* and do the same old, and then wonder why whatever it is now is not what it once was (namely, the people involved change, tastes change, etc.).

So, aside from getting newer S owners involved, I have some other random ideas:

1. Increase or decrease affinity with Facebook. Facebook is there, and so are a bunch of other social media, and they're not going away. So, cross-post to the Facebook sites early and often. Ideally, drive the traffic here. Right now, it's really half-assed, and it shows.

2. I think a track/auto-x enthusiast would be a good addition to our CO staff.

3. Plan early. Plan Often. Plan and Think Regional. Traffic is ridiculous, and the best way around it is to plan our events way in advance. I don't want to kill spontaneity, but I'm sure most folks want people to show up to things. As far as the CO(s), they should be geographically sorted as well.

4. Again, I don't want to kill spontaneity, but if you look at the Oregon group here, they have a calendar planned out every year, and 2-3 years worth of drives on a rotating cycle.

That's it for now. . .


*The good 'ol days, whenever they were, were never that good, and had a lot of the same bull they do now.

TougeHorseman

I just notice our community seems more divided than it used to be (when I first started posting). Maybe I'm reflecting on "the good old days" but there seemed to be less BS, more...fun. Our club feels more high-school cliquey (or dare I say political) and less welcoming than it used to. My sense is that this would impact the newcomers tremendously.

Could a new or more active community organizer change this?...possibly. This issue is that a new chef with the same ingredients has limited meals to prepare. I am not volunteering my services, as I no longer have the schedule allotments to organize a community-- just providing honest feedback when asked.

Baron: great idea to pull hard on newcomer feedback. I'm curious about that too.

darkfalcon

I'll try to post more track events, as I admit didn't really post much about the times I visited Laguna Seca in March, and Thunderhill West just this last Saturday.

tkeyyy

i think these are the 2 main points.

events need to be setup far in advance, especially if the event organizer is expecting a lot of people to come out. not only that, but they need to sacrifice their own time to make the event happen. in other words: if you have to run errands that day, but majority of the people voted for that particular day, then take the hit and do the errands some other time. don't be selfish. they also need to go out of their way to contact the appropriate people to ensure that the event is well-organized and not just "assume" that it's perfectly fine to take over a large amount of space for a meet. that's what's part of being a CO is. taking sacrifice and responsibility to make things happen.

ics2ks

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone, it is very helpful for the community

It would be nice to see some people with strong beliefs either step up to take on the task or suggest someone who they feel would be qualified based on the feedback.

Keep it coming, everyone!

UnkieTrunkie

There's a reason I put that asterisk next to, "good 'ol days;" said days never existed. If you personally felt welcome at one time, great, but I saw a lot of folks either get weeded out or leave of their own volition because they never got into their "clique," or felt that their tribe was elsewhere.

I will say that if someone wants to be CO, and wants to do the job well, and actually improve the Community, they'll have to do a few things:

1. Willing to reach out to new folks that arrive. Spot them, walk up to them, introduce yourself. This is a job for a person with great people skills, not the maddest tightest ultra JDM wang gang boost bang in the Yay. . . if you happen to have both, great, but let's put the former in front of the latter.
2. Admit that at this point in the life of the S2000, anybody from any walk of life may actually get the car. Also, while it'd be nice to have someone with some technical know-how and/or track time, at least have some understanding of what's going on. Even if you shrug and say, "That's over my head," at least do it with enough appreciation of the person's situation to point them in a good next direction.
3. Be willing to delegate AND be willing to advise other members as to what is going on, and to guide smart decision making that will accommodate as many people as possible. A CO doesn't need to be at every event, but should know about as many events are what's going on, know the particulars (who, what, where, when), and hopefully have the event organizers operating in a predictable and clear way.
4. As tkeyy said, they need to put their time and effort into this. Whoever does it has to understand they have to say what they're going to do, AND do what they're going to say. You don't get paid, but the pay-off (hopefully) is a community that grows and supports one another.

darkfalcon

For the Mega Meet this year, I agree it could have been set up with more notice. Last year and years prior, we have not had any issues with Treasure Island up until the construction efforts this year, hence why I reached out to our Sacramento/NorCalS2K people to assist with the Mega Meet this year in Sonoma. We did not receive full approval to do the meet until late mid-August, and I often would like to to give at least 2 months notice advance for a meet of that size. Last year I believe we gave enough notice for the TI meet and we had well over 110+ S2Ks.

As for the errands, the date was set and I had an job interview which I could not reschedule, and I advised that I would possibly be late, which in the end I made every effort to make it (and still made the parade lap).

In my opinion for meets and drives, one month is good enough notice for a cruise (Fish N' Chips, Pinehurst Drives, Santa Cruz, etc.) and two months plus is good for Mega Meets.

TougeHorseman

For the Mega Meet this year, I agree it could have been set up with more notice. Last year and years prior, we have not had any issues with Treasure Island up until the construction efforts this year, hence why I reached out to our Sacramento/NorCalS2K people to assist with the Mega Meet this year in Sonoma. We did not receive full approval to do the meet until late mid-August, and I often would like to to give at least 2 months notice advance for a meet of that size. Last year I believe we gave enough notice for the TI meet and we had well over 110+ S2Ks.

As for the errands, the date was set and I had an job interview which I could not reschedule, and I advised that I would possibly be late, which in the end I made every effort to make it (and still made the parade lap).

In my opinion for meets and drives, one month is good enough notice for a cruise (Fish N' Chips, Pinehurst Drives, Santa Cruz, etc.) and two months plus is good for Mega Meets.
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In my opinion the Mega Meet was a huge success this year. Amazing venue, with NASA being so awesome to let us do a parade lap. The more we can organize fun events like the meets at tracks or scenic areas, the better