What do you want from a car club? Part 2
 

There has been a lot of grumbling about what people want and expect from a car club but it has been presented in an indirect and controversial way. So to clear the air and get some solid ideas down tell us how a car club should run and what your expectations are.

I have some ideas of my own I'll post in a few minutes but I didn't want them to become the topic of this thread. I want to hear what you think in a positive way. Let's not have this be a bashing thread about some club or other but instead tell us what you want out of a club.

Post away

2 ideas:

Organized meets (at least 4 a year)

and

Maintenance and upgrade meets (change oil, tires etc.)

Big organized "national" meets can't really happen all that often (and I can't take the time out for them more than about once a year anyway), but local/regional meets, especially maintenance and upgrade meets as lucid suggested. I'd also like to see instructional drives and events that help us all become better (and safer) drivers.

Group discounts are always nice, especially if they can apply to things like auto insurance, scheduled honda maintenance, etc. But I don't join a club for discounts -- I join it for the people and the knowledge.

Because of the flexibility in my work schedule, my expectations may differ from others. I'd like to be involved in a club resembling Team Irvines...Though I've never met any of them personally, they seem to have a tight knit group and are constantly doing something. It's seldom someone mentions an event that they're not willing to participate in...

After reading CRussel's response, I agree, instructional drives and events would also be fun...(probably boring for some of you seasoned racers though).

I think that local clubs are the backbone of the club system. A club needs to address the needs of individuals in a local community while at the same time providing some structure and support. As an example I present the SoCal region. There are at least 3 separate clubs in this small area some with a few members, like San Diego, and some with many members, like West LA and Irvine. These individual clubs are vastly different. Irvine is a generally young club of very close-knit members who are more like a bunch of pals than a formal club. They go by the moniker of

I think cthree's ideas about local clubs and a national association of those local clubs makes a lot of sense, but probably more so if we were starting from scratch and had a few years before we wanted/expected to see a national event. How do we get there from where we are now?

I think some of the 'issues' with the S2KCA are due to the founders' ambition and accelerated timetable. I think they've done an impressive job to get where they are now in such a short time. On the other hand, they have some communication problems to address: setting expectations, learning to under-promise and over-deliver, and in general communicating much more, much more often would help a lot.

I think the big hurdle to overcome is what the relationship will be between local clubs where a lot of the day-to-day good personal interaction will go on, and the national club, and what their respective roles will be. It seems clear to me that a national club or association is best suited to dealing with the mothership (Honda), administrative tasks (insurance, non-profit status), organizing national events, and seed-funding larger regional events.

Ted

cthree, I feel very strongly that a newsletter is the most important tool available to communicate with members. In this era we can provide a small electronic newsletter to the membership and give them an idea of exactly what the club is and does. Why are you so opposed to the idea?

I learned about S2ki.com thru one of those Car Magazine (Import Tuner, Super Street) that features websites for car tuner aficionados. They mention that this site is the best site for S2000 owners to chat about our love for our cars as well as other cars, but the one distinction is that it seems to be more catered to organized meets and drives for the owners unlike other website forums. The car club should just be an extension of that. This site has benefited me by giving me new perspectives on what my car is capable of as well as meet some of the top and friendliest people on God's green Earth.
Since becoming a member on this site I've accomplished enough stories to fill a great fat journal on my experiences with this car alone.
I do not think that S2kCA can compete yet; but I have high hopes the car club would eventually be comparable to the NSX car club. I would expect nothing less. However, look at the Miata Car Club when I was a member on that it was and still is the largest car club in North America and the most organized. Just ranting...

Tan

My only experience with the Miata Car Club was my participation in their 5th Annual Hangover Run, but that in itself was enough to show me they've got their act together! Maybe we should follow their example and take some lessons from them.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BobsS2000
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