What do you want from a car club? Part 2
01-18-2002, 10:36 AM
#11
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sideways
[B]cthree, I feel very strongly that a newsletter is the most important tool available to communicate with members.
[B]cthree, I feel very strongly that a newsletter is the most important tool available to communicate with members.
01-18-2002, 11:14 AM
#12
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I like cthree's local club idea.
In addition to the ideas above, I'd like to see some organized tech days. Something along the lines that vtecvoodoo organizes for Honda club. He brings in local experts on many different things (intake, header, etc). It would be great to have a tech day just for the S2K, to better learn about the car, and how mods can affect it.
In addition to the ideas above, I'd like to see some organized tech days. Something along the lines that vtecvoodoo organizes for Honda club. He brings in local experts on many different things (intake, header, etc). It would be great to have a tech day just for the S2K, to better learn about the car, and how mods can affect it.
01-18-2002, 11:19 AM
#13
I 100% disagree with Cthree (and others) statement that the foundation of a car club should be the local groups. My local group before I moved was basically myself and aquatic, and we were effectively a 3 hour distant extension of the Chicago guys. I talked to a few other local owners and they wanted no part of it. I moved here in December so all the local S2000s are in hibernation, but in talking with coworkers and friends, I believe there may be at best 6 other S2000s in this city of 250,000. One of those individuals posted on s2ki a couple times but I think has sold his car for insurance reasons. None of the other local owners are on here, to my knowledge, and this area isn't especially "import friendly" either. That means my "local" club would be Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus (Ohio), or Detroit - all of which are several hours away. While I have no qualms about driving that far for meets, it's tough to really be part of their "local club" and actively participate in the regular meetings and planning since I don't have familiarity with the area.
My point is that if you're not living in one of the concentrated group areas - West LA, Irvine, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, etc - than having only a local club is a difficult pill to swallow. The larger events - regional or national - are the only way for a lot of us to participate in car-club type events. Also, Cthree's proposed method for determining council representation would effectively silence those of us in less (S2000) concentrated areas. Consider the makeup of the US senate (2 per state) vs the US house of reps (population based). For those of us outside of some of the aforementioned areas, a good national club is our only hope of being able to join in the fun. Several regional clubs, representing a portion of the national group, for more frequent but smaller events would be ideal as well. This is similar to what S2KCA is attempting to do.
My point is that if you're not living in one of the concentrated group areas - West LA, Irvine, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, etc - than having only a local club is a difficult pill to swallow. The larger events - regional or national - are the only way for a lot of us to participate in car-club type events. Also, Cthree's proposed method for determining council representation would effectively silence those of us in less (S2000) concentrated areas. Consider the makeup of the US senate (2 per state) vs the US house of reps (population based). For those of us outside of some of the aforementioned areas, a good national club is our only hope of being able to join in the fun. Several regional clubs, representing a portion of the national group, for more frequent but smaller events would be ideal as well. This is similar to what S2KCA is attempting to do.
01-18-2002, 11:45 AM
#15
Former Moderator
I don't think Cthree was advocating using his model as the be all and end all. It is a starting point and a good one for this discussion. I don't know that I agree with everything in Cthree's model but I do think this needs to start out as local, grassroots "clubs" that either informally or formally form a national coalition. The specifics can be worked out after enough of the local clubs exist that banding together in some fashion is advantageous. In other words, I think we need to focus more on getting some good local chapters going and concentrate less on creating a national bureacracy until one is needed.
01-18-2002, 04:42 PM
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I agree with cthree about the need for locality with a club or organization. Not necessarily to the extend of the heirarchy that he was suggesting, but we definitely need to bring the club to the entusiast and not make the enthusiast go to the club. The problem in San Diego as I see it is that there isn't any local organization to the extent that I'd like to see. It's basically just any person that has an idea about a meeting or event and posts it in the forum. Then people who notice respond. This brings me to the point about the people who don't notice until it's too late. I've brought up the idea before with SD people about have a website or portion of a website with locale specific things such as a calendar of events, schedules, directions, etc. where people can go to look up the latest and greatest of local happenings. What good is a club if it's difficult for the user to find out what's going on with it?
A national club is distant from enthusiasts and is hard to reach out unless something major is happening (like Laguna Seca...which BTW kicked butt). And if we get enough local chapters together, the organization at a national level can form much easier than trying to build it top down. And that's when you can start taking advantage of shared expenses or issues such as insurance for events, club newsletters, etc... Almost like if each local chapter supported the funding of the national club, but each local club has their own accounting separate from the national one. And in return, you get the national level advantages such as event insurance as well as access to any discounts, etc..
But obviously then someone has to be in charge of the local chapters as representation for the club as a whole (like cthree said).
David
A national club is distant from enthusiasts and is hard to reach out unless something major is happening (like Laguna Seca...which BTW kicked butt). And if we get enough local chapters together, the organization at a national level can form much easier than trying to build it top down. And that's when you can start taking advantage of shared expenses or issues such as insurance for events, club newsletters, etc... Almost like if each local chapter supported the funding of the national club, but each local club has their own accounting separate from the national one. And in return, you get the national level advantages such as event insurance as well as access to any discounts, etc..
But obviously then someone has to be in charge of the local chapters as representation for the club as a whole (like cthree said).
David
01-18-2002, 04:52 PM
#19
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Re: SD Club...If I recall, Joel was all set to do a website and went so far as to make the header etc, but met with criticism and "no" support regarding suggestions etc. Consequently the idea went no further and died.