I'm guessing there are many long-time car enthusiasts here. I'm wondering what you think makes a successful car club. What features, benefits, etc. exist in car clubs that you consider successful? What do you require as a condition of membership?

 

I have been a hardcore member of Honda Sports Car Club - Queensland for a couple of years.

In my experience the car club's backbone consists of a couple of hardcore car nuts that show up without fail at every single meet and activity. There are several other nice people that are in the club who only show up at major events such as christmas parties, cocktail parties, race days and the Gold Coast Indy.
We have a group of about 8 hardcore people who we go driving with nearly every Thursday night, go on weekend cruises, perform modifications together and even go drinking together.

So IMHO its not the features, cars that make the club but dedicated members. It is also important to have a dedicated club president who will use time and resources to make the club work.

If you like I can suggest club activities that our club has had in the past that work really well.

 

Jim,

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think this question is extremely vague and difficult to answer. I think a car club, at it's core, exists to serve it's members and give them benefits that they seek but alone they cannot acquire. A main benefit to me of a car club is a centralized method of communication and organization. In that respect, this website serves me well. Other benefits would be organizing get togethers, acquiring funds that can be pooled for the benefit of all members, using the size of the club as leverage with vendors, in our case race tracks, etc....I think the first thing a club needs to do is talk to it's potential members and find out what they want from the club. I'm sure the needs of each currently existing car club vary based upon many variables that exist within it's constituents. I doubt that if we polled all of the car clubs out there that we would find a universal set of needs and desires.

 

Number one: Respect.

 

In my opinion the Atlanta club is very successful. We have over 50 members. We have some dealership support and have been contacted by several local businesses to participate in car shows, group discounts, etc. A car club is as much as social club as anything. Even though we do a drive every month or so our members also get together and do other things like track days, performance mod installations, movies, etc. Your always going to have members that are "die-hard" participants and others that show only occasionally so not having 100% paticipation at every event is no big deal.

In the end, what makes a club successful is that all who are involved get something out of it and above all relax and have a good time.

 

I think the question is worded correctly as the vagueness allows everyone to provide their input without constraints. I think thats what Jschmidt is looking for.

I think a successful club needs several elements:

1) Good leadership that is respected by its members, listens to the members wants and needs, and communicates well (2 way) with the members and fellow leaders and collegues (ie- setting realistic expectations and then overacheiving them).

2) A core group of active members that motivate others to become active, even if only periodically.

3) Events planned around its membership's needs and desires that fit within the financial confines of the membership demographic and geographic constraints.

4) Events and activities that get as many members active as possible, as without membership participation, it really isnt a club, more like a fiefdom.

 

GIRLS!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by S2k Dude
[B]In my opinion the Atlanta club is very successful.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tanqueray
[B]

I agree and would extrapolate to say that most of the regional clubs are very successful...Atlanta, Irvine, WLA, Bay Area, to name a few.

The common themes:
-- strong core group of real believers
-- a consensus style of leadership (find out what the members want and take them there....as opposed to deciding what the members should want and trying to push them to want it)
-- stong communication between all levels of the group
-- flexible roles: members do what they enjoy within the club (creating badges, mapping drives, setting up hotels, whatever they want to do)
-- a focus on enjoying themselves, which means minimizing hassles, bureaucracy, etc.

I believe that a good method of building a national club is to build a kind of "United Car Clubs of S2000"...make a national club made up of the local clubs, the way the USA is made up of individual states.

 

Have I missed the boat somewhere?

The S2KCA was built around having chapter clubs. In order to have chapter clubs, members have to form one.

The S2KCA was built to take all the administrative crap away from the local chapters so that they could do what they really wanted to do - have fun.

The S2KCA (mostly me personally) went through all the headaches of incorporating, getting insurance coverage, setting up bank accounts, hammering out an AHM agreement, dealing with the IRS and our tax-exempt status. This is what the S2KCA was built to do - so that no one else would have to do it since it's a PITA.

What all of this framework takes is members to step up and support it. It's only a framework, members have to fill the house and finish it.