Club Membership

[speedtripledan]

They're busy ---- looking for their wallets

Think they have just gone to the loo

[Guest boggybogstar]

Im a community user??

 

pig, beer, magazine blah de blah de blah!!

 

Others above have said what they really want is a sense of being in a club, wealth of knowledge is fantastic (Nigel and Alan S helped me enormously setting up my Emerald), events is what this club needs- and yes I have got of my arse to help this in the South - albeit as an intermark club - why dont the area secs work with other clubs more to pull people together?, instead of waiting in a wet car park for a couple of RH's do what we have done, we wait in wet car parks looking at all sorts of marques (oh hang on - I might be thinking of my dogging hobby instead)!

 

Yes it's extra work, no it doesnt have to fall on one persons shoulders, work with other clubs and encourage joint inter club meets - open the doors!!,

 

I can help in the South and very willing too but every time I come on here and mention a run I kill the thread, just for everyones info - I reckon I have done about 8k miles in my kit so far this year (ok that included 2k miles through the Alps), I have been on an early morning run with at least 5 to 10 other kits every weekend bar a few this year - winter, sun or rain!, thats what this club needs and to do that it needs to open it's doors not close them.

 

the clubs already worth £15 a year (small change), make it real value for money

 

Only my view as a community user

[Guest boggybogstar]

Stewart

 

All good points, but why the defensive style?

 

Apologies if 'dogging' and car parks was a snotty remark, certainly wasnt meant to be, it was a reflection of exactly what Phil has said!

 

Ive found Rhocar useful in the past, and indeed I do now, I find it useful as a mechanism to unite people in a run/drive, surely my opinions arent offending anyone,,,,,,,surely you need opinions,,,,,,,,,,otherwise how would a club be run succesfully?

 

As said before, £15 is well worth it for what this club offers, I just think it should be careful in closing it's doors to non payers (my opinion), I think Steve wrote a really good and balanced view above of the original ask.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Tony B

[Guest greenwood03]

Wow this thread has taken some twists and turns since the initial post.

 

OK so i'm a 'community user' - so here's my 2penneth.

I joined the free forum a couple of years back ahead of setting up skcc, at the time i joined a few free forums to try to spread the word about an event which was solely for kits - and which by repeated hammering of the message saw us get a gathering of 70+, but that's by the by.

 

I can see and empathise with some of the viewpoints, although from my limited experience of running a club i'd question a few key points.

What is the membership fee for? what is it designed to cover and are those principles still valid from its inception?

 

From the sounds of it the forum costs are neglible, which presumably means that the residue is used for the magazines, public liability and the famous beer/hog roast. As regards to the members fee i'd be wondering whether the club should have a fee or not - if it can generate enough funding through advertising, merchandising etc and forgoing food at events that a small % of members are physically able to take advantage of then that would i imagine answer the 'freeloading' question.

If not and a fee is required then surely the next question is how much does it need to be to provide xyz, xyz being the criteria agreed as a 'welfare' package for all members: food at (all??) shows, subsidised track day, magazine etc etc.

 

As regards to folks reading the forums and posting on the forums this is a tricky point.

Without folks being able to participate the opportunity to change readers to paying members is negated. Moreover many forums need a flow of contributors to keep the boards ticking over, without that tickover things can become stale rapidly. Sharing of knowledge is contentious, i can't think of many places in teh world of friendship where someone would expect a reward for helping a 'buddy' out? Sure buy someone a beer for a helping hand but i'd be permanently sloshed if i called in a beer for every bit of remote advice i've given to fix a problem.

However i totally agree that teh for sale forum should be closed from a selling perspective to non paying guests, but not allowing guests to make contact with a seller unless they are a member seems to me punitive towad the seller who ergo would be a paying member! That's clearly limiting their ability to sell their goods.

 

As an aside i had thought of instigating a small fee for goods sold on our forum ( more voluntary than the LAW), but there again we don't have any membership fees.

 

At the top of this post i mentioned the possible need to review what teh membership fee is for, actually that might be better phrased - what's the forum for, what's the club for and how do we get more members interacting? and no to anyone skim reading, that isnt a dig it's a genuine comment.

 

Like Tony B my interest in our cars is driving, i will very occasionally endure a show / pub meet IF i've been able to do a sensible drive to get there. For my part these forums, clubs etc have simple core values:

allow people to 'virtually' meet others with a similar interest

allow people to make 'car buddies' - hopefully with a view to using the things.

and with a single marque site like RHOCAR to get some technical guidance when all seems lost.

 

As a side bar i find it strange that chit chat falls so low in the page of the site, obviously everyone that owns a kit has a different agenda: builder, polisher, driver etc, but i'd have thought that the 2 key elements would be driving ( Events/Meets/Run Out section ) and Chit Chat ( banter where one would post banter that's not relevant to driving)....anything else would fall below those 2 yardsticks?

 

I know that we tried to get a bit of buy in for that Kimbolton run and it was a pity that it didn't come off, perhaps some of the AO's down in teh South will as Tony suggests try and do a few joint things? I'm a firm believer in the more the merrier - far better to have new faces to banter with over brekkie.

 

and as for that hog roast, why not simply charge everyone ( if the members fees are ever scrubbed ) or more reasonably give members a discount on their 'meal deal'. Again its merely my 2 penneth but it seems strange to offer up some goodies that clearly a tiny% can/do take advantage of, and as it's a 'given' that members can enjoy such tucker what happens if next time there's 400 members banging their bowls. Personally food.beer at 1-2 shows shouldn't reflect anything to do with club members fees.

 

finally ( yes i have finished - nearly)...the above was/is meant in good spirit, i realise that the aims of the club beginning with S are perhaps somewhat different and the 'fan base' is clearly regional - nevertheless my thoughts are well intended.

and as for whoever mentioned about a southern club being miffed at having 'online members' from farther afield - not at all, we have guys who have registered from places far away, my regret is that often they realise there is little benefit to them and wander off with few words written......but we still have guys who have joined and who have 'evented with us'....the best example a caterham owner from Leics who joined, jumped in his car 48 hours later and joined us for a day doing WW1 sites in Belgium.

 

here's to a dry weekend and miles of smiles.....

mark g

[Guest mower man]

In my honest opinion you seem to have reached your nirvana with your 's' club and all good to you so why clatter on about what RhoCar should or shouldn't do ,this discussion started by a few who thought thet were missing out on so called benefits and honestly if they got off their a==='s would find they are missing nothing !a clubs is only as good as it's members and we have a solid base as many others and generally better than most .Things could be improved ,nothing is ever perfect so lets find what they really want and act upon it ! mower man

[Guest greenwood03]

the most amazing thing about this thread is the lack of input from community users . mmmmmmmmmm just a thought

err that's why i contributed.

like i said no axe to grind.

[Guest greenwood03]

Stewart, understood and quite right.......and i trust that the respective clubs will continue to thrive.

[Guest mikejo]

hi as im a community user and i was going to join in the new year and pay £15,ive decieded to pay for the rest of the this year because i feel it only fair as the robin hood site is very helpfull to me,many thanks mike

[Guest mikejo]

hi just paid £15 by paypal to join,well worth the money as the info you get is great,mike

[Guest gdc]

this has been my feeling for few few years

#the info on this site has value ,

it can create new members .

we have worked for years to work out what works and what dont .

why should non members get acess to this info?we own the server ?

we donnt own the site though our info is given as an entry to the site .

re the pig thing

if you are there then you should take advantage of it .

 

 

graham

[Snapperpaul]

I found RHOCaR after buying my part built 3, I cruised the site for some time, then joined, then helped here and there with the Essex branch, this was difficult Rusty worked very hard but we only got 3 to 5 regulars often just rusty and me.

The Essex kit car club was formed to include any mark of kit car and this has taken off, 50 or so members and a regular meet of 15 to 20

I have posted for sale as a (now) non member and had the posts removed.

I agree with the members only hog roast and beer (family included)

I contribute my knowledge on this site for free as a member past and as a non member now, it would cause me concern if I was blocked from accessing this completely and may be in breach of the freedom of information act

A time delay for sale may be appropriate but I would leave the wanted section open.

With the GBS Zero the main product of the old Robin Hood company the exclusivity of the RHOCaR site is becoming blurred as sites like Locost builders are just as relevant for a chassis based 7.

Yes RHOCaR it's your ball but I would suggest the pitch is on common land.

[speedtripledan]

freedom of infomation act next thing will be european human rights infringment if we stop non members having full access ive heard some in my time but

[Snapperpaul]

I said "may be in breach of"

[Joel]

I think if you consider which club resource the majority of members make most use of, it has to be this website. More so than hog roasts and gazebos and free beer and the like. I would imagine it's how the majority of people discover the club too, and would be the most sorely missed if it were gone - if Rhocar as a club (gazebo and all) had no presence at a show it wouldn't stop me going, but if the website was gone I'd be screwed!

 

So whatever happens in terms of restricting content and the like then so be it (personally I think it's fine as it is), but as the most used and arguably most important club resource, perhaps shifting some spare club funds in Mats direction for the upkeep of the site should take higher priority?

 

Regarding 'nothing ever happens near me', I would imagine for the most part people just want a sunday afternoon blat around the local lanes with a few like minded people, regardless of what they happen to be driving? I think the club at the top end do a great job of organising the bigger events like Le Mans and track days, but perhaps more resources need to be shifted down to the local area secs to promote local events? I'd rather receive a compiled list of local events/meets/shows (both Rhocar and none Rhocar) with my annual membership pack than a 5 page photocopy of members contact details.

 

Just a few thoughts.

[Guest chris brown]

I think if you consider which club resource the majority of members make most use of, it has to be this website.

This is an assumption most people on here make but in fact only around 25 to 30% of members use this forum that is why it is important to keep the mag going in "hard" copy. In any case I for one much prefer a "proper" mag rather than reading it off a screen and I know I am not the only one.