Is membership a Joke

[X kyle X]

Hi,



Hehehe, I do rope in Riverina. She is not a Board or Club member, but she will put the Club money into the bank if I am busy. SHe has collected mail if she is going near the Post Office. She helps with the financial spreadsheets, cleaning up the format of the Constitution, got me all pretty binders and a box for the Treasury stuff, collected the key from the local Council for the park-gate at Wiseman's Ferry (for the Celica cruise this Sunday), and also is creating the Classic Celica calender (which I will bring along a few early sample months to the cruise for people to see).

You will find that Stitty's chick and Keanu's chick help out at cruises and Toyotafest by selling raffle tickets and helping about, so the Board is very family orientated in getting our better-halfs to help out. And, that's what makes it great. That's why I love the Club as we all help out, especially with the reduced Board.

It is the people that make the Club. The more members, the more people that come on cruises and events, the better the Club will be.

This Sunday is the perfect day to turn up to a great club cruise to see and meet the people. Even if it is just to say hi for a short while, it would be great and very much welcomed.

seeyuzz
river

see thats awesome!! thats what i want, im trying to get the missus more involved, and if i sign up then hopefully i can get her coming to more cruises and what not

[thechuckster]

It's not unexpected that folks at Toymods face similar issues to us yokels up in Brisbane ... a core group of club members who keep the club alive but have less-and-less time and funds to keep it functioning or attend & organise events.

I have found just one club up here that's growing in numbers and funds (tho with the perenial problem of a small core of organisers) - the Northern Districts Sporting Car Club based on the sunshine coast - but they are focussed on specifics such as club-level gravel rallying and non-bitumen motorkhana along with a youth-road-safety development program.

Where clubs like Toymods and TCCQ get crunched is their inclusivenes - which is unfortunate , that's what attracts people to the clubs/forum in the first place.

There's little reciprocity in this situation as for most club members and lookers-on there is an expectation for club activities to continue but little inclination to take on management/organisational roles.

Even larger motorsport clubs have the same problem and it extends right up to national motorsport events.

Personally, I think clubs should focus on specific ranges of activities and use the extraneous activities to explicitly support their core activities. Sporting and social clubs do this and there's no reason why enthusiast clubs can't take this approach?

Getting to a position (financially and with strong internal support) where you can take that decision is a lot of work and angst. I think.

I'm not sure what more I can add to the debate except to say that this problem is not restricted to Toymods and club organisers are looking and listening for ways and means of making their clubs function more effectively without loosing the core of what makes them attractive to enthusiasts.

cheers,
Charloes (TCCQ VP)

[mynameisrodney]

I just wanted to add that I think one of the reasons that the attendance is so low is that this club is more about modification and restoration than it is about simple ownership of a toyota, and so a lot of members go for long periods of time where their cars are out of action. I know that personally this has been a big thing stopping me from coming to events. I have never even driven my ta22 and would feel like a bit of a dickhead turning up to a cruize in my magna.

That being said, the whole wealth of information regarding mods and restos is what makes this place so great. If it was just an "I own a toyota! Hi-five!" type club I never would have joined in the first place.

Thanks to all the board members past and present for your efforts. I know I am a lazy bastard but once my car is done I really do aim to make a more solid contibution.

Chris

[TheToyman75]

Chris,

The people at events is what makes them worthwhile, Not the Cars !

Dont feel that because your in a Magna you should avoid coming. members turn up in Fords, Holdens Motor bikes and even Honda's. Sure most of us bring a Toyota. But noone wil think less of you for not driving one your still building.

[1JZ.747]

I agree, however..

what concerns me is that many forum members are only concerned about the lack of funds for the forums.. and couldn't care less about the club, or actively put it down, when the club is what provides the forums..

i agree that closing the forum to club members only would be a step backward... but not that big a step, considering the number of people who are just here to whore in non-car and to buy and sell stuff for free...

i think many forum members have a distorted view of the club, and their "right" to have access to the forums.

i like glen (1jz68U) just simply dont have time to come to sydney and be an active member of the club, im a 2 hour drive away on a good day, i understand time is precious for the board members like it is for me and while im unable to give my time i am happy to contribute financially be it $20 a year or whatever, i think a small fee to be a forum member would weed out alot of the crap also.

i do like to attend the toyfest show and although its about a $300 exercise for a day out, whether i wint a trophy or not its money well spent to show the car to people who havent seen it and to catch up with some of the board and club memebers who have helped out in some way shape or form over the years.

these forums have been invaluable to me over the years and i happy to give back where i can.

Shane

[Sammich]

wow what a read...

and seeing as everyone else has put they're 2c in maybe I should too

OC: I can see where you're coming from with the "its not about the money angle" but for all of us interstate members, what else can we do? It's been said before but I really think creating some way for the peope that might not be able to attend meetings/help directly with the club to be able to help out would be a massive step in the right direction. This is the internet age people! Plenty of corporate entities have international conferences without everyone physically being in the same room. Maybe some sort of video conferencing could help with things like the AGM and other such meetings? Or even conference calls... Possibly not the cheapest solutions but just thought i'd throw a few ideas to get things rolling.

Also, what wirysage said about having a big fat gold "Donate" button at the top of the page might not be a bad idea. I understand its somewhat pessimistic, but you cant expect people to go hunting around to find where they can donate to the club. If theres a big button staring you in the face, you're more likely to go "hey,I love this site, maybe they could use a coupla bucks!"

I honestly don't know what i'd do with myself during the day without these forums (I have a very easy job ). Even though I've never been to an event, never met any other member (except for ones I was already friends with), hell I dont even own a car! Yet every day I browse (read: troll lol) the forums, finding new and interesting ways people can modify their cars. Everything i've ever learnt about the mechanical side of cars i've learnt either from reading magazines or on these forums. I guarentee you now if there was any way I could phyisicaly help with the day-to-day running of the club i'd do it with a big fat grin on my face

Basically what Im trying to say (I think) is that if the Board can come up with some way for inter-stater's to help I would like to think that many people would put their hands up. I know I would.

And since reading this thread...I've decided to look in to applying for membership as well as donating some $$$'s to help the cause Hope I dont actually need to own a car to do that haha.

im sure there was more points I wanted to make here...but ive already forgotten whatever they may be after writing all that lol

peace

[LeeRoy]

Also, what wirysage said about having a big fat gold "Donate" button at the top of the page might not be a bad idea. I understand its somewhat pessimistic, but you cant expect people to go hunting around to find where they can donate to the club. If theres a big button staring you in the face, you're more likely to go "hey,I love this site, maybe they could use a coupla bucks!"

Great idea!

Maybe put up a banner ad for the donations/i supported toymods page and link to it.

[Lambolica]

Donate button is in the pipelines

Cheers
Simon

[Crambo]

Would trading through the classifieds available to paid up members only, encourage people join?
The financial support would be welcome and be good value for paid members to access this Toyota specific market to buy or sell their stuff.

I wonder what % of the people who look at a donate button actually press it.

[o_man_ra23]

Crambo, restricting classifieds to paying members has been discussed, and basically it actually hurts the paying members. It reduces the availability of some pretty rare parts (I definitely find that there are forum members who are fantastic sources of parts, and often at generous prices too)

I think the current restrictions on the classifieds are pretty good actually, and are representative of what is best for the community as a whole in that respect.

[CrUZida]

There is also the case that the club doesn't want people joining purely so that can sell things.
People as supposed to join because they want to go to events, 'be part of the club'

[river]

Hi,

There is also the case that the club doesn't want people joining purely so that can sell things.
People as supposed to join because they want to go to events, 'be part of the club'

Absolutely.

seeyuzz
river

[trdee]

this is pretty obvious though. when someone has a join date of may 09 and his first classified sale is june 09 with a rep of 50 then they are generally here just to sell shit.... pretty easy to weed these guys out i would think?

[Kirsty2520]

unfortunately it's alot harder to revoke someone's club membership then it is to remove forum access...
While joining just to sell things is not what we really want it's not something that will lead to club membership being removed...

[o_man_ra23]

this is pretty obvious though. when someone has a join date of may 09 and his first classified sale is june 09 with a rep of 50 then they are generally here just to sell shit.... pretty easy to weed these guys out i would think?

That's not necessarily a sign that somebody has joined to sell shit. To get to a rep of 50 you need to be given rep, so they may in fact be a valuable contributor who happens to also have excess parts lying about which are cluttering their shed and holding back progress on their project, but are too good to throw away.

However, if somebody has made 100 posts, and 95 are in the classifieds section, then you can have a reasonable guess what they joined for. Stats are something which can easily be mis-interpreted.