It's not elitism - simply lack of resources.

We simply don't have the resources to attend almost every car event in the UK. You have to remember that everyone in the club gives their time and efforts voluntarily for nothing, and there's only so much of this available.

I'm glad in some way that some of these threads have come to the surface, as it has highlighted the fact that the club does need more volunteers to help run the events that it's members wish to attend, and it is something that should be raised at the AGM. I for one hope that a lot of the people who have complained on these threads will stand up and volunteer their services to help organise events such as this in the future.

The amount of work required in advance to do events like these can vary from a few hours to a few days, plus the work required on the day.

Typically - several months in advance (but can just be a few weeks for some events), we'll get notification of an event. Any of the committee/regional organisers from the area who can attend on that date then need to get together a long tiem in advance to discuss the format of the day, and how the event is going to be run etc.

Discussions need to be held with the organisers over display space, location, number of cars permitted, any special arrangements etc.

The event then needs to be advertised, and a list of those participating (particularly important for show and shine type events, where display space can be limited) maintained. This is normally a list of people and e-mail addresses, but in many cases it's just a telephone number, or a post on a BBS saying "I'll come". You'll also need to find several other people who will help you with arrangements on the day.

You then need to sort out the logistics of the event. Where will the banners be (I think the club has two, but we could do with some more I think). They could have been at an event the previous day/weekend, and the organisers of the events will need to meet up to hand over the stuff. This could mean a drive of several hours across country, possibly on a Friday or Saturday evening.

The club only has a limited stock of merchandise such as T-shirts, sweatshirts etc, as a) we don't have anywhere to keep it. b) It costs money to buy stuff in advance, and we don't want to waste money buying sizes/colours/styles that won't sell readily. c) It is very bulky to transport around. d) Unlike most clubs, we have an efficient on-line club shop where you can buy all these goods at cost price, and minimal admin overhead.

Then you have to arrange for a table/chairs/gazebo (none of which the club owns at the moment, but it's something to consider) to be taken to the venue. Combine this with the banners and clothing, and you quickly exceed the storage capacity of a couple of Imprezas (even 5 doors). You are then looking at getting a number of volunteers/friends/family to help you transport all the kit to the show.

In the last few weeks prior to the event, you'll find that the list of participants is changing daily, with some people changing their minds several times. You've also got to keep on top of the advertising of the event, to make sure enough people know about it, and will turn up. In many cases you have to contact those who said they will do an event in the final days to see if they still intend coming along, as many won't tell you if they change their mind. You'll also have to contact all of those taking part in the display stand (if it's that sort of show) with the details, time, location, format of the day etc. 90% will be by e-mail, so tey are quite easy, but quite often you'll have to phone around a few people, and also keep in touch with the event organisers as well regarding numbers, any last minute changes etc.

For some events, you may have to get involved in chasing up people for entry fees, posting out tickets etc. Getting money in advance from people is often the hardest/most time consuming part of arranging an event. Some events are just pay on the gate, which helps tremendously with the admin overhead.

The day before the start of the event (Friday in the case of JAE), you'll have to make sure you have everything in place, packed up in the cars/vans. At JAE, a lot of clubs got set-up on the Friday evening I believe. This means camping out on site overnight, and you'll have to bring all your own camping gear, food and clothes with you as well. Either that, or it's a very early start on the Saturday morning to get their in time before the first of the club members arrive.

As the cars arrive, you have to arrange how the cars park, where they are parked etc, check that they are on your "display" list (if pushed for space) etc. Some people will awlays be late as well

You'll then have to spend most of the day sitting at the display stand, minding the merchandise, taking money from members who buy stuff, handling questions about memberships, technical questions about the cars etc. It's now that you'll find that you need to find some extra volunteers to mind the stand for an hour or so at a time so you can have a look around the show yourself, sell merchandise to members, go to the loo, prepare/have lunch etc.

At the end of the event when everyone else has left, you then have to pack everything up, back into your cars/vans, and take it back to your house. You need to sort out any money/cheques for stuff sold and get it paid into the club's bank account, and probably store all the banners/gazebo/table/chairs/merchanside for at least a few days or week, before you take it to the next event, or pass it onto another organiser for the next event the following day (as would have been the case at Castle Combe/JAE) or weekend/month.

You can then sit back and relax, having done a really good job, read all the fantastic reviews on the BBS's, and answer the complaints about how you could have dnoe things better, why didn't you have a Small T-shirt in blue in stock on the day etc.

You can then continue the planning for the next event(s). Remembr that some months, you could be organising as many as 3 or 4 events in one month. It's then that you'll find out how little free time you have for family/social events (e.g. you best mate may decide to have his stag event on the same weekend as JAE and give you a month's notice, or your kids may unconveniently have a birthday party that same day).

You also have to make your holidays and social events fit around the club's event calendar. It's OK if you have chosen the date of the event, but for things like JAE (which alwys happens in the peak summer holiday season), you have no control.

For some car clubs, JAE or the Castle Combe Rally Supercar event is their one and only big event of the year, and they have plenty of time and effort to plan this one event. Most of their other events are local meets at a pub once per month.

The SIDC do organise many social type events (e.g. Kames which was also on last weekend, had overnight camping and BBQ/party, Donington had many social activities, the forthcoming Isle of Man event in September is mostly social type activities). There are also many local events, such as karting, simple meets every so often (ie just turn up and chat/have a bite to eat).

The club could do a whole lot more, but the simple fact is that we do not have enough organisers who are prepared to put in all the time and effort to plan and run these events. We do however have lots of people who expect the club to put on a grand effort at every single event possible across the country, have everything laid on for them so they can enjoy the event to the full, or simply just complain about the poor show and lack of effort put in by the club afterwards

Phew - after typing all of this in, I'm hoping that some of you will have an idea of the amount of effort involved to run an event like this, and it won't have put you off in the slightest, by volunteering to help out at events in the future. Simply send an e-mail to John Baldock (johnb@sidc.co.uk), and he will be absolutely delighted have more organisers to call upon to help arrange events across the country Alternatively, the club's AGM will be held in October (we are just finalising the date/venue/activities for the day just now - details to be announced soon), and you would be more than welcome to come along and offer to help out the club in any way you can

John (who has some 8 events in Scotland during the next 9 weeks to plan/arrange/co-ordinate!)

 

Mail offering help on the way to John B as we speak...well, obviously not exactly...as I'm typing this

...we all have to help if we want a successful club

Jen

 

It is a hard fact that the amount of effort that has to be put into the club is *HUGE*

When Lisa and I took over the admin/"database" (ho ho) from Dick there were no emails, letters/faxes/phonecalls were 1-2 per week and you could set aside 1 maybe 2 hours at the weekend to get things sorted.

Now Lisa and I receive about 50-100 emails per week, we are getting around 25 people join per week, 20+ phonecalls per week plus there is the shop stuff to sort out. It is now a daily job, Lisa spends about 2 hours per day just answering emails/calls and entering in new members. Every week we spend a solid day producing membership packs and sending them out.

Things have changed somewhat and the fact is that we need help, and lots of it, in order to do all the things that the membership want to do.

I'm just increasing the quota on John B's mailbox as I'm sure it will be brimming with offers today :-)

 

I should add to John's post that the organisers (sic) of JAE have at no time invited the SIDC.

They may assume that some Imprezas will turn up but were not given any info, allowed bulk discounted tickets for members (which MLR at Castle Coombe did), event layout maps (again done by MLR)etc.

Any way, whats done (or not as the case may be) is done. The Isle of Man is next and no car club at Billing, whether they had a stand or not, has ever put on such a big event for its members. I just hope that the people who thought our absence was just apathy are going to the Isle of Man. It has taken John and his team 5 months to organise.

See http://www.sidc.co.uk/iom.htm if you want to know what a real car club puts on for its members.

 

Where is the AGM likely to be held? If it is too far for members to travel then can they send suggestions by post/email? Or even have a questionaire sent out for members to fill in.

It would be nice to see the SIDC at events which arent track related!!

 

Glad to see hardly any Subaru's at JAE, keep up the good work.

 

Maxy,

the AGM is likely to take place on either the first or second weekend in October. The venue will be somewhere reasonably central, which realistically means somewhere in the midlands, so that the journey time is minimised for most people. I did try and get it held in Scotland, but for some reason the idea didn't seem to go down to well

With regards to the AGM - if you can't attend in person, then of course you can write in (by letter or e-mail) to the club, to have issues or points raised at the AGM on your behalf. It would be very unfair to many members who for some reason wouldn't be able to attend in person otherwise.

Non track related events - we do have quite a few (Isle of Man, Tour d'Ecosse, karting events, Alford is mostly a show and shine type event, we've held BBQs at Kames and an annual one at Cameron House Hotel on Loch Lomond for the past 3 years). The difficult thing is finding events that will appeal to wide audience, and are relatively inexpensive, and quite easy to organise. For some reason, the club has never had a lot of enthusiasm for the traditional "turn up to a venue with lots of shiny cars and hang around all day" type events. Perhaps it because we all own and cherish cars which are good fun to drive, that we like to do driving/activity type events ? It seems to be the common factor between most of us that we like this sort of event.

Which other types of event would you like to see the club hold ? We are always more then open to suggestions for events, and offers of help to try and organise them

Perhaps now that we have a lot more members, we'll get more suggestions and offers of help to arrange different types of event, and have enough numbers interested to make them worthwhile. We'd love to hear from anyone with regards to these, especially if you can help out in any way

Cheers

John

 

for those of you that went to castle coombe on saturday i was there as the SIDC representitive and spent most of the previous 4 weeks trying to get people to get off their asses to attend, the jap performance show last year was ok, but stef & myself decided that it was not our kind of show and concentrated our effots else where.

 

John

I appreciate your efforts it must be an impossible "JOB" trying to please everybody

I have offered my services to Lee, as I live very close to him,o the admin front. I would also always be up for lending a hand if there is anything you need doing down South

Phil

BTW Whats happening with TRAX this year?