I have been a member of a car club for the past 5 years and at the moment none of the 30 odd members pay any membership or funding for the club.
Some of the issues raised involved purchasing a van due to the amount of items needed for each show and also a new gazebo and banners to help make the stand look good to help win.

Our club have a club tent which holds roughly 14 people which they paid around £280 for 6 years ago purchased from mitchells in Horbury, which has now changed to go outdoors. The tent is great, spacious, water and wind proof and it fits easily into the back of their Mazda which his wife takes as he takes the show car. They also take a water container,table,2 large flasks for tea and coffee, portable stove, kettle, a couple of packs of disposable cups, tea, coffee, sugar etc, milk and biscuits. This provides refreshments for all the club members which is usually around 14-17 at each show for 2 full days, they have bunting, 2 flags, 2 banners and this ALL fits into their Mazda saloon.

On camping days they bring 3-4 disposable bbq’s and some food(which take up hardly any room), the members who wish to attend these events bring some food for cooking, we put it all together and cook it, put it all on disposable plates in the tent and you just get what you want. We usually have too much food and some gets wasted. In the mornings me and a friend cook bacon sarnies on our own portable stoves and grills etc. All the members bring their own fold up chairs and maybe food for the day or depending on weather me and my mate grill some burgers for us all. All the members come in their cars which only have small boot space, half the size of a Subaru but the way we do it works, and the costs are minimal.
GMAN made a good point by suggesting that you pay the initial £25 but for that you get a sticker and a personalised polo shirt with your chosen name on, then whats left goes into the pot for events etc, then maybe a yearly fee of maybe £5 or maybe even free!! If funds are required for events then maybe send fees through the post to a nominated person prior to the event with a deadline, or cut off date, so that anyone who wishes to go pays the money in advance then maybe send tickets out in the post to people, if people decide they don’t want to go, sorry but tough, that way no one has to pay any extra, it works for us, there is no reason it cant work here.

In all honesty a van would be a massive drain and waste of funds that don’t need to be shelled out, by keeping subscriptions to a minimum more members will be attracted to the club. Our club win regularly at shows and is just a simple stand, its the quality, quantity and organisation that wins the shows at the end of the day.

I hope this will benefit the club, any questions feel free to comment and if I have missed anything out just send me a mail, cheers!!

Rob!

 

Thanks for your input rob, but in all honesty the club as it is now is growing fast, the show stands we like to put on require a lot of thought and organisation and a lot of equipment which we all benefit from when we are camping and has proved to be winning show stands, the van which was mentioned at the eom would be a great benefit to the club as a lot of the club agree on and we will have a lot more in the funds when the van is needed for next season shows, as we all know the meetings are the place to dissus these kind of things, then we ll take a vote on it and the majority wins,...but your point will be noted and brought up again at he next eom...cheers Debs

 

Ok thanks for that Debs,thats fine thanks for your reply!
Yes like you say its everyones club so its only right that everyone has their say!

Wel ill not be able to make this months meet as i have booked to go on holiday for kellys birthday,it was a suprise for her plus its a chance to escape this crap British weather lol!!
Anyway thanks for taking the points into consideration,I hope they can be of some use,take care,speak soon!!

Rob