lol
lol
Maybe a new club position can be created - a 'members representative' who's task is simply to periodically relay the progress of the committee in terms of decisions made, new business and club developments. Conversely, members could also pose questions/suggestions they have for the committee to this representative who would act as the intermediary (part of the role being to obtain answers). This way, both members and committee have a single communications conduit.
This interaction could be conducted via PM and a special message board (for posting questions/responses). Interaction between the member representative and comittee could additionally be by phone where necessary.
How the details would pan out on whether this requires just one person, what the regularity of relaying progress should be, how much autonomy the rep would have in fielding questions, whether existing comms methods should be tweaked to take account of this new position and how to ensure this doesn't further separate the members from the committee could all be discussed.
And how do we choose the 'middle' man? Or do we vote if this is a good idea and the clubs next best step?
Do the committee have regular meetings? How about releasing 'minutes' of the meeting so we know what's at least been discussed?
I don't think a middle man is necessary. All the members really want is just simply to be kept informed of developments/stuff going on in the background.
Of course, that doesn't mean that all & sundry has to be posted, but for example, the Committee could've posted a progress report with regards to the Area Rep' business that Ashy was/is sorting, an update on the 25th anniversary event in June, why Mallory was chosen again over other alternative venues for the ND, etc etc, ad nauseum.
At least then it shows that 'work' is going on behind the scenes, rather than any deadwood scenarios that people might be envisaging.
In that respect, perhaps a monthly/quarterly online newsletter could be uploaded to the home page for all to read & digest?
I've only been doing it a few hours, give me a chance
Wise words from a lot of folk, especially;
- Ian's comments regarding the lack of interest in committee roles in general - something that non committee members might find hard to believe but it really is hard to find folk with enough enthusiasm and enough spare time to actually contribute.
- Chris H's comments (and then Trev's idea) are valid and good. Someone, or some mechanism that allows everyone to see what's happening on a monthly basis, or whatever, might work very well.
- Dawn calling me a geek: fair enough
Finally, a big part of the "aparant" non-activity on the area rep front is my fault for not having had the time to build the parts of the website that need building. Currently my days go something like this: Work 9hrs then 4hrs or so once I'm home. Yesterday I was finished for 11.30pm. I had a bowl of cerial for lunch (at 11.30pm) because I had not had the time in the week to go shopping. Woken again at 8.30am this morning with telephone calls and messages. The cycle continues Needs must. No lack of enthusiasm here but instead not enough hours in the day to make any progress on the things I want to do.
Cry me a river, Timberlake
Woke at 8.30am.... get up earlier....
Anyway Chop chop, dyno in couple of weeks mate.....
Recently there has been a few memebers which regularly say "i am more than happy to help" fair point that some might not follow through or last a small amount of time!
I'm not just saying this to moan and groan, i think the club is brill and would be lost without it. If anyone would like me to do anything that would help the club progress then i am more than happy to do so!
Well maybe we need to find another general-purpose-genius to help Scoff out with the general maintenance of the forum, that would take the load off him abit so he can get on with other things
os, I may have took the liberty to edit your post
But sure, if there are any coders amongst us proficient in PHP with a working knowledge of mysql then please stand forward But as always, it isn't that simple. the site, by its very nature is very custom, and so it would take a degree of effort for someone new to come along and get to grips with my code. I have instead decided (as already discussed with Ashy) to concentrate on the basic area-rep requirements to begin with. Enough to get the system working and usable. Expansion can happen as time allows, or someone else with time and ability may like to expand on whatever I do.
I for one would love to be an Area rep, especially to meet and help others.
What i really miss from the old site is the map of the uk that showed where everyone was from.
If we get this back i`m sure the club will go forward in the right direction.
That's the part Scoff talking about
- A lot of people still think of this as the 5 GT Turbo owners club and those cars are fast becoming extinct so we need to think about how we can keep the club going and attract more members with different cars etc.
- Yes, but who is going to do that? We tried to get the Megane and twingo. I bought a twingo-turbo domain name. I gave an ex 5GTT Owners club chairman an Hon membership and he owns a 225 sport. I created the forum board. But more people need to do more to make this happen in an on going way.
- What should we sell in the club shop? Shouldn't we have more specialist parts for Renault Turbo's that you cannot get elsewhere so people depend on us and not just think of us as another forum
- Yes. But, again, who's going to make this happen. There is such a high level of apathy / lack of time / interest. I've done a bit but more is needed in an ongoing way. Re Stu's carb jets; no-one in the committee refused it. The thread just petered out. The comments were that the jets were thought to already exist and someone just had to source them. No one did. Stu originally suggested buying about £2000 of jets. That was too much. I never saw £200 mentioned. For those who don't know, I've been trying to get a km/h dial for a new batch of dial kits since maybe November. I posted it on the thread in group buys with very little response. I spent some time trying to buy one from Europe with no success. In the end Xenon posted one to this threads OP who forwarded it to Lockwood who have done the artwork and are about to commence production. Not many people seem to think of the club shop and the on-going membership when they have a part made. I think mostly they see satisfying their own need and maybe a small profit. IMO the shop can't make a huge loss though on it's items, some members think it should, others that it should make a huge profit.
- Club together and fight for some more benefits for club members to make the membership fee more worthwhile?
- It needs someone and people to come up with the ideas and possibly also then make them happen.
- Should we amalgamate with another club for the day to share the costs of a Pod or track day?
- Considered from beginning of RTOC ND's. We did share a RR day in Kent with a Peugeot club some years ago. We don't really need to though as the club can just about afford the losses to give it's paying members a day for themselves. Obviously though, not making a loss would be a lot better. Miller and I did seriously consider hiring Rockingham for the 2007 ND and trying to get in some other clubs. Financially a big risk though as it's a big fee to hire. That was before he found Mallory. The committee, mainly via Stu, did try and get back to having Pod on a Saturday but they didn't have a space for us any more and so we went for the Friday thing which seems to go down well and has so far had smallish losses.
Maybe if what needs to be done is made more public members can put there names next to things saying "right i am doing that" then when a thread like this comes up the person who said they were going to do something is accountable for a good lynching (joke ) if something doesnt come about!?
Mart, I agree, those are all good examples of items that could be covered. However, who from the committee is going to want to do the reporting and/or create a newsletter every month in addition to everything else they already do for the club? It's not likely to happen with any regimen or gusto.
Hence why I thought it would be a good idea to bring someone additional in purely to do this. I don't see it as a middle man, more a committee role (possibly non-voting), through whom the member-base is both represented and provided with an insight as to progress behind the scenes as regards current affairs.
I guess a sticky in this forum, Club Talk, would be a good place for such a notice / wastegate lite.
im happy with how the club is run now. every1s doing a bang up job and its very much appreciated. i couldnt do it.
from what ive read about others wanting to know what the committee is doing, can i suggest
a room that you can read the titles but you cant open and read whats being said.
then u can see what the threads are being made and when they are replied to without knowin the full details.
just an idea.
Not sure that a "SHAKE UP" is actually required and it looks as though everyone that’s posted on here feels that the club is running well and appreciates the effort that has been and is still being put in to keep pushing it forward, which is good feedback.
Just to add my 2p on the regional rep situation, we have short listed the members that we would like to become the new regional reps. This hasn't been a short process, as I'm sure you can all appreciate, its not a decision that can be made by one person, all committee members have had an input into which members would be best suited.
As Chris has stated the website needs some modifications to be able to support the new regional rep setup and unfortunately this can only be done by him. We apologise that this has taken longer that we initially thought it would but as has already been mentioned it is all carried out in peoples spare time, so please continue to bear with us as we would rather it was done properly rather than rush it.
Remember that anyone can arrange an event or meet of any type, you don’t have to be a regional rep or committee member to do so.
I think the main point that has been made, and it is a good and valid point, is that the committee should post regular updates on the boards to keep you guys abreast of the work that is ongoing behind the scenes.
can i step down from the commity please. due to my **** life at the mo i just havent got the heart to put the time in to propperly help out with the commity and club desisoins. . maybe things will change when ive got myself sorted out and back on track.
dont worry just need some time out im not going away.
im still willing to do the wiz and offer advice and help out were i can
long time no see col.
hopefully thigs sort themselves out for you.
I'll put my little 2p worth in.......
People seem to think there's a need for a big shake up within the club. I'm not so sure that's needed but if it is then fair enough. As an area rep (a role I've been doing for some years now) it strikes me that I don't actually represent the club in any way shape or form! It's not for lack of wanting to it's just I don't really know how exactly how I'm supposed to be doing it? Sure, I arrange the odd event now and again, there's a few local members which know I'm always willing to help out, but that's not really representing the club in my view........
As a practical piece of advice, how about some sort of advertising flyer/card that reps are issued (each year?) that we can distribute as and when we see other Renault turbo's?
Just a though.......
Its a good idea and we did have a flyer on the old site which could be printed out and distributed at events or stuck under the wiper of a reno turbo that you spotted in a car park. I will have a chat with the others and see if we cant get some good quality flyers printed (like they have on cliosport) to dish out to the new reps
I remember those, and printed several off to take to one of my R/R day events some time back. I think something like that again, or as mentioned, some smaller cards might be better as the reps could always keep a stash of them in their cars to use when needed.
Hi Dawn.
Are you designing a structure that will constitute the basis of all future newsletters or are you actually penning the first installment? If the latter, how long has it taken you thus far, how often are you going to produce it, what is it going to consist of, is it going to be published outside of the club website, have you asked any members what they want it to cover, when is it going to be ready, is a newsletter alone something that will attend to all the issues being raised in this thread, in fact is the effort on your part in producing this even worthwhile in terms of cost-benefit? Maybe this has all been discussed, we don't know but I certainly wouldn't want you to put effort into something that is recieved with insensitivity or worse apathy.
I'm being purposefully pushy here to prove a point, I'm not actually looking for answers to the above. You already contribute massively to this club and putting extra pressure on yourself is something I'd be very cautious about.
Basically, I agree with the others, I don't think a shake up is needed, I think there's plenty going on, I just think it needs to be communicated better, in both directions. If that means a newsletter, then great, we just want to make sure it's done properly by someone who is happy to take it on, knows what should be in it and most importantly, can commit to it for now and the foreseeable future.
I am by no means going to knock the work you do for this club Dawn, as you and Chris (Penfold) are the main links between the members and the comittee, for that i am truly grateful and always will be, however Trevor has brought up a fair point in my views with the question above - will the members have a say in the news letters??
It'd be kinda nice if I was actually given a chance, it's a brand new thing so as and when I can answer those questions, I will.
Some great points but every single one of those has already been thought about and put into a list of my own anyway. It's not going to be a quick thing, specially for the first one and even with input from everyone, the first edition won't be perfect. We can add to it, change it, add new ideas and features as and when they exist.
Regarding cost-benefit, there won't be any. It will cost the club zero and won't generate any revenue as it's going out to current members. It has been asked for so I'm working on creating one in my own spare time, I'd like to make a good go of it
Slacker
d4wno why dont you sub the flyer thing out,im sure a member would be all to happy to do this if there was the chance of having there car plastered on it
What do you mean by sub the flyer out? If you mean get someone else to do it that's not neccessary, I've got it all in hand
Hi Dawn. Well you have my backing if it's something you want to do and have enough time to commit. If this turns out to be back-burner stuff for you though, I would say why not make it part of a new role where this is the central responsibility, as suggested. That's where I am on it anyway. Otherwise, we'll wait for the first one and go from there. Sounds interesting in any case
By the way, 'cost-benefit' was referring to the effort required, not funding or profit related. No issue there.
Being longest standing paying member I've seen the good, the bad & the down right ugly with regards to the R5GTTOC & RTOC. I personaly believe that in its present incarnation with the current committee the "club" is possibly the best its ever been. The website is really the backbone of the club & if Scoff hadn't done the fantastic job that he has, then we wouldn't all be here.
The loss of alot of the techy info was not good, but I'm sure we are gradually building things back up. After all its down to the members that have the knowledge or the access to the knowledge to upload it. We could do with some stickys for these in the relevant sections though.
The addition of national days, trackdays & the like have also been a great plus point (not that I've been to any lol) so the committee & other's who assist (Mart ) are doing a good job there.
Also the club shop has been a great idea, but the products stocked are always going to be an issue wth regards to who wants what, as you can't cater for everyone & having lots of stock of unwanted items is not a position the club would want to be in. So product selection is a very tricky area & will always need very careful consideration.
It would be good if we could a news letter (electronic PDF, not paper, a sticky section for all to see) every quarter or so, as previously mentioned by others, just so we can see what going on in the background. This looks like its in hand, so more good stuff.
Shame it couldn't also have writeups of any events that have been on or new products available, but as we no, actually getting the info is hard enough & then finding someone to correlate it all is even harder, I no, I used to do nigh on half the "Wastegate" content & layouts with Steve Aldridge back i the day & it was a time consuming job, but I loved doing it & was really dissapointed when i all stopped.
The area rep situation & associate area mapping is also making good progres as we have been told, but as always, there is noone stopping any member organizing events/meets for their areas off their own backs, as may already do. But finding out who is in yours or surrounding areas is currently an issue, but not for much longer by the sounds of it As my 5 is back on the road (only when its not raining though!) it would be good to get some locals together & meet up. I cant remember the last time I saw a 5GT around the colchester area, but i'm sure there must be some. All the people I used to no have moved on many moon ago.
So keep up the good work averyone viv la RTOC