20 Questions

[Keith Clements]

1. Do you belong to other car clubs?
2. Have you any ideas on what the club should do or where it should go, say in the next five years?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a limited company?
4. Could the club become a registered charity?
5. How do we maintain or grow the membership?
6. Should we grow or are you happy with the size the club as it is?
7. How do we attract members under 55 years old or is the "over 55" market our scene?
8. How should we market the club?
9. Are you on a club committee?
10. How do other clubs manage the affairs of the club, for example by face to face meetings, email, telephone or virtual conferences?
11. How many meetings are needed to effectively run the club?
12. How do other clubs get new committee members?
13. How do other clubs get their members involved in organising and running the activities?
14. Should we have more or less sections in the club?
15. Have you any ideas for local or national events?
16. Would you book yourself into the rally hotel 6 months before the Rally so that we could still organise the evening entertainments or should we not bother and just meet in a hotel?
17. How should we proceed with the Legacy Project?
18. Do you care, or are you just in the club to get spares?
19. How could you help the volunteers in the spares team?
20. Are you a club member or just a consumer of virtually free services given to you by other members?

Please discuss and add ideas ................

[Jack]

1. Do you belong to other car clubs?
2. Have you any ideas on what the club should do or where it should go, say in the next five years?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a limited company?
4. Could the club become a registered charity?
5. How do we maintain or grow the membership?
6. Should we grow or are you happy with the size the club as it is?
7. How do we attract members under 55 years old or is the "over 55" market our scene?
8. How should we market the club?
9. Are you on a club committee?
10. How do other clubs manage the affairs of the club, for example by face to face meetings, email, telephone or virtual conferences?
11. How many meetings are needed to effectively run the club?
12. How do other clubs get new committee members?
13. How do other clubs get their members involved in organising and running the activities?
14. Should we have more or less sections in the club?
15. Have you any ideas for local or national events?
16. Would you book yourself into the rally hotel 6 months before the Rally so that we could still organise the evening entertainments or should we not bother and just meet in a hotel?
17. How should we proceed with the Legacy Project?
18. Do you care, or are you just in the club to get spares?
19. How could you help the volunteers in the spares team?
20. Are you a club member or just a consumer of virtually free services given to you by other members?

Please discuss and add ideas ................

These are 20 threads in their own right for debate - perhaps we have a "Monday Morning Important Questions" and ask each one in turn in its own thread. I could go through and answer the questions, but we'd have 5 different responses for debate all running at the same time in the same thread, which could get terribly confusing and never reach a conclusion.

I guess (because that's how forums work, and because I was first) I can choose one to answer, and we can see where it takes us for now, and next week someone else can pick up another one and put up a straw man or viewpoint for discussion.

I choose question 18, because it is an important one. I think there are many members of the club who like receiving the Jowetteer each month, some who need to buy spares, others who just want to be able to go to the annual rally or section meetings - it is something different to everybody.

Personally, the club provides a fun annual weekend and knowledge, and that is largely what I need it for. When trying to find out about a car, about an obscure technical point, or a bit of advice on the history of things, the club seems to know it. I've never bought anything from JCS. I already have access to the Jowetteer through other members. I've only ever been to one event outside the annual weekends, an event several hundred miles from home.

The question is really what do I lose if the club didn't exist? I wouldn't lose this website, it would continue to exist because I think that Keith would continue to run the site. So my primary means of communication with club members would go on. I know that some of the parts for Amy's car came from JCS, and some of the parts for my car have, but I don't know which parts and I don't know whether they are available elsewhere. In reality I don't really know enough about JCS and the range of what they do to know.

I would also lose the Jowetteer. Are there other publications that I could read? Of course. Are they as focused on our cars? Of course not. Would it threaten the future of my car? No. It keeps some members together, and tells people what is going on wherever possible. As a result it helps to keep some cars on the road because it keeps some people enthused and involved with the club and hopefully active with their vehicle. That keeps cars on the road, and helps to promote the cars because they are out and about.

Fundamentally do I care? I get annoyed with some aspects of the club, so I evidently do. If I was indifferent towards the club, it wouldn't bother me when I see an opportunity that we have missed, I wouldn't look for ways for us to evolve and improve. We all care, because we are all a part of this. But this thread has been posted since Saturday at 9:41am and nobody has felt that they care enough to express it - is this the apathy that many of us see in almost every walk of life? Is that a new phenomenon?

In some ways I am lucky in that we have a group locally who co-operate to work on the cars, organise our own social events, and between us have enough knowledge and practical skills to keep the cars on the road long term. Other members won't be so lucky, but isn't that what the sections provide? I don't know, because our nearest section is about 100 miles in each direction, but always assumed that would be what they are doing. I'd be interested to hear what being in an active section feels like, and what makes that happen. Because these small active groups are what is driving the club in one way or another.

So there's your straw man. That's how I feel. Interesting that I talk about how I "feel" about the club, instead of discussing the facts and figures etc. Interested in seeing how others feel, how their experience is different. What we should be celebrating, and the things that I am missing out on!

Jack.

[AlanBartlett]

1. Do you belong to other car clubs? No i don't but do belong to online forum clubs, which have a kind of social side to owning cars.
2. Have you any ideas on what the club should do or where it should go, say in the next five years? Continue with its focus on more recruitment, along with the continued support with spares, and its social events.
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a limited company? No idea, doesn't really interest me at this point in time.
4. Could the club become a registered charity?
5. How do we maintain or grow the membership? By getting out there with the cars using them and attending big events like goodwood which some seem to be enjoying in setting up and bringing it to other club members.
6. Should we grow or are you happy with the size the club as it is? We should steadily grow but realistically how big can the club be?
7. How do we attract members under 55 years old or is the "over 55" market our scene? With the continued help from members encouraging younger people to take up the hobby.
8. How should we market the club? Through the ever changing media, try to keep some aspects as up to date as we can, thus again attracting new members.
9. Are you on a club committee? Nope
10. How do other clubs manage the affairs of the club, for example by face to face meetings, email, telephone or virtual conferences? No Idea, but Id imagine on similiar basis to what we do already?
11. How many meetings are needed to effectively run the club? Again No idea. Several, I know there are more formalities in the running of the club than just being a member.
12. How do other clubs get new committee members? Selection? Perhaps voting systems? Knowledge based roles?
13. How do other clubs get their members involved in organising and running the activities? Communication.
14. Should we have more or less sections in the club? I think the club as it stands is quite well sectioned, with a bit in every county and country, some form of contact.
15. Have you any ideas for local or national events? A few for local south west, not sure on nationals.
16. Would you book yourself into the rally hotel 6 months before the Rally so that we could still organise the evening entertainments or should we not bother and just meet in a hotel? Not sure I do like the idea of it being kind of all inclusive when your there no faffing around.
17. How should we proceed with the Legacy Project? Yes most definitly, to digitise and store and for more easier access for those who readily access the computer.
18. Do you care, or are you just in the club to get spares?
19. How could you help the volunteers in the spares team?
20. Are you a club member or just a consumer of virtually free services given to you by other members? I feel I am club member and can help out when I can.
Just a quick fill out at lunch, will go into more detail if anyone wants more.

[Forumadmin]

If you are answering specific questions then, rather than starting a new thread, just put the number of the question(s) in the title of the post. See above. If you are starting a new question then use a sequential numbering system. The reason for the single thread is to bring all the issues together as many are interconnected.

Thanks Jack and Alan, I await with bated breath for more discussion. It was prompted by some emails from a South African member, the AGM and Exec meetings, the call for a 'Business or Club Plan' and many other stimuli. I think we need to openly discuss what can be described as 'politics' in a democratic way, just like the Greeks did 2000 years ago in a forum. The limited time when we meet face to face (which may be never for most members) is not enough time to think, as we should be enjoying ourselves. We need more members to be involved in the club, even if they cannot make face to face meetings.

Yes we can express our thoughts via the Club magazine, but that takes a lot of effort and is as dynamic as a glacier, so, by the time you have a concensus, the opportunity has gone.

Apathy is rife, you only have to go along to a local council meeting to see how many people show interest. Until someone says "a new motorway is going right through the village" that is.

See what happened on this forum when we said we were going to throw spares away!

What happens if key members of JCS or the Exec are no longer able to give their time?
What happens if nobody organises next year's rally?
What happens if we have to be VAT registered?
What happens if the Jowetteer comes out a day late?

[Jack]

If you are answering specific questions then, rather than starting a new thread, just put the number of the question(s) in the title of the post. See above. If you are starting a new question then use a sequential numbering system. The reason for the single thread is to bring all the issues together as many are interconnected.

19. What happens if key members of JCS or the Exec are no longer able to give their time?
20. What happens if nobody organises next year's rally?
21. What happens if we have to be VAT registered?
22. What happens if the Jowetteer comes out a day late?

19. Based on the attendance at the recent agm i think that point has already arrived. The club goes on. Active membership makes a club, not rooms full of committees.

20. Then we don't have one. I would speculate that in the absence of an annual rally people would gravitate towards another large event and make a weekend of it - the nw section weekend at rushton spencer is just a small scale rally, same probably for prescott with midlands, eventually if there is demand there will be volunteers to run it.

21. We become a proper business that has to pay an accountant, the membership would have to meet the cost. Looking at the accounts i suspect we can absorb most of the cost of this type of change, but it wouldn't be much fun for the treasurer who has to cope with it.

22. Nothing really. It has taken a month to arrive - urgent news in the club is already happening on the forum and by e-mail, if we had a delivery issue the jowetteer would go out bye-mail as it does now and members would have to pass on any urgent news by phone to those without computers.

[paul wilks]

Q1. I am not a member of any other car club
Q5. Enter local events even as individuals. It spreads the word around. Continue to offer help and advice to those endeavouring to keep their cars on the road or restoring cars
Q6. If more cars are discovered then there should be a growth in the club. I think there is a lot done to try to ensure that cars sold by members to non-members are kept in the club through encouragement to join.
Q7. If the Jowett is to survive then we must encourage younger members.
Q9. I am a (new) member of the NW section. Returning after some 30 years!
Q11. No idea how many meetings make an effective club but I am not a believer in more meetings make a better club. I attend whatever meetings I can, taking in to account other family committments
Q14. I think geographically we probably have the right number of sections.
Q18. I DO care AND I love the spares arrangements! I know of a local chap who owns two pre-war Jowetts who absolutely refuses to join the club. Why? He has a garage full of spares and can make what he hasn't got. He does NOT want to join for social events/blether etc.
Q20. I like to think I am a proper club member. I have done swaps of spares with other members and even given surplus stuff away rather than having it lying at the back of the garage!

I like to think I do what I can. I know it might not be as much as others but .........

[Forumadmin]

Thanks Paul,
I have met more than one person not in the club who has a Jowett which is why we need to explore all avenues for keeping in touch with them, even if it is just for the car's sake! Perhaps this person does not want to share anything. His ability to make spares would be very useful to others. Perhaps introducing him to JowettTalk would spur some contact.

[paul wilks]

I would really love to, Keith. I fear he is just one of humanity's "won't join", "won't help others", "I'm alright, Jack" types. But everytime I see his cars at events, I always approach him, anyway! Even though he hasn't changed his mind- yet- he won't put me off!!