Owners Clubs

Open minded fellow members.

I was sort of "exiled" from the AROC when I lived further South as my car failed to meet to a lot of their "purist" views on it... and my slammed ride height, 15" wheels, and god forbid, a subwoofer, did not fit in with these.

Also regular events or meetups, even if it's a regular meet for a drink at a local pub, or runs out to interesting spots or along interesting routes.

These are two things that I feel are important to maintaining a lively club.

Insurance packages. When I was in the SLOC, they had a really strong association with Footman James and insurance cost a pitance.
Technical Help. Now that I am a Sloc no-more, I joined the GT4OC on my new purchase and these things are effing complicated. I have found the owners club to be very helpful through their online forums.

I am not in a club as such, RR is the nearest thing, theres good support, help and friendliness here, and a great vibe on my level, etc, maybe turning us into a club would ruin things, were all independent contributors at the mo which is cool.

As for actual clubs, useful I guess, I have not joined the clubs, but joined the forums, theres one i'm not inspired to join, too much chit chat but I reckon tech help is there.

MK1MR2 club and IMOC (2 clubs to join here) have been helpful, and theres defo a club air about it, v commited peoples, often someone to help and limited chit chat. I will join at some point gaining me further access, and the use of an avatar and signature!

So what would I want?

-Yeah open mindedness is good, a club of people keeping it real, enjoying their cars in different ways not 'classics goons'!
-welcoming to new members.
-And good advice, which can appear to conflict with the above, but honest advice, ie 17" wheels will ruin your handling but its your choice and you might like the way it behaves on big wheelzors!

-And yeah a real good insurance scheme, that nearly everyone can benefit from, not just a few.

-excursions, like trackdays, shows are good too.

thats all I got for now.

Easy don't do as MG Clubs do!

To add to whats been said....

One thing with clubs is that you can find there are plenty of people that don't know you exist, especially those at the fringes of the show going scene who don't appreciate how useful being in a club can be. One way to redress this is to advertise but that can cost quite considerably.

It can be fun and cheaper to get "free" exposure in the classic press by putting on good displays at some of the better known shows throughout the year. You need to target the shows that get covered in the classic press and then do something to make yourselves stand out from the rest of the club displays. Then grab the guys from Practical Classics or where-ever and make sure they see you and take photos!

A follow up advert can then help to let people know what they get when they join.

congrats on the adoption, some embers of the family are going through this just at the moment.

Back on topic...

What I want from a club, I dunno. I ranone once and I nkow its a thankless task with a ton of bickering and infighting and politics. Thats not what I want from a club.

I used to really enjoy a local club pub meet we had. I used to drive over to Burntwood in the west midlands for it. We talked rubbish and occasionally traded a few parts. The club mag was lively and contained plenty of gossip about members, what they were buying/selling, getting married, new jobs, embarrassing things they'd done... There seemed to be the right "core" of people about doing things and being reported upon. However after a while a silent sniping group got going about "the faces" in the club and were basically backstabbing these people in a whispering campaign. Seems they couldn't be arzed to do anything for the club, write anything half intelligible for the mag but resented those people who did. The club slowly fell apart after that.

I am currently a member of the MMA. They produce a great magazine, a lot of effort goes into it but I can't say it really thrills me or causes me to be a member. They have a decent forum which is partially members-only and again I don't use this as much as I aught to I guess. I get discounted insurance as I am a member and that pays my membership fee back to me. I don't really go to any events they put on, I don't buy their merchendise, I don't attend the AGM. But I'm goig to renew this time again as its worth being in. The forum gets me some parts and I've sold stuff through it and I've made contact with a decent supplier who I use occasionally via the club. I get some tech advise there (via the forum).

I'm joining the NSRA (I decided to do this ages ago but they have this thing where membership runs January - December so no point in joining until January... I'm joining to get into their insurance scheme (although I can probably do better for what I need via Footman James or elsewhere) and because NSRA is campaigning for the rights of the owners of pre-1972 modified cars at government and agency level. This is important work and I want to support it with my money/membership. They also have a great forum (although its open to non-members and I've been using it for years) and their magazine is reckoned to be very good.

I used to be in the AAC(UK) but this got into one of those slagging matches and the club split into the AAC(UK) and the AAC(international) and I couldn't be bothered with either of them. Politics makes me run a mile. CLub mag was full of it, "he said, she said, blah blah blah". I don't care.

100% smaller clubs are better if you want to be in on it. Bigger clubs may provide better "benefits" but I'm sorted for insurance and the like, the discounts they get with suppliers always exclude special order stock and guess what seems like everything I've tried to order through club discount has been special order and I've paid full price anyway.

Where clubs do remanufacture or special spares thats very useful. But its costly and fraught with problems in itself... So few clubs do this now.

The cameraderie and the sense of belonging is what matters most.

Owners' clubs: dodgy subject! ;D

All I'd personally want from an owners' club is a "spares shop", classified ads and tech help, and maybe an insurance scheme. Organised stands at shows might be handy sometimes but usually I'd stick with mates rather than a club.

I used to be in the Viva OC which was great - got loads of cheap N.O.S. parts and friendly advice, but even there a few key members had a big barney and a couple of them left.

I'm not in any owners clubs ATM. OK, there's one I do get slightly involved with, but I get put off by "cliquieness" which is there in abundance, people generally talking cr*p, and some "Experts" keen to give "advice".... Avoid those probs and you're doing well.

TBH I could live without a "club" at all.... I may be in one, but we're all the same guys who'd be going down the pub together anyway....

There's my car before it was my car. Ahhhh, bless. Looks a lot better now:



On the subject of owners clubs, spares, a database of information, cheap insurance, likeminded people who can help you solve problems and a publication make a good club. The trouble is a lot of these things are now catered for by forums.

Charlie

daverapid in da house:
what would persuade you to join a club that covers your car?

Not beeing the "club joining type", I say like Groucho Marx: Any club that would have me as a member I would never join but the Swedish Skoda Club www.skodaklubben.se has a real good site with a huge amount of knowledge of these cars (mostly newer Skoda) so that site has got a "donation" from me......

DP says: A club is only as good as it's members and their input......