MSOC Attending Shows, ideas etc.

[Barney]

Following on from various posts regarding club ideas and possible improvements to the club attending shows etc. I would like to post my views and suggestions if I may.

My view is the first and most obvious task is to book ASAP club space at ANY event member?s show an interest in. Unless it costs money to reserve club spaces, which I'm not aware it does, it is the most basic first stage task, we have to be pro-active in this area, without a booking and confirmed club space/area the rest will not follow. I'm more than willing to get on the phone or write to the required organising bodies in order to secure MSOC a pitch at whatever event should that help.

Most of these events are subscribed and filled very quickly, it is pointless trying to get commitments from members, such as we did at Japfest Castle Combe, only to find no club space left. Accepted some events might not attract many members, but one thing that harms the club and moral more than anything is disappointment and a perceived lack of interest/organisation (an observation, not a criticism)

From a confirmed club space we can then work up interest and hopefully members to attend via the board. At worse no one will attend, or the very least only a small number, at best we will have a big turnout. Small easily transported regional banners can be used for the smaller attended events, the larger attended we can hopefully arrange a gazebo and full sized banner with trimmings perhaps!

We have a wonderful club here peopled by fantastic members, I for one want too see the club grow, not into some huge, faceless mess but into something that retains our core values of a friendly helpful Supra based community, let?s make it happen and have some fun along the way.

For starters, have we booked space for JAE or do we know the opening date they are taking bookings?

[dunk shaw]

Originally Posted by Barney

Following on from various posts regarding club ideas and possible improvements to the club attending shows etc. I would like to post my views and suggestions if I may.

My view is the first and most obvious task is to book ASAP club space at ANY event member?s show an interest in. Unless it costs money to reserve club spaces, which I'm not aware it does, it is the most basic first stage task, we have to be pro-active in this area, without a booking and confirmed club space/area the rest will not follow. I'm more than willing to get on the phone or write to the required organising bodies in order to secure MSOC a pitch at whatever event should that help.

Most of these events are subscribed and filled very quickly, it is pointless trying to get commitments from members, such as we did at Japfest Castle Combe, only to find no club space left. Accepted some events might not attract many members, but one thing that harms the club and moral more than anything is disappointment and a perceived lack of interest/organisation (an observation, not a criticism)

From a confirmed club space we can then work up interest and hopefully members to attend via the board. At worse no one will attend, or the very least only a small number, at best we will have a big turnout. Small easily transported regional banners can be used for the smaller attended events, the larger attended we can hopefully arrange a gazebo and full sized banner with trimmings perhaps!

We have a wonderful club here peopled by fantastic members, I for one want too see the club grow, not into some huge, faceless mess but into something that retains our core values of a friendly helpful Supra based community, let?s make it happen and have some fun along the way.

For starters, have we booked space for JAE or do we know the opening date they are taking bookings?

Ever thought about going into politics Barney
youve got my vote m8 100%.
I definately couldnt have put it any better.

[Martin F]

I will be booking space for JAE in the next couple of days. 25 spaces which i think was the same size we had last year.

I have meetings all day today so will come back to this later on, but it's great to see the club spirit coming through.

I don't know many clubs that can put away a 3m x 9m gazebo in about 10minutes flat

[suprarob]

Could,n,t agree more Barney

running the club takes a lot of time and effort

perhaps we should have an events moderator ?

Also on a slightly different note we could do with some club merchandise
T shirts mugs that type of thing

I,m willing to spend time and effort to help the club along as a few of the other dedicated members are and if we can take a little bit of the load off Martin that may help move things along

[UltraFlynn]

Damn well said Barney.

I for one want to see this club succeed and would like to take an active role in making this happen.

We need some "unique selling points" over other clubs to differentiate us and to attract more members. I don't want the MSOC to be "the UK Supra forum where you don't have to pay".

Let's get some momentum going in the build up to JAE....

[baz]

come on guys.......lets get the ball moving.

im really looking forward to the up coming events.
really think we can make this club/community a place that more people will be proud to be members of.

great ideas being thrown around peeps........keep them coming.

baz

[Suprash]

Like someone said though this all comes down to what people want to put in personally as we have no funding through the club via things like membership. So how does the forum/club support itself compard against say another paid membership forum ?

[UltraFlynn]

Originally Posted by Suprash

Like someone said though this all comes down to what people want to put in personally as we have no funding through the club via things like membership. So how does the forum/club support itself compard against say another paid membership forum ?

Traders paying a yearly subscription.

[Martin F]

Ok, to answer some of the questions......

Booking club space at some events does cost, sometimes it's minimal sometimes it's ticket price. ie. JAE is a ?1 per car but at Japfest they would only reserve as many spaces as advance tickets which you had ordered. So you can see why in the case of Japfest we needed to see a commitment upfront, but hey i left that one too late (hands up!) and maybe we could have organised a better attendance if i'd have been on the case sooner.

Some events we can arrange space FOC, but to be honest these are tending to be the smaller events nowadays. The Jap scene has come a long way over the last five years.

Some of the things you are asking about, merchandising, regional banners, different gazebo etc all costs money and as you know we pretty much have little income. Our only income comes from the traders fee's which luckily enough the majority of are up for renewal in June That being the case this is probably as good a time as any to be talking about these ideas as there may well be money coming into the kitty (before anybody asks there are accounts i just need to bring them up to date).

As you can imagine both myself and Emma (and i think Chris as well) have financed some of the things for the club to date and the traders fees last year went on things like the gazebo, barbecue, banner, calling cards etc.

I'm a little nervous about individuals funding certain (non-consumable) items in the club as if ever there is a difference of opinion amongst people it can become messy. I'm not saying that of anybody here as we have a great club spirit and fairly mature members (as this thread shows) but we want the club to grow and we need to consider what can happen in the future.

Right i'm off to check the other thread you guys have been creating today as i'm sure there are more questions in there

[Kev.O]

Well said Barney. Also well done for putting your neck on the line and saying what you think! I'm happy to help out in anyway I can!