Club Trips in the last year

[cj!]

I have just gone back over the Club trips for the last 12 months to see how we are travelling. We ran 29 trips including one social and one tech night. 2 trips shared trip leaders. We had 12 trip organisers in total and 23 of the trips were run by 6 people.

On the plus side we averaged more than a trip every 2 weeks which is great for a small club. The downside is that the bulk of the trips are being run by the same handful of people. The big plus is that given our small size it is always pretty easy to get on any trip but if for any reason 1 or 2 of the normal trip leaders aren't leading trips it severely impacts on the number of trips on offer. To combat this we need more people to run a trip. As I have said before, if every member ran just 1 trip per year we would have a very full calendar. Now I know that isn't going to happen but if you haven't run a trip in the past year please consider running one this year. If you need a hand just ask as there is plenty of information around and generally somebody would be willing to help out if you have never done it before and are feeling a bit nervous about running your first trip.

I have also wondered whether we should consider running some sort of competition/award for the year where points are accumulated for various activities undertaken such as running trips, attending trips, committee positions, etc. with a prize at the AGM for the most involved Club member for the year. Any thoughts on this?

[gwagensteve]

That's a good idea Chris, something which was discussed a few years ago and didn't get off the ground.

The Sydney club has been doing it for years. I Think they call it "clubman points"

With this forum, tallying points etc woudl be easy. Back in the day (when it was proposed) it would have been much harder.

Steve.

[christover1]

Moke Club had an Attendance trophy for the winner and a small trinket for the top ten attendees.
You got a point per trip attended and 2 points for being a trip leader.
It worked well for years, I not know if still running now.

[christover1]

Moke Club also had a new member recruitment trophy, which was hard worked for, but wasn't easy to manage.

New member encouragement award was very popular, too.

We had an annual dinner dance/ trophy presentation like an award night.

[mightymouse]

How about a financial "incentive".... For example

$100 - normal Membership
$80 - if you have lead one trip in the last financial year.
$60 - if you have lead two or more trips in the last financial year.

$80 - new members. We need to discuss if we wish to subsidize new members or on the other hand charge a joining fee.

The numbers are just illustrative - we would need to check this was financially viable, but you get the drift.

If members use the club as a service provider, without returning anything extra then perhaps a higher cost is appropriate
Its not difficult to run a trip - so we aren't asking for much

[gwagensteve]

One of the things that killed the plan IMHO last time was it was far too complicated. Points for attending trips, meetings, running trips, having good suggestions, turning up to trips with a running car, not wearing camo.. flaming Grimbo.... that sort of thing. (I joke, but I do recall it getting complicated)

If we're about trips, it needs to be, say, 5 points for running a trip, 1 point for attending. That's it.

Here's the thing though. We want members to attend/participate in stuff because they want to, not to win a prize. There is good reason to congratulate our most active members, probably at the december meeting, and a points scheme will help us to recognise them, but I don't think this scheme will necessarily improve frequency or variety of trips, especially when we have patchy attendance on lots of trips now.

Personally, I think trips are borderline with under 4 cars on them, so running poorly attended trips is depressing.

(as an aisde, I think we have a high % of trip leaders in our club)

Steve.

[cj!]

I agree that any points scheme needs to be kept simple. Simple is effective and everyone gets it easily. I know it won't have a big impact on things but it is a way to recognise active members and in a small Club such as ours it is our active members that keep it moving.

As to a tier for the membership fees, that I'm not so sure about although I do understand the suggestion. I know that some people will never run a trip no matter what and there are some such as Kerry who aren't in a position to run multiple trips and I don't want them to feel like they are being penalised. I do however think that there is a place for a small joining fee for new members say in the order of $20 perhaps. It is not a big ask given our low annual fee plus it may act as a mild disincentive for those who choose to come and go from time to time as it may encourage them to stay financial. Worth thinking about anyway.

I know for me personally I have a family that has claims on my time so I have only so much time to dedicate to 4wding and currently that time is being spoken for by getting things together for my new build. Losing the lwb Vit hasn't helped things but I am finally getting the swb Vit together for use and it will be on the Marysville trip I do have trips that I plan on running once the Sierra is built as it will need testing

[mightymouse]

and I don't want them to feel like they are being penalized.

The other side to that is you can't reward those that do run trips otherwise it penalizes those that don't.
Those that only attend trips are rewarded by the efforts of those that do run trips - not exactly equitable either.

If this discussion is about getting trips running ( and I don't want to put words into cj's mouth ) then the last few months show us that taking away the contributions of the few leaves us in a unsatisfactory trip position IMO.

I understand that some are currently on buildups - but that's the point, it shows just how dependent were are on those long contributing few.

Personally, I think trips are borderline with under 4 cars on them, so running poorly attended trips is depressing.

Its certainly an issue, we might loose tripleaders due to poor turnups - looking back my "tripmisleading" efforts have been pretty lineball

Its also damm hard to know "what people want" to get attendances up - another post asking that exact question may as well have not been written.

Perhaps its a slow slide to extinction.

[gwagensteve]

Perhaps its a slow slide to extinction.

You should have been in the club 10 years ago then. Often 6 weeks between trips, tonnes of private trips running no new member could get on unless they knew the secret handshake (which was arriving at a meeting with a can of woodstock in hand) , poor attendance on "real" trips and members actively leaving the club amid storms of controversy over who was running the club at any one time, and the club was unable to pay its bills, even without FWDV taking their cut.... It was pretty sad.

After 14 years in the club I still don't know why some trips have three people on them and the same trip the next year will have 15, or a trip one weekend will be poorly attended and yet the next weekend will be super popular.

We've run surveys, (as an example, often showing that Sunday day trips are more popular than Saturday) but that's all part of the service provision mentality - implying we have to do more to attract better participation. Actually, I think we have to do as much as possible of what we like doing - that will have its own momentum and will ensure the club's success.

Steve.

[mightymouse]

Glad I wasn't around for that sort of BS - although I have heard the stories and met some of the people.

Still its not a bad sign that we are taking the time and effort to make sure its an active club.
Asking ourselves "what do the members want" and "what makes the club successful" is never easy but
I believe its a necessary check undertaken by every healthy orginisation.