Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Not just what but where the members make it

A region needs several elements to be successful.

A decent venue that people want to go to, easy to find, big car park and good grub. The distance people are willing to travel is around 30 miles for a Club night. You can put a pin in a map and stretch a region any way you want but break 30 miles and you'll struggle.

Sean, agree a decent venue is very important....one reason NW region made a switch to the Boatyard. I don't think moving a meeting place around a region is a great idea and it would be a lot of extra work for the R.O., perhaps without any benefit. Has anyone contacted the "sleeping members" to find out why they part with their hard earned to join the club and then disappear?

Agree with tony,
Is there a resource in the membership files to look at geography of non forumites?
Is it worth setting up a follow up instrument a week or a month after members join as a survey, what do you think of TIPEC, what do you find useful? What are your expectations, will hou attend regional meetings? if not why not? what would you suggest to improve etc etc

We've tried that in the past, both regionally and nationally.

We can extract who lives where and plug all the post codes into a programme that pins a map.

If you're lucky you will get a few replies, a lot of people join just to qualify for insurance discounts.

I was absolutely convinced that we would improve this situation over a period of time. Membership has increased but the level of participation in % terms has not.

We should probably be pleased that we have attracted them to join. We should not sit on our laurels and continue to develop the magazine. Look at improving our accessibility and more importantly have the centre and the regions supporting events that help to grow the profile of the Club.

I am not arguing for the pin in the middle approach, i am arguing for accessibility.
,put simply you cannot say that because no one from further away than 5 miles attends therefore one from 6 miles away is interested you are not giving them the option!! sean you are right over 30-40 miles is no good, so surely you meet in the middle(ish) of a region, somewhere with good road links.

yes you choose a good place to meet etc but it has to be somwhere near enough to be fair! Having your meetings 10 mins from your biggest group of attenders isnt a club, its a clique. New people from further afield wont come,And those who attend wont complain about where you meet at the moment cos it suits them. So people join, dont attend then leave.

Ok people are joining, what is the attrition rate? How many more would join if they could get to some club nights/events?

Personally, I enjoy the drive to club nights which gives me an excuse to get out in the car. I am based on the border between NW and Cheshire regions and have a 30 mile drive to the Boatyard.

In order to bring all members and potential members within a much shorter radius to meet venues, the regions would have to be further divided into impracticable small units

tony,

again I dont disagree, but why have a region that isnt practical for its own geography, ie the meeting place is in one corner of it rather than within the acessible range of everyone?

Hi Gord what are you like, is this a wind up !!!! ....as the current meeting venue in Ferndown is a mile away from the venue you changed it to when you were RO

no Steve I never changed it, I think there was a falling out with the lovers knot after i gave up !

There is no argument, the region appears to be thriving and events are well attended.

Whether that is a fluke, a clique, or great planning by the current team it is for the members in that region to decide where they would prefer to meet.

i think you are mistaking what I am saying as a criticism, which it isnt. All I wanted to do was ask the question as living in the other side of the county but still in the region as it where i wondered if these porsches i see every day are aware of the club and attend meetins, use this forum etc. With that was a search for a solution if they arent. We can always leave things as they are or we can look at ways to broaden appeal of the club within areas etc. it appears to me though that there is a swathe of the south west that isnt getting (perhaps and probably by choice) the option that other members are. By this i mean Devon and the western side of Dorset. i wondered if this was adressable. so no criticism of anyone is meant or implied

i also think the point I make that if you have people who only come from a certain part of the region attending they will always want it close to home is still valid. this is what happened in the Labour party in the 80s. People were making the argument that those who attended decided and then that lead to an insular parochialism which stultified new thinking.

I fully understood what you were saying in your very first and subsequent posts.

There are lots of areas where we would like to have a region.

where are these areas? I wonder if there is a worry about making regions too small or sub division of regions. Perhaps in the larger areas sub division is the way forward? is there any reason why there cant be a large geographical area sub devided?

You are better off forming a new Region. The adjoining regions can then support each others events.

East Midlands was a sub division of South Yorks North Notts born out of a disenfranchised group who were south of the original region.

Cheshire/Staffs are Cheshire biased and do not see much of their Staffs based members. Central now meet in Staffs so they may start to see some of them.

There won't be many Car Clubs our size that have as many regions as we do. We started with 3 and have lost a few and added a few over the years.

I used to live 35/40 miles between 4 Regions. South Central/East Midlands/Thames Valley/Central. Several have changed meeting venues and they are now geographically much further apart.

At times I find TIPEC a bit 'secret society'. A lot of events / meetings don't ever get a mention on the forum - which seems to defeat the object of the Internet advertising.

A lot of people join the forum - but not the club. In order to convert people to club members getting them to attend events etc and meet them personally is probably the best way to get them involved.

A lot of events are only promoted via the:

Club Magazine - which a non member will never see

Regional Meetings - people who only visit the site won't be aware word--of-mouth advertising.

Email - again, not everyone will receive promotional emails/

Surrey is probably a major county for Porsche ownership - There is a good number of people who join from Surrey - but very few events advertised for the Region and certainly no meetings. PCGB used to meet in my local pub at one time. This week was the Capel, Surrey show which hardly rated a mention on the forum. So not much of interests for Surrey Forum members - as an example

I did visit a SELINk meeting once - but don't want to travel to meetings in Kent. Currently attending South East nights at the moment - but that is more Sussex orientated. They do at least visit the Capel show in Surrey each year - but as I said, no casual forum visitor would know this.

I know people give there time for free - so am not suggesting anyone should do extra work. I just think the forum could be put to better use in the event publicity area - or getting people to participate more.

The Web page for Regional meetings is not going to be found easily and more likely only if someone tells you where it is.

The Region sections is a bit messy as well. Need something like a 'What's On This Month' section.

Also a section for casual meets - like I'll be At the Lake Café this Tuesday afternoon etc...

As it is, I just do my own thing. If I go to a show and TIPEC are there - fine - if not it's ok.

I am also more likely to visit the forum than read ALL TALK - so I don't see that as a News media.

I usually visit here at least once a day.

Quite often events don't get mentioned until they are over - or mentioned well in advance and get no reminder. Not everyone sees every thread so they need plugging - Especially for people who _only- use the forum occasionally. Initialally I found TIPEC a bit like: If your not a member - we're not going to tell you all what's going on.

Hope the above is of some consideration.