Irish Region Committee Feedback required

Just to correct you TJ - the show and shine was held in Capital Cars in Tullamore

Being honest, the only reason I signed back up with the club was for the track day. The most enjoyable events I've had excluding the track day were just weekends away with the lads - Galway & Lisburn and although being organised on the forums, they weren't club events, so I saw no point in paying money to do it.

I've been at alot of events, but there aren't very many that I'd put off other plans to attend. I know from speaking to several non members (but occasional forum users) that the club is of no appeal to them, and never will be.

Also, I've mentioned it before, but I think that the club is caught firmly between two stools - there are the older members who have no interest in some of the stuff the younger guys are into, and vice versa, with some common ground between the two. It makes it quite difficult to organise events of mass appeal imho.

Everyone has had various good points here, but the one that hits me the most is Kens comments about the lack of overlap between what the older/younger members want, and about what events actually require membership.

I'm relatively new to the whole club scene, having only joined in March and having not been in a club since I was a teenager!  This is also the first forum I've ever been active on.  What prompted me to become a member was the March Mondello meeting, and having met other members there, I kept coming back to the forum because of how welcome I was made feel.  To bhe honest, I don't really read the magazines because, with the exception of the last issue with articles by Ger and a few others, I haven't felt that it was aimed toward Irish members.

Somebody mentioned getting mailshots of events, but I haven't seen any come through the letterbox - my only source of information about whats going on has been the forum.  Obviously, not everyone uses the forum regularly, if at all.

Is there a list of both current and former members available, and could a mail shot be organised through the club to get ALL of their opinions so that we can see what caused people to both join and leave?

@Fey

It was me who mentioned mailshots. By that I meant email mailshots.

T.J. wrote: In terms of increasing profile, I think the show & shine at Duffys was a brilliant piece of work in both drumming up internal interest within the club for a non-trackday event, and raising the clubs profile on a dealer and Joe-Public level. Perhaps a way of keeping growing the club profile would be to have a simple A5 flier with all new and 2ndhand cars sold by co-operative BMW dealers; this can profile the club, its benefits, the forum, activities etc..

I agree re. the Duffy's event. I think we should have a PRO to specifically get through other promotional ideas. Anybody want to volunteer?

T.J. wrote: As mentioned above, the turnouts for alot of events isn't great. We need to figure what works, what doesn't, and focus on maximising the events that show potential. What we need is more feedback and involvement from everyone to contribute and attend.

We simply are too small a club. We have had surveys and different kinds of events, but the only things that get big turnouts are track days and dealer sponsored show and shines. Previous AGMs have also canvassed attendees for event ideas.

The fact of the matter is that we just don't have enough people in the club to ensure strong turnouts. I'm all too aware that, for many reasons, people promise to turn up or support but don't - its a fact of life! The best way to tackle this is to increase our membership.

Earlier this year, when we met at the Spa Well, it was agreed that the forum would become the predominant communication tool simply because the people active on the forum usually were those who turned up at events or encouraged others to do so. There are, no doubt, a few active members who are not on the forum but these are a minority. If we want to survey people, then it would be more efficient to do it here (backed up with BCC email shots as Eamo suggests) - and maybe promote it in the magazine - but am sceptical of its true value as I still think that we are just too susceptible to low turnouts.

T.J. wrote: Movingto the commitee itself, from the IRL section contacts, it stands as: <TABLE =linkstable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" align=center> <T> <TR vAlign=top> <TD colSpan=3>Irish Section Club Contacts</TD></TR> <TR vAlign=top> <TD width="21%">Kevin Barry</TD> <TD width="21%">Chairman</TD> <TD width="45%">087 2581913 (m)</TD></TR> <TR vAlign=top> <TD width="21%">Brendan Purcell</TD> <TD width="21%">Secretary</TD> <TD width="45%">01 2169227 (w)01 8258474 (h) </TD></TR> <TR vAlign=top> <TD>Steve Allan</TD> <TD>NI Co-ordinator</TD> <TD>02890 299371 (h)</TD></TR> <TR vAlign=top> <TD>Jim Magee</TD> <TD>NI Co-ordinator</TD> <TD>02892 628628(h)</TD></TR> <TR vAlign=top> <TD>Gerard O'Connor</TD> <TD>Treasurer</TD> <TD>086 2659211 (m)</TD></TR> <TR vAlign=top> <TD>Killian Bannon</TD> <TD>Webmaster</TD> <TD>087 7992735 (m)</TD></TR></T></TABLE> ]

This structure became obsolete at the end of 2003. The two NI lads never got around to doing anything, despite many communications from myself. Two years of pushing this delivered nothing significant. Kevin has stepped back a long way too - for this year he was just a connection to BMW Ireland. We are forbidden to have a treasurer too.

T.J. wrote: Is there much happening in the N.I. area? Can we have more cross-border events? Are people interested in them? Should it be Jim and Allan, in their capacity of N.I. co-ordinators, following up on interest shown in a BMWclub BDD event in Kirkistown, and not Ludo?

We are getting little response on this. There was a garage led event in Donegal recently that was quite successful (see our next write up). I have posted requests in a number of the magazine write ups calling for volunteers. I asked Gerry in the office to canvas people who have stated an interest - this is where Jim and Allen's names came from. For whatever reason, despite promises, no progress was made.

T.J. wrote: Is Kevin still involved in a chairman capacity? Does he still want to be? I see Brendan you are now Irish Region Club editor - I assume you are still secretary though? (and if ya are, how come you don't wear a skirt at any events I've been at? ).

I need to talk with Kevin as I can't answer completely for him. I know he wants to take a step back but will lend his support where necessary. This is why we like to channel requests to BMW Ireland through him as he is recognised by them and other dealers. And you know I never wear skirts (in public ).

Edited by b318isp

topazman wrote: Can I just ask what does the Club provide in the way of Banners, Flags 'Irish Section' etc as it seems that for approx €50 yoyos you don't get much back if anything at all the couple of magazines you get a year usually have out of date BMW news and the boys across the water have better backing from the club from what I can see I might be wrong but stand corrected.

This is a bone of contention for me with the club as we must be seen to offer value for membership. I have also had to fight membership fee increases as there was an instruction to charge Irish members more due to postage costs - so far I have been successful! There are other benefits however (discounts, technical info, affiliation, copyrighting, sponsorship, etc.) that are of varying tangability and are improving for Irish members slowly but continuously.

Just playing devils advocate, but I think a survey of the Irish members should be done to see if they want to remain affiliated with the GB car club at all. I for one wouldn't miss the magazine, which is the only real thing provided for us.

Killian looks after the site already, we're a completely self-sufficient section, and any fees could go towards Irish events only. It would be fairly simple to get the same discounts that are offered at the moment too. Theres still enough people with contacts within BMW to maintain events with dealers.

Just a thought! (an evil one at that)

kdevitt wrote: Just playing devils advocate, but I think a survey of the Irish members should be done to see if they want to remain affiliated with the GB car club at all. I for one wouldn't miss the magazine, which is the only real thing provided for us. Killian looks after the site already, we're a completely self-sufficient section, and any fees could go towards Irish events only. It would be fairly simple to get the same discounts that are offered at the moment too. Theres still enough people with contacts within BMW to maintain events with dealers. Just a thought! (an evil one at that)

There is only one twist - affiliation. By being with the UK club there are no copyright enfringements on logos and names. We are also recognised as being legitimate by BMW Ireland. We also get the office support - someone would have to be prepared to do that as well with book-keeping/auditing etc.!

Dergside wrote: Limiting it to an e-mail survey (or responses) immediately disenfranchises a reasonable proportion of club members, who can't, or don't have internet/e-mail access.  The effect of a survey must be to gather the views of the widest possible group of members.

It doesnt actually. Well over 90% of Irish members have email addresses.
I have yet to meet an Irish region member who is not on email or doesnt use the forum.

Heres another twist - the club wont release names and addresses of members either due to data protection, privacy and all that! That is we have resorted to email and the forum as the medium for contacting members.

I am happy with being part of the GB club.

The magazine does not have enough Irish info because not enough Irish members are writing articles. If I remember correctly Brendan is the contact for magazine articles. We need to get more running reports in, more personal experiences from events (remember Brendan's great article about his first track day in Mondello).

Being part of a larger organisation means there are fewer disputes about money, because more professional accounting has to be done. With smaller organisations there sadly is always the impression held by some members that others are skimming off the top.

BMW recognition is important as well being affilliated with BCE.

The people that went to Silverstone shared that experience as part of the same club. The 3 day BMW only August trip to the 'ring is something I feel that in the future Irish section members will be part of. That we could not achieve as an independant organisation.

The AGM where people take on specific roles I believe may be the best way to go. For this year people took on specific events or functions and that worked quite well. If new functions are to be added their purpose and targets need to be clearly defined for all to see.