Irish Region Committee Feedback required

I didn't even realise that there was a committee in place!  I know that I'm a relatively new member here, but from what I've seen, all of the organisation seems to be down to the same few individuals.  There are also very few events that people feel it's worth travelling for, and there can be some negativity when people try to do something different.  Also, it's always the same faces at the events - a lot of people don't give support.  I do realise that quite often that comes down to clashing schedules, or distances to be travelled.

Any, back to the point.  Who is on the current committee, and what roles do they play?  What would be the benefit of increasing the committee size?  I know that it has been cited above that it should be made larger due to the increase of membership numbers, but in reality, if you have a good structure in place, it should be capable of dealing with the bigger numbers without getting too strained.  Unless there is going to be a huge number of new events, then there should be no reason to enlarge the committee - higher numbers can lead to more arguments, which leads to dissent and eventually less getting done.

BTW; when is the AGM?  Also, how many members are there, and how are they spread across the country?

A key point is that the people who are active on this forum may not be a representitive sample of the membership.  To Ken's point, the current "success" of the club could be open to question.  Maybe 80+% of the membership of the region don't attend the events, meetings (car and AGM's), etc.  Even if we have had some relative successes this year, there is still a lot missing for most members, or else they would be more active.  The danger is in assuming that the vocal few represent the views of the majority of members.

In all of this I'd class myself as reasonably active, both at events and on the forum, but I'd not hold out my own views, or those who are active on the forum, as representitive.  Remember also, a reasonable number of active forum contributors may not be club members.

Richie, I don't know the answer, but its clear that the club activities as it stands (whether that be the formal or informal club) aren't compelling enough to involve themselves in.

I'd hazard a guess that some of those members are here because they have access to technical knowledge, resources and discounts, etc. that helps them enjoy their cars.  Look at the number of Irish cars that have featured in BMW Car mag and Total BMW in recent months.  The owners are nearly all club members to my knowledge and yet, despite their obvious interest in BMW's, they don't feel that the environment in the club is worth being actively involved in.  There may be some blame for that that can go back to the committee, but, as members, we all have to accept some responsibility.

Eamo, I disagree to some extent with the view that the committee must change before the views of the members can be gathered.  That might be putting the cart before the horse.  When the views of the wider membership have been gathered and analysed, THEN a structure (committee, etc.) that can represent and develop the wishes of the majority of members can be put in place.  This SHOULD include current committee members if they have an interest in continuing, for the sake of continuity and so that we can tap in to the experience and knowledge of these members.

There may be changes needed, but remember that the current committee is the one that has gotten the club to a point where many of us, as individuals, were interested to join.

A slight aside, but relevent nonetheless, was a comment from Killian was about the number of members that haven't renewed.  It would be worth gathering their feedback too to understand why, especially if its true that a significant number were northern.  The activities (with the exception of the trip north during the summer) are primarily focused on the south and midlands and this does exclude a lot of people.

I'd be interested to see the proportion of forum users to actual club members. If it wasn't for the trackday, I reckon a significant portion of people wouldn't join the club. And many join just for those 2 events. However, in the bigger picture of what is being discussed, that's neither here nor there.

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..

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.

Movingto the commitee itself, from the IRL section contacts, it stands as:

To have gotten the club to where it is now, those involved should take a bow. But as Bertie would say "alot done, more to do"

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?

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? ).