South Central Area organiser post up for grabs!!!

[Grendel]

Hi Folks
Just to let people know on here that I’m stepping down from being the South Central Mk1 club Area Organiser.
If someone else wishes to take over there more than welcome.

Don’t Worry I’m not selling up and shipping out the Mk1 stays

[mr2mk1chick]

Sorry to hear this mate

I will make this a sticky

[Grendel]

Make it Sticky Eww.

I have been the area organiser for a year now and sadly nothing changed. No new members and little interest in any car show i tried to arrange so have finally decided to throw in the towl as it were. But i'm more than happy to assist in meets/shows on my patch buy other Mk1 Area's or IMOC.

[Charged]

No new members and little interest in any car show i tried to arrange

Same trouble I have had in the Herts Beds and Bucks region.

I must say that I really enjoyed the Baeulieu run which you organised earlier this year.

[Tiamat]

I never understood why the MK1 clubhas regional organisers anyway. If someone is going to organise a meet then they will do it whether an official organiser or not.

Also as far as I am aware whoever the co-ordinator for the South East (Kent/Sussex/Surrey) area, has never organised a meet in Sussex or Surrey in any event.

[classic mk1]

Thats something ive found odd S/E meets not in S/E . I personaly am not that bothered about meets unless theyre mainly MK1. Hense my none appearence at this years Kent run, there are 4 mk1s in dover none of them attended. Ideally the S/E region could do with someone around maidstone area. Nothing against MK2s or any other cars its just my interest is with the Mk1, i wouldnt take my mk1 to a scooby or evo meet.
colin

[Tiamat]

Thats something ive found odd S/E meets not in S/E. I personaly am not that bothered about meets unless theyre mainly MK1. Hense my none appearence at this years Kent run, there are 4 mk1s in dover none of them attended. Ideally the S/E region could do with someone around maidstone area. Nothing against MK2s or any other cars its just my interest is with the Mk1, i wouldnt take my mk1 to a scooby or evo meet.
colin

I just do not see the need for regional organisers at all. If people want to go to a meet then they will go. What people need to do more is think about the meets they want and then organise it, instead of expecting a regional organiser to do it. Its not that iddifuclt - pick a start point/time, pick a finishing point/time, throw in a food venue and you're sorted.

[Karl_T]

Also as far as I am aware whoever the co-ordinator for the South East (Kent/Sussex/Surrey) area, has never organised a meet in Sussex or Surrey in any event.

I always thought that SE area was Kent & Essex? (Just what I thought mind, might be wrong)
Sussex? SE? Nah, that's in the middle mate.

Anyway I do think area organisers are useful to have. You say its not that difficult, people can just organise meetings themesleves, well they could the trouble is they don't. People need a kick, and if we have people prepared to organise the odd pub meet, chase everyone on email etc etc then I'm all for it. Also Alan organises a lot of the show pitches down there. Gets the tickets out etc etc. Don't knock the volunteerrs we need em.

With organising meets etc, I think you need a critical mass of owners who get along to make regular meets work. Otherwise you're fighting a losing battle, the UTB has just and only just got there. Any less and it'd drop away. Really not sure how you go about getting something going (but have ideas), but once going they seem to survive as a popular meet will attract more people. Stuart up in Peterborough has the same problem.

Lets face it though Mk1's are getting thin on the ground.

Karl

[Tiamat]

I always thought that SE area was Kent & Essex? (Just what I thought mind, might be wrong)
Sussex? SE? Nah, that's in the middle mate.

Anyway I do think area organisers are useful to have. You say its not that difficult, people can just organise meetings themesleves, well they could the trouble is they don't. People need a kick, and if we have people prepared to organise the odd pub meet, chase everyone on email etc etc then I'm all for it. Also Alan organises a lot of the show pitches down there. Gets the tickets out etc etc. Don't knock the volunteerrs we need em.

With organising meets etc, I think you need a critical mass of owners who get along to make regular meets work. Otherwise you're fighting a losing battle, the UTB has just and only just got there. Any less and it'd drop away. Really not sure how you go about getting something going (but have ideas), but once going they seem to survive as a popular meet will attract more people. Stuart up in Peterborough has the same problem.

Lets face it though Mk1's are getting thin on the ground.

Karl

Sorry - South East includes Sussex. Look at all the television programmes on the South East that include Sussex - if not then it comes under South Central - which means Portsmouth which is in no way closer than anywhere in Kent.

Not knocking the people who put in the effort - but just alot of people say there are no meets but then will not organise it themselves. Also I see big black holes in the areas for meets - either in location or in the amount of meets run.

The way to get meets going is to persevere with it. At one stage with the Guildford Meet we had 6 people turn up - at that point we nearly called it a day. Now every month we get 15+ cars turning up. On the Midnight Run we had over 20 cars - thats 20 cars turning up at Midnight - from Kent, Essex, Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and beyond.

Its people lack of patience. Each meet will not be an immediate success - you need to stick with it and let people know that the meet will be back, either the next month, or in next two months or whatever - so people know they can keep going to it.

[mr2mk1chick]

the need to have an official prescence is also for insurance reasons, as if someone is callign it a MK1 club meet, there needs to be an official mk1 bod. this way we are covered by public liability insurance for events.

ad-hoc meets are not covered in this way.

[Grendel]

The way to get meets going is to persevere with it. At one stage with the Guildford Meet we had 6 people turn up - at that point we nearly called it a day. Now every month we get 15+ cars turning up. On the Midnight Run we had over 20 cars - thats 20 cars turning up at Midnight - from Kent, Essex, Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and beyond.

Its people lack of patience. Each meet will not be an immediate success - you need to stick with it and let people know that the meet will be back, either the next month, or in next two months or whatever - so people know they can keep going to it.

Persevere!!! I spend over a year as Area organiser! How much more am i to Persevere??
As for Guilford meets thats near 80-90% Mk2's.
If i wanted to host a Mk2 or all Mk's event that would be easy

[Tiamat]

Persevere!!! I spend over a year as Area organiser! How much more am i to Persevere??
As for Guilford meets thats near 80-90% Mk2's.
If i wanted to host a Mk2 or all Mk's event that would be easy

Ian I was in no way implying you had not perservered with the matter, I know how much you tried. If my original post read wrong then I apologise.

The Guildford Meet is mainly MK2s but we have a core of MK1s that turn up to the meets, its not unusual to get 5+ MK1s at the meet, hell we even get MK3s occassionally!

Its just too often people try it once, theres a poor turn out and they never try again - it can take time to establish a meet - I haven't made every Guildford Meet and I am the one of the main organisers for it!

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

I always thought that SE area was Kent & Essex? (Just what I thought mind, might be wrong)
Sussex? SE? Nah, that's in the middle mate.

Anyway I do think area organisers are useful to have. You say its not that difficult, people can just organise meetings themesleves, well they could the trouble is they don't. People need a kick, and if we have people prepared to organise the odd pub meet, chase everyone on email etc etc then I'm all for it. Also Alan organises a lot of the show pitches down there. Gets the tickets out etc etc. Don't knock the volunteerrs we need em.

With organising meets etc, I think you need a critical mass of owners who get along to make regular meets work. Otherwise you're fighting a losing battle, the UTB has just and only just got there. Any less and it'd drop away. Really not sure how you go about getting something going (but have ideas), but once going they seem to survive as a popular meet will attract more people. Stuart up in Peterborough has the same problem.

Lets face it though Mk1's are getting thin on the ground.

Karl

Sorry - South East includes Sussex. Look at all the television programmes on the South East that include Sussex - if not then it comes under South Central - which means Portsmouth which is in no way closer than anywhere in Kent.

Not knocking the people who put in the effort - but just alot of people say there are no meets but then will not organise it themselves. Also I see big black holes in the areas for meets - either in location or in the amount of meets run.

The way to get meets going is to persevere with it. At one stage with the Guildford Meet we had 6 people turn up - at that point we nearly called it a day. Now every month we get 15+ cars turning up. On the Midnight Run we had over 20 cars - thats 20 cars turning up at Midnight - from Kent, Essex, Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and beyond.

Its people lack of patience. Each meet will not be an immediate success - you need to stick with it and let people know that the meet will be back, either the next month, or in next two months or whatever - so people know they can keep going to it.

The SE area is massive and maybe is too big! i have tried many times to get events and shows going in Essex and the only real success i had was getting us to the Enfield Pageant.
I know you don't all want to go to shows but this is one of the biggest in my area .
Unfortunately they wouldn't let us go this year, maybe because the Drivers club let them down last year, didn't turn up after booking a pitch.
But i will try again next year.
This site is all about people that want to meet up and go to shows, just go to pub meets or drives.
We do our best!

[spudgun]

I feel for you Guys because I know exactly what its like.
I was the area rep down here in the south west for a year or so and came across the same problems.

I found everyone was quiet keen to start with but lost interest after 3 months or so. In this part of the world there was 5 or 6 core members who would make the effort. This has now faded to me and Martyn (MR2MK1MAD) down in Plymouth, which is 90 miles away.

It is sad and to the point, please don't flame me on this, where I didn't bother rejoining this year. Most MR2 meetings are now open to all clubs because if you don't the turn ups can be so small it is hardly worth bothering with.

I don't pretend to have the answers because I don't but it would be good to create a sense of community again.

[crazylegs]

hey people, the SE area works well. If it wasnt for the efforts of the organisers there then it would be dead like the rest. You need someone to email everyone, to contact venues,arrange pitches and do the general donkey work. My vote of thanks goes to the guys in the SE area without them I personally would have attended far less events. Maybe other regions need to take a leaf out of our book and have more organisers to spread things out ?
What is important is to have a core of regulars, not expect miracles and enjoy the event. Three cars on a wet Sunday morning in spring is no great turn out but what the heck. We had a chat and a drive out. I am at the far edge of the region and you are right Kent can be a bit of a trek but it takes no longer than many of us spend each day going to work. What we need is people to come an try a couple.
Its a shame more people didnt turn out but maybe thats a fault of the system. Did you have a list of all members near to your area ? If not then a data base would be useful. I dont look at the events section much because I know I will be told of anything coming up. If I had an email saying a south central event was planned I might have gone. It cant be hard to have a list of everyone in an area can it ?
Anyway whoever takes on the task good luck, I know it can be thankless and time consuming so well done grendel for sticking it out.

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

hey people, the SE area works well. If it wasnt for the efforts of the organisers there then it would be dead like the rest. You need someone to email everyone, to contact venues,arrange pitches and do the general donkey work. My vote of thanks goes to the guys in the SE area without them I personally would have attended far less events. Maybe other regions need to take a leaf out of our book and have more organisers to spread things out ?
What is important is to have a core of regulars, not expect miracles and enjoy the event. Three cars on a wet Sunday morning in spring is no great turn out but what the heck. We had a chat and a drive out. I am at the far edge of the region and you are right Kent can be a bit of a trek but it takes no longer than many of us spend each day going to work. What we need is people to come an try a couple.
Its a shame more people didnt turn out but maybe thats a fault of the system. Did you have a list of all members near to your area ? If not then a data base would be useful. I dont look at the events section much because I know I will be told of anything coming up. If I had an email saying a south central event was planned I might have gone. It cant be hard to have a list of everyone in an area can it ?
Anyway whoever takes on the task good luck, I know it can be thankless and time consuming so well done grendel for sticking it out.

Thank's for that Kev, Alan has always done the most to get the SE area organised but Pete and myself have always helped out and done what we can.
We have the email address's of everyone that shows an interest in coming to pub meets and events in the SE and keep everyone updated with whats going on in our area.We have also given out club flyers to every mk1, that we can.
The way to get an area organised is to get in contact with the club and ask for the people in their areas contact details. Then you can email them , or phone them with all the latest info.

[Grendel]

hey people, the SE area works well. If it wasnt for the efforts of the organisers there then it would be dead like the rest. You need someone to email everyone, to contact venues,arrange pitches and do the general donkey work. My vote of thanks goes to the guys in the SE area without them I personally would have attended far less events. Maybe other regions need to take a leaf out of our book and have more organisers to spread things out ?
What is important is to have a core of regulars, not expect miracles and enjoy the event. Three cars on a wet Sunday morning in spring is no great turn out but what the heck. We had a chat and a drive out. I am at the far edge of the region and you are right Kent can be a bit of a trek but it takes no longer than many of us spend each day going to work. What we need is people to come an try a couple.
Its a shame more people didnt turn out but maybe thats a fault of the system. Did you have a list of all members near to your area ? If not then a data base would be useful. I dont look at the events section much because I know I will be told of anything coming up. If I had an email saying a south central event was planned I might have gone. It cant be hard to have a list of everyone in an area can it ?
Anyway whoever takes on the task good luck, I know it can be thankless and time consuming so well done grendel for sticking it out.

Thank's for that Kev, Alan has always done the most to get the SE area organised but Pete and myself have always helped out and done what we can.
We have the email address's of everyone that shows an interest in coming to pub meets and events in the SE and keep everyone updated with whats going on in our area.We have also given out club flyers to every mk1, that we can.
The way to get an area organised is to get in contact with the club and ask for the people in their areas contact details. Then you can email them , or phone them with all the latest info.

Yep been there done that unfortunitly only ever had a max of 4 people turn up at a meet and that was the biggist meet the SC area ever had sadly. It's one of thouse problems where i cant organise any shows unless i have any members going to them but with no shows organised it didnt attract other members so caught between a rock and hard place.

[crazylegs]

maybe your are could tag along to a couple of SE events to start the ball rolling ?

[Grendel]

maybe your are could tag along to a couple of SE events to start the ball rolling ?

Where do i sigh up for mailing list If they were near to Hampshire Maby. The Thames branch is nearer to me.

[crazylegs]

drop alan cayzer an email he will be happy to put you down on the list.
[email protected]
steve could probably help as well. if you get no joy with this addy let me know i have several for him.