I think the idea of one club is great...but, no one club can cater to
the needs of any one member or group of members, hence many clubs in the
same car interest but different social interests. I think this is
just human nature, sort of like democracy, socialism, monarchy's, etc..
As to the one club idea, I think that VTR has done the best job so far,
a main Triumph organization (spawned from an original Triumph Sports Owners
Association) with many chapters around the continent. This gives
a central focus to the club activities, a national convention with regional
conventions. However, what we miss from the UK club groupings are
member benefits like club classic insurance, parts discounts for members.
But we do benefit from the technical sessions, social gatherings from the
shows, and a good heated difference of opinion every so often.
SOC's organization, from where I believe you are
referring, has had the benefit of a good organization structure similar
to the VTR; that being a central club with regional chapters, member insurance,
parts discounts, technical support, a nice monthly full color magazine,
monthly trips and activities. But, any organization is only as good
as the members and volunteers that operate the club, and if the size gets
too large, running the club becomes a full time job. Full time is
now a professional position, requiring payment of the previous volunteers
and the club atmosphere begins to diminish. When a pastime is now
required work, it looses something, specially when the members put demands
not only on the gracious volunteers, but the now paid employees for first
class service on a beer budget.
The volunteer side: Having been a part of
a volunteer organization for many years (Boy Scouts as assistant leader,
Leader, Committee Member), it all boils down to one problem...the same
small group of people do all the volunteer work for the majority of the
activities. Planning, setup, take down, fund raising, publicity,
newsletter, membership, discounts, reservations, etc. When you go
to the shows, who is it behind the banner...the same 5-10 people busting
their buts to make sure the event goes smoothly. From my personal
experience, that gets old real quick, specially when you ask for volunteers,
they come forward, then don't show or arrange for their replacements when
they can not fill in, or, when certain members unload on you because the
color of the banner is off shade or their magazine was two days late (but
do you see that person offering to fix the problem...not on your life!).
When I look at the pictures of the SOC events for instance, I see the same
people doing the work (and most likely taking the pictures). Agreed,
from my second/third hand information, SOC has had their share of pitfalls,
and the volunteers have suffered burnout by their own admission in the
SOC magazine articles.
When I looked around Gaydon last week, there were
many clubs, mostly regional I think, but grouped by social interests, but
most all run by volunteers taking an interest pursuing their pastime in
a manner that suited them best. I really get my jollies seeing like
minded folks gather at one place for one purpose to have fun and chat.
Gaydon was a fine example of volunteers putting together a great event.
My hat is off to all of them, in all the clubs.
So, like I said, any club is only as good as its
members. If one club does not serve your needs, there is another
that does. Some like beer, some like champagne, but real Stag owners
drink Guinness, so I'm forming the Stag Owners Guinness Drinkers Club next
week. Champagne drinkers can cork it! ;-))
Regards,
Glenn Merrell
Member of the following great clubs: VTR, RMTC, TSR, SOC UK, SOC
NE USA (did I forget any?)
"Keep Your Stag Cool, Install a NEW Composite Cowl Today"
http://pw1.netcom.com/~gmerrel/stagcowl001.html
"Keep yourself Cool, Drink a Guinness for STAGness sake!"(new club
motto)