Where would you like to see the club 5 years from now? I'm just curious what people would like this club/group/website to grow into in the future. We have a lot of people and a lot of energy right now, and I think most people would like to see more stuff going on. Maybe we can focus some of the energy. So, what do you want to see? More events, track days, cruises, family events? More social events/outings? Regular club meetings? Thanks,
more get togethers or planed races like the call out thread dream started. that way we all get to know each other and people don't get so butthert about sarcasm
Seriously.... Track events and group hangouts interest me. All the events I have been to have rocked.
I'd like to see a winter hangout to replace firestone. Even if it's just meet at a Caribou and drink coffee and hang out for an hour or so. Track events are going to take some work. One idea I was thinking was to just go to some other group's events and learn what it takes to get a track, coordinate the event, etc. Maybe partner with another club for the first few track events?
Leaning Tower pizza nights seem to work. There is also a Dunn. Brothers just up the street from there. Last time there was around 8-10 that showed at L.T. Game nights are kind of a PITA though.
Track events aren't going to happen at this rate; there are very few members who attend things like this. For starters, it would be nice if at least just a bit of crossposting from other boards happened. IIRC, weren't two of our latest moderators brought on board because of their ties with local racing? IMHO, neither one of them have really done jack squat to promote upcoming races or events. Start with at least getting more people to regularly attend other club's events and then start thinking about hosting your own. Something like this would take at least a few years to even becoming close to a reality.
Yeah. That sounds great. I would also say let's get some members regularly volunteering at other club's events. I want to drive in a few rallyXs this year, but I'm also willing to go volunteer at a few. We could also get a bigger group to go up to Ojibwe and work. Amy (scandiawrx) is really involved in this, she just doesn't have a lot of time to be on the website.
Yeah, I'm hoping to make it out for a few rounds next summer also. Most of them last year simply didn't work out for me in terms of timing with other things going on in my life.
The problem is, that alot of these events have people that come to this site, but when they get blasted or have to read 50 posts about people pissing out of their ass's after a rough night at taco bell, it is kinda hard for them to take us seriously. Most of the people who put the Ojibwe rally together come to this site. 90% of them are not under 40, so they don't post much because as a group, we look like a bunch of 10 year olds. Along with setting up more events, we also need people to attend these events. BIR will never happen. MNSubaru is too cheap to put up the $2-300 for a event, and really there is only a handful of people who I think could handle themselves on a track. It is easy to point fingers to say MNSubaru needs to do more events, it takes the members to actually show up and enjoy the events. Russ
i get where you are coming from, however, MOST of the time thats posted in off topic, and should be taken with a grain of salt ( the butt pee)
gENERAL ELECTIONS FOR OFFICERS.....i absolutely cant stress this enough. it keeps the people that are active in the leadership roles and weeds out the inactive people(who think they should be leaders just because). joel...please give me your feedback on this becaue every single time i say something about having elections fors mods/admins no one says anything about it. i dont know if some of you current mods/admins are scared that you wont get reelected but this is something that truly needs to be done for the club. once you do this you are going to see much more stuff getting done. period. i do agree with softball to...but if you are going to start anything like that it absolutey HAS to be in a central location..ie, in the middle of st. paul and minneapolis, none of this minnetonka/hopkins/brooklyn park/rogers bs. Justin ps- and PLEASE dont any of you current mods/admins think i'm talking about any of you specificly because i'm absolutely not.
Ok, I'll give you a quick summary of my thoughts on the subject. I think the website is separate than the "club". I'd love to see mnsubaru turn into a real club with bylaws, elected officers, regular meetings, membership dues and more club benefits. But, I think the website/forum should stay free, always. And I think the website admins/moderators should not be elected but be chosen based on things like technical skills, time available on the site, diplomatic skills, etc. I don't see the moderators/admin as the true leaders of the club, at least they probably shouldn't be. So, I think I agree in principle with what you're saying, but I disagree in the implementation. If we get to the point of having a real club, the club president shouldn't be the one worrying about site admin, hosting, new accounts, blocking spammers, for example. I don't personally care about not being reelected as a moderator, I have come close to quitting several times now anyway :eek3: I would just like to be able to help out the club and have my efforts make a difference and I think I could still do that without being a moderator. I hope that makes sense, if not I can explain more. Thanks,
Why does there need to be elections for mods/admins?? First off, there is no need for a admin. The site is being taken care off. Electing mods will become a popularity contest, then even more people will become butthurt. Electing officers to the club is a good idea, but the club needs to be seperate from the site. The mods are not and probably do not want to be the leaders of the whole group. The mods are the guys that clean up posts and keep the site/forums/threads on track. You are making both groups the same, and it doesn't need to be that way. Russ
i also want to add that what we would need to do is vote for legitent president, vice pres, sec, treasurer, ect.. then once those people were elected into office that new board could decide among themselves who wants to take on the jobs of being admins/mods. it really is a daisy chain effect of goodness guys if we did an election. all of the sudden there is a little bit of pressure on leaderships shoulder to actually get more things done that the voting members like. i know of a few clubs dont even have an online forum yet are still able to do things like track days, training schools etc...all because they have an organized cabinet of leaders.
i have to meet someone for lunch ...but to respond for now. you are ABSOLUTELY kidding yourself if you think the "club" and the "website" are totally seperated. the website is part of the freakin club for christs sake...that is reality.
I would say the elected officials could appoint new moderators, etc. But I think the moderators should be judged by their performance/abilities. And I think the elected officials would be busy enough with other club activities, (or they _should_ be busy enough) that I wouldn't want them moderating the site as well. I know what you mean with the other clubs, some have no forum, or a very inactive forum. IF we want more events/track days/etc, that's where we need to focus our effors, and not on the forum.
ok, not totally seperated, but like the point you made where a CLUB can exist without a website. I just think that the elected club officials should have jobs to do outside of the website. But yeah, for now, mnsubaru as a club is just a website. Another point, is that mnsubaru is always going to be owned by someone, electing new officials isn't going to change the ownership of the site/club. It's not probably going to ever be 100% a democracy.
I think we need to clean up the members list too, I mean there are a ton of members that aren't active since 2006, also think that you must be a member to access the forums, I'm kind of uncomfortable with it being so open.
So you are telling me that the president of MSRA is also the site admin?? You my friend, need a reality check. Again, there is no stopping ANYONE on this site from stepping up and getting a event going. Nothing. The reason that nothing happens is because not everyone wants their ideas shot down. I can't even tell you how many PM's I got from Josh last year helping him out and getting the cruise going. We can sponsor a whole stage at the Ojibwe rally if we want to, but like last year, almost everyone that said they were going to show up, did not. I can make alot of "events" happen, but I have stuck my neck out so many times for this place, and most of the time I end up eating a majority of the cost because the people that said they would show up didn't. That is reality. Unless everyone in the group wants the group to become a "real" club, it will not happen. Since everyone is so set on having everything for free, it will not happen. The day that more members start showing up at the events that are currently happening, we as a club will gain a little more respect with the outside world. Once that happens we can get more events done, but until that happens, we are going to be known as a bunch of babies. hell, even MNSC can pull off summer meets once a month, we can't even get members to show up to Firestone when they say they will. Russ
special summer olympics but seriously, more events - i've had a lot of fun at all the events I've been to
I think Kelly can take care of that. i think I remember him having marshall olympics up at the rally one year.:laugh: Russ
Why is it that the website is considered different than the club? I brought up the "membership dues" awhile back, only to be flamed by almost everyone. I think that anyone that comes on the site and use things like "10% off labor & 20% off parts", for sale threads with cheap parts, guys that are willing to help you install things for free/beer/or cash on the side, should be willing to throw down a little each year to have access to stuff like that. And that is not even mentioning the events we have! I know, speaking for myself of course:roll:, that I would have gotten my $20-$50 membership fee back in a matter of weeks, if not days! Don't get me wrong, I don't mind receiving these things for free, but when extra cash could be used for events and things of the sort, it would be nice if the club/forum could generate a little "slush fund" for club/forum oriented stuff. Can anyone tell me how much it normally costs to get tires mounted and balanced?<<<on topic.
Elections are a popularity contest, there's no way around that in this community. And to be honest, being a moderator is a thankless job where you have to do things that aren't popular. How is someone supposed to get elected when everytime they do what they're supposed to do (moderate), people get all butthurt about it?
does anyone agree that we need to get rid of nonactive members? I still feel awkward with just random people having access to the forums, I mean there's no secret but Lurkers are creepy, I mean, look we've got two guests lurking right now? hmm.. Some people just join for the 10/20% discount too, that's kind of BS..
I agree if there was some sort of posted notification to let members know when they joined. No activity in 12 months will lead to deletion of account?
I think anyone should be able to join the forum and read/post, etc. This should be free and be pretty much like the website/forum is today. But I also want to see membership as a level above that. We can have annual dues, that gives you the right to vote in the elections, and hopefully some other benefits, discounts at events, etc? I guess I'm looking at BMW and Audi clubs as an example. Northstarbmw.org and glacierlakesqclub.org. Now one thing they have is a national club that probably makes organizing a regional club a bit easier, since I think in both cases the membership is actually handled nationally. We don't have that and we have to build a club ourselves. I really don't disagree with you Justin, I think we're just differing on the technicalities.
No I don't want to get rid of them, but if we enforced membership then they would have to join! MWHAHAA , it would just feel like more of a club.
I don't always log in when I'm browsing the site, and then I'd show up as a Guest. Otherwise, yeah it's a little weird having everything open, but then, anyone could get an account on here, so having it closed off to members-only is a false sense of security.
