STOP PRESS – If you are not really interested in this stuff please read 6) below and make a decision. Thank you.
A very worthwhile chat was had by those present at the AGM and we scratched around where social motorcycling was at, what worked and what didn’t, and the whys and where-to-fores of it all. We have loosely sorted out a direction forward and it seems simple, although definitely not where we thought we were going to go! I’ll have a crack at summarising the flavour / outcomes of what is still a work in progress as follows, but it can be summarised as “get rid of all the “club crap” and just do the stuff that works”:
1) Every time we consider whether there SHOULD be a Ducati focussed social motorcycle club or not the answer always comes back as a resounding YES, and this time was no different. So how might that happen with the realities and vagaries of modern life?
2) We are very much agreed that the “old” structures serve nobody in this day and age, or maybe just a problem for the sorts of people that ride Ducatis, doesn’t matter. That model comes from the “inner circle of mates” that meet regularly and make their own fun with others dropping in and out as life’s circumstances permit them. This is OK as long as it doesn’t get “cliquey”, but fundamentally needs that core group regularly participating to glue it together. These days that might happen in Ulysses and HOG, but for all the rest of us it simply doesn’t work to nominate people to various roles if we / they either know or just find out that they won’t be able to do a tenth of what they had hoped to do when confronted with life’s realities. So that’s a decision – everybody is sacked and no replacements appointed!
3) However we are not going to dismantle the club or put it into caretaker mode. It needs to be something else and needs a decent chance to grow into that. So I (Vince) will do the admin to ensure the mechanism remains and people are reminded of scheduled events and can attend or not as they wish. Obviously there is an immediate problem with that, I will only list what I think is a good idea / already know (and am therefore limited by), so alternate suggestions are most appreciated and accepted openly. It will start with continuation of the scheduling we already have, ie breakfasts and monthly rides. For now we agreed to leave breakfasts at the 16 footers as it is, although that could change to mix it up over time as doing so with the monthly rides has worked well.
4) Another part of the “old” structure we are going to drop is formal financial membership. We believe that whether a person is financial or not can play on how they may feel about participation in club activities so, at least for the social aspect, we are going to remove it. If we later start doing historic plates or race licences these may require particular levels of membership, but that will be sorted out at the time – and come complete with a few trusty individuals to make sure it all works as it should.
5) However, along with dropping ongoing financial membership we will retain a joining fee, currently $15 – which we would expect can be in effect a continuing donation style of sponsorship by Frasers with the sale of new bikes for anyone that wishes to receive this info of what other Ducati toting riders are up to. So, in effect, this will grant anybody lifetime social membership for the one small fee. Which is bad luck to those of us that chipped in for the much larger current lifetime rate, but in reality those that did so did it willingly, and treated it as a donation to get a good concept club off the ground. But it will be regarded as retrospective, so if you have EVER paid any money to the club, arise venerable Ducatisti and congratulations on your newfound allegiance to all things Hunter Ducati. Your only way out is the next item….
6) As part of a fresh start we need to clean out the Members list. If you are getting this email and hope to or want to participate in the club’s activities in the future do nothing (although a “count me in” note would be nice to have). For the rest could you please hit reply and say either “FRIEND” or “Delete Me” depending on if you have any interest in seeing what we get up to over time or this stuff just isn’t on your life path. No pressure, and your decision is not final as you can always send in another email if you change your mind – but do make a decision, whatever it is will be fine. Thank you.
7) To give effect to the desire (as opposed to reality) I need to find a way to automate event notifications, as yet I can only do this manually but have delayed sending this newsletter out as I have been working on a way to automate it. I think it can be done, but not quite there yet, you will see some strange test stuff turn up on the calendar and hopefully I won’t accidentally splatter out too many test emails! What I am expecting is there will be an automated reminder at 5 days and 2 days before each regular event to all people identified as "Members", and that at least will ensure people know about it and then, weather permitting, the days will become what those attending make of them. “Friends” only get notice of “one-offs” such as newsletters, special events or particular topics of interest, but not regular events like breakfasts and monthly rides.
8 ) With this new found way of thinking we have no particular need for ANY postal communication, so the PO will lapse next March not to be replaced unless something happens that requires it before then.
9) One other aspect of this approach is that previously membership cards were issued and these allowed the member to access a 10% discount at Frasers as long as their membership cards were current. Now in effect we will be dropping the issuing of cards and the discount along with it. And considering the extreme turnover in staff at Frasers these days that is a maintenance task we are happy to drop.
10) A piece we will miss is the occasional rush of blood to the head that happens and we get a bunch more T shirts / jackets / etc made up. They’re pretty cool, really – and there is no reason it shouldn’t happen again, just won’t be any time soon!
11) Racing – when that track finally gets built at Raymond Terrace something else will need to take shape by way of formal club structure, but it isn’t here now and we will worry about it when we see it.
12) Weekends away are always brilliantly successful. But the only way this will happen in our new found “loose” format is if somebody makes one their own and does the grunt-work to get a plan together. It might not be that hard, only have to come up with an idea and "start" - I can fill in a lot of the blanks and am a likely contender anyway!
13) Major events are always on the cards, Turismo is on again (
https://online.saneevent.com.au/Ei/getdemo.ei?id=229&s=_1MC0VNJJF) and of course there is MotoGP and the superbikes, although my conclusion is that these are not really suitable for orchestrated groups to attend, so will let them take their own course and if a few people hook up to attend all the better.
14) Apart from sorting out a way to do regular reminders the last general topic to sort is web maintenance. I got a super deal and paid up 5 years in advance last Oct so the thing will continue with no drama, but it would be handy to get a bit more traction with participation between interested people on the forum. Or do we really need to set up a Facebook group (I am so not a fan” of the whole FB phenomenon, but do have an account!) to get decent participation presumably leading to higher physical participation rates? Dunno, and I am scratching for ideas here – and maybe a bit of support!
15) Just to drive home the importance of having some variety in participation at the AGM Eric made the brilliant suggestion to gather for a short club ride terminating in the airfield at Rutherford and watch all the historic planes take off before breaking for coffee / whatever. Now I don't have any details to check the timing works, but what a cool idea - another example of why we need to mix it up a bit!
That’s (more than!) enough for now, as is obvious it is a work in progress. But what we had wasn’t exactly producing the goods. Remember this is our “down time”, we do it for the fun and social interchange / release that it gives us, so we need it to be something we want to see, participate in and grow. And be bloody simple to use / do! Let me know what you think, you know you want to………
Before I sign off, here’s an unashamed plug: the M900 Monster special is up for sale as I went 'n bought another ST4S – check out the pics / details here if you are at all interested / know someone that might be in owning this really well set up cool bike:
http://hunterdog.org.au/DiscussionBoard/index.php?topic=829 (sent out as an "Announced" topic)
