Midas Owners Club - The next 30 years
Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 9:13 pm
With such a great turn out at Stoneleigh, an excellent marquee and a really friendly bunch of Midas owners on the club stand, I think it is fair to say the club excelled itself with the anniversary celebrations. A lot of the thanks for that has to go to the club's officers who did such a great job of organizing it all. Someone commented to me that it was the best club AGM that they had attended (of any club not just the MOC) and I think that reflects well on the committee and the members present that it zipped along this year in such a jovial fashion.
Sadly though, that will be the last time that the current committee will be organizing an event for us. As Kelvin pointed out in the "Stoneleigh May 3rd" thread, most of the committee is standing down for one reason, or another, and I wholeheartedly agree with him that we owe them all a huge thank you. Not just for Stoneleigh, but for many years service during time which they have turned the club's fortunes around. Ten years ago the club membership was falling and it was a struggle to get a magazine out at all. Now the club has over 100 members again and we get four joint magazines each year along with regular newsletters.
Now I could simply finish by echoing the call for some volunteers to take up the vacant posts, but you may have guessed from the title of this thread that that was not my intention.
I would like to invite you all, club members and non-club members alike, to have a good think about what the club is now and what the club should be in the future and then to contribute your ideas as to how the club can move forward.
We need to open a debate now as to what the members want from the club and also what the non-members would want to see the club do that would really make them want to join it.
I know that a lot of people don't like the idea of committees, or don't have the time to drive half way across the country for a committee meeting. Not to mention another dozen, or so reasons, that would stop us all from being more active within the club.
However, as our outgoing committee proved this year, it doesn't need to be all dour faced reports. Yes, some of that is still going to be necessary. The club is not going to organize itself by magic. It will still need club officers, or at least people who are happy to take some responsibility to get things done, in the future. With improved communications, however, using email and things like Skype, that allow multiple way discussions to take place over the internet, the need to give up a day to attend a committee meeting is fast disappearing. Perhaps, there are other ways of organizing the club that we haven't considered yet.
We have the opportunity to start the discussion now and hopefully by the time of my open day in July (yes, July 19th) we will have some ideas to take the club forwards into its next 30 years.
Sadly though, that will be the last time that the current committee will be organizing an event for us. As Kelvin pointed out in the "Stoneleigh May 3rd" thread, most of the committee is standing down for one reason, or another, and I wholeheartedly agree with him that we owe them all a huge thank you. Not just for Stoneleigh, but for many years service during time which they have turned the club's fortunes around. Ten years ago the club membership was falling and it was a struggle to get a magazine out at all. Now the club has over 100 members again and we get four joint magazines each year along with regular newsletters.
Now I could simply finish by echoing the call for some volunteers to take up the vacant posts, but you may have guessed from the title of this thread that that was not my intention.
I would like to invite you all, club members and non-club members alike, to have a good think about what the club is now and what the club should be in the future and then to contribute your ideas as to how the club can move forward.
We need to open a debate now as to what the members want from the club and also what the non-members would want to see the club do that would really make them want to join it.
I know that a lot of people don't like the idea of committees, or don't have the time to drive half way across the country for a committee meeting. Not to mention another dozen, or so reasons, that would stop us all from being more active within the club.
However, as our outgoing committee proved this year, it doesn't need to be all dour faced reports. Yes, some of that is still going to be necessary. The club is not going to organize itself by magic. It will still need club officers, or at least people who are happy to take some responsibility to get things done, in the future. With improved communications, however, using email and things like Skype, that allow multiple way discussions to take place over the internet, the need to give up a day to attend a committee meeting is fast disappearing. Perhaps, there are other ways of organizing the club that we haven't considered yet.
We have the opportunity to start the discussion now and hopefully by the time of my open day in July (yes, July 19th) we will have some ideas to take the club forwards into its next 30 years.