Improving the site and club

[Huzer]

In the past (except for this year) we've had 2 big meets. The BBQ has been the only meet free of nearly any disagreement and has by far been the best attended event. The Birthday Bash always has some little undertow about location, it seems. This year was no different, but I'd still consider it a success. By "big" I mean 20 or more cars. We're never going to be a group that has 50, 60, etc cars getting together. Maybe I'm wrong, but in the club three years of existence, we haven't gotten there yet. The 1st BBQ may have been 30 or so.

We need to stop over-reaching and realize that we aren't a huge club. I'll be freakin' thrilled if we have 10 people at the BWW meets.

As far as overall improvements to the site itself, all we can hope for is a little more activity. Post about your experiences. Have you gone on a fun drive lately? Let us know, tell us your route. Installed a new part, thinking about it? Let us know. Did a bird drop a load on your car and you're pissed? Sure, post about that too. Post reviews of your favorite detailing supplies, etc. I've never expected the site to be technical in nature. However, I would like it to be a bit more car-focused in nature. By posting about your experiences with your car (Mazda or not), you'll help other local people know about it. That's what we're about.

[djchris721]

We were having an annual BBQ. We didn't have the means to organize it this year, but hopefully next year we will have some people come forward to assist.

We just had a gathering at a local Mazda dealership this past weekend.

I have a few tag cards, and we just came up with some new shirts... hoodies are on the way.

I have a car meet in my garage and driveway almost every evening.

Nice, yes our local Mazda Dealership in Socal have the every 3rd sunday of the month meet.

Our mods actually posted our tag cards on the forum so members can download it and print more if they have too.

Also stickers:
http://www.moccforums.com/forums/index.php/topic,9125.0.html

License plate frames:
http://www.moccforums.com/forums/index.php/topic,19930.0.html

Shirts and sweatshirts are an awesome way to advertise too

http://www.moccforums.com/forums/index.php/topic,14272.0.html

And yes we have install days in one of our local member's garage that turns into meets...hahaha

so it looks like you guys got it down pretty good over there, its just some people are not into it and i notice that here too, i used to have a big *** MOCC sticker on my MS3 and no one asked about what it meant.

[chickenwafer]

Wow, excellent timing, Chris! I was just about to post up something like this as well....

Ok, here is my ramble,

The Mazda club I was a part of in Arizona was very, very organized.

First off, to become a member, you signed up on the forum (duh). Then you had 3 months to attend a minimum of 3 meets. I can see how that could be more difficult here since we have less meets in general (more on that later) and that rule could be modified. After the 3 month/3 meet rule was meet, you were a full fledged member and granted access to the full forum. You paid $25 a year which got you a t-shirt, which was a new and cool design (made by members) every year.

We also had club by-laws, nothing erogenous but the basics. The biggest was we had member-elected officials. A President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Event Coordinator. Most titles are self-explanatory. We also had a monthly meeting that took place on the first Saturday of every month in various locations to accommodate our rather large club. The Event Coordinator (EC) would start a poll thread a few weeks before the Monthly Meeting and had 3-4 locations that the club would vote on. This made it fare so members spread throughout the State could attend meetings in their neck of the woods easier.

The EC was a great position because we had a common person to look to for help with up coming events. This doesn't mean the EC was the only person to come up with event ideas and the soul organizer, other members were encouraged to do the same. The EC would just gather the required information and try their best to set everything up, handle questions about the event from members, work with event staff, etc. Once we setup this position events ran noticeably smoother and we easily doubled our turnout.

I disagree with the Tech Section just because I feel this car club first and foremost, which IMO means the forum should be a communication tool first, and a tech/forum area second. If we made people pay for access to a Tech Section, I would expect it to be utter fantastic. And in reality, we are all (for the most part) members of national-based forums for our particular models, where we can get our tech info from easier.

I don't expect us to adapt ALL of the Arizona Mazda Club policies, I am just throwing out ideas that worked for that club. Requiring yearly dues may put some off, but honestly I feel that if we do that, it will weed out the people who aren't going to come to meets and just use this forum to BS around, and the people who stay will come to meets. Also, it will easily generate some much-needed revenue.

Just think- we can use that revenue for putting on our own CMZC-Sponsored car show (which we could require an entry fee for non-CMZC cars and regain most of the money spent, if not make a profit), doing a BBQ and having the club pay for food, etc.

And honestly, when I first joined this club- and still now to a point- I am/was disappointed. I guess the Mazda club is Arizona spoiled me, but I just feel this club lacks a serious sense of leadership, direction, unity, etc. There is no single person to blame, and that's not what this is about, but I strongly feel emulating the AZMC car club way could seriously help the general organization of this club.

The Arizona club was a very tight-nit community (almost to it's detriment). Most of my friends were members of the club, I had all their phone numbers, we hung out all the time doing non-car related stuff like Birthday parties, group dinners, shooting ranges, etc. Our most popular meets weren't car shows, they were actually "Mod Meets" where we meet at a members house with a garage and wrenched on cars all day and well into the night. It was some of the best times of my life, just working on cars, eating food, and shooting the shit with some of my closest friends. I just don't see that really happening here.

That's basically my ramble. I think this car club could do a lot more and actually get recognition within the community. This would attract paying sponsors to our site, shows, etc, and generate even more funds for the club, and more members. I'm not saying we need to become the Arizona club, but we could learn from them, improve some ideas, and leave some out.

[djchris721]

Nice post chickenwafer, I totally agree. I'm not saying that this forum should be modeled like the other forums but just get some ideas from them. IMO the whole Mazda community in this country can benefit from each other from bouncing ideas.

With this also, try to moderate and monitor those member that are abusive and don't follow the rules. Just take http://www.mazda3forums.com, their FS section is so strict that if you don't post any pics in 24hours they will delete your post but not to the extent that you are bossing everyone around. We at MOCC are also tight-nit community like a family. For example one of our members (Joe) form socal had a heart attack just recently, we all sent him warm prayers and thougts so he feels that we care.

You can also think about having club sponsor meets like the recent Mazfest (http://www.mazfest.com) which was sponsored by the RX7 club and MOCC. And there Seven Stock, it's a meet for mostly rotary cars. Also think about Charity sponsored meets, every year our Socal chapter does Motor4Toys Car Show where everyone that shows up bring a new toy and it will be donated to the needy kids that don't have money to buy a new toy. As I said I dont want to sound like I am telling you what to do, just a suggestion. You guys can throw and set up meets like this and try to expose the club more that way.

Every forum is different but I think we all are members of such forums because we have one thing in common which is our love for Mazda and other cars. Let's show them that we are not another car club but a club that can be helpful too.

I hope this helps.
Chris

[Huzer]

I'll add this. A significant basis of the founding of CMZC was due to the rather rude nature of most of the larger clubs (6club, 7club, 8club, etc). We got tired of the arrogant attitudes and wanted a friendlier environment for the local folks. In my mind, as one of the original founders of the site, it wasn't to become some large car club, it wasn't to have a huge following with massive statewide events. Nor was it to become a technical reference site. We simply started as a few guys that wanted to get together with other local people. The larger clubs weren't conducive to that.

So, we started, first Mile High Mazdas. That didn't work out so well, so CMZC took shape 3 years ago this month. None of us had grand designs of being anything more than a local forum that would hopefully get some folks together to enjoy our cars. We've had some drama along the way, but the intent remains. Look at the amount of active members. CO isn't going to be nearly as big as CA or even AZ. We don't need elected officials. Look at any larger based CO forum and they're going to be some Scoobie forum, Jeep, or whatever random offroading forum you can think of. Colorado Mazdas, realistically, are a tiny portion of the landscape. Can we be a larger presence at other shows? Sure. But even other events are few and far between. There is no Cars and Coffee here.

Comparing it to the AZ club, if there was a rule of attending 3 meets in 3 months, we'd all be out. We simply don't have that. I'm hoping, once again, to get people to the BWW meets as a start. Honestly, if we asked anyone to pay money to use the site, I have a strong feeling that we'd be less active than we already are. Paying money isn't going to build a sense of community. If we weed out the people that just BS, we'd basically have nobody left. Ask yourself, are you willing to pay $25 to use this site. I'm a mod and I wouldn't be.

Most of the original mods from the site are gone. I think Andrew and I are the only ones left. 6i is still very present on the site, and rx7 chris is back (after a brief absence) in the fold. We've tried many different methods to keep the members engaged. You can place the onus on leadership to keep things active, but after a while, when the membership fails to follow through, it's only natural that leadership gives up. I can set up all of the meets I want, and go to every single one. But a meeting of one is hardly a meeting. Setting them up is easy, getting people to follow through and commit is something else altogether. At a minimum, I'll commit to being at the BWW meets the remainder of the year. I'll even commit to providing the small giveaway at every meet. I'd like to know who's willing to do the same. Mods can only do so much, the members need to be involved as well.

[~Barn~]

I hope some of you people take me up on my ski trip invite this coming season!

Wankers.

=)

[chickenwafer]

I'll add this. A significant basis of the founding of CMZC was due to the rather rude nature of most of the larger clubs (6club, 7club, 8club, etc). We got tired of the arrogant attitudes and wanted a friendlier environment for the local folks. In my mind, as one of the original founders of the site, it wasn't to become some large car club, it wasn't to have a huge following with massive statewide events. Nor was it to become a technical reference site. We simply started as a few guys that wanted to get together with other local people. The larger clubs weren't conducive to that.

OK, helpful information. I agree, the national sites, by nature, attract a lot of people arrogant people with large egos. So, from what I gather, this is primary a forum first then? There's nothing wrong with that, I guess the "club" nomenclature just threw me off then.

So, we started, first Mile High Mazdas. That didn't work out so well, so CMZC took shape 3 years ago this month. None of us had grand designs of being anything more than a local forum that would hopefully get some folks together to enjoy our cars. We've had some drama along the way, but the intent remains. Look at the amount of active members. CO isn't going to be nearly as big as CA or even AZ. We don't need elected officials. Look at any larger based CO forum and they're going to be some Scoobie forum, Jeep, or whatever random offroading forum you can think of. Colorado Mazdas, realistically, are a tiny portion of the landscape. Can we be a larger presence at other shows? Sure. But even other events are few and far between. There is no Cars and Coffee here.

I agree that Mazda's in Colorado make up a small sampling of the car scene. Hell, Subaru/Evo clubs are bigger everywhere else, too! I don't think that should get us down, tho, and prevent us from doing things.

Really, it sounds pretty lame so say, "We're not a big club and we'll never be so let's not try". How big do you think the club in Arizona was? We had a bunch of registered forum members, and probably 14-18 MAX people who showed to events on a regular basis. It's not like we were rolling 30 deep to events (some we did, but it was rare).

Honestly, I feel our turnout came from well organized events, plenty of lead-notice for events, and people that felt a real sense of commitment to the club.

Elected Officials are a stretch, I agree, for the people of this club. We don't have to do it, it was a suggestion, a suggestion for something that worked extremely well for the car club I was a part of before coming here. Having a central point of leadership, in my opinion, is critical for a well run car club that wants to put on successful meets.

Comparing it to the AZ club, if there was a rule of attending 3 meets in 3 months, we'd all be out. We simply don't have that. I'm hoping, once again, to get people to the BWW meets as a start. Honestly, if we asked anyone to pay money to use the site, I have a strong feeling that we'd be less active than we already are. Paying money isn't going to build a sense of community. If we weed out the people that just BS, we'd basically have nobody left. Ask yourself, are you willing to pay $25 to use this site. I'm a mod and I wouldn't be.

I said the 3 month/3 meet rule could be modified, since obviously we have less activity in this club. In AZ, we had the Monthly Meet the first Saturday of every month to go over club business. So, new members only had to attend those to get the required meets/months. We wouldn't have to have a Meeting every month, we could do bi-monthly meetings. We can modify the meets rule for 2 meets in 4 months. Obviously there needs to be exceptions for Winter months.

You really wouldn't want to pay $25 a YEAR to help out the car club? That's nothing. Especially if you get a FREE t-shirt or some other club merchandise? That's the problem with the sense of "club commitment" here I feel. It's not $25 to use the site, it's $25 to support the club!. The site is a tool for the club. Or at least that's what I feel it should be.

Most of the original mods from the site are gone. I think Andrew and I are the only ones left. 6i is still very present on the site, and rx7 chris is back (after a brief absence) in the fold. We've tried many different methods to keep the members engaged. You can place the onus on leadership to keep things active, but after a while, when the membership fails to follow through, it's only natural that leadership gives up. I can set up all of the meets I want, and go to every single one. But a meeting of one is hardly a meeting. Setting them up is easy, getting people to follow through and commit is something else altogether. At a minimum, I'll commit to being at the BWW meets the remainder of the year. I'll even commit to providing the small giveaway at every meet. I'd like to know who's willing to do the same. Mods can only do so much, the members need to be involved as well.

I'm not placing blame on anyone here, if you re-read my original post you see that I'm not playing the blame game here. For whatever reason, this club lacks a sense of commitment and loyalty, to the point where it's become part of our culture.

I agree and I've voiced this before, I personally don't want to drive 45 minuets and waste $30 in gas to go to a meet with 1 or 2 other people. That's lame as hell. But look at the Meets we have where we get good turnout- it's all about momentum. We get some of the well known/senior members here to sign up, we have 5-10 people committed to come, and then others jump on-board because it's going to be a fun meet with legit turnout. Like the Birthday Bash last week, we had some people sign up and the event gained momentum.

It's the meets where no one steps up to come, that no one wants to go to. It's a Catch 22. And I'm not saying that we need 100%, or even 50%, of our regular club membership to attend each and every single meet. In the AZ club, our President couldn't make meets sometimes. We all have lives, jobs (hopefully!), friends, family, and sometimes, we just don't want to go. That's okay...but I think we're looking at a fundamental change in the culture around here before we get serious turnout to events.

[tsx_guy]

I appreciate your efforts here Tim and thank you for bringing back the BWW meets.. I will make every effort to attend the ones Park Meadows. I hope that doesn't deter others from stopping by tho.

[Huzer]

I didn't mean for my post to sound like I thought anyone was being blamed. I'll even agree that there really isn't any central leadership doing much of anything. Once again, that's not a blame thing, it's reality. I mainly wanted to give a backstory on how the club/site came into existence.

I'm all for trying new things and getting things revived. That's what this thread is for. We've had a few issues in the past that severely crippled the club and we really haven't recovered from that.

I figure if the BWW meets are decently attended, that's a good start and something to build from.

[dommo_g]

With my SRT club, we charge $25 for membership. $15 of that pays for a set of decals that most members put on their cars. The other $10 goes into the club fund. Anyone who signs up on our forum can have access to maybe half a dozen sections, including a local gatherings and meets section. After becoming a member, the full forum opens up, including tech and buy/sell sections. We have a section for event organizers that only they have access to. We try to plan 4 big meets a year, one each season, rotating between north, south and metro areas. Usually one dyno day a year, and maybe a BBQ in the summer. Our members are usually pretty good about organizing their own little meets in their areas whenever they want to. At one of our big meets, we usually do a fund raiser by selling raffle tickets and giving away merchandise that we buy, or have donated to us. We have a deal set up with club merchandise that nets us a little profit when someone buys.

I think the biggest thing is that our club is for a small group of people who are still passionate about their cars, and want to share that with other owners. Our forum is pretty welcoming to new members, with long time members making sure to make the new joiners feel welcome. One thing I notice here is that it seems to be real 'clique-y' and it seems there's always some sort of drama between this guy and that guy. Maybe not so much recently, but it may have hurt it in the past.

Anyway, these were just a few points I was throwing out there. I'm not sure what makes our club work, but it does pretty good. It's not a money maker, and it's not intended to be. But we're self sufficient, our members do good at making new friends and we always have a good time when we get together.

[iani1.1]

wow atleast this ones not like ziptieds club/forum lol. gotta have rep and somewhat of a douche to get in. im one of the lucky few that didnt have to have an app, since there were no apps back then lol

heres what im talking about.
http://www.ziptied.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=95e7354f6c6791cebe06cf34999f9c0f&board=17.0

[chickenwafer]

With my SRT club, we charge $25 for membership. $15 of that pays for a set of decals that most members put on their cars. The other $10 goes into the club fund. Anyone who signs up on our forum can have access to maybe half a dozen sections, including a local gatherings and meets section. After becoming a member, the full forum opens up, including tech and buy/sell sections. We have a section for event organizers that only they have access to. We try to plan 4 big meets a year, one each season, rotating between north, south and metro areas. Usually one dyno day a year, and maybe a BBQ in the summer. Our members are usually pretty good about organizing their own little meets in their areas whenever they want to. At one of our big meets, we usually do a fund raiser by selling raffle tickets and giving away merchandise that we buy, or have donated to us. We have a deal set up with club merchandise that nets us a little profit when someone buys.

I think the biggest thing is that our club is for a small group of people who are still passionate about their cars, and want to share that with other owners. Our forum is pretty welcoming to new members, with long time members making sure to make the new joiners feel welcome. One thing I notice here is that it seems to be real 'clique-y' and it seems there's always some sort of drama between this guy and that guy. Maybe not so much recently, but it may have hurt it in the past.

Anyway, these were just a few points I was throwing out there. I'm not sure what makes our club work, but it does pretty good. It's not a money maker, and it's not intended to be. But we're self sufficient, our members do good at making new friends and we always have a good time when we get together.

I think that sounds like good goals for this club- 4 big meets a year, and spread them out in Co Springs, Denver/Metro, and Fort Collins areas to be fair to our membership.

I would love a dyno day, but honestly that's not what Mazda's are about, and I don't feel like many people would be into that. Nonetheless, the Dyno Day was one of the biggest events, each and every year, at my Mazda club in AZ.

If we could pull 4 big meets per year, with at least 20+ cars at each, that would be fantastic. Other members can organize and setup smaller events scattered throughout the year.

[AIM WO4]

More Mazdas and beer.

[dommo_g]

Nobody says you MUST have a dyno day. (Even though your statement about them was kinda contradictory ) I was just saying what we did. The thing is that we keep it consistent, we give people something to look forward to, and I think that motivates others to keep it rolling on a regular basis.

One thing you can't really control is how much people are going to invest, time-wise, into this thing. That's the only thing that's pretty much hit or miss.

[chickenwafer]

Nobody says you MUST have a dyno day. (Even though your statement about them was kinda contradictory ) I was just saying what we did. The thing is that we keep it consistent, we give people something to look forward to, and I think that motivates others to keep it rolling on a regular basis.

One thing you can't really control is how much people are going to invest, time-wise, into this thing. That's the only thing that's pretty much hit or miss.

The "contradictory" statement was meant to compare the Colorado Mazda club to the Arizona Mazda club, sorry if I wasn't clear. The AZ club looked forward to the dyno day and it was one of our biggest events each and every year. I feel that won't be the story here with the Colorado Mazda club.

Nonetheless, we never know until we try, and I hope it would be a success because I would enjoy it myself.