bmwmoga_committee
02-08-2006, 02:09 PM
Everyone,
Last Sunday I met with the Club Board members and we discussed our plans for the coming year. I'm happy to say that it was a very good meeting and your board was in agreement on the direction that the club should go and on the activities we should pursue. I offered several proposals and I will be explaining them to you over the next few days as details are being wrapped up.
As I have already mentioned, I have two goals that I would like to pursue that I believe are not only complementary, but MUST work together. They are improving the club by increasing the frequency and variety of Club activities and increasing our membership. Having more variety will appeal to more members. Having more frequency of activities will increase the opportunity to participate. Together, these will attract and retain more members. Increasing our membership will bring into the Club new ideas, energy, volunteers and participants, which, in turn, will give us a better club, which, in turn, will attract and retain more members. And so the synergy will play out. At least that's my theory. Together, we will see if it works.
Instead of hitting you with information overload, I am going to begin with the efforts to increase the variety of activities. In the coming days I will go into the other plans that we have for your Club.
Each month we will have a Club Meeting on the first Sunday of the month, except for June, where it will be the second Sunday to prevent conflicting with the Ride For Kids. Most of the meeting will be at State Parks the same as they have been, except that there will be a couple of differences. One of the things that I proposed and that the Board agreed to pursue was to have more social activities. By that I mean having the Club members meet 4 times per year for the purpose of socializing. We already have two of those per year, which are the Banquet and the High Falls shrimp boil, so we would actually only be adding two events and those events would be combined with the monthly Club Meetings for April and July. Vince Eugenio is working on the details and we don't yet know the outcome, but our plan is to have an event that will give value back to the members. Something that you will enjoy and in which you will want to participate. It will probably be a nice meal that will be provided by the Club with little or no cost to the members, but I don't want to go too far down that road until we have more information. But that is one example.
Other examples are the new rides that we are going to initiate. We have had the Club rides for a long time that took place once-per-month. The problem is that not everyone wants to go on Club rides. Most of us like to eat, however, so I have proposed a Ride To Eat program that Jackie is going to spearhead. We hope that this can take place monthly and bring members out who aren't interested in a Club Ride as well as those of us who are. The idea is to solicit locations from the members to visit as a group for the purpose of enjoying a good meal, maybe in an interesting setting or location or over a good route getting there. Jackie isn't going to lead ALL of the rides, so we need your involvement. This isn't too tricky. I'll bet that almost ALL of you know of a special place somewhere within a 200 mile radius of Atlanta that they would like to share with the Club members. If you do, I'm asking you to get in touch with Jackie and make it happen. The months are wide open now, so let's start with March. Who would like to lead the first ride to a great place to eat (hell, it doesn't even have to be THAT great!) in March? After that, pick a month and sign up to lead a ride. We'll all thank you for it and, chances are, you'll have a good time.
Another new type of ride is the Adventure Ride. My idea is to try to have one weekend a month where we will have a campout somewhere. I am leading an Adventure Ride to the Okefenokee Swamp on the 17th of March. We will camp out Friday and Saturday nights and spend Saturday exploring the swamp by motorboat. We had a great time last year and I expect that we will again this year. There are a lot of great places to camp in the Southeast and I know that we have a lot of members who enjoy camping. Here again, the calendar is wide open. If you know a good place to camp, pick your month and get in touch with me. I'll help you set it up.
There are a couple of other things that we are working on and I'll pass them along to you as soon as I can. Naturally, none of this can happen without you and the other members. It doesn't matter what any of us come up with, the members have to support it. I am asking you to support the activities that your fellow members organize. Managing an organization that is totally run by volunteers is a lot like herding cats. We're all individuals and all have our likes and dislikes. That is the whole point in trying to increase the variety; to appeal to more members. When someone steps forward and volunteers to lead a ride or other activity, please try to participate. It really takes the wind out of a person's sails to go to a lot of trouble to plan and lead a ride and then have almost no one show up. It won't be a rewarding experience for them or the participants and people only tend to repeat things that are rewarding.
Right now we need volunteers for the following events in March: 1) A Ride To Eat leader and restaurant. 2) Someone to provide the food for the Club Meeting in March at FDR State Park north of Columbus. We need the same things for the following months, too, of course, so start now to pick your month. Ellen Welter is leading a Club Ride on Saturday, the 25th of March to "Smell the Flowers." I hope to see you there.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. We are all very open to your ideas and input. That is the fuel for the Club and what will make things happen. Let us hear from you on anything that you believe will give the club more value for the members.
Jim Hawks
Last Sunday I met with the Club Board members and we discussed our plans for the coming year. I'm happy to say that it was a very good meeting and your board was in agreement on the direction that the club should go and on the activities we should pursue. I offered several proposals and I will be explaining them to you over the next few days as details are being wrapped up.
As I have already mentioned, I have two goals that I would like to pursue that I believe are not only complementary, but MUST work together. They are improving the club by increasing the frequency and variety of Club activities and increasing our membership. Having more variety will appeal to more members. Having more frequency of activities will increase the opportunity to participate. Together, these will attract and retain more members. Increasing our membership will bring into the Club new ideas, energy, volunteers and participants, which, in turn, will give us a better club, which, in turn, will attract and retain more members. And so the synergy will play out. At least that's my theory. Together, we will see if it works.
Instead of hitting you with information overload, I am going to begin with the efforts to increase the variety of activities. In the coming days I will go into the other plans that we have for your Club.
Each month we will have a Club Meeting on the first Sunday of the month, except for June, where it will be the second Sunday to prevent conflicting with the Ride For Kids. Most of the meeting will be at State Parks the same as they have been, except that there will be a couple of differences. One of the things that I proposed and that the Board agreed to pursue was to have more social activities. By that I mean having the Club members meet 4 times per year for the purpose of socializing. We already have two of those per year, which are the Banquet and the High Falls shrimp boil, so we would actually only be adding two events and those events would be combined with the monthly Club Meetings for April and July. Vince Eugenio is working on the details and we don't yet know the outcome, but our plan is to have an event that will give value back to the members. Something that you will enjoy and in which you will want to participate. It will probably be a nice meal that will be provided by the Club with little or no cost to the members, but I don't want to go too far down that road until we have more information. But that is one example.
Other examples are the new rides that we are going to initiate. We have had the Club rides for a long time that took place once-per-month. The problem is that not everyone wants to go on Club rides. Most of us like to eat, however, so I have proposed a Ride To Eat program that Jackie is going to spearhead. We hope that this can take place monthly and bring members out who aren't interested in a Club Ride as well as those of us who are. The idea is to solicit locations from the members to visit as a group for the purpose of enjoying a good meal, maybe in an interesting setting or location or over a good route getting there. Jackie isn't going to lead ALL of the rides, so we need your involvement. This isn't too tricky. I'll bet that almost ALL of you know of a special place somewhere within a 200 mile radius of Atlanta that they would like to share with the Club members. If you do, I'm asking you to get in touch with Jackie and make it happen. The months are wide open now, so let's start with March. Who would like to lead the first ride to a great place to eat (hell, it doesn't even have to be THAT great!) in March? After that, pick a month and sign up to lead a ride. We'll all thank you for it and, chances are, you'll have a good time.
Another new type of ride is the Adventure Ride. My idea is to try to have one weekend a month where we will have a campout somewhere. I am leading an Adventure Ride to the Okefenokee Swamp on the 17th of March. We will camp out Friday and Saturday nights and spend Saturday exploring the swamp by motorboat. We had a great time last year and I expect that we will again this year. There are a lot of great places to camp in the Southeast and I know that we have a lot of members who enjoy camping. Here again, the calendar is wide open. If you know a good place to camp, pick your month and get in touch with me. I'll help you set it up.
There are a couple of other things that we are working on and I'll pass them along to you as soon as I can. Naturally, none of this can happen without you and the other members. It doesn't matter what any of us come up with, the members have to support it. I am asking you to support the activities that your fellow members organize. Managing an organization that is totally run by volunteers is a lot like herding cats. We're all individuals and all have our likes and dislikes. That is the whole point in trying to increase the variety; to appeal to more members. When someone steps forward and volunteers to lead a ride or other activity, please try to participate. It really takes the wind out of a person's sails to go to a lot of trouble to plan and lead a ride and then have almost no one show up. It won't be a rewarding experience for them or the participants and people only tend to repeat things that are rewarding.
Right now we need volunteers for the following events in March: 1) A Ride To Eat leader and restaurant. 2) Someone to provide the food for the Club Meeting in March at FDR State Park north of Columbus. We need the same things for the following months, too, of course, so start now to pick your month. Ellen Welter is leading a Club Ride on Saturday, the 25th of March to "Smell the Flowers." I hope to see you there.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. We are all very open to your ideas and input. That is the fuel for the Club and what will make things happen. Let us hear from you on anything that you believe will give the club more value for the members.
Jim Hawks