BP Donations

[Stuart]

100% Harry

The concept of donations is lovely and a kind initial thought and successive offers, but we have enough cash to keep things ticking over for a while (15 months I think)

I think a bigger consideration is the future direction of the forum........

1) Small and personal means we will have to raise revenues from members as traders don't want to sell to the same fifty people

2) Big and more expansive so that membership can remain free and our traders, God love them, can be charged to sell their wares to a larger number of punters therefore justifying the costs of the forum.

I see successful models for forums of each type. New members bring new interest, new car builds and new potential friends and customers. In order to get new members we have to spread the word and find (or rediscover) our USP..........walking the walk!! That's going to be tough to match the hype of 2006 when most of the forum had 'big power' cars and used them hard. The majority now either don't have fast cars or those that do use them sporadically......and I totally understand why. The very few that still have high level cars and spank them are now the exception to the norm.

I have spoken at length to totally independent marketing and brand experts about this very dilemma (over the last two years) Opinions differed slightly but the theme of guidance was 'adapt or die'. I could go on for hours, but this probably isn't the thread for that!!

Excuse the rant..........off to look at vans again

[Rob S]

As for the airfield suggestion, there are two suitable near me (Matching Green and North Weald), I'll call in some favours and find out what it would cost for a session.

[warboys]

You can rent Bruntingthorpe by the hour, thats what I do for testing, they have a 2 mile straight for insane top speed runs. Always lots of great cars there, last time I was there they were testing a Caparao T1 and original Ford GT40 and an F3000, good fun on the long straight to see how long I could keep up!

[Rob S]

Sounds interesting!

[Stuart]

Warboys
Is Brunters still owned by the same family? How much do they charge per hour......I seemed to remember is was quite competitive bearing in mind the space.

Rob
They may well be better suited to our needs as they are both closer to the majority of potential users and likely to be cheaper. Can't see Matching Green allowing it but hey-ho

[Harry]

That`s no rant Stuart quite a reasoned response I think and you are right adapt or die and make the most of what we have

[Rob S]

Matching had a rally school till a couple of years ago mate!
I'll enquire further up the A12 too, know some peeps with land oop North (Essex that is )

[pedGSR]

I think the idea is great stu. A few airfield meets may help boost numbers? Get people out again.

[russ979]

Donations or anual memership, I`m happy with either if it means keeping the club on track.

[Monster]

I'm happy with annual membership or donations too. At least membership gives a certain amount to the coffers and with whats left over (if any) we could just have a thread to decide what sort of event to do. Similar with donations I suppose, if there's something a load of people want to do, just donate to make it happen...?

As for where the club goes, if the direction is to get bigger we would certainly need more presence at events where there are like minded people - trackdays, sprints etc, and be able to offer them something to make it worth their membership fee (apart form the banter of course!!). Personally I used to enjoy the BP track days as they were a good price, well run, and a good bunch of people with interesting cars and good, courteous driving standards.

Brunters has a bit of a tight noise Limit from memory. I could never get the zed on there but as the gtr will go on bedford it will prob be ok. I have their number if needed to give them a call.