Edwin,
You did not mention whether your club has activities other than these shows
twice a year. I certainly hope that was an oversight!
IMNSHO, after twenty five years of club involvement, the secret of success
for any car club is for the events to include lots of opportunities to drive
the darned things! Sunday morning tours for brunch, all-day drives that end
up at a restaurant or member's home for a barbecue, even weekend drives
which include an overnight stay at somewhere interesting. Competitive
rallies, from treasure hunts to complex TSD events; funkhana driving skill
tests; hill-climbs or sprints; all are other things the well-organized club
puts on to keep members happy and attract new ones.
If the focus is purely on organizing events that are static displays of
cars, you'll end up with a club whose members are overly concerned with
making their cars pretty rather than driving and enjoying them, the
perpetual losers in the car shows will lose interest in the club, and any
spectators (and potential customers for those vendors you are trying to
attract) will soon get tired of seeing the same of few cars on display.
-----Original Message-----
From: Edwin McCarroll <emccarroll@mco.edu>
To: Mgs@autox.team.net <Mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Friday, April 13, 2001 5:40 AM
Subject: Re: New British Car club
>Read about new club in Panama City, Fla. and the associated
birthing/growing pains. We started our club in NW Ohio two years ago and
are planning our third show event for June 3. We have obtained a
permanent site for the show and will hold it there in June. We have also
established a newsletter and each event we have held (two per year) gives us
more experience to ensure the following event runs a bit more smoothly.
The one problem we can't seem to overcome is getting enough vendors to
attend. We notify a selected number well in advance of our events but
don't receive a good response. I know that these vendors likely plan their
calendar very early for each season, but it is like pulling teeth to get one
or two to agree to come. Any suggestions on what we might doing wrong or
to improve the response? I would have thought the vendors would have seen
this as an opportunity. We are expecting at least 100 cars weather
permitting.
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