Ouch from the previous remarks certain areas do need some improvement.
Lou`s branch is certainly fortunate to have so many younger members so they are obviously doing things right.
For some branches it may be down to the location of the meeting place that stops younger members from coming alone as I cant find a definative reason why we cant get more younsters along to our branch and its not through lack of trying as we recruit at every opportunity and our membership has stayed around the 40 -50 mark for quite a few years which is not too bad as in recent years as we have had a few of the older members depart for a better place.
We also believe in giving a warm welcome to any new attendees to our meetings and believe in the more the merrier pricepal.
A slight drawback we have is location with few members actually having any space to help others out with problems on their cars but we do try and find a way round that where possible, also we suffer from members work work all sorts of hours so cannot attend as often as they like.
What I was surprised at were remarks from a couple of recent new members who moved to our area to what I thought was a bit of an old chestnut that really didnt apply any longer is that they were relieved at the way our branch operates (organised chaos seems reasonably fair) because they had belonged to branches and been to rally's where they came across (I am sure its not the same fellow, either that or he gets around a heck of a lot)
Mr knowitall-mycarsperfect-whatdoyoucallthat-youdorealisethatisthewrongsteeringwheelforthatyear
Now these types of characters dont even have the savvy to realise that maybe thats how the owner wanted it and instead of asking about the car and the owner (showing a bit of interest) they just go into one telling the owner what is wrong with the car when thats the last thing they want to hear (unless they asked of course) and this them puts them off thinking we are all like that. If we did that at our branch I think we would be down to the few members that like originality on their cars but certainly agree that its the owners choice what the car is like and the most important thing is to keep as many on the road as possible.
The other problem for many branches is the
SHEEP factor and we do indeed suffer from this, the committee is the main driver of our branch and we are always trying to recruit (con) people onto it one way or the other (well done Dale) to come up with new ideas no matter how off the wall they may appear as a bad idea will often spark off a good one. The biggest problem we have is that most just follow along with no input they will turn up on the day but offer no help in the organising/arrangeing and some moan that it wasn't what the expected, so we ask what do you suggest and often the response is silence.
Unfortunately this means that we on the committee decide what events to go to as a branch otherwise things wouldn't get done if we left it up to the
SHEEP Not that we complain (well not much anyway) because in the end we get the pleasure out of going to a variety of events inspite of most of the committee being 'olds' and we are always open to suggestions, also we would always say if you dont like something about your branch
do something about it which sometimes is easier said than done when you have a committee that won't look forward (I hope thats not our branch) but having said that there are plenty of critics of branches out there which is fine, but have they voiced their opinions to the branches concerned and I am afraid the answer is no they moan to others but not to those concerned.
By the way I recemtly found out that we have 2 other independant branches so to speak, I have always known about the Cornwall one for a long time but recently I came across another in Sussex who are around 80 strong and I wonder how they were upset to become independant.
http://www.morrisminorclubeastsussex.co.uk/
