Re: Poll: Whats the future for SyTy Vehicles, Owners, and Website?
Well this is a pretty depressing thread :roll:
But really, every car community is like this, as far as new comers and the available info. There's always the people that come and ask dumb questions and sell their car because it's too much work and effort. There's always old timers that get pissed off when people don't search. There's always people leaving the community after being there for years with flagship cars. There's always people that trash cars and dump them.
This thread isn't meant to be depressing, just realistic.....but often times, a dose of reality can be disheartening. And that's part of my point. We're at the "sh*t or get off the pot" point in our community. Hopefully, in 5 years, we'll see this time as the point when we took a turn for the better. But it requires constructive input....not just cyclical recognition of a problem.
And this isn't the only car club most of us are a part of.....but this group does face unique challenges. Our trucks garnered interest from the public during the uptake of the ever-connected era. The muscle car era didn't have that variable....neither did the early sport truck era....or the Turbo Regals for that matter. So, now when we see a change in the community, it's very apparent to us as we're aware of the stature of the community from a point not too long ago. Most car clubs pre-dating us saw the internet adoption as a breath of fresh air for a community that had already vetted a lot of the tire-kickers and flash-in-the-pan owners. Those communities (Lightnings, GTOs, etc....) that saw their introduction after us had the benefit of the internet from the start. So, they've all seen this era through different colored glasses than us.
But I'll do my part.....and make some constructive observations and suggestions.
- If we implement a membership fee, it brings with it a lot of financial logistics to contend with. In my opinion, if we were a membership based community, it would be best to run it like the SCCA, where one national committee oversees regional groups. Each regional representative would need to be personally responsible for his/her region's finances and would be held to a standard of conduct and morality (both financial and representative) indicative of the collective body of regions. This is a significant undertaking that requires a democratic process or a community agreement of who those individuals should be. And while this "negative" (and there are others) might seem to negate the whole idea, keep in mind that level of organization does bring a lot of positives, including (but not limited to) funding availability, public recognition increase, collective legitimacy when acquiring services or resources (group insurance, site rentals, etc...). It's an interesting idea and on that could fail miserably or be just what we need.
- One idea that has been tossed around before and holds some merit is the idea of joining effort when conducting events. There's a lot of groups that we naturally "fall into bed with", such as the Turbo Regals and 3rd Gen F-bodys. Essentially, cars of a similar era and performance. Joining efforts (at least regionally) could net some positives with very few drawbacks. Additionally, having a "shootout" of sorts with competing vehicles (think SyTys vs Lightnings) where we are grouped based on mods and run heads up within that grouping (or just run bracket for the whole event) could similarly stimulate an uptick in our community by generating some new rivalries and interest.
- Another idea is a revival of an old one....regional "wars". Back in the day, FAST, ChiTown, SoCal, and the Northeast guys would all bring big numbers to events. There was an unspoken competition to better the other groups, and though it was all in good fun, it resulted in a lot of attendance and comradery. This could be an easy thing to restart, though incentive might lubricate the process.
I have a lot of other thoughts on the matter, but that's enough to digest for now. I realize that money is always going to be an issue, and while membership might seem the easiest route (and possibly the best), our members have never had an issue contributing when there was something to gain from it. Sadly, the parking lot experience alone isn't enough anymore, so we have to make efforts otherwise (Nats as a part of a larger car show, the aforementioned co-events with other groups, shootouts, etc....).
At least that's my take on it.
