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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Nov 7, 2013 17:01:54 GMT
OK folks,
as most of you know our midweek indoor racing is currently chewing a large hole in club funds as we don't get enough drivers to cover the £70 per night it costs us..
So we've been searching for a more cost effective venue and come across a possible opportunity in Bashley village hall which could save us a minimum of £30 per night!!
The only problem is, the one night of the week that is currently free is Tuesday... so it would mean a move of race night!!
I've set this poll up to gauge how many regular drivers could or would be able to change nights as I'm sure a lot of people have other obligations etc during the week..
Please vote to help us make a decision
Thanks
Dave
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Post by kennedylanduk on Nov 7, 2013 18:00:07 GMT
Even though I'm not a member (yet) and cannot make racing unless it's school hols, it seems like a no brainer to me. £30 saving would be worth having even if there were 100 drivers on a Wednesday evening.
Do you know what does happen on a Wednesday at the village hall? If it's something like a band practising, they might be happy to swap with a Tuesday. If it's bingo..........
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purcyp
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Post by purcyp on Nov 7, 2013 18:55:16 GMT
Dave as you have told me as well as darryl firth did, when the club was at Bashley village hall the numbers were huge, i feel going back to the hall maybe, very in favour of the club and i support it 100%
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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Nov 7, 2013 19:29:43 GMT
Hi Tony,
I believe Wednesday evenings are taken up by a local photography club who have been using the hall for a while now.. A little ironic they go outside for the summer so don't use the hall.. But we do exactly the same!
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purcyp
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Post by purcyp on Nov 7, 2013 19:32:45 GMT
they could always take photos of us racing? haha
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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Nov 7, 2013 21:37:48 GMT
Tru dat mate! :-)
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Post by kennedylanduk on Nov 8, 2013 12:05:38 GMT
I guess it depends on what "type" of photos they might want to take. Think of how many extra racers there would be if there was a "bikini photo shoot stock championship". Would that mean the male racers would need to all look like Borat wearing those mankini things?
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craigb
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Post by craigb on Nov 8, 2013 20:12:22 GMT
Been a bit busy as of late, but a Tuesday evening would be fine for me!
Considering the saved money its a better option!
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Post by wessex88 on Nov 9, 2013 22:13:50 GMT
Dave as you have told me as well as darryl firth did, when the club was at Bashley village hall the numbers were huge, i feel going back to the hall maybe, very in favour of the club and i support it 100% The numbers used to be high @ the Memorial hall.3 heats of minis and 1 or 2 of touring cars. Tuesday although not ideal (a bit close to Sunday) would be ok for me. p.s. any ideas on a gear ratio for a supastox running 13.5t 1s?
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ianlloyd
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Post by ianlloyd on Nov 11, 2013 9:19:19 GMT
Fine with me. A bit smaller for sure but as most people are running mini or GT12 these days it would be OK. I started racing in Bashley Village Hall so have a certain affection for it.
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Custard
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Post by Custard on Jan 2, 2014 12:07:02 GMT
Feel a bit bad for not being around for a while, but for my 2p worth it would be good to be at Bashley and Tuesdays are a good day.
Hope to be back soon. (Still got car on back order since April! Thinking of ordering from somewhere else :-)
Bruce
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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Jan 3, 2014 7:21:50 GMT
Hi Bruce,
Happy New Year!
sounds like you do need to use another supplier mate... April!!!
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Post by Dean on Jan 4, 2014 9:55:52 GMT
I don't race during the week so my vote don't really count but if it saves the club money go for it.
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Custard
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Post by Custard on Jan 11, 2014 15:54:45 GMT
Dave,
I know! Horrendous.. although TBH I've been a bit strapped for cash lately, so not having to pay has been kind of handy.
I'll try and get down on Wednesday to say hello.
B
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craigb
Hitting the Tyre
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Post by craigb on Feb 7, 2014 17:04:52 GMT
Anymore news on this yet Dave?
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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Feb 8, 2014 11:48:41 GMT
Anymore news on this yet Dave? Hi mate, had a call from the hall, but it was only to ask if blood donors could use the hall next week.. Nothing was mentioned about a rental increase so we remain as is for the moment..
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Post by keithmerlin on Mar 4, 2014 17:19:30 GMT
A move to Bashley would save the club money but would we get more members attending on say a Tuesday evening?
I think we should look into having Friday night meetings, I believe we will then get better attendance figures.
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ianlloyd
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Post by ianlloyd on Mar 5, 2014 11:28:03 GMT
You do wonder whether a move to Friday night would improve things. Is it worth looking into the availability of the Memorial Hall on a Friday night? Might be worth a "special" Friday night race evening just to try it and see who turns up. The size of the hall makes it much more inviting than some other places and those that travel further away but actually live locally on a Friday to race may well give it a try.
It is becoming clear that we are not getting enough people to make it interesting on a Wednesday as well as days like this when we cannot race at all.
Personally I have considered giving up racing as with no local model shops now (or very soon anyway!) which means having to spend time online buying even the necessities like tyres is a pain in the backside. Also there will be no medium to introduce newcomers to racing. With no model shops to advertise our hobby and point passing trade our way I wonder what the future will hold.
With all the bad weather we have been having and not being able to get to the outdoor track I am getting bored. I love the racing when we do it and do not really want to start having to go outside of the area so for me, and this is only my personal opinion, if something does not improve soon I may well be forced to have to start doing decorating or gardening and that would be just awfull!
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Post by kennedylanduk on Mar 5, 2014 12:05:15 GMT
NOOOOOooooooo...............................
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ianlloyd
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Post by ianlloyd on Mar 5, 2014 16:19:28 GMT
Exactly my point!
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craigb
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Post by craigb on Mar 5, 2014 17:03:40 GMT
I agree Ian, although due to hamworthy being held on a Friday evening I doubt we'd get many more than what we currently get on a Wednesday!
Not having a local shop isn't a great issue for me, I get most stuff online anyway, but as for introducing potential new drivers its not looking good.
What we need is 20 degrees and sunshine 365 days a year!
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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Mar 5, 2014 19:50:37 GMT
All very true comments guys and largely echoed at our committee meeting last Monday where I'm not happy to say we actually briefly discussed what the plan would be if we were faced with closing down SHMCC!
As it stands we have club funds enough to keep us going until the middle of this year...
I'm sure once the weather improves and field dries out we will be able to return to Sunday racing, possibly on a fortnightly basis to ensure a minimum quantity of drivers?
However Ian is right when he questions how new starters will be drawn into the hobby.. Both Reality Racing and Lesro closing will and has had a massive impact on new drivers starting at local clubs..
It's something we urgently need to address as without a new supply of drivers all of the local clubs will be under threat..
So what do we do? We already have a good Internet presence with both website and forum.. Local advertising os probably a waste of time if there are no local shops, and we're looking into advertising with online shops.. Personally I feel the slow but eventual move from the high street to the Internet will hurt the traditional hobbies such as RC Racing..
Any Ideas to improve SHMCC awareness and membership greatly receoved gents,
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ianlloyd
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Post by ianlloyd on Mar 5, 2014 20:20:47 GMT
OK will have a word with Mr Williams at the toy shop in New milton and see if it is possible to put something up in there. Do we have a poster/leaflet?
I have seen that Revell who make all the plastic kits are to start distributing the Hobbico range of RC parts (Hobbico I believe own Revell) so maybe the toy shop will start doing a few RC parts to encourage youngsters. They are a big seller of Revell kits and with Phil's knowledge of RC I may be able to persuade him to put forward a stocking plan to the shop owners. It would certainly be a huge benefit to have at least some kind of RC presence in New Milton. Would people buy their tyres and usuable items like that from him though because if they don't it's a waste of time.
Apart from that I tend to agree that the normal form of advertising is a waste of money. The efforts made to show our skills on days like the pedal car GP have to be worthwhile but if anyone wants to get started in RC Racing where do we send them now?
It's a real chicken and egg situation at the moment. Clubs need the shops to pass on new racers and without the shops there are no new racers to pass on but eventually as no new people come into the sport then the shops close down through lack of customers. Not sure what the answer is to be honest, have tried to convince the wife i need to open a model shop but she is not convinced!
There are a few other options like using local television and local newspapers to feature us but we need to come up with something special like having our local MP have a go and get some photos done or some other kind of event. Charity events can be good for publicity and yet we never seem to do anything. A 24 hour Children in Need race, a Red nose Day with all the cars with big red noses, anything that can get us noticed.
Anyway I appreciate it's not for me to say as I do not race a lot these days but it would certainly make a difference if we could get a few more people racing.
I was looking on the Aldershot web site today and they have a post on their forum about exactly the same thing. Their numbers are dropping and they have had to put up their prices to cover the rent of the track (£6,500 per annum). We are lucky in some respects that we can manage with a smaller number of people but that will not last forever.
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Post by kennedylanduk on Mar 5, 2014 20:45:10 GMT
My lad is going to do his hobbies badge over the next week or so. Last time (in cubs), they all loved his 1:18 Maverick Ion when he demonstrated it, but none of them followed up by visiting a local club (I'm sure we would know about it).
This time, I'm going to give him some flyers to hand out with local club details so if any of the scouts are interested, at least they have the info to act upon it.
I feel like the model shops themselves could do a lot more. It probably needs to start with the BRCA, if they contacted the likes of modelsport/rc geeks etc and said "put in a flyer with each car you sell" that would help both the clubs and the shops themselves. More might end up visiting a local club if they had a little bit of information with the car they buy, and if they did join a club, then they would end up buying spares. Even if the shops included some info on the emails they send out, that would better than nothing. But all this assumes that newbies use the likes of modelsport etc in the first place (rather than Argos).
Does anyone on the committee know anyone at BRCA who could act as a focal point and make contact with these shops?
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craigb
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Post by craigb on Mar 5, 2014 20:53:00 GMT
I guess one of the biggest issues is the initial start up cost, now I know some kits etc can be had cheap, but most people want the latest/best kit out, including me!
What was the most effective method in the past for trying to lure new people?
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ianlloyd
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Post by ianlloyd on Mar 5, 2014 21:21:16 GMT
Putting flyers in kits will always help but usually only the clubs local to that shop. We always had flyers in our local model shops in an attempt to encourage new comers to our track. With no local model shop I am not sure that would work for us. I cannot see the online shops being bothered about a club hundreds of miles away from them which may be short sighted but probably true.
Unfortunately Craig the best way to get new comers to the track has always been being sent to us by our local model shop of which we now have none. We used to run " come and try " race days where we all allowed anyone to come along and use club cars or our own cars to see if they liked it but again the majority of the people that came were pointed to us by local model shops. Local newspaper advertising never really did much.
Without question historically the best way to get new people is from model shops.
Initial cost is also a stumbling block which is why we introduced the ECO class for RTR kits. It worked to a certain extent but not tremendously. Telling a dad new to this that it will cost him £1,000 plus for his young son to be competitive will surely scare him away. The GT 12 class for indoors should work as it is a low cost option and has worked to a certain extent but not it seems for us. Not sure why when other clubs are booming in this class. OK maybe not booming but certainly better off for numbers than we appear to be. Which brings us neatly back to the original question......
should we change the day we race indoors in an attempt to attract more people?
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purcyp
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Post by purcyp on Mar 5, 2014 21:27:09 GMT
Problem is cost really.
kids want to do it, parents most likely say no, cant afford it,
OR on the flip side of it, new comers get cars..and then suddenly give it up after 2 meetings, and then wonder why parents then wont let em do karate etc after.
Admittedly for me, what i wanted most was outdoor touring and it happened for a while and then just died, completely, carpet racing is fun but for me and im sure others, is only fun for so long, with an outdoor track its just nice fresh air, good atmosphere, the track looks like a real race track and you feel more involved its just overall better, in my opinion anyway.
And it is something I want to return to this summer.
With lesro going mostly online, i dont think really it will hurt clubs, if someone is interested in doing racing then they will do what i did many years ago when i was younger, get online, find modelsport and get dreaming, with that i started to look for clubs and then by coincidence DMRCC was running at my school homefield and for me thats where it began, got my first car..school closed down LOL, so that was the end of that until recently.
Moving the venue back to bashley, ive never run there obviously but it did well in the past, but back then the issue of funding the hobby wasnt quite so..restrictive as it has become for most now, Friday would be a good evening to do it personally for some of us who live in the Christchurch area, Hamworthy on a friday night IS a bit of a treck and i didnt personally enjoy doing the drive, it was a pain and ive stopped going there altogether as well.
just my 2 cents, but moving the club is the right move or even moving the day as the new milton hall is huge and was good fun
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Post by Jazzler on Mar 6, 2014 7:54:23 GMT
Just airing some thoughts/ideas I have.
Some possible free marketing tools we could use more of?: A Club Twitter Account, Facebook Group, You Tube Channel.
You Tube is how I get most of the sales for my Android app in the play store, it really is a great marketing tool, although quite time consuming to record then edit videos. Twitter is also great especially with hashtags and re-tweets adding exposure (Again this drives me a lot of sales for my app). Facebook has events (Which could be used to schedule race meetings) which people can show they are 'Attending'/'Not Attending'/'Maybe', 'Like' and 'Share', as well as allowing us to post Pictures and chat to potential newcomers.
Also perhaps this summer we could speak with some local schools and see if they will allow us to use a section of their playgrounds during their summer Fete's to 1. Host a club meeting? 2. Allow the kids to have a go racing the cars around the track? (This should expose the club to lots of potential new members with their parents present) Many of us have ESC's we could speed limit to a slow speed to minimise damage to our pride and joys, then do full speed demonstrations at points when were are driving the cars.
I remember that summer we did this in New Milton and allowed people to pay a small fee which allowed them to participate in a short race. During which time we could speak with the parents and hand out flyers etc.
On that topic I think a major flaw in previous events was like when we did the event at Bransgore inside the tennis courts. We barricaded ourselves inside the tennis courts and put up restrictions on people coming inside so people had to watch through the fence then walk away. Perhaps we should have made a smaller track there and had an inside spectators area?? So people feel more welcome and able to come and chat to us. We could even wear those t-shirts with something like 'Ask Me About SHMCC!' printed on them or similar so we appear approachable.
I also think Ian's idea of Charity Events could be a great way to get publicity.
Another idea might be to use Google AdWords to make a banner and advertise on local websites. We do have a nice enough website for the club, but do people go to it? For just £10 we could have an account up and running that sends people from the local area to our website, I did this once when I was selling motors online, It was quite nice to be browsing RC forums and see my ad appear, and you only pay for click through's so if no one goes to our site then we don't pay anything.
These are just idea's and suggestions, that I think might be worth a try..
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ianlloyd
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Post by ianlloyd on Mar 6, 2014 8:19:07 GMT
Being an old fart I have had no interest whatsoever in things like Twitter, Facebook etc until.......my nephew (who is a LOT younger and is now my marketing director!) set up our company with a Facebook and Twitter account. The amount of business and contacts this has generated is tremendous and while I still never use these mediums personally I now know the power that they have. We also use You Tube for all kinds of promotional and instructional videos so again I know what these places can do for you.
Jason I think this is a great idea a site can be linked to so many other online areas that people will see. The problem again is having someone do it and monitor it and upgrade it. There are very few people who would be able to do this on a regular basis within the club. I could nominate you Jason? Go on, you know you want to!
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Post by Dave Chamberlain on Mar 6, 2014 12:38:18 GMT
Some great ideas guys, its really great to see so many of us are still really passionate about the club and getting the RC word out there!!
KEEP THEM COMMING!!
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