Enthusiast Not Hoon

[The Baron]

In light of the Noble Park issue and recent mediua spotlight I've been thinking about what we can do as a club to reinforce a more positive image of our community and so here are some thoughts - now these are only my ideas.

First of all I'm assuming that SAU wants to represent Enthusiasts moreso then Hoons. If that is the case I am thinking we should be proactive in reinforcing that internally and with external stakeholders. What I mean by that is:

Does the club constitution have a statement advoacting responsible driving behaviour as an aim of the club and specifically commenting on a desire not 5to promote or endorse hoon behaviour ?? should it ??

Can the club contact the Police proactively to discuss how we can assist them in dealing with hoon behaviour, have they got some ideas ?? We have some informal contacts already don't we ?? What is the police's point of view and how can we positively interact with them ??

Can the club contact the media and take them along to a 'track day' or cruise - promote an alternative piece on youth car culture and show our side of the fence - Maybe there is an interest on that kind of story ?? Maybe also discuss why we believe there are people who behave as 'Hoons' and what we think solutions might be (i.e Legal Drag Strip in the South East) ??

Should we publicly display our aversion to 'Hoon' behaviour - a suitable bumper or windscreen sticker i.e. "VIC SAU - supporting Car Enthusiasts not Hoons" - anybody displaying the sticker is making a public commitment not to act as a hoon - if they do the club can revoke membership - Charge the sticker at $20 (50??) and donate the proceeds to a traffic accident charity or similar (or the Police foundation - you know the one with 'blue ribbon day') - inform the media of this action.

I think we need to decide whether we can and should act as a club to address the negative image currently in the media.

[Kylie]

Can the club contact the media and take them along to a 'track day' or cruise - promote an alternative piece on youth car culture and show our side of the fence - Maybe there is an interest on that kind of story ?? Maybe also discuss why we believe there are people who behave as 'Hoons' and what we think solutions might be (i.e Legal Drag Strip in the South East) ??

I think this is an excellent idea....maybe someone can contact ACA or something?!?

[Mavric]

Sounds like a great idea the biggest problem with the media is trusting them to show an honest view of who we are and what we do...

Last thing we need is to have the media turn the whole things against us..

Or am i looking at this in a negative way???

[Kylie]

Sounds like a great idea the biggest problem with the media is trusting them to show an honest view of who we are and what we do...

Last thing we need is to have the media turn the whole things against us..

Or am i looking at this in a negative way???

As long as we don't act/say anything negative whilst they have their camera's on, there would be nothing negative for them to show.... Besides, it's a great way to promote the club too

[mr_crust]

Can the club contact the Police proactively to discuss how we can assist them in dealing with hoon behaviour, have they got some ideas ?? We have some informal contacts already don't we ?? What is the police's point of view and how can we positively interact with them ??

This is a top idea, once members have the police understanding that SAU can seperate iteself from this 'hoon' image it will make things much easier on the police and members.

Things such as the noble park meets, everyone knew about this 2-3wks before it happend. The wk before there were in excess of 400 people down there. If club representatives are willing to give up these details to the police before these incidents occur, to prevent garbage like that happening again and ruining for everyone, maybe when they see the SAU sticker on a skyline, they will think ' ah this guy isnt some yahoo idiot thats going to cause trouble' and it makes life much easier.

but then membership has to be obtained and not just anyone can sign up and be a member to get this sticker, and i would be thinking only skyline owners can have them..or someone could go down to a market get 100 copies of the sticker and put them on any car.

[Paradizzle]

Should we publicly display our aversion to 'Hoon' behaviour - a suitable bumper or windscreen sticker i.e. "VIC SAU - supporting Car Enthusiasts not Hoons" - anybody displaying the sticker is making a public commitment not to act as a hoon - if they do the club can revoke membership - Charge the sticker at $20 (50??) and donate the proceeds to a traffic accident charity or similar (or the Police foundation - you know the one with 'blue ribbon day') - inform the media of this action.

I think we need to decide whether we can and should act as a club to address the negative image currently in the media.

I to think this is a great idea mate, the only thing that i would suggest is that the money raised from the stickers go to a traffic accident charity (as you said) and not the police foundation... this could be seen as sucking up to the poilce otherwise.....or maybe not...

Maybe even put the money towards the club so that more events could be put on. The club would be seen as being pro-active in allowing members to have opportunity to drive their cars hard in a controlled environment, OFF the street.

[dezz]

but then membership has to be obtained and not just anyone can sign up and be a member to get this sticker, and i would be thinking only skyline owners can have them..or someone could go down to a market get 100 copies of the sticker and put them on any car.

If only Skyline owners are allowed to have the stickers, then that excludes the current president, as well as many other SAU Vic members. So that idea is out the window.

Personally I don't think the majority of police, media and public know who SAU is, or care. If the club were to contact ACA etc, chances are they wouldn't be interested, as they are the ones choosing to portray us all as hoons in the first place. They aren't interested in a 'car club clears their name' story....they want 'SAU, an organised bunch of hoons'. Invite them on a cruise, and if they attended, they'd surely twist it their way, displaying plates of illegally modified cars that 'meet before venturing off to their mystery locations for burnouts etc'.

It's not a good thing, but I don't think there's a great deal we can do about it....The best thing for SAU to do is hope that its members who have stickers etc on their cars linking them to SAU and SAU Vic, are responsible on the roads, and only draw good attention to themselves, if any at all.

But hey, thats just my opinion

[Kylie]

You should be a journalist dezz

[The Baron]

Personally I don't think the majority of police, media and public know who SAU is, or care.

Should we at least try to find out whether that's the case ??

[Bec]

Ahhhh Dezz - who said you only ever post pointless info

I gotta say I agree with you 100%

[dezz]

Should we at least try to find out whether that's the case ??

Certainly, there's no harm in trying. Don't think I don't think what you've posted is good...They're great ideas. I just personally don't see a lot of it being possible, but i'd love to be proven wrong.

The media I think is a lost cause, they do not care. They WANT to portray us as hoons, and thats evident with the Noble Park riots. They take every oppurtunity to refer to it as 'hoons', but how can you be a hoon on foot? they say there was a crowd of 1000+, were there 1000+ cars? I don't think so.

They need a sole group to pin it on, because saying 'some of them were hoons, and some of them were underage dick heads that need to be charged as adults and locked up' doesn't sound as good as 'hoons upset that their illegal street racing was interrupted turn on police!'.

Ahhhh Dezz - who said you only ever post pointless info

I gotta say I agree with you 100%

Not sure, but tell them to read here please

[The Baron]

The media I think is a lost cause, they do not care. They WANT to portray us as hoons,

Actually the media wants 'ratings' - they couldn't care less what the story is about ;-) So is there a way that a positive story on SAU (and let's not exclude partner clubs like WRX etc) can translate into ratings ??

Well there is a possibility to appeal to the inherent rivalry in current affairs to offer a story that the other side doesn't have. I could imagine that if we combine an activity like a 'charity cruise' (i.e. bumper stickers with donation) and co-ordinate that with the police (they are under a lot of pressure to be seen to be doing something about Hoons after all - and they have a media unit!!) that we could co-ordinate an event that would make the news or current affairs. i.e:

"New Police initiative to promote responsible driving" - "Car Clubs and Police united in stand against Hoons"

"Sandra Sultry here - tonight a story on how police and Car Clubs are uniting to promote safe driving behaviour -

Background - Kids will be Kids - (insert hoon footage) how do we combat hoons - strong penalties (insert police footage) - impounding - supporting statement from Car Club (we are enthusiasts) - safe and fun activities (legal track day footage - safe driver training etc) - call for everyone to sign up to charity drive bumper sticker - we donate $$ (huge novelty cheque) end story

[paulr33]

i think to be honest, its a complete waste of time

they wont care nor would they know who sau are

and even if they did, i can assure you there are members in our club who frequently would participate in what one would call "hooing", be it a quick take off at the lights, speeding, fast lane changing etc. we all do it. heck ive lost my licence for runing out of points.

we (the club and commitee) cant be expected to police the members afterall we arent even around u guys that much so that rules that out as well

i think sau should just stay out of it completely and just regulary remind our members to behave

[The Baron]

i can assure you there are members in our club who frequently would participate in what one would call "hooing", be it a quick take off at the lights, speeding, fast lane changing etc. we all do it. heck ive lost my licence for runing out of points.

we (the club and commitee) cant be expected to police the members afterall we arent even around u guys that much so that rules that out as well

i think sau should just stay out of it completely and just regulary remind our members to behave

Valid point - one that should be made - however why shouldn't we promote the fact that we do remind our members to behave ??

Sticker "Car Enthusiasts do it on the track" ?? ;-)

[Sean'O]

Personally i would LOVE something to separate myself from the typical stereotype "P plate skyline driver = Hoon", so I’m up for a sticker, I would part with $50 for one easy , it can really make you depressed when cops pull you over and talk to you like you just got out of prison.

But, I’m not so sure about the media side, they love this crap, stirring up the pot, and all this hoon stuff has added to the flames eh , hell seeing some of that fotage made me worry because its only a matter of time till a person is run over....or a whole crowd of people

But yeah good idea I think, members of SAU should always try to make a good image for ourselves, cauz it will make our lives happier in the end,

Sean'O

[paulr33]

oh we could certainly promote that but as soon as you invite the media in they will most likely (not 100%, but most likely) write up badly and twist it around an so forth.

the sticker means nothing, it just means you brought it or are a paid member. it doesnt mean you are a good, safe or sensible driver.

i know plently of paid members who are stupidheads on the road from time to time with sau stickers. we've even seen it on our own cruises before.

overall we are pretty good in the public eyes and have never had any big incidents and we are known as a friendly and fun club and not a "calais turbo burnout / boost" club either.

[Paradizzle]

Personally i would LOVE something to separate myself from the typical stereotype "P plate skyline driver = Hoon", so I’m up for a sticker, I would part with $50 for one easy , it can really make you depressed when cops pull you over and talk to you like you just got out of prison.

But, I’m not so sure about the media side, they love this crap, stirring up the pot, and all this hoon stuff has added to the flames eh , hell seeing some of that fotage made me worry because its only a matter of time till a person is run over....or a whole crowd of people

But yeah good idea I think, members of SAU should always try to make a good image for ourselves, cauz it will make our lives happier in the end,

Sean'O

I think most people dont have a clue who 'SAU Vic' is.. Im sure if people saw a SAU Vic sticker on someones rear qtr window they wouldnt have a clue what it meant.

[justin911]

wouldnt we need to get rid of all the illegal mods and p platers with r33's etc etc etc before anything happened...

[adznight]

I think a bumper sticker is a cool idea, displaying our distaste for hoons.

[Roy]

Forget the media, any story put forward by us would look contrived...and honestly what have we done that merits coverage? We dont do anything that dozens of other car clubs dont already do.

But a cruise with the money raised going to Traffic Accident Charity etc seems a good idea.

But honestly...we should do this because its a good cause and thing to do. Just like giving blood etc. Not because we want a pat on the back and a leave pass from Police.