What Can Your Club Do For You?

[GTR-N1]

Last year Ricky, NTW & Wholesale Suspension even put on the food n drinks

...so your pockets remained unmolested and your tummy went home full!!!

[xntrq]

Last year Ricky, NTW & Wholesale Suspension even put on the food n drinks

...so your pockets remained unmolested and your tummy went home full!!!

I think it was a tech night at unigroup that I wanted to go but was a week and half of my wages

[Pezhead]

Ricky, That was an education on tuning and well worth the money. It was offered by Unigroup - wasn't an official SAU event.

[Warning! Presidential Statement]

I think folks here have to recognise that as a non-for-profit club, we do more high quality affordable events than any other club I know of.

SAU National event coming up folks and it will be CHEAP for a full 3 days of events. And members do get first crack at those spots. They WILL fill fast so if you want to get in on it, get in quickly once registration goes up.

Also, I have to point out that you get out of a club what you put into it. There are too many that like taking a "free ride". If you want more, then step up and help out. We always need helpers. The few times I've asked people in the official helper thread to help out, we've gotten 0 response. That's right, the same people end up doing all the work.

To those that have stepped up and even taken it on themselves to create non-official SAU cruises and collectively attend events - I salute you! Wed Drag nights are easy to get a few guys together; the New Castle crew is getting more active thanks to a very small few that are quite active here; a few are using their connections to try to organise some up-coming events.

If you want more from the club, we need more genuine help.

Thanks to all and I SAU appreciate's your support.

[34GeeTeeTee]

We took it upon ourselves to create a bit of a Newcastle scene as there is a lot of Sydney based activities which are hard for some of us to get too. The suggestions in this thread are great!

Cruises - We all love cruising!

Hillclimbs - Had a chat with one of the MG car club guys and they seem pretty active, can SAU join forces for some events?

Go-Kart - Enduro would be awesome but i would probably have a heart attack

Tech Nights - Havent attended one yet but love learning stuff!

Service days - I have the space to offer but dont have a hoist as yet, or proper power to the shed

Texi - Although i only got one run in anger i still smiled at the skids all day, WELL organised event

Track days - I guess we have SAU Nats which will keep most occupied, also going to do skids at Powerplay (can we get an SAU NSW crew to make an appearance?)

Meet'n'Greet - I think Marsbars events will be perfect for this, really want to get to one BUT we have about 20 guys up here in Newy and not many will make the trip, we need a North meets South meet

AND a big thanks to those who make SAU NSW possible

[fatz]

SAU track days used to be awesome

now there are non and its ghay

so much so i just run my own

"put it on and they will come"

or come to my track day and have some fun

[Marsss]

SWAP MEETS

that is all

[Ruxis]

Were doing our best in newy but it seems there's alot of hoons up here so were trying to weed out the goodies from the badies.

[m.j.h]

Were doing our best in newy but it seems there's alot of hoons up here so were trying to weed out the goodies from the badies.

Plus a lot of cars that aren't on here

And +1 for a South meets North cruise

Could meet with the Coast peps at Kariong or even Jez's and cruise somewhere from there

Oh and the Newcastle MG club is very active but they do hire the hillclimb track out to other clubs for events

[BunsenBurna]

2 cents time!

***DISCLAIMER - I have read, digested, appreciated and am understanding of the espoused views around more track days***

1) I personally want to see more track days with timing as I find myself looking to Circuit Club and NSCC and whoever else looking for accessible days. SAU days seem to run the smoothest with safety a primary concern. To this end I would entertain paying a higher yearly membership which would (a) go towards subsidising 1 or more of my track days that I attend or (b) be waived by me/spent by the club to run days without losing (as much) money if I am unable to attend.

2) I would love to see and be invited to contribute (time and/or $$$) to "SAU NSW builds a Texi Car" - pick a target budget under say $5000 and invite a capped number of members to contribute time and/or $$$ to building a Texi car that can be used by those members at Texi (or even track?) days. For example, if I pitch in $500 to buy and/or maintain the car, I along with say 5 others get first right of refusal to have a bunch of runs in it at a Texi. This Car would also be a platform for certain Tech nights (which I'm also keen to attend). Ownership of the car vests in the club and it could even be 'hired' by others on the day and used as a promotional tool - "come along to one of our Texi days, have a bash in our SR20 120Y datto and tell your friends". I'd hope certain sponsors would come to the party for e.g. tyres, turbos, tuning and suspension.

Whoa...that was like a Will Ferrell moment in Old School.

[NISMO]

SAU track days used to be awesome

now there are non and its ghay

so much so i just run my own

"put it on and they will come"

or come to my track day and have some fun

Yep, love SAU NSW trackdays. I understand there's the nats, but that'll fill up with hypo cars in minutes.

SAU track days were the most chilled out relaxed fun track days out there.

We need another SAU NSW Wakie day

[34GeeTeeTee]

Yep, love SAU NSW trackdays. I understand there's the nats, but that'll fill up with hypo cars in minutes.

SAU track days were the most chilled out relaxed fun track days out there.

We need another SAU NSW Wakie day

Join the nats my cars not hypo, but I am keen... It'll be first ever track day so it'll be all balls lol...

Totally agree on more SAU track days but we all need to help make them happen, yeah we have the membership which is great but as a club/team whatever you wanna call it we need to make it happen.... Fatz has had days, Kurtis has a day on Monday that needs people, so the guys are working on it

I think SAU NSW has so much to give, but it only works if we all give something back too

[luke gtr]

In regards to track days.

I(speaking for myself only), would be happy paying a higher price than was on offer for a track day.

my(again, just myself) problem was the only "track" day this year was a Saturday.

it is very hard for me to get Saturdays off.

so, would be preferred for Sunday's.

ok, I do like the idea of New cruise routes.

as an example, another club used to/still holds a mystery cruise once a month in summer.

on a Sat night. Organises to go to a place with fast/takeaway food.

Let's the restaurant know of roughly expected people so they can get more staff.

always the same meeting point.

bring a full tank, some cash for food, and have a ball.

maybe even a random cruise to have a bbq and pics as mentioned.

could do a drive in night?

Mars' pizza night was a great success.

I've got first Mondays of the month as a 2 4 1 snitty night, but I do understand how hard it can be to get to the location on a week night.

also, at events, possibly rotating shifts between druvers/volunteers?

or, have a dedicated time for volunteers only, so they make up the time spent doing the crap stuff.

I also miss the news letter, and would pay a little more for membership each year to offset the cost, was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

[Aggroman]

you all like to say that you are happy to pay more and there should be more.. Where have you all been for the last 2 years?

Back then when a timed sau day comes out at $220 (cheapest around basically) you all whinge and moan like wives saying its too expensive and they go un-filled.

so much so that we couldnt run them anymore and had to drop from 3 to 1 day a year!

IF the first trackday of next year FILLS not break even FILLS then you will get more trackdays until then no way! we asked, begged pleaded and even dropped the price..

*none of the above is an official SAU NSW statement*

just stating the facts for all you dream boats out there.

[MBS206]

I have to agree with Dave (woah, shut just got weird, someone call Mulder)

The club put on a few track days over te last few years, which caused a decent financial strain. Everyone says they want more, but then won't come.

We even ran Marulan, it was $130 if I remember rightly. But still no one came.

Unfortunately for 2 or 3 track days a year, we don't have the member base. Saunsw sees roughly 10 repeat people each track day, that means 30 different people per track day, that means we need 100 members a year who want to go on a track day if we run 3 Wakie days.

Then a drag day needs another 30 different members (again, our reg 10 plus 30 others who don't normally come out.)

So for 3 track days and a drag day we need 130 members a year to see the track. We just don't have this base anymore really

[Pezhead]

Ok, so I'll check in here OFFICIALLY AS PREZ about a few items.

#1, The club execs are responsible to ensure we handle the affairs of the club responsibly. Meaning, we have to make sure that we make break-even financially to ensure to long term future for the club. While we all want to do events as a club, they cost money - big money! Track/skidpan hire, insurance, timing all cost a lot of money.

When I stepped in over a year ago our track days were running at a loss. We simply cannot afford to do that. We've tried working with other clubs and that didn't really work either. And the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of opportunities if you want a track day.

So we decided to just run one this year in addition to the nationals. Even at that the March track day was run at a bit of a loss due to numbers, and we discounted it below cost. We simply haven't had the numbers to enable us to run more. I would love to, but the fact is that if we can't fill one track day we'll lose our shirt if we try to do more. So if you want more track days, come to the ones we do hold so that they are full and will increase the number of days we do per year.

On the topic of what day, well we can't please everyone unfortuantely. The nationals track event is going to be on a friday to keep costs low. Our others we try to run on weekends. Again, we simply can't please everyone cause there will always be those that can't arrange the time off. I'm not trying to throw this in anyone's face, just the facts.

We do publish our calendar as soon as we have the dates so that you have a lot of lead time to request the time off.

#2 - Did you know how many people actually put together these events? In all honesty the majority of the work is done by no more than 3 or 4 people. There are others that help, but most of it falls on the same few time in time out. I love some of the ideas going on here in the thread but we simply don't have enough helpers to do everything that the exec's have already set out to do at the beginning of the year. We all have jobs and family commitments too folks. We love the club and that's why we pour so much in. Steve-O, Dave and I haven't gotten to run a full event day in a couple of years because we are making sure things run smoothly on the day, not to mention all of the exec meetings we spend planning the days. And even cruises take a lot of preparation and planning before the day.

Now, I know everyone contributing in here honestly wants the same thing we do. We all want to make SAU:NSW the best car club around. But from a practical sense we need your help to do it.

There are a few normal members that really step up to organise un-official events and get them on. Thanks so much Marsss, 34GeeTeeTee & Luke (and sorry if I'm missed anyone)! You guys have taken the initiative for the benefit of the forum members here. I sincerely thank you for setting the example I'd love to see really take off.

I am on the exec team today because I did a very similar thing approaching Steve-O, Duncan and Neil a few years back. I wanted to be part of moving us forward and finding ways my skills could be put to use. However, we have had prior experience where the exec team just about self destructed because of everything we had to do to support the events calendar.

There aren't many clubs around that annually do this many events. At last year's dinner Christine Gibson quoted "I've never seen a club that does as much as yours!"

1-2 track days

3-4 Texi's (BTW - technically Sutton Rd is a hill climb)

Numerous Cruises

Several Tech Nights

End of Year Event

Coming up soon we will hold our Open GM where we can dedicate 15 minutes to discuss this topic. I'm thinking that we should do it on a Sunday and have it in conjuction with a Club House Worker Bee and maybe follow it up with a snag BBQ or something. This will be for fincancial members only though.

So the best way to see some of these ideas come into being, then contact me and let me know you want to run with it. If it requires funding then I need to know the cost and how we will ensure it is justifiable, or if the exec team doesn't think it's feasible at this time.

[Duncan]

I reckon the question should be the other way around....what can members do for their club?

I've been a member for 10 years and on the committee for 8 of them and I can guarantee every suggestion above has been tried multiple times.

What we don't have here is people who turn posts into presence at events. A smaller, more committed community would be more effective rather than 20 people working their arses off organsiing an event, only to have 20 people turn up.

The one thing I can say for sure is a winner is the cruises. They are always huge, and reasonably easy to organise

[zebra]

Could we organize some friendly competition to get people interested in motorsport again and hand out a few trophies at the end of the year or free membership for the following year etc

Not so much at our events but in general, example fastest natsoft timed lap at wakie, EC, quickest time at wsid etc

You don't even have to go that far even some acknowledgement of guys like Neil and Chubbs that are out there competing

Or just general life, ie someone gets a degree or a new job or has a kid, gets married etc

IMO it would show the club cares about its members, I'll admit it's a bit softly softly approach for grown men and women but who doesn't love a bit of praise now and then

Honestly I don't care about the lack of track days, would rather the club doesn't go broke trying to host them when we could just go hit up a speed off the streets day without the hassles or financial risk

I think it is just a sign of the times that skylines are cheap now and owned by young kids who just want to hang out in a carpark with their hella flush rims etc, not taking anything away from the guys that are track day junkies but I don't think the young blood is interested in track days anymore

A good example of my point is Sdma there are bucket loads of skylines in the act, but the last event there was a r32 gtr and an r30 and that's it out of 48 cars

So keep texi days and forget track days for now

[Ruxis]

hit the nail on the head zebra

yeah everyone my age are... lack of a better word, f**kwits.

except for a few boys on here.

my friends from school are all hoons that think a track wont increase skill because they can hang around corners.

it is a sticky situation, lots of people are keen for track days but think of how many weekends your busy during the year, then add financial strains and personal duties.

for example id love to be there every week but i just bought a house a month ago and now my gf wants to fill it with crap

will still be buying 3 tanks of petrol for saunats if theres room for me and my dad/bro/bro

i think you guys do a good job with what you get, if people want more track events theres other groups for that.

sau seems like more of a social group/lets have the odd fang to me, rather then a lets break records every weekend at wakie.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Haha nice Jarrad..... There are a lot of idiots buying imports that's for sure as they are awesome value and cheap to buy..... But that shouldn't deter us, with guys like you in our club we will certainly seperate the good from the bad, you did a pretty good job on FB

I wanna do track days, but spending heaps ironing out issues with my car so will be a few months before its ready, SAU NATS will be its first big test.... IF it proves successful I am happy to do unofficial track days etc with guys like Fatz that are experienced in organizing events.... The SAU days are always going to be awesome but there is no reason we can't get together and do our own organization with some days....

Texi for me was a fail, but I walked away smiling... Was well run and loved the skids

Whilst this year has been a bit full on for me, 2013 is going to be an SAU and motorsport year, plan to get the car to every cruise, hillclimb, Texi, drift day, tech day etc that I can as that's what I spent my life savings to do lol

SAU NSW is top notch, if we all chip in we can keep it that way!

[AndyMac]

I want more Evo v Skyline days...