A few words from a noob:
I think, ultimately, the regulars of the forum need to shoulder more of the burden of keeping the community alive as it evolves through the different stages of an automotive niche. More events = more new regulars.
^ This I definitely agree with. We need more support from the regulars, and more events.
I think the crowd coming in dictates a lot of what's needed.
It's mostly younger 'newbs' that need help repairing the rig and learning the ropes.
Tech days are great. But the don't have to be set for what is being taught. Let guys post what work they need to get knocked out and vote on what folks wanna learn. Maybe it's ball joints. Axle shafts. Doing sye. Installing a lift. Folks constantly have projects. Use those as the tech days.
Wheeling is big. Looking at the Facebook groups that are always busy. It is local trails. It's something they can last minute go hit. Why not toss those up. We do have a FB page. Guys cross post all the time. Why aren't they posting on naxjas page.
Use wheeling trips as trail days. As in. One trip focus on teaching guys safe winchin practices. Next, trail etiquette for opposing traffic. Roll recovery.
Honestly swag is big. But it's in the wrong way. Stickers are huge. Be it guys for their hard hats at work or their rigs. Stickers are in. They want to brag. And having cool stickers and hats and stuff is what gets money.
Speaking of bragging. Co chapter needs an IG. Post pics. Tag sponsors. Get guys excited. Share rigs of chapter members. Have photo contest every moth for who gets the banner on fb page.
It's about being noticed. Who don't have any publicity to the jeep community. At all. It's just an asshole old mans forum. And we have to get young blood in to change that.
Keep it basic. Bbq and some wrenchin goes better than a restaurant and costs. Kids want free attention.
Giveback to the members. Have a chapter emissions rollers. Have to be a member. But if so, weave rollers for you to bolt up and test with. See guys all the time needed that.
Random contests that only bid knows about to reward those who participate. Keeps guys on toes for what could get the kudos this go round.
Give back to the sponsors. Get their names out there more too. Swag posts pics. Etc.
Mike and I talk a lot back and forth backchannel, and he's spot on with this.
It's not just a matter of doing things, but changing the WAY we do things. We need to be more "current" in how we do things, to appeal to the crowds we need (Facebook, IG, etc.). I know a bit of that will fall on the "younger" folk here on
.
Yup, smaller steps seem to accomplish more. The willingness to help each other out and meeting up in person is what turns black letters red.
Clubs have regular meetings. It does not have be anything extravagant, or net a huge turnout, it just has to give people the opportunity to get together.
FOLLOW UP:
It would be great to have some insight to the BOD's deliberations: Agenda, meeting minutes, attendance, etc. It could be as simple as a newsletter from the B.O.D., so people know what ideas got tossed, and what got pushed down the priority list.
Reports: I missed out on five days of wheeling at COFest, but I'm the only person that posted pictures in the event section?
A "questions for the BOD" thread, to gain input from the chapter participants.
Those are the few simple ideas that I feel can give the club some traction with minimal cash out of pocket.
As we get back into the nitty gritty of this, I think we can work on posting agenda's for members to see where things are at, our ideas, and where we plan to go. Having all members involved in the discussion instead of JUST those on the BOD I think is something paramount that needs to evolve.
As far as COFest, that's been one of my gripes. Looking at the COFest 2015 Forum, you'd barely know it happened! I would LIKE to try and get a few people to be delegated camera people for events, so that pictures actually get taken. People like to see pics, pics bring interest, interest brings people.
Flores and I were trying to get something like that together to make sure we had pictures, but it didn't pan out in the time we had. Having a computer there on site to upload pictures to as well helps (I have mine with me). When JohnJohn used to upload pictures at the end up the day, it gave you much more of a "live stream" kind of feel and REALLY made you want to be there.
We used to have quarterly meetings, not sure what happened to those.
Good question. Would be nice to actually have those again. I know part of the problem has just straight up been funds...
I like what black and blue said about the regulars needing to put in the effort. We have a strong base because of our experienced members.
Getting more members is an easy formula.
Wheel and invite people on Facebook, take pictures, and spread the word on face book/here.
Rinse and repeat.
I do not currently have a rig, but I am a decent spotter and am available to help wrench.
It starts with a simple wheeling meet. When do we want to go?
Set a date, and we'll see who can show. Since it's getting towards winter, the overall attendance might be lower...but worth a shot.
I'm out until I'm actually working/living back in Colorado full time :laugh:
It would be nice, I think, if there was more short wheeling trips near the population centers. Colorado Springs, Denver, & Fort Collins come to mind. Something you can do as a day trip. I think a yearly big event say in the San Juans would also be great. I think people would be more like to go to Ouray/Telluride than to someplace they may never have heard of in Buena Vista even if there is less traffic on the trail & the wheeling is as good. BV sounded more like a long time members club event. Ouray/Telluride would probably give a lot more exposure. I didn't go to BV because I didn't have vacation time to spare. I think the other comments are valid too.
XJ's haven't been made in 14 years. Many were made & they're hard to kill so there's still a lot around but there are less each year... at some point I think the scope would need to be broader past XJ's or this place will fold. There are other forums people can go on. So to attract membership, what does (the Colorado)
chapter offer that others don't?
I agree we need more wheeling trips closer to home so more people will come. Real quick day trips are a nice mix up from the all day or weekend trips.
As far as BV vs. Ouray...I don't 100% agree there. You're always more likely to attract people with a place like BV since it has more actual wheeling of all different spectrums, and it's half the distance to BV for most than Ouray. That being said, I'm not remotely opposed to an event out there. I WOULD like to see an event on the Western slope. There is a LOT of great wheeling out that way, but it's a bit of a drive as well.
Keep in mind growing pains. New members that don't think out of fully type their responses. Lots of them. Lol
Just wheel and the rest will come into play guys/ this is over thought. Keep it simple.
Always better to overplan, than under plan. It's going to be a little more than just wheeling to get people to come in and stay.
I'm a little lost; do you guys set up your tech days as a seminar type learning event, where a specific install is taught to the attendees? I remember ours being more like what you suggested - people sign up for the day with their project(s) in a thread so we know to have all the essential tools and enough time, and everyone does their thing. Some folks only had an oil change and ended up helping others who had something more involved. I think the latter is a better format that gives more of an incentive to attend.
Perhaps find some other regional, vehicle-specific 4x4 forums to find a few with a good member base and put out an invite so we can have a better chance of bigger groups at regular events. We still have our information database for XJ specific tech, and they would have theirs, but both forums would mutually benefit from better attendance at events and more discussion on the forums.
Question for those on the BOD - do you have access to "the books?" Where does membership money get spent? is there anything we could do as a local chapter to make sure more of that money comes to us?
Tech days have usually been seminar type, but I think we should move to a "bring your rig and what you want to work on kind of day". I see this in the light duty truck world, and it is IMMENSELY popular (as in people coming in from around the country for events).
As far as "the books", yep we know how much we have in our checking account :laugh:
However, we don't really see a direct dime of membership money (funny how that works huh?). So even if we have X amount of members renew every year, we're not guaranteed to see a penny of that money. This is why getting people to events, raffles, swag, etc. are what counts. The more we're able to put in the Chapter's account, the more events we can have, sponsor, etc.
We we're going to get CO Chapter Pint glasses made up (and still plan on it), but the up front cost was nearly what we had IN the account. That, and we'd be making MAYBE $1 per glass. However, money in is still money in.
I'm liking seeing all the responses and thoughts. This is what we need to evolve and grow. I think we have a lot of potential, we just need to actually put forth the effort with the club members to get there.
I'd still like to see COFest where theres dozens of people there. I'd like to see the
Colorado Chapter wheeling again, and one of the dominant chapters (which now very much seems like the Midwest Chapter, I see wheeling photos from them all the time).
