The only sense a regional or national club would make is if it provided some kind of benefit for all. This could be things like newsletters, sponsor discounts or even better and umbrella insurance plan for events and autox. Without benefits, it doesn't make sense to for a regional club as it would suck up a lot of volunteer time for no cause.

If there were benefits for making a regional/national club, then there would obviously have to have membership dues. Be careful what you wish for. It is a LOT of work.

<font color=blue>-Rick
'03 G35C 6MT Ivory Pearl</font color=blue>

 

Rick, you hit the nail right on the head. It is A LOT of work to build a club from the ground up...albeit, even more when done singlehandedly. Many of the Nissan clubs have started as a result of meeting on a national website such as this one and more often than not, while people have intentions of starting a club, some never follow through...kinda like politicians. Luckily you have a great following here with the G35 owners. I mean, look at the past two cruises that you've had....awesome turnouts. We've had to wait 3 years to get turnouts like that. Granted the following of Maxima owners represents a greater number of Gen-Xers versus Gen-Yers, but it also provides for a different type of camraderie.

Additionally, in my opinion, any club has to reap benefits that would appeal to the greater majority of your members in order to sustain a good following. Therefore, I think not only does a regional club have to do this, a local one does too. I believe that you guys have quite a few dedicated people to help you organize things thus it should alleviate a good deal of the burden from any one person's shoulders. While a regional club will hopefully help to secure greater benefits, and maybe even corporate sponsorships, the coordination from people here in Hawaii, California and other states would prove difficult. You wouldn't be able to visit with each other on a regular basis to plan things.

Anyway, I've babbled enough, this is just my $0.02 cents on starting a club. The G35 crew is undoubtebly well on their way to good places, however if you need any assistance don't hestiate to let me know. We've done a lot of the R&D so you don't have to. Best wishes and see ya on the road!

 

See my posts in the sedan and coupe forums trying to find out where everyone is...we are trying to form a club from the base members on this site. There would be a "national" or Association, regions (states/territories), and then local chapters.

See also Poll on member locations

More discussion on what a club can do

cheers, ted

'03 Sedan 5a: Silver/Graphite, Premium, Aero/Body, Sport, Nav
SolarGard Quant. Tint 19% r, 28% fr, & just a tad more than 4" of 50% on the windshield

 

I've been with the S2000 Club of America for a long time now (since inception), and have developed their web site, forums, online application, charter documents and a ton of other stuff. I know what it takes for a car club to exist (as non-profit) and what people are looking for in a club.

In my opinion, it is best to build the club top down instead of bottom up. Form a national club and have regional/local chapters incorported into it. It is very difficult to start with a local club and build it up on a larger scale.

Drew, you have a good crew for the local club here. When a national club is formed, you should incorporte the local club into a chapter.

One of the hardest things for a local club in Hawaii to consider joining a national club is does it makes sense to do so. (Been there done that) Being isolated from the rest of the mainland, local members would not see much benefits from a larger club. However, if the national club included event insurance, that would be reason enough to join considering the way some of the drivers blocked cars and impeded traffic on our last cruise. [img]/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

My advice: concentrate on the local and worry about the national when it exists and then determine if there's enough value to be a part of the national given our remote location versus membership dues.

<font color=blue>-Rick
'03 G35C 6MT Ivory Pearl</font color=blue>