Ducati Sporting Club UK
Idle Chat
Still needs to be clean and of value to the club.
 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old 06-May-2009, 22:11
Monty's Avatar
DSC Member Monty Monty is offline
DSC Club Member
Ducati in my Blood
Bikes: 1100S Multistrada, 450RT, Gilera Nordwest, Bultaco Frontera, Rickman Metisse-being built!
 
Posts: 4,255
Join Date: Jun 2001
Mood: Growing old-DISGRACEFULLY!
Quote:
Originally Posted by bradders
one of the reason Hants still gets on is that there are more than 1 or 2 organising things.

And that is to the great benefit of the Hants group Paul, the problem is as WJB points out in the main it will always be one or two people who do everything. As most people know I am one of the 3 remaining 'founder' members, was on the MT until I stepped down 18 months ago, been chairman twice, and have organised the trackday since I started it 5 or is it 6 years ago. I hardly rode anything last year-went out with the BHCN once, can't ride this year because of the operation on my wrist, but will be back next year. However, as an official 'old git' like Fordie think maybe it is time for some of the younger guys to organise things-anyone want to run the trackday??-thought not-so I shall just have to keep on with it won't I?

John


Growing old-disgracefully!
Quote+Reply
  #22  
Old 06-May-2009, 22:23
bradders's Avatar
bradders bradders is offline
Registered Forum User
MotoGP God
Bikes: 848, M620 DD bike
 
Posts: 11,913
Join Date: Aug 2003
Mood: waiting...
and I understand how lucky we are because of that and it illustrates WJBs point exactly. However, I have noticed the hants mob getting smaller, and activities slightly less. Trouble is, its difficult to pin how much of this is natural attrition, ie peolpe moving on or looking for a change, and as said before on this thread, what is being done to produce new members who will have that initial interest and enthusiasm needed to harness so you can pass the TD on to another safe pair of hands
Quote+Reply
  #23  
Old 07-May-2009, 00:02
Ray's Avatar
Ray Ray is offline
Registered Forum User
Ducati Corse
 
Posts: 3,555
Join Date: May 2001
Mood: R U thinking what I'm thinking?......Oh dear!
Just what does anyone RO or whoever expect the MT to do in the regions?

Basically if I wanna do something with or for the DSC I just do it, no need to ask the MT for permission, occasionally if its something out of the ordinary I might let one or two of them know but that’s it. If I’ve needed something from the club like the banners or whatever I’ve asked. The DIY approach works if I get any support it’s a bonus.

The doers in this club are what make it, or any other club for that matter. Like it’s been said 1,000,001 times there is a core of doers, and no you don’t have to be on the MT, and RO to be a doer.

All too often though the doers are pulled to bits by the nay sayers, this isn’t right, that isn’t right, I’m only thinking of other members, blah, blah, blah. Fine say yer piece, but unless you are prepared to DO something, leave it at that. Oh and if what you do doesn’t work than maybe not many others think it was such a great idea anyway. I've had plenty of shite ideas in my time...

Times change, people buy Ducatis, people sell Ducatis, people take up biking people pack it in other things take up peoples time etc.

Again there’s a core of people you see very regularly or rides and stuff, you won’t please all of the people all of the time and it’s not unusual not to see some members for year in year out. c'est la Vie

It’s a thankless task being a doer, why do we do it? Because you want to share the enjoyment of riding yer Ducati on road or track, just talk about Ducatis, write about 'em or whatever.

The thank yous after a ride/meet make it worthwhile, even the fact that some acknowledge what you are doing is a thankless task keeps you going.

Like WJB says the trackday is a vital part of what the club does and it’s pretty much unique now in the UK running its own trackday, its run by members for members.

What is it with the pre occupation with the internerd…………..in the DSC context it’s just a way of communicating what’s going on, asking for help, questions and occasionally spouting off.

Sure it’s a useful tool but it’s no substitute for getting out in the real world.

How long to cadwell……………..

Ray
Quote+Reply
  #24  
Old 07-May-2009, 12:36
Monty's Avatar
DSC Member Monty Monty is offline
DSC Club Member
Ducati in my Blood
Bikes: 1100S Multistrada, 450RT, Gilera Nordwest, Bultaco Frontera, Rickman Metisse-being built!
 
Posts: 4,255
Join Date: Jun 2001
Mood: Growing old-DISGRACEFULLY!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray

How long to cadwell……………..

Ray

5 weeks 3 days Ray-and counting-see you there.

John


Growing old-disgracefully!
Quote+Reply
  #25  
Old 07-May-2009, 14:11
ChrisBushell's Avatar
DSC Member ChrisBushell ChrisBushell is offline
DSC Club Member
Big Twin
 
Posts: 1,600
Join Date: Oct 2004
Mood: Im Going to Italy soon!
An interesting series of posts!

Now as one of the other remaining original founders of the Club. I am in part in a similar position to Monty.

Apart from the general admin part of the Club that I do because I am currently Treasurer and Club Secretary, which probably takes about 7-10 hours per week, together with the work that has to go into Desmo Due helping Gordon out with running that.

Several times I have been asked why I dont run a region, attend rideouts all over the Country, etc. I think the short answer is three things:

1) Time or more partuclarly lack of it. I have activities outside of the Club that I/the family enjoy which often have a higher priority.

2) I have done my time running local regional activities after 20 years of it, giving up about 7 years ago.

3) These days I am not prepared to ride as fast as I might have done 10 years ago and quite frankly no longer enjoy riding in groups.

Now like John, I help out with the trackday, doing the initial admin and plan on being at Cadwell to help with the admin there and hopefully get out for a few sessions. Now that means two days off work and the admin comes 1st, that has to be negotiated with "she who is sometimes listened too", because quite frankly she sees it as a waste of two days vaccation time.

Much has been made on other forums of the time and effort that I put into organising the UK end of the Moto Giro d'Italia and Septembers Mini Giro.

Well we spent a happy day yesterday loading 40+ motor cycles onto the truck for next weeks event in Italy. In two weeks time we will be spending another day unloading the truck! Given the logistics of getting bikes out to Italy, especially 50 year old small capacity ones, the only way in which we can do it ecenomically is by getting together as a group of like minded individuals and doing bulk transport. The DSC is an ideal vehicle for the people who enjoy these or other events to come together

This years Mini Giro is still being worked on and cannot yet be announced until we have more confirmation in writing from various parties. But I am looking at 3 complete weekends of solid work just to sort out the routes, apply for the necessary permissions and anything else that needs doing in June alone.

Why do we do it, simple there is nothing better than people coming up and saying I have had a great time, can I come next year.

There is however a great difference between that sort of scenario where you are offering to do an event because you want to and one where you are expected to put all of the effort in to organise something and then people on a whim decide to turn up or not on the day. We all have to put effort into our social activities, with our friends and families; what is the difference with Club?

I cant remember the exact quote from John Kennedy, but I think it went something like this:

"Dont ask what your Country can do for you, ask what you can do for your Country!"

Substitute Club for Country and you probably have it.

If you put nothing in, what do you expect to get out?
Quote+Reply
  #26  
Old 07-May-2009, 14:20
skidlids's Avatar
DSC Region Organiser skidlids skidlids is offline
MotoGP God
 
Posts: 18,274
Join Date: Apr 2002
Mood: Its ONLY a Bike Club
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monty
as an official 'old git' like Fordie think maybe it is time for some of the younger guys to organise things-anyone want to run the trackday??-thought not-so I shall just have to keep on with it won't I?

John

Better an old git like you doing it correctly and it therefore happening, rather than a younger git like me c***ing it up and ending up without it.

Hence my appreciation for anybody that gets off that back side and makes things happen especially when they aren't paid to do so.


Checkout the Desmo Due Paddock on Facebook
Quote+Reply
  #27  
Old 07-May-2009, 15:13
WeeJohnyB's Avatar
WeeJohnyB WeeJohnyB is offline
Registered Forum User
Big Twin
 
Posts: 1,993
Join Date: Jun 2001
Mood: Channel Swim is now a (bad) memory not a dream
Nice post Chris and fully appreciate all the work you do for the DSC and agree with your tone right up to the last line. I think there is a place for people who do nothing but enjoy the club (and they do actually do something - they pay their membership!). I am more than happy that a few people put in some/a lot of effort for the enjoyment of others, eg for the trackday, a few people will see 100+ members and countless others have a fantastic couple of days.

Where I do agree is where people have a go at the 'doers' as Ray says without digging in their own time pocket and putting their money/time where their mouth is. I have been as guilty as many by suggesting what I think are good ideas - my perception may not agree with others and I am very unlikely to have all the facts to hand to know whether it is possible, so sometimes 'good' ideas will fall on apparently deaf ears. Hence I hear people saying 'I said we should do this and nobody took any notice', which is near useless without action on their part.

I do a little where I can, as do some others. As Ray says, just do it, some things don't need the sign off from the MT, but other big things do.

As long as people are happy being a 'doer' then I'm happy for me and for them. It's when the workload or grief (abuse/threats!?!) overtake the pleasure that it's not right. Hopefully that balance has seen some improvement in the past few months.

It wouldn't surpirise me if some of the MT stepped down this year, it's been a hard term in office for some. I just hope others come forward and we can have a democratic MT that runs a great bike club

WeeJohnyB
Quote+Reply
  #28  
Old 07-May-2009, 15:27
ChrisBushell's Avatar
DSC Member ChrisBushell ChrisBushell is offline
DSC Club Member
Big Twin
 
Posts: 1,600
Join Date: Oct 2004
Mood: Im Going to Italy soon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by WeeJohnyB
Nice post Chris and fully appreciate all the work you do for the DSC and agree with your tone right up to the last line. I think there is a place for people who do nothing but enjoy the club (and they do actually do something - they pay their membership!). I am more than happy that a few people put in some/a lot of effort for the enjoyment of others, eg for the trackday, a few people will see 100+ members and countless others have a fantastic couple of days.

Where I do agree is where people have a go at the 'doers' as Ray says without digging in their own time pocket and putting their money/time where their mouth is. I have been as guilty as many by suggesting what I think are good ideas - my perception may not agree with others and I am very unlikely to have all the facts to hand to know whether it is possible, so sometimes 'good' ideas will fall on apparently deaf ears. Hence I hear people saying 'I said we should do this and nobody took any notice', which is near useless without action on their part.

I do a little where I can, as do some others. As Ray says, just do it, some things don't need the sign off from the MT, but other big things do.

As long as people are happy being a 'doer' then I'm happy for me and for them. It's when the workload or grief (abuse/threats!?!) overtake the pleasure that it's not right. Hopefully that balance has seen some improvement in the past few months.

It wouldn't surpirise me if some of the MT stepped down this year, it's been a hard term in office for some. I just hope others come forward and we can have a democratic MT that runs a great bike club

WeeJohnyB

John,

Perhaps I got that last bit wrong, what I suppose I was meaning was more along the lines of dont knock other peoples efforts, if you are not prepared to step up to the plate and put some effort in yourself.

If you do want to lean back and not participate, then that is anyone's right. However in much the same way that we have become ever more watchfull of public servants and in particular MPs, they are paid to work for us by us the taxpayer. The members of the MT, RO's and others who put in an awful lot of effort on behalf of the Club and the membership are a group of un-paid volunteers, who use their own time, money, etc for the benefit of others.

If you are not happy with what they are doing that is what we have an AGM for, put your name down and step up to the plate then make that change.

I got copied in on something from another site regarding the content of Pronto last week. The person in question was bemoaning the fact that he was reading about similar articals from the same group of people. To the best of my knowledge that person has never submitted anything to Pronto for publication, but expects that others will write the articals that he wishes to read for his enjoyment; I am afraid that life just doesn't work that way.

I think that we will see at the AGM at Cadwell on the Monday night, that an enourmous amount of progress has been made over the last 6 months. A lot of the background activities that have been going on since the EGM are now coming to fruition.

Some hard questions have been asked and I would hope that they will be answered at that meeting.
Quote+Reply
  #29  
Old 07-May-2009, 15:43
paynep's Avatar
DSC Member paynep paynep is offline
DSC Club Member
Ducati Meccanica
 
Posts: 2,081
Join Date: Jun 2001
Mood: Wet wet wet
Interesting thread.

I wonder how many other people are sitting reading this and thinking "I'd like to put something back in to the club/improve this that or the other/try something new" but then reality sets in and lack of time or expertise brings it all to a crashing halt?

I know I'm one of those, and I have to admire those who DO find the time/effort to get involved with the running of this, or any, club.

I have also long thought that it was a shame that some of those who do or did find the time and effort for long, contentious posting wars didn't channel the effort more positively. Or maybe I just type slowly?

Look forward to the trackday and seeing some older faces!


Paul

15th year in DD #68 and getting slower by the year

1199, SS800 & 620SSie DD racer
Quote+Reply
  #30  
Old 07-May-2009, 15:54
John W's Avatar
John W John W is offline
Registered Forum User
500SD
Bikes: MTS12S, R1, off road stuff, and vintage stuff too.
 
Posts: 828
Join Date: Aug 2002
Mood: MTS1200 - yum yum yum yum yum yum yum ...
me again.

I really have no idea of exactly what went on last year, but as a visitor to this site I'd like to say I'm very happy with what I see and the advice I receive from you guys.

I agree with most of what you guys are saying.
I'm the chairman of another club, and what you guys are discussing is no different to any other organisation that uses unpaid volunteers.
Its often a nightmare trying to get people to come forward to help, and most feedback is negative without being constructive on how to address issues.
Even the constructive feedback is often a problem as many people have opinions on how something should be done, and can't understand why its not done that way.

You guys have a very difficult job: you can never please all of the people all of the time, and often people only shout when they are not happy, so that is taken as the overriding feeling despite the fact it may only be 1% of the club.

My hats off to all of you for what you do.
If I could I would help, but I too spend a disproportionate amout of time helping the other club I belong to try to run smoothly.

So, once again I'd like to say a big thank you to all you guys, keep up the good work as it really is appreciated by some of us.

Cheers,
John.
Quote+Reply
Reply
  
Thread Tools
Display Modes
Postbit Selector
Switch to Vertical postbit Use Vertical Postbit

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Recent Posts - Contact Us - DSC Home - Archive - Top
Powered by vBulletin 3.5.4 - Copyright © 2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. - © Ducati Sporting Club UK - All times are GMT +1. The time now is 17:07.