UK Membership distribution
 

As there's been some discussion of where the members are in another thread, there's now a webpage that will give you the currrent info :

Membership count by region



There's been a few comments on north/South divide (when isn't there any comment ? :) ) and I just like to put forward my observations.
I spent the first 20 years of my life in Essex and consequently had no idea of what people were on about with a North/South divide. As a southerner you don't experience it unless someone else mentions it.
I then moved to Yorkshire for 9 years and only then did I become aware of the divide. It's little things like the BBC presenters always giving a southern focus to events, the weather reports classifying anything north of Birmingham as 'the North' (what do you classify Cumbria as then? ) and as you drive up the M1 you see signs indicating 'The North'. How many signs do you see saying 'The south' ?
It's all these little things that antagonise, and then you see major events all being based around London with the occasional 'northern event' at the NEC area !!

And what about a new olympic stadium being built just a few miles away from a new Wembly stadium - does London really need two large stadiums/ Wouldn't it have fairer to the UK population to at least have the new stadium further north ? What happens to the new stadium after the 2012 olympics - does London have enough events to utilise both stadiums or will one fall into disrepair like the dome?

As I said at the beginning, if you've never experienced it, it's because you haven't lived north of Birmingham. Personally I think things have become more even than they were say 20 years ago - more events being held in Manchester for example. However I don't think the divide will ever totally disappear - it's a simple truism that the majority of people live south of Birmingham so if you put on an event that needs to attract a large number of people, you organise it near those people. However much you dislike it, it isn't going to change until more people live in the northern counties, and that won't happen until there are more jobs available in those counties which means employers have to set up base there. but that won't happen too quickly because employers see there is more population to work with in the southern counties - it's a circular dependancy.

Just my 2p worth - I'm sure there will be others :sing:

Eamonn, there appears to be 25 members in no-man's land.

Who are they, the untouchables, MT, outcasts - Weeksy, Vman etc?

... or are these stateless people, not quite North or South, i.e. Milton Keynes?

I think we should be told.

:puzzled::puzzled: :P

I'm guessing thats East Anglia,some strange coves there,..;)
No one can hear you scream in the fens!:lol:

Ahhhh .. the flatlands - to low to be counted :lol:

:(:( We`re here,over here,this way,help,save us!!

Eamonn

I share your sentiments completely; it seems utterly daft that in this nation that we live in has such a huge proportion of the population living in the SOUTH, overcrowded roads, people living cheek by jowl with their neighbours. Interesting fact is that over the last 30 years the average 3 bed house has been reduced by some 30% and that’s because they try to shoehorn more and more accommodation into the ever decreasing amount of building land available.

I think the government should do more, a lot more to encourage business to move their operations further north, I would even suggest that they encourage new business start-ups with tax breaks, not one’s that last a couple of years but for longer periods.

If we had a bigger spread of population then there would be more space, more space for fun, recreation and living.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Murray Mint

I'm quite happy living in the North (well Midlands really), I've got Nelly only five minutes from me, it takes 15 minutes for me to get to work and my two bedroom house with garden and garage only cost me £83,500.

I should point out that Eamonn's breakdown only list's PROPER paid up members-not these hangers on who only post on the board-if we counted them there would be over 2000 members..............:P

John

I personally would love to live up North - you guys have fantastic scenery, excellent roads, cheap houses and funny accents.

However, because of the industry I work in, there are no jobs in my field and I have to be where I am. I don't even live where I work as I can't afford that, so already I'm making comprimises!

Besides, if we were all to move North, you'd only start complaining that the roads were crowded, housing prices had gone up and the southerners had taken all your jobs!

The grass is always greener....

yeah, but isnt it all still gas lights, cobbled streets and workhouses?

And whippets. Don't forget the whippets.

Ahem! 3% membership with 47% of the square miles of land and 80% of THE BEST ROADS IN THE UK. OH YEAH BABY YOU CAN KEEP THE SOUF !

The Cockney in exile
:sing::sing::sing::sing::sing::sing::sing:

So there's no jobs for you outside of the city Antonye? what do you do exactly?

I work with large corporate financial institutions, so primarily have so stay where these are all based, and that's in the city.

There are also other factors to take into account, such as family location.

Funnily enough I work for a very large corporate financial institution also, but I have rolling hills everywhere, even in the office, great view, can just about see the companies cricket pitch.

I guess it's your call, luckily I've avoided the city so far with my current employer, 4 years so far, only had to go down for two days in that time

Depends on what you do - some stuff just can't be done remotely, or is not cost effective / practical / secure enough to implement vlans into work.

Besides, I enjoy the train ride every morning. :rolleye:

Vlans.... I dream of them, dial up only if I am at home :lol: not secure enough.

Anything that needs to be done on-site I lucky get to call one of the monkeys! :D

yeah you wouldn't like it up here, you're better off down south. That leaves the less crowded, superb biking roads for us;)

Tried that Eamonn - two previous Olympic bids with Manchester and Birmingham failed. To get the Olympics it had to be London.

And besides, Wembley is being built with private money so the FA can stick it where they like (although quite why they chose a **** hole in North London heaven knows!)

J--

Do you work outside then?

Not sure about including those counties north of London such as Herts in the south though.

Please clarify something for me, nothing to do with membership distribution, but why is the Watford Gap so far north of Watford?

miton keynes is officially in the south east.

You need to have a very quiet chat with me and my employers.

That's why I look after customers across the globe from my house by the sea (well quite near to it)

So looking at the chart the "south" has 52% members, more than the rest of the UK put together... but the rest of the UK has more Ducati dealers, and my assumption would be more Ducati riders outside of London (otherwise the dealer network wouldn't exist outside of the south). So why are there less members then?

Is that because the DSC doesn't do enough to promote itself and try and get new members outside of the south?

For example most of my biking friends ride Ducati's, in fact because of their constant ****ging off of my UJM many years ago I was forced to switch, and have had 3 Ducati's so far, non of them browse or are part of the DSC even though they know it exists. And I am guessing this maybe the same for others.

Raid the lakes was a great success organised by a couple of DSC members to try and grow the DSC contingent in and around the lakes, unfortunately it clashed with the DD round, but it opened my eyes to making more of an effort to get up and see Mike and Ian more often, and because of that success RTL 06 is already being planned, and again because of that it has spurred me on to try and organise a non-official DSC track day next year at one of the premier Northern circuits (which will still be cheaper than say going to Brands).

I'm not ****ging anyone off, or having a go, just playing devil's advocate :)

Time to recruit more northern dealers to recruit more DSC members then, since it's not exactly difficult for them to mention it when someone's in buying a bike/parts/servicing etc. It can also be positioned that by getting a customer involved in a wider community, they're more likely to continue being a Ducati owner, and therefore gain long term revenue from those customers that are club members (except for one or two dealers that give poor service...)

cue pyramid selling style seminar.


Out of curiosity, are there more Ducati's up north because house prices are lower, so you have more disposable income :devil:

Strange as a resident of Oxford I come under the Midlands section, but quite often when I head Northwards I have to pass through Buckinghamshire which is listed as a region in the South.
A distorted picture me thinks :puzzled:

Interesting stuff.

I would be very interested to see how the DSC membership mapped against known owners but that ain't gonna happen for various reasons? Is the proportion of DSC members to Ducati owners per area the same or different?

In the old days the DSC did a lot to promote itself at race meets, I got to become aware of the Club from seeing info. at Brands and Donnington.

Ducati Leeds used to and might still send out the DSC flyer with Every Ducati sold, old and new.

The Yorks regional e-mailing list has about 30 or so recipients but I know for a fact that some have sold their bikes and/or not renewed.

Any chance of a numbers breakdown just for Yorkshire Via U2U??

It'll be a help to see how the numbers match or not with the number on the e-mail list.

I can see that more DSC events happen in the South but why? More willing Volunteers? More people support the events due to larger membership base? More DSC members with time to spend on our selfish hobby? Better weather?
Better roads? (I don't fink so).


Ray.



[Edited on 15-7-2005 by Ray]

afaic the way to get membership is to promote the board and build the membership that way. i know only x% of members use the board but i bet they are the most active ones.