Club Triumph

Keith,
Would it be possible to have a local groups section of the discussion forum?

Tim B

Sure, no problem, in fact I can give you admin access so you can tinker with the categories for Local Groups and Round Britain if you want to.
Cheers,

Keith ;D ;D

I can add new boards for each local group here if wanted, not sure if we might be getting too many boards now though! :-/ :-/

After going to last nights meeting at Crews Hill, waiting around for nearly 45 minutes and finally giving up, a second member turned up....  Come on guys what's happening.... :-/:-/:-/

I think we need to try and do something to encourage a few more people to attend the meetings.... maybe suggest starting an hour earlier and having a bit of pub grub as well.

The Sunday meeting at Hatfield doesn't suit everyone (Sunday is the only day I can realistically work on the car) as I know the evening meeting at Crews Hill won't, so it would be a shame to see one of them get to the point of not worth going....  :'(:'(:'(

Have any of the other groups experienced this and managed to successfully get the numbers back up again ???  What about some local group drives like the Pendle and Pennine group.  8) 8) 8)

Im with you on that one,try and mix it up a bit,bit of food etc so you up for ACE CAFE 8th OCTOBER? if so what time? Least at the Ace cafe there will be other stuff to look at rather than beer mats while waiting for people?!!
www.ace-cafe-london.com

OK, I'm up for that !!!!  May even have to coax the "7" down there....  Actually, the missus will probably be interested in this one... and she will be a Triumph owner by that time (Spitfire 1500 being picked up this weekend).

I reckon the Pendle and Pennine group is good because of the things we do - we're not just sitting in the pub! The food there is so good a number of us have taken to getting there at 7pm to eat before the 8pm meeting, resulting in the meeting sort of starting an hour early!

Martin has done a great job organising events like the 15 mile drive in convoy and next meeting we hope to discuss the 10CR given 3 cars from this local group went. In the past we have also admired each others cars and given prizes for things like "most in need of TLC" and we have a bit of a giggle. Whether everybody is a Club Triumph member of just owns a Triumph I don't know or really care - it's the participation that counts, and people are always telling us of other events other people are organising like local classic car tresure hunts etc. Unfortunately for us Yorkshire people they are often in Lancashire and make for a long day.

I don't think we'd be so successful if we were "squarer"! How are we doing in terms of turn outs Martin? I think we fill a corner of the pub nicely.

Caroline

8) In terms of numbers Caroline we had 18 at the first meeting, 10 at the second (which made me a bit nervous) and then 18 again at the last meeting.
I am glad you are enjoying the meetings and I have tried to keep a bit of variety going so I think that helps. Also only meeting every 2 months I think works, maybe every month wouldn't be quite so special.
I have also asked for the addresses of new members when I see them in Club Torque and written to them to invite them along. This should really be a standard procedure but isn't - perhaps I should write formally to the membership secretary and ask him to always notify local area organisers.
By the way, don't mention the war! (Of the Roses). Where I live and where we meet used to be part of Yorkshire and there is still a guerilla war going on for reunion with Yorkshire!

I agree with you Martin that meeting every other month is better than every month, and there are plenty of events we mention at the meetings in between for those who are keen to do more. I think every month would require too much commitment in an area that's sparcely Triumph populated in terms of the distance to the meeting. It takes us an hour to get there which makes for a long evening after a day's work. (But worth it Martin, don't panic; although the arrival of baby will make meetings interesting/ noisy)

Do the local groups communicate?  I mean if one group does a particular event that is succesful, do they tell others? Ellis mentioned the 10 mile run we did, suggesting it in another area. Did you read this in the Club Torque, Ellis, or find out other ways? Sharing this sort of information might give some "quieter" local groups some ideas?

CAroline

A few thoughts on making a successful local area from the most successful.  We meet twice each month (less than monthly and people forget when the next meeting is).  Always evenings (Sunday lunch times in the summer are taken up with Club events).  If possible find a pub with a good car park where members can look at the cars. In the winter try to have something going on, eg quiz or film show - plenty of videos showing Triumph rallying in 50s and 60s.  We have Club Stands at a number of car shows during the summer - not necessarily sitting in a field - they can be at staely homes, army tank museum, steam railway with free travel etc etc.  A good time for members to get to know each other as pub meetings can get a bit cliquey. Also 'cos we use our cars we have about 5 road runs a year of about 50-70 miles finishing either at a pub for lunch or at a village hall where the lady members have their arms twisted to provide food eg, bangers and mash or cream tea.  We get 20 to 25 members at each of our monthly meetings.

;) Hi - good to see another area organiser contributing.
I am studying your comments with interest and offer the following comments.
We only meet once every 2 months, if it was going to be more than that I would need someone else to help organise things as I have a demanding job (I have been out of the country 2 weeks in succession for example). Indeed, I don't think I could guarantee to make every monthly meeting.  A way I get around people forgetting about the dates of the meetings is via an e-mail list and a yahoo site set up by Caroline.
We just had a video night featuring the 10 Countries Run but it cost us £35 to hire the equipment - if we provide our own equipment we will probably end up paying to hire the room. I am not sure how often we will be happy to do that.
Being the first year for the area we didn't go to a car show but we will aim to have "one of our own" next year - must get a club banner made up as I have a flag pole ready.  One thing that did work well though was a barbecue in my garden and you are right John in that this gave us more time to get to know each other.
We did one run which went down well apart from my TR7 having to be towed home. I am not sure about asking the ladies/gents of the area to provide food etc though as our members tend to fully employed at work without wanting to start again once they get home -still, it's a thought! ??)

I think meeting frequency has to be related to the number of members and the geography of the area. I don't think there is a right or a wrong answer, it depends on numbers!

I'm not sure I'm up to meeting more frequently than every other month - it allows us to do something else Triumph related in the "gap" e.g. the Triumph World picnic, in our case, without being "triumphed out". Keen members still have other non Triumph things to do.

Martin's point about running a meeting when you have a busy job is very valid. It's nice to do something each meeting rather than just sit and chat (although there is nothing wrong with this - in fact it's rather useful too), and this takes some initiative and effort to plan, obviously. Given the number of Triumphs that turned up to the last meeting, anything involving a drive needs to be communicated in advance so people can get their cars on the road in time!!

I think it's only fair to pinch ideas from other local meetings. If we were to use that room more often Martin, and given most of us spend a good £20 in there for food and drinks when we go, would the pub be open to us borrowing it more often for other videos/ slides like Johanne mentioned? Do you have videos in the library?

I also like the idea of a road run finishing at a good pub (don't ask me to bring food unless you want starving/ poisoning!). We could do something like this instead of a meeting, say doing it on the Sat or Sun when the meeting would have been on the Friday. February won't give us much daylight, but we could do this at the April meeting perhaps? Where do we all live? We could have a different starting point to the Old Stone Trough for us Bradfordians.

CAroline

;) Actually the Old Stone Trough weren't going to charge us anything! They had asked the price for hiring a TV which was originally quoted at £25 per week! The thought was that it would only cost about a £10 for the night which they were going to pay. Unfortunately, between that afternoon and the evening the cost had gone up to £30 + VAT and really they couldn't be expected to cover that themselves out of goodwill.
Anyway, back to your point, yes I think we should be OK to use the room for little or no cost and I will bring a second hand TV of my own along with the VCR in future. I also have a stock of videos featuring classic rallys etc so together with anyone else's contributions I am sure we can run a few video nights in the winter.
Regarding a run to a pub at a weekend - good idea and I am aware that we need something over the border in Yorkshire too - Howarth, Keighley, Skipton, Harrogate maybe.

I propose that the February meeting will be one for planning events for later in the year - so please bring along any ideas then!
;)

Johanne,

Which Local Group do you organise?

Some of your ideas are valid, unfortunately it seems that most CT members do not go to monthly meetings. In fact Martin Randle's group seem to be one of the more pro-active groups going.

Tim B

Tim.B.  I'm not the Area Organiser - just an active member of the Southern Area.

By the way, our next extravaganza is a Tinsell run finishing at a village hall for roast beef or chicken, plus puds. made by several of the lady members.  Date is 23rd November - order forms from John Payne, all members welcome.

:-/Berkeley and myself are doing our best to organise a Lincolnshire Area. There were a couple of people who would like to start going to meetings but that was it really. Out of the 15 members we have in Lincolnshire there will probably be about 7 who will always attend meetings that's not a problem at least there will be another area in the Club Torque Mag to send in any info.
Out of the 7 members who will start attending we probably own at least 20 Triumphs between us and that's what it's all about    ;)

:) Will you meet  in Lincoln itself?  Or further north or where?

If you are near a border with another county (like me) you shouldn't forget about the foreigners!

I hope that the Club will grow in numbers yet so you may get a few more in time.

Good luck Day tripper!

;)

:)We're trying to pick a central location within the county to meet, we may even have a roving meeting as these get well attended as we have found out in the past when we were members of the other club ;D you know the one i'm on about :X
We use to have camping weekends and attend shows go to other Areas weekends we even went to Somerset for the night  I.O.W, Beamish, Duxford.
Our 2nd child was the result of a Triumph camping weekend and me drinking too much Directors beer!!!! Arh they were the good old days and then the kids came along and we had to knock it on the head for a few years.
BUT WE'RE BACK!! 8)

Kids? What are they?

So, have we got any nearer to choosing a location and date for the first meeting, Sarah? I'm going to try and finish a sentence without a question mark now. There, wasn't too tricky was it?  >:( damn did it again!

[quote by=Raider link=Blah.pl?b=LGgen,v=display,m=1063387359,s=16 date=1065646882] :) Will you meet  in Lincoln itself?  Or further north or where?

If you are near a border with another county (like me) you shouldn't forget about the foreigners!

I hope that the Club will grow in numbers yet so you may get a few more in time.

Good luck Day tripper!

;)[/quote]

Mr Raider (of what we still haven't been told),
Lincolnshire's massive, and the good Triumph owners of the county have been stupid enough to live in many different parts of it. Previous attempts to create a rusty-gated community allowing nothing but Triumph owners and their cars to inhabit failed because even in the south of the county, where they aren't generally that picky, planning permission failed as they didn't believe that it wasn't going to be an obscure scrapyard! Besides it would be too much like one long Triumph Camping Weekend and The Johnsons would end up with hundreds of kids and have to buy the Stretch to accomodate them all. So peripatetic meetings or a central location are what we are gonna have to do.