HEAVEN PLANNING AHEAD

[shoey]

A good website would make a great start and our people would be prepared to match Carls input $ to develop the site.

I would also like to point out that at the time when the previous management team took over at Heaven it was a fractured outfit , on its knee's and all but gone.

It should be known and very clear that Albert , Kelvin and their various teams put systems in place , rationalised the club constitution , mended many broken fences as such and whilst we are at it did a sterling job in guiding the club to the current position it enjoys. Its the old line , you cannot please them all , but you can still do a good job and in my opinion these various people did a great job.

The management team over the last few years has drawn on the experience of the previous management team at times and to their credit have produced a credable product.

Membership is strong , attendance at meetings is strong and by all reports every meeting go's well with favorable reports.

In my opiinion , a few less meeting per year would be a plus but other than that it appears all good.

[Dan-166]

Keep the feedback coming guys. The more feedback that we can get, the more options that we will have to put to the members and let them decide. I would like to encourage feedback from other VMX clubs on how they successfully run / promote their clubs  ( national & internationally )and give the members what they want. By sharing information, we can start on a continuous improvement plan for all our clubs in general and also the sport ( obsession? ) as a whole. KEEP IT COMING! Thanks.
Dan

[Rosco400]

My intention is to nominate for a committee position in HEAVEN next year Just because I nominate does not mean that members will vote me into a position, so we shall just have to see.
Dan

We have a committee job for you Dan Who could not vote for this likeable chap

Serious tho, would like to see a couple of interclubs through the year with the DT boys

[Dan-166]

Rosco,
How did you get access to my personal photo album? Thanks for the vote of confience.
Helping out with the dirt track boys sounds like a good idea to me. Firstly we have to get the lines of communication open though, but I think that this can easily be acheived. I am sure that we can all help each other out for the good of the sport, if we just sit down and talk about it. Cheers
Dan

[montynut]

My two cents worth . Heaven at present is an excellently ran club and I thank all those who put in the hard work while most of us just enjoy the resulting meetings.

I've missed the last few meetings after breaking my leg at Lakes D'oh!!! Missing the Canowindra event and EVO cup was most disappointing as I'd been looking forward to them all year.

The only improvement I could suggest would be reducing the number of events to 5 or 6 really big race weekends instead of the present 10. Then include 2 weekends or days of 'Classic Dirt' type events to allow an enjoyable weekend/day of riding/talking/looking/etc. 10 events is basically 1 a month which means most people pick and choose events instead of attending them all. Most people have many other commitments / work / family / etc which restrict attending 10 events either by choice or otherwise. 5 or 6 events scheduled as early as possible allows planning to attend all the events.

If this was adopted very keen riders would have 5/6 Heaven club events, CD weekend, Broadford Bonanza, VMX Nationals and hopefully the Classic National Dirt Track meet. Then 2 Heaven ride days as well.

10 events is also a very big work load for a volunteer Organisational Committee. The last thing we want is our Committee getting burn out.

To me the present classes are OK and seem to break the bikes in reasonably logical technology groups (there will always be exceptions). I agree some of the events are not well subscribed but it would be a shame to see them disappear maybe less events will encourage more participants in these classes.

We also need to spread the workload to allow Committee members to still fully participate in racing. How? I'm not sure.

Whatever is done it will not please everyone all of the time.

[shoey]

Gee Rossco

That guy looks like a resptectable accountant from the Newcastle area that i know.

[Rosco400]

Gee Rossco

That guy looks like a resptectable accountant from the Newcastle area that i know.

Respectable

Hunter club does have a fully licenced Stadium cross track set up in the middle of the dirt track, 2 dayer there could see a DT ride and a stadium x ride combined

[suzuki27]

That sounds like a great venue Rossco.
 Personally, I would like the amount of rounds- that should be points scoring rounds- kept to 4 or something close. Have more rounds for those who can make it, but maybe base the yearly point score on your 4 best rounds. By the time you allow for the odd Dirt Track,eg Jack Hogg, Classic Dt Titles and the Vintage MX Nats etc , making it to much more than 4-5 Heaven races is a bit difficult- as you all know.
 The cold shoulder -and other parts I  prefer much warmer- from the good missus is but one clear and present danger.

[Noel]

I would just like to echo Shoeys remarks re Committee's  past  involvement,
I join heaven at that time ( and have not missed a meeting since) and Had nothing but praise for the job they did, which now allows the on going committee some latitude to improve, those people mentioned anchored a wayward ship and set it on its way again, thank you,
Cheers
Noel
PS speak to you on the weekend Dan.

[firko]

With all of this love and positivity being shared I might just join HEAVEN now . I think it's pretty obvious that a 10 round series is way too many. As I wrote in the Viper/Monza thread elsewhere on the forum it's better to have four or five really special meetings rather than 10 same old, same old events. Give each round a particular focus and snazzy title and promote the living f*#k out of it.

I fully realise that many will disagree with me and perhaps I've misread the situation but from my observations over the last couple of years I concluded that the sport in general has lost a bit of focus by concentrating on trying to introduce new divisions in a bid to attract new participants. Over the last 15 years there has been a negative participation growth which considering the improved public awareness of VMX leaves me a bit worried. In the mid nineties, when we only had pre 75/70/65 to deal with we regularly attracted 100-150 riders to race meetings. Today, with the addition of Evolution and Pre '85 and the impending introduction of pre 90, those participation numbers have gone dramatically backwards. I feel that in the rush to introduce new racing divisions we've overlooked that what we really need is new racers, not new classes. Back in the early days of Penrith club when we were attempting to get the sport up and in the public eye we set up a number of promotions. We had weekend and Thursday night bike displays in Westfield Shopping Malls where we'd present a display of five or six bikes along with somebody to answer questions and pass out flyers and posters. We put on bike displays at modern motocross events, classic road race meetings and even Parramatta speedway. We kept the local papers up to date with results and photographs from events and articles on local racers. We even had some television on Simon Townsends Wonder World, Channel 7 Sport and WIN coverage of a full VMX race meeting at Bathurst. I even did a couple of radio interviews on ABC Grandstand.

With fond memories of those days the old farts of Klub Kevlar have set up the Show'n'Shine for November 15. Even though most of us have given up regular racing, we all still hold a love of the sport and felt that VMX could do with a bit of a push to let a new audience know what we're (vintage motocross as a sport) up to. Noel Clarkes tragic accident merely gave the event a fund raising purpose and gave us the impetus to get it running.

The Klub Kevlar SHow'n'Shine is a golden opportunity for HEAVEN to start selling itself to to a new audience. We'd love to see the club in attendance with a club display to drum up new business. We'll also invite Penrith club to participate. It was unbelievable how much our sport grew during those early days when we really tried hard to drum up business.
Hardly a meeting went by when we didn't see half a dozen new racers and there's no reason that spirit can't happen again. It's not rocket science, it just takes a bit of showbiz spruiking and a lot of enthusiasm.

There's nothing wrong with the implementation of new racing divisions but I honestly believe that it shouldn't br the main priority. Getting new racers and expanding HEAVENS promotional abilities are far more important in my opinion. Let's hope that HEAVEN can see clear to set up a booth at the Show'n'Shine and start the build up to a great 2110 SEASON.

[Dan-166]

Firko / All,
I beleive that the positive vibe and attitude can largely be attributed to the current committee. Having only been a member of the club for just over two years, I am not privy to all the so called 'crap' that has gone on in the past. I believe that we should not be focusing on the past and worried about who did what and when but rather learn from decisions made in the past and concentrate on the future and building / promoting the obsessive sport that is Vintage motorcycles ( all forms of the sport ).
I have spoken with a number of people regarding the past ten years of the club and listened to both sides of the story to form my own opinions, but that's all that they are, opipinions and we are all entitled to them, so let's respect each other's opinion and get on with life as we want it, riding vintage bikes!
HEAVEN can do a lot better by promoting itself much better, but that cannot be left to one person. This mst be done by all members and is as simple as each member encouraging one new member to sign up and attend meetings / club days / race meetings. I aggree Firko that we do not promote the club well, but the first step towards rectifying that is to identify that issue and I beleive that we have now. More members need to be prepared to help out , even just a small amount and that will lighten the load on the committee members who perform a thankless job year in and year out.
So to all, don't just sit in the shadows and leave the running of events and promoting of the club to a select few, get in and have a go. If we are not changing and growing with the vibe of the members, then we destined to fall by the wayside and I for one enjoy the sport to much to let that happen.
More feedback guys, keep it comin!
Dan

[Nathan S]

The 'less events' thing should be treated with caution.
The same discussion has been raging for years in the rally world: "We've got too many events that aren't supported properly. We need to have fewer, bigger events" - the arguments for are almost word-for-word identical to those presented here.

The NSW Rally world looked at who participates, and found that competitors could be categorised into groups:
1. The 'die hards' who would go to every/almost every event - usually they were chasing a championship.
2. The people who would only do their local events.
3. The people that would go to some events, with no apparent rhyme or reason to which events they chose. It turns out that the reasons were many and varied: "I missed that event because my sister got married"; "Never rallied down here, thought I'd give it a go"; "I was too busy at work"; "I love/hate that event"; "I busted my knee playing backyard cricket"; "My aunty lives up here so we got free accomodation" etc etc etc.

The tricky bit was that the majority of participants fitted into #3. Those people were all benefitting from a supposed excess of events - it means that they can get to a reasonable number of events per year, even if 'real life' gets in the way of their motorsport.
A straw poll of a group of my mates made it clear that if there was less events on offer, then overall participation would be reduced. Some even said things like "If that's how it was, then there would be no point in me even owning my rally car".
Most people seemed to assume (incorrectly) was that the events they liked would stay, while the ones they didn't like would be the events to be culled - so they'd be in favour of the idea at first...

I'm not saying that these lessons are going to apply 100% to HEAVEN, but its worth thinking about.

Despite all of the above, I'm not dead-set against the idea of less HEAVEN rounds in the future - just wanting to make it clear that its not quite as simple as it may seem.

[shoey]

That's a fairly reasonable statement.

If the club was to retain the ten round format , What about the option of dropping two rounds , your two worst or perhaps two you could not attend for reasons as described above in point three.

That may be a further incentive to people whom cannot make all the rounds but feel they have a chance at the no:1 to no:10 plates to come to events on more regular basis.

May-be even a poll notice / form at the AGM with a few simple yes /no questions in relation to the number of rounds the membership really want.

[Dan-166]

I think that you are on the right track Shoey with the form / poll at the AGM. I shall be doing the rounds in the pits this weekend at Lakes asking members those sorts of questions and jotting down comments. There will be no names attached, just maybe 4 or 5 key questions that can be answered quickly and painlessly and then the answer or number recorded on a peice of paper. I think it will be interesting what the members have to say when the 'mob' mentality is not present , and I don't mean that in a bad way.

[firko]

By cutting back to five rounds on a one per month basis the load is spread fairly evenly over the season yet halves the amount of work by the club. If you add Classic Dirt, the Nats and Dirt Track Nats, a vinduro or two and the odd 'out of the blue' event like the Jack Hogg at Moruya that brings it up to at least 10 outings per year which most would find more than enough. Halving the amount of work involved in setting up HEAVEN series events yet still maintaining the same number of events to attend can only be a positive experience for the hard working officials too.

As I said elsewhere, we went through the 'more the better' period in the old Penrith days and while everyone seemed keen to go to everything in the beginning, after a couple of seasons we noticed a distinct drop off towards the end of the season.
Of course Penrith ran an 8 round series with 4 motocross and 4 dirt track events which did spread the variety around a bit. Perhaps HEAVEN could consider including a dirt track event or two in their schedule. Penrith vintage dirt track meetings have lost a lot of their spark in recent years so what about the notion of a combined Penrith/HEAVEN dirt track at Nepean? Or even better, what about a Penrith versus HEAVEN dirt track challenge? I reckon it'd be a win/win for both clubs. I understand that many new generation vintage racers don't ride dirt track as they evolved  from a culture where back in the 80s dirt track had lost its attraction and motocross was the main (only) focus. Prior to that dirt track had a regular part of a racers life which is why dirt track was so popular with the first generation of pre '75 vintage racers.

All I'm doing here is throwing a few ideas into the pot. With any endevour, as soon as apathy sets in it's hard to reignite the passion so It's extremely important for the club to keep that passion alive by not falling into the 'same old, same old' scenario that I think was the major cause in the downturn of the sport a few years ago. Recent events have shown that there is a strong surge of renewed interest so we (HEAVEN/Penrith and other clubs) need to keep moving forward and not fall into the old apathy trap.