There are a few points I would like to make on this subject they are not directed at anyone in particular so if your feeling all offended and miffed Tough.
We are all adults even if we don’t act like it, no one else is responsible for our happiness if your not happy with the events DO SOMETHING don’t moan and bitch like a child.
An event may mean different things to different people, meeting friends chilling out etc At the core of it however the best definition was from Barry Overton in this club 20 odd years ago, “The purpose of an event is to develop our driving skills and to develop our vehicles so we can achieve more” I believe this to be true it must be, every one who has come to the club has developed their driving skills to a very high level, well above the national offroad average, because the standard is so high in this club, this fact if often overlooked. Everyone seems to be disappearing into the garage after events and low and behold next time out their vehicle has been improved, so the second part is also true. Where is all this going you may ask? Well it causes a problem, remember your first site how extreme it felt, the events just got better then after a while they seemed somehow more tame?

This is normal, your skills develop with experience and you can’t help just fitting those great new tyres or locker or two can you? The point is in striving to develop your vehicle and your skills you have destroyed the original challenge. Over the last twenty odd years on roughly 5 yearly cycles the club reaches the point it did early last summer where the membership were bored with the sites and demanded bigger and better challenges, This need was driven at Trev our secretary.

Unfortunaetly Trev will not be able to help you with your addiction because whatever challenging sites he provides you will develop your skills further or your vehicle further. There is another problem by giving the more advanced members of the club what they need he procludes new entry into the club, for novice drivers with stock vehicles. I believe that the club should provide a range of sites through the year as it does at present. If you want bigger challenges you make them, remember my opening statement you are responsible for your own happiness. Some of you may have lost the thread here, so here are some examples:-
1) 10years ago the club was moaning “not that site again” so I purchased some punches and we set up a few in the tree’s note the point I PURCHASED not I moaned at Trev to do something.
2)Two years ago I was bored with off road driving but there was an event at shottle the ground was hard and there was little to be had by way of a challenge I took the 101 forward control on nearly bold bar grips no balast tyres at full road pressure result one of the most challenging afternoons I have ever had.
3) wagtail has a see saw, it didn’t arrive there by accident one of the clubs made it, most members of this club could make a modular see saw to take to the tamer events, with a bit of thought a interesting section could be made by setting it up on the course rather than in the car park.

The purpose of these examples is not to suggest you make a see saw or buy a 101 it is to highlight that with a bit of thought YOU can make YOUR off road event better for YOU and EVERYONE ELSE. My last thought for you to consider is for the members who are at the top of the tree in terms of vehicle development and driver skills may be it is time for you to move to pastures new. Far from weakening the club it has strengthened it over the years. for example when Chris started comp Safari many years ago his vehicle and skills had to undergo a massive step improvement, but so did everyone else’s as a result of being involved or just seeing the results at the club event. Surprisingly attendence at the tamer events goes up for members who enter challenge events and Safaris. They break the truck more have to rebuild it and need a gentle play off road to shake the truck down before the next challenge in so doing they bring fresh ideas and innovation into the club to be used by all, this prevents stagnation.
Thoughts fellow members please
Nigel

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Club Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.