Jeremy wrote:One, admittedly fairly radical, idea is to question whether a formal society of association structure is actually beneficial.
There are several special interest groups, formed via internet fora, that operate very successfully without being so structured. Some have "membership" figures running to thousands. Many organise events, hold social gatherings and shows, as well as having a lively on-line presence.
I think that this has been part of the success of the G-Wiz owners club forums. There is no formal society, it's just a group of like-minded enthusiasts. Some people join because they're curious about the cars and want to ask questions. Others join because we've been building up a fairly good technical section. Some join for the social side or just for the banter.
We organise a few events - not many, I grant you, but we do a few. We generate a small amount of income through online advertising and this pays for window stickers and club memorabilia. We have some equipment that has been donated to the club which is available for members to borrow, and we have written our own diagnostics software to allow members to manage and maintain their own batteries.
The club is also active in campaigning for new public charging points around the country and tackling some of the issues that members have when using public charging bays.
We have a team of volunteers who are available to be interviewed by the press and we have arranged for loan cars for journalists and local government authorities.
We are in the process of creating a second web site to encourage our international membership. When this is launched it will provide information about the club in ten different languages. The forums are being updated to include international translation tools to allow members to translate English into their choice of language.
We have no politics and no subscriptions. We do not have a magazine, and my thoughts have been we should never have one... that said, I like the Midas magazine I've just been looking through. Hmmmm...
The group has almost 700 members and new members continue to join at a rate of 10-20 a month.