Replica Section Co-ordinator

[lowebird]

Hello Chaps,
I am hoping that all of you read the General Section regardless of the car you drive. The reason is that I am considering putting myself in the hot seat and becoming a Replica Section Co-Ord. I have been in communication with Mike Horlar who is willing to push for a regular spot in the magazine but this will of course be subject to everyone who has an interest in this section doing something other than relying on others all the time.
This could be in the nature of an article about your car, how and why you have it, what you like to do with it, good and bad things about etc, the possibilities are endless.
I am aware that the current content of the Forum is mainly focussed on Suffolk SS100, that is perhaps because the owners of these cars are more willing to put finger to key board. What we need is for the owners of all the other replicas out there to do the same otherwise this initiative is doomed before it gets going.
If you have read this far and think it is a worthwhile exercise, please let me know, I can go back to Mike confident that we can do as well as any other section.
In the recent past, I have "organised" a meet for replicas ( well SS100 owners ) at the Snetterton Vintage Festival and I think it fair to say that we all enjoyed it and each others company so once a year we could do something similar.
If, on the other hand, I get a negative response then, no harm done, we shall just keep enjoying what we do the way we are currently doing it.

[NATONEIL]

Reg

I would support this.

[lowebird]

Thank you Neil, but I think you know as well as I do that we need others besides you, me and Roy otherwise it is business as usual which I have no problem with.

[lowebird]

O.K. So nobody other than Neil is interested, a great pity but I'm not surprised. We will just have to enjoy our cars on our own.

[RoyC]

I think that only the three of us ever look in here.
It seems that other replica owners are either not aware this section exists or are not bothered.

[NATONEIL]

Both, but if you drive a replica Jaguar you probably spend too much time on the road enjoying yourself

[Brakebuster]

Both, but if you drive a replica Jaguar you probably spend too much time on the road enjoying yourself

chaps, following with interest,,,

however ,I don't think its specific to just your cars, I think its club wide, and I would think that less than ten percent of membership actually visits this website, and ten present of those actually post something, hence the perceived lack of numbers, and no matter how much we promote the website/Forums in the magazine ( that does go to every single individual ) we don't seem to increase the numbers doing so

the nature of the ' car club ' I think

BB

[J44EAG]

Getting members to use this site is not easy.

Is it an age related thing or that of a resistance to engage with an IT based phenomena?

I`m convinced some of the reticence is down to peoples general laziness. As an aside and slightly off topic perhaps, the other day I took a phone call from a member who clearly wanted me to do a considerable amount of running around for him. He demanded I arrange for my local Gosport based Terraclean man to travel to Ashford in Kent and Terraclean his car at a preferential rate! The man was quite put out when I said he would be best off looking in his local Yellow Pages and negotiating his own best deal with a selected contractor. He was a non IT type. He had thrown his Yellow Pages in the bin. Some people are incapable of helping themselves. It slightly raises the question as to what people expect from the JEC, its Co-ordinators and its Forums. I sometimes get the impression that members do not realise that the role of a Forum Co-ordinator is voluntary and unpaid.

I`m unsure how we can further encourage members to make full use of this Forum facility. I`ve mentioned its existence on countless occasions in the magazine. I suspect that the numbers of us actually spannering our cars ourselves is on the decline and in the minority. The trend would appear to be that the vast majority of members put their servicing and repairs out to the trade. That`s ok if you have the cash to fund it. One thing is sure though. Outsourcing car repairs doesn`t help us build any particular Forum up to a high level and we can`t force people to engage. I`ll take a stab at the numbers actively using the X350 Forum facility as being only about 35 members on a semi-regular basis. And that is for a relatively popular and fairly new model.

I`m sure many of us would like to see a much larger input from JEC members here and would give the appropriate encouragement and assistance needed to progress matters further. Presently though, I`m at something of a loss to know how we can further encourage people to make an appearance on this section of Club activities.

Anyone have any ideas?

Mike K

[lowebird]

Thanks for your thoughtful post Mike, I think everything you say is true. Perhaps its just down to those of us who are "true" enthusiasts wanting to share some of the joy with others and then hoping that they will respond likewise.
If what you say about the numbers using the X150 site ( and that is a very popular car ) then we have no hope but no matter, I have at least met a few other enthusiasts which is all I really wanted.

[ptjs1]

Lowebird,

Well done on offering to put your head above the parapet and act as Replica Co-ordinator!

I fully appreciate your concerns that many of us share about the lack of membership engagement on the website forum and the JEC website generally. I suspect there are a combination of factors at play here. These would include the fact that the JEC has a relatively high average age of membership. Sadly this won't change until the club can really market itself to a much younger age group, which should be achievable given the Jaguar new model penetration to a much younger audience than in previous years.

The other factor is that the club needs to drive much more of its activities, advertising, event promotion, publication, offers etc through he website. In this way, members will be encouraged / "pushed" towards using the website. That culture needs to be driven through all of the club activities and communications by club officials in a much stronger fashion than perhaps currently happens.

As regards the use of the "forums" by which i mean the online discussion boards, then it certainly doesn't need to be about technical queries or hands-on maintenance. It's entirely reasonable and appropriate that online discussion can be as much about social occasions, events etc. We must not regards the forum merely as a "technical" discussion medium.

On a more positive point, a "model forum", (which confusingly the club still entitles it's model focus organisation) can exist quite successfully without an online forum presence. We have seen this with other model forums of the club whereby magazine pages, telephone technical contacts, social events etc can still enable an engagement of model owners to thrive within the club even without online support.

Very best of luck in your role. And rest assured that even if many of us do not have a replica model, we still enjoy seeing them, reading about your exploits and hearing of your experiences as owners!

Cheers

Paul

[lowebird]

Paul,

Thank you for your post, I appreciate the time you have taken to express your encouragement. Despite the seeming indifference by replica, recreation or evocation owners, I continue to plough the lonely furrow and have made contact personally with a few owners who are enthusiasts and like to drive their cars and also attend shows etc.
They are just not either interested in cyber friends via the club site or are not club people at all, hence I have given up on the whole co-ord thing and am sticking to what I enjoy. We still have Roy and Neil who are usually to be found on here dispensing hard won knowledge.

[J44EAG]

The important thing is that Replica cars are represented and by your good self and others. That is excellent.

Within our Forum scene, many of us will read others posts even if not about our own models. It adds to the interest. You certainly don`t need to feel lonely as there are many good guys working the site that are interested in models other than the ones we personally own.

So my post here is to give you every encouragement and to do what is practicable and possible within the net that we have all created here. We are watching and learning and will be here to give you every assistance should you wish it.

Keep at it.

Mike K

[NATONEIL]

Reading all with interest. Little hard won knowledge today.