OK, this is just me thinking out loud since I can't get into the member section and it's been some time since the conference call.
Things that NEED to happen:
We need officers, 3 was the number everyone on the call seemed to like. I think it needs to be taken further and that there is once person per region/state as an officer and then we have 3 that would be treasurer, VP and president. Reason for this, I'm thinking that FP will probably hold one of those 3 spots but I hardly see him as wanting to be organizing things for the chapters in NJ. Let NJ people do that. Obviously this is something that will need to grow and as a township to city type of deal, until we have a considerable amount of members per area, the area that a region encompasses may be actually quite large.
We need to figure out how we are going to carry over the member numbers from the last membership. I propose that we allow those that wish to continue to use their number, are given a set time to request their number after which time , the numbers are recycled and given to new members in the order they become available. I'd say if the members haven't contributed anything in the last year, they probably don't own a XF anymore, 6 mo, not a social member, 3 mo, slacking and need a kick in the pants. There should be a role call to all current members and if they fall into one of the previous categories, find out if they are indeed still an owner and wants to actively participate or if they're long gone in a new whip never to be seen again. They should also have some identifier letting people know they were from the original XFi such as red number if the normal one is black or outlined or some other unique distinguishing feature. This is not to make the rest of the members look any less important but it is a way to understand that say, FP is number 100 and I'm number 51, that I know that he has indeed been a member longer than I have even though he has a high number in sequence.
We need to figure out what we will be doing as a whole with this club. Are we going to be just meeting up for wings and beers once a month or are we going to actually get into some sanctioned events such as track days/weekends, things like the dragon but all over the country and maybe even the world. I do wonder how many members do we have in other countries? Does anyone know the number? What kind of community involvement could we have?
What are we going to do as far a membership dues? This, I think, will play a dual role in moderating our members and finding out who is still here. It needs to be reoccurring. I'm not against an initial charge, which with you get your membership number, decal, name put into the records, and I'm thinking some type of business card type deal with info about the club, the forum and yourself. You may want your user name on it, you may not. You may want everything down to your phone number of it, or nothing at all. That choice would be yours. This will all be part of the initial membership registration. Then after that, should you need new decals or more cards, they can be purchased anytime thereafter. Also, we need to come up with some figures. Will it be $50 up front and then $25 every year there after or will it be a deal where it's like $2 a month for as long as you're a member at which time you don't pay your dues, you cease to be a member after a few months.
How are we going to divvy up the funding for meet and greets, event's, track days, etc? I think another thing that may have a positive influence is discounting events based on membership. Like all crossfires are welcome to attend but it will be XXX for you and XX for members type deal. Then offer them a membership afterwords if they like what they see. Another thing people mentioned are discounts through Chrysler dealerships and other parts suppliers. If we had an organized chapter and make a list of all the places that will currently offer us a discount on parts, we can not only probably have more success recruiting more dealerships and suppliers into discounting parts for us members but we can also have a large enough network of individuals that if say one chapter doesn't have any luck getting into discounts, another chapter that does, can work with them getting the parts ordered and shipped out to them.
Last but not least, we need to determine how we are going to do all of the above in a timely manner yet take enough time to do it correctly so we don't have a bunch of snafus along the way. Anyone that has run a club or beet part of a club that had bylaws, if you have a copy of them and how the structuring of the club went, please feel free to chime in and enlighten us. We are obviously going to have some struggles along the way but I think this can really go somewhere if it is put in good hands and handled properly.
I'm excited to see what may come of this.
Hope everyone is as enthused as I am.