Classic Car Clubs

There are a lot of guys that are highly qualified to give accurate help \information to anyone who needs it.we are hoping it will not be subject to people who are not going to try to make money out of unsuspecting owners.I hope that the guys on here will be offering solutions to problems in order to keep the costs of running our cars down instead of trying to profit from them.I know more people will join with a lot of experience of our cars. But without the rules and constriction of speech\opinions of the SOC forum. Yes you will get different opinions even from the most experienced but hopefully they won't be removed by the hierarchy.

This is of course different but I am hoping that if someone decides to give you a slap you either accept it and don't burst out crying or you slap back if you believe that you are right.

We have a really good club,Silverstone Social
Classic and intresting modern cars
Back on this Sunday
You get all sorts there
Few Stags as well
Not too many grumpy dasadrews there,apart from me lol

Hopefully this forum will become what the SOC forum was a few years ago. People who live in the real world with a genuine desire to help other owners with no hidden agenda other than making new friends and the personal satisfaction from helping someone who was stuck.There were a group of us on the SOC who did just this and had some fun and banter along the way. Then the dasadrews and snowflakes started whinging to the webmaster. This resulted in many of us leaving taking our skills, knowledge and experience with us. A small group of us are still great friends and in regular contact and most have registered here so there is a very good chance this forum will thrive. 

Amen to that, Dark Lord, and ye of deep blue coach works! I see no reason why it shouldn’t thrive and surpass the now ‘woke’ Stag lives matter SOC forum, and become the fun and helpful place that the pre donkey, oirish, milf and fussybollox SOC forum was.

Let’s hope that thrush, gassy and dazza the dealer keep their distance too, poisonous little turds.

Onwards and upwards chaps for a bright sunny forum

Do we know if there is a silence or ignore button or facility on this system for hecklers? Might be useful if some of the FB knobs appear...

Hello Mr Grolly

for some reason and for as long as I remember grollies are hard cat biscuits. no idea where that came from but made me smile.

I fear that one make / model clubs like SOC are a fading concept. They worked beautifully in a pre digital age but now are rapidly becoming redundant. Club Triumph would appear to be a notable exception, vibrant, modern, etc etc. 

SOCTFL and other independent organisations are looking after the part supply and many other forums exist to help members. My first point of call is 99% youtube when trying to do anything. Facebook alas is far too full of fake news and keyboard warriors for me to bother with any more

General car clubs are the route forwards, you do not even need to own a car to join any of them. You go along to a meet and get a diverse selection of motors, a wide range of age groups and of course knowledgeable folk who will help.

I stuck a post titled "Value for Money" into the members area of socforum a couple of years ago, in response Carl asked me to be a moderator, I still am but frequently have to deal with snowflake, aged spats and then get overruled by the admin. I have given it a couple of years and to be honest not a lot has changed. My last year in SOC I think.



Value for Money

6th March 2018, 13:25

Don't shoot me down! I am not looking to attack any persons for their voluntary work within the club, in fact I would go so far as to applaud anyone who offers their time to help. Genuinely wish I had more time to offer.



I want to make some observations of the club and value for money. I want to stick it here under club business for feedback.



I dont have the answers or the specialist expertise to offer but as a customer of SOC I am able to decide whether the club is good for me of not. Maybe from a member perspective SOC is going in the wrong way. I hear that membership is declining



Firstly my credentials



I have been a long term multiple Stag owner. My first was in the late 1980s, I owned it for a couple of years, my second, which I still own, I bought nearly 24 years ago. I have been a member of SOC throughout my ownership of the two cars.



My concern



When I bought my first Stag, the SOC club magazine helped me find that car and put me in touch with other owners and specialists. Buying from the club advertisements seemed the obvious choice for me rather than Exchange and Mart or local ads. Obviously the club magazine was only available to club members.



There was little information available on line for most of the 1990s. I posted quite a lot to the email based Stag Digest as it was then. But otherwise information was difficult to come by. SOC magazine and contacts did help me during this period but already sources outside SOC were available.



Now any information that I want is at the end of my finger tips. videos via youtube, information via google, digital ROM and readily accessible information direct from retailers.



What I am saying somewhat clumsily is that none of this current information is in any way exclusive or even more easily accessible to the SOC membership.



My feedback



What do I get from the SOC?

• The forum, well you all know what happened there and I don’t really need to go into it here BUT the new skin on the forum is dreadful and despite persevering I cannot get my head around it. It is without any doubt the most un-user friendly forum that I contribute to. It seems to be all but dead now with misinformation and self proclaimed experts shouting anyone else down. other long term owners exiled rightly or wrongly, self imposed or otherwise. net result is that more useful resources are available elsewhere!
  
• The monthly glossy mag 70% of which is regional reports or glossy adverts about expensive tours that I have no interest in. Remaining content can be of interest, BUT I must admit that I am not filled with joy when the mag drops through my letter box, invariably I don’t even open it until I am bored and then read through half a dozen of them in one sitting. They then go into a box which ends up in the shed. For some reason I don’t even recycle the damned things
  
• Regional meetings don’t interest me, National meetings I have been to three, why only three you ask? Well driving a Stag through my local town, folk stop and stare, “oh a staaag”. Drive a Stag to a one make, one model national show and it is no longer special for me. I know that more recently the club has joined up with other model, but the meetings have clashed with family holidays etc so I have not tried them out. I prefer to go to generic classic car shows Chiltern Hills, Kop Hill etc rather than another National day.
  
• RAC discount for 5 star overseas cover, I have in the past used this but it just got more and more expensive so I don’t bother anymore.
  
  Insurance discount through RH, but that is far from the cheapest available for the limited mileage that I do, I will be shopping around this year.
  
• Club valuation, why I have to pay for on top of my membership fee?!? I am only likely to need a valuation maybe every other year at the absolute most, why does the club feel the need to charge for this?
  
• Seasonal discounts from certain suppliers, that brings them down to the same price as others
  
• Club Regalia, not interested at all, I have the badge on the windscreen advertising the club that I had to pay for.
  
• Spares are not available through the club. SOCTFL is a great idea and I understand that a chunk of my subscription goes to reproduce quality bits that I might use. But can I buy them through SOC or SOCTFL?
  
• Being a member of the biggest one model club in the UK? hmmmm yet I continue with my membership, why?
  

So what to do

• The club needs to offer value for money to all members, quite how it does this will cause much debate. I fully acknowledge that many members are happy with the way it is, in print and down the pub at the regional N&N, or all tucked up under the gazebos at various car shows. But I wonder if that membership is declining as folk’s interests change
  
  The club needs to get into the 21st century to retain my interest. Social media and on line presence is mandatory now rather than nice to have! The SOC website is old fashioned, the forum virtually unusable, facebook / twitter / whatever Are they even run by the club? Look how other clubs are milking it! 
• The club needs to be active in rooting out poor quality rubbish product that is further destroying the cars reputation. In my experience SOC would rather bury their head in a bucket of sand than warn members where there might be issues! 
• The club needs to offer spares through SOCTFL / whatever direct to members. Many other clubs do this with their spares. 
• The club needs to link tightly with other clubs for national days, what about SOC, Scimitar and Merc SL joint national days? Now that I would cancel a family holiday for! 
• The club needs to remain vibrant as we near the third decade in the 21st century! Dare I say it younger members needs to be encouraged to join and contribute, I suspect that they may be put off by the leathery old goat image (ok that is just me) of Stag ownership. Bit like the MGB CAMRA beardy metaphor. Other clubs I see are loaning cars out to prospective young owners. SOC stand at NEC could have a sign up to borrow a staaaag for a month type of campaign?!? 
• What are SOC planning for the 50th Birthday? A campaign of 50th anniversary of key moments throughout the development? not seen anything yet. Maybe it will just be a big cake in a gazebo at the national day.....

My membership is due next month and I will commit to one more year with SOC but after that Sports six might get my money. Just look at how exciting they look and how they present themselves!





Just saying