Originally posted by Kaiser:
Well, I'm just sick that just as we were starting to gather momentum on a club revival and possible renaming, the website crapped out and has stayed out for so long. Hopefully we'll be able to get that resolved soon.
In the meantime, the big meeting I was planning is postponed until we get our lines of communication going again.
I apologize in advance if I sound preachy here, especially since my job pretty well caused me to disappear for about three years. Please forgive me for pulling the 'Member #1' card... this is not an indictment of the current leaders, but an observation of a condition that has been progressing over the last few years.
Are we an Internet club, or a car club?
This is why overdependence on an Internet site is a bad thing. There is no substitute for regular meetings at a real physical location, a current club roster with telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and yes, MAILING ADDRESS.
XOC and swxc.org (or whatever succeeds it) are invaluable resources (thank you Carlton and Robert), but don't rely on them exclusively. The redundant Yahoo! Group put in place in 2001 has not seen a post since August of 2007, and only three total posts last year. Our backup got rusty....and it served us well when Roger had to pull the plug on our host in Waco.
Several of the other clubs early on in 'Xterradom' imploded early in the game due to political infighting, egos, 2wd vs. 4wd p!$$!ng contests, and a near obsession on forums to communicate the message of the club. Ask Carlton, ask Robert... we can give you stories galore. Remember Steve at Marlboro Nissan, or the Unofficial Xterra Message Board? If you weren't around before 2002, probably not... to my point.
The club faces many challenges it did not in 1999:
* Higher gas prices ($.89 vs. $3.17) makes it a lot harder to travel out of town for meets.
* Xterra sales and production volume have declined consistently for a while now (see higher gas prices)
* Most of us are working a lot harder then we were then to make ends meet- times are not as easy. Some may even be out of work.
* Many of us have additional responsibilities (spouses, children, mortgages)that we did not then. This takes up time, and causes us to buy different vehicles that meet our obligations better- maybe?
* 1st gen vs. 2nd gen p!$$!ng contests
* I remember when I got back on the board recently, instead of just sending me the information by some method, someone said, "Go look at the Forum on the club website'. That resource of course is down right now....where is the backup? Just XOC.
* No one has contacted me directly about attending an event in years...
* No one acknowledged my change of address when I moved from Keller to Houston in 2006- and I did send an e-mail to the Secretary. See how the Internet can fail?
* No one has contacted me to remind me to pay my dues.... or tell me they were overdue...in years. I blow the equivalent of annual dues anytime I take the kids to McDonald's. But it sure adds up when it is all in the treasury from a bunch of people. Then you can fund fun events!
It faces ever present issues:
* Turnover (selling Xterra, moving, totaled in wrecks, divorce, etc.)
* Awareness
* Politics/ Cliques/ personality differences
* Changes in direction due to annual change of leadership
The real answer is to get more organized, not just at a state or regional level, but at a local level. It addresses a lot of the concerns and challenges in place. Suggestions:
* Local chapter leaders
* More Non-four wheeling (social) events
* Events not scheduled on major holidays
* Something going on every month
* E-mail and telephone trees
* Community work (ARES/ RACES, motorist assistance, annual charity donation, Habitat for Humanity etc.)
Grassroots efforts all over the country is what got this movement started, and will keep it going.
If members or prospects have to go out of their way to get information or assistance, don't count on a growing club. It took hundreds of hours of planning, tracking, typing, cutting, pasting, counting, contacting again and again about events (we actually used 'hard line' telephones back then, too
), mailing out reminders for events and dues to get this club started.
SWXC has succeeded through good times and tough because of people who worked their tails off, but never wanted credit or recognition, never quit being ambassadors of the club, went out to people instead of making people come to them, and didn't flame the crud out of anyone they disagree with.
Off-road events would have been a disaster without Carlton. And while he was never afraid to get into a flame war.... well...
Roger would have never gotten a 4wd if I didn't get him to come to East Texas and meet us, and get him and his his 2wd stuck on a trail at Barnwell
.. and in turn that would have meant no toy drives into Mexico. Yes.. we actually managed to do charity work at one time, too. It would have never happened without Roger, though, who made friends with an Xterra Owner in Mexico, and thought of others above himself.
Scott and Daniel poured tons of energy into motivating the membership and campaigning for fun events, and carried the club out of infancy and into the second generation of product.
And Robert... has been the North Star. He has been there ALWAYS since DAY ONE, and has never strayed, unlike the rest of the Charter Members.
I have left many others out... due to my own failure to stay involved.
Ask Ian about how many hours he worked putting XOC on the Web in the first place. The answer is so big, he probably cannot quantify it. And without GOX, an event where cryptic screen names become real people, it would have never reached the level it did when he handed the keys to Carlton.
The club is approaching it's tenth anniversary (August 2009). It was Carlton's idea back in 1999, and Robert. Steve Richardson & I worked hard to ensure it's survival. I'm glad it is still around. but it feels like it is in adolescence. It swaggers, and staggers, wants to change it's name, and it could get drunk and drive into a tree because its brain and body are not in sync.
I believe it can be more successful. Like all organizations, it falls victim to the 80/20 rule... 20% of the members do 80% of the work. Let' spread the work out, and get more done instead of relying on the same two or three folks who step up to the plate and take an officer's seat every year.
I'll quit 'monologuing' so you don't fall asleep, and go put on my asbestos underwear for the coming conflagration. Thank you for enduring this.