It's a good question. Starting a club takes a great deal of patience. It takes years to develop a core group which will be self sustaining and every club teeters on the brink when they first start. It doesn't hurt to have a plan to start with. Adopt a goal such as gaining 100 members or the ability to put on a national in 5 years.
NETA is a little odd in that we are a club but we're also a sanctioning body. Essentially we make it possible for the smaller local clubs to operate within a common framework in the region. NETA doesn't put on events per se but a club wanting to put on an NETA sanctioned event gets a ready made regional ridership and rules. In the event the club is not AMA chartered NETA becomes the club for the day taking care of insurance and AMA paperwork and other details like having an NETA officer current with the AMA safety course. This allows very small clubs to hold events. This seeding strategy has worked well as the small clubs have grown and are starting to get their own AMA charters and established riderships in their local areas.
All clubs wax and wane over the years. One of the biggest factors to remember is the pipeline gets filled from the bottom. It's very easy to get wrapped up in the whole debate about making riders better that the fundamental reason for a club, to have fun, is lost. Never lose sight of the fact the lower classes are there for recreation in the form of friendly competition. If the bug bites them to get better they will move up the classes but you cannot force it. Riders will just quit and the club will cease to exist.
Another problem is accessability. If the people who are likely to be trials riders don't know when, where, and how they ride trials they won't. The beauty of the web is it's power to distribute information but most of the riders just starting out are still introduced the old fashioned way. Through one on one invitation.
As politics go it is dangerous to put too much authority/responsibility on individuals. It's important everybody understand they own some responsibility for the future of the club. If you want to complain about the rules the place to do it is at the annual meeting. All riders have the right to be heard and the responsibility to listen. There are some who think that makes the NETA annual meeting too long but at our current membership levels I think it is a necessity. This includes every dues paying member. If a ten year old has a beef with something it is important to show the same respect for his opinion as for a fifty year old rider.
Why?
Three reasons,
1. The club belongs to its members. It is the membership's responsibility to determine the future direction of the club. Take away that feeling of ownership and you damage the group dynamic by removing responsibility riders have for each other.
2. Great care must be taken not to segment riders by "importance". One member one vote. Little Tyler on his GasGas 50 is as much (actually quite a bit better) of a trials rider as I am. We all have a narrow view of what the sport needs. Trialsmasters would like to make money. Experts are worried about sections that are too boring. Novices are worried about sections that are too scary. Seniors are worried about work the next day. Only as a group is it possible to see the whole picture.
3. You never know where the leaders for the future will come from. One thing for sure it isn't going to be us old guys. The best way to teach someone how to run the club is to make sure they have a hand in running it year in - year out. Yes that includes making sure the kids know their voices and votes are necessary for the health of the organization because....Psssst (whisper) in a few years they'll be running it.
I did the NETA vice president thing for three years and president for two. The job mostly consists of troubleshooting. Chasing missing AMA paperwork, finding contact information, settling rules disputes. Even these are mostly handled by the membership. The missing paperwork...call the trialsmaster and have him dig through the box his event stuff got thrown into. Contact information...call the trialsmaster and tell him his number is going on the web unless he gives you a valid alternative. Let him go chase it. Rules dispute...If a protest isn't handled by the trialsmaster (which it usually is) then as a group (board of directors) make as fair a ruling as possible and stick to it.
When it comes to making the rules the word of the membership is paramount. The only exception, and this had to be granted by the membership, is in extreme cases regarding safety to the riders, spectators or the organization, the board of directors can make a rule change without membership approval. Fortunately this hasn't happend yet.
When you distill it down NETA is much like the US government (without the bloat) The membership is the legislature who pass the laws. The trialsmasters are the judiciary who interperet the laws with the vice president/scorekeeper the supreme court. The president is the executive branch who runs the annual meeting and tries to set a general course for the future of the organization. Er...and gets blamed for stuff.
The advice I gave to next year's president is to trust the membership. They're a pretty bright bunch of people. Well taken as a group anyway.
Hehehe.
Dan
