Wild Flower Sniffers of WA

[tiggr]

Hi to all , we recently were asked to join up the Land Rover Owners club of WA , to inspire a younger generation to join up . You see the guy who asked me is Brad Tottman the Editor of the club {could have been vice pres ?} so off to the club meeting i went ! Well i nearly fell over all the Zimmer frames , and felt right out of place without a cardigan and knee blanket . The average age as a ruff guess would be 60-65 and the second youngest member was like 48 , so i sat thru the meeting and very politly made my exit - stage left even - while the hordes race to buy a jam and chuckney jar from the kiosk ! Some weeks went by with Brad still chasing me up , wanting to inject soe fresh blood into the club so i said i would put my feelers out and just see the responce from some mates and customers .
I met up with some mates and ran it by them , to which i passed them a copy of the Club M ag , they opened it to see low and behold "Club trip to see Wild Flowers" so i copped a load of nastiness and the mag back at me at Mach1 .
Brad again contacted me , so i laid it down to him that i didnt think the club was hard enough for the younger tribes , and that some of our haunts may just throw ahip or worse ! The challange came ..."Ok then take me thru one of your tracks " DONE !
Sunday came and we met at our designated location behind the Caltex on Gt Eastern Hwy , at 930 we headed off 3 Rangies , my 87 Steve's 80 and Brad's 84 . Brad also brought along long time member Eugene and his son Christopher .
The day started out with jibes about how hard the track was and "water crossings" which were just puddles , as Brad thought this was the limit ....bup bow !
We headed in further and his electronic ignition broke down , so with some quick work under the bonnet we were away again . But not for long ! His Rangie kept stalling , and yet again his Optispark died , he hada spare so some more work under the bonnet and we were away again. We tackled the first of some mud rutts and to my disgust , Brad drove around using the goat track , we called him a sook , and continued .There is about a 2 meter mud ramp up which if you don't punish the skinny pedal you won't get up , so i snatched Brad up and his other Optispark died just as he reached the top ....back to points , as Steve drove straight up no dramas . We collected our thoughts over a beer while Brad contined to gap his points set up . Lunch was then over and away again , and only 50 meters up the track and a steep decent , i went down no dramas , Steve followed up , then we hear Brad on the uhf "guys something is very wrong i have no steering " from the very bottom of the hill we could see the track rod dragging on the ground and damper with it , so half way down we help Brad rip it out and with tender care straighten her up as best we could so he could at least drive out .3 Hours later and we were away , another 200 meters and i have gone over a large rock out crop with STeve right behind , and shock horror ...NO BRAD ! we get yet another call .."guys someting is wrong with my diff ".....We turn around and there was -no lie - a trail of some 200 meters of black tar like diff oil . Brad's diff expolded and 2 bolts flew out like a shotgun thru the diff housing , one thru the rear and one thru the top . So once again he was under the beast ripping out the tailshaft this time , and we towed him out to the Caltex on the corner of Bailey st Mohogany Creek . Long and the short of it ...we are "cowboys " and i don't think i will get another invite ha ha ha
I contacted Brad later in the week and asked if any of the club members would come next time ....his answer No , they saw the damage and all said no !
Oh well maybe the club should start selling funeral plans with every membership , as the club will be extincted soon without new growth ! :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Hi to all , we recently were asked to join up the Land Rover Owners club of WA , to inspire a younger generation to join up . You see the guy who asked me is Brad Tottman the Editor of the club {could have been vice pres ?} so off to the club meeting i went ! Well i nearly fell over all the Zimmer frames , and felt right out of place without a cardigan and knee blanket . The average age as a ruff guess would be 60-65 and the second youngest member was like 48 , so i sat thru the meeting and very politly made my exit - stage left even - while the hordes race to buy a jam and chuckney jar from the kiosk ! Some weeks went by with Brad still chasing me up , wanting to inject soe fresh blood into the club so i said i would put my feelers out and just see the responce from some mates and customers .
I met up with some mates and ran it by them , to which i passed them a copy of the Club M ag , they opened it to see low and behold "Club trip to see Wild Flowers" so i copped a load of nastiness and the mag back at me at Mach1 .
Brad again contacted me , so i laid it down to him that i didnt think the club was hard enough for the younger tribes , and that some of our haunts may just throw ahip or worse ! The challange came ..."Ok then take me thru one of your tracks " DONE !
Sunday came and we met at our designated location behind the Caltex on Gt Eastern Hwy , at 930 we headed off 3 Rangies , my 87 Steve's 80 and Brad's 84 . Brad also brought along long time member Eugene and his son Christopher .
The day started out with jibes about how hard the track was and "water crossings" which were just puddles , as Brad thought this was the limit ....bup bow !
We headed in further and his electronic ignition broke down , so with some quick work under the bonnet we were away again . But not for long ! His Rangie kept stalling , and yet again his Optispark died , he hada spare so some more work under the bonnet and we were away again. We tackled the first of some mud rutts and to my disgust , Brad drove around using the goat track , we called him a sook , and continued .There is about a 2 meter mud ramp up which if you don't punish the skinny pedal you won't get up , so i snatched Brad up and his other Optispark died just as he reached the top ....back to points , as Steve drove straight up no dramas . We collected our thoughts over a beer while Brad contined to gap his points set up . Lunch was then over and away again , and only 50 meters up the track and a steep decent , i went down no dramas , Steve followed up , then we hear Brad on the uhf "guys something is very wrong i have no steering " from the very bottom of the hill we could see the track rod dragging on the ground and damper with it , so half way down we help Brad rip it out and with tender care straighten her up as best we could so he could at least drive out .3 Hours later and we were away , another 200 meters and i have gone over a large rock out crop with STeve right behind , and shock horror ...NO BRAD ! we get yet another call .."guys someting is wrong with my diff ".....We turn around and there was -no lie - a trail of some 200 meters of black tar like diff oil . Brad's diff expolded and 2 bolts flew out like a shotgun thru the diff housing , one thru the rear and one thru the top . So once again he was under the beast ripping out the tailshaft this time , and we towed him out to the Caltex on the corner of Bailey st Mohogany Creek . Long and the short of it ...we are "cowboys " and i don't think i will get another invite ha ha ha
I contacted Brad later in the week and asked if any of the club members would come next time ....his answer No , they saw the damage and all said no !
Oh well maybe the club should start selling funeral plans with every membership , as the club will be extincted soon without new growth ! :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(


A bit sad really

[grungle99]

Believe it or not this is similar to the club scene everywhere. This is why new clubs are formed - to cater for the group intended. I have just finished setting up a club here in Canberra for the reasons above. Not wanting to compete with other clubs - we are not interested in being rivals - infact we would love to have joint trips with the other clubs in our region and abroad, But Sometimes it is hard to enter an existing club and make changes - the inner sanctum thing. Even harder just to get onto trips and then find out they are tarmac based :(. Doesn't take long before you get disheartened. These clubs should do some market analysis and membership tracking, see how many people join, and see if they stay current financial members for more than a year. Follow up with the people that left to find out why.

No point being blind to the majority.....

[baby_troupe]

Our club has been getting a few "younger" members recently.
What is needed is when clubs do get these newer members is to look after their needs & put on the trips they want, not just the ones the older people have the time to do.
We have been doing that in recent months, but without other members putting on some of the "easier" 1 to 2 day trips, these newer members will be lost.
Also the other problem with clubs is they get too caught up in the political BS, which puts potential new members off.
We need to remember that these clubs are formed & run on 4 wheeling, not arguing about constitutional cr*p & whether they will produce a special run of shirts to support some competition.

[grungle99]

BT

Well Put!!!!


We have an aim each meeting to get the formal stuff overwith within about 1/2 hour so the rest of the time is spent socialising.

4x4 clubs are supposed to be social clubs not political havens for egomaniacs....

Grungle

[bbushy]

Guys,
We go 4wding nearly every weekend and have never been a member of a club. We do all our own trips and stuff and compete in a few events and blah blah blah.
We've got a big group that we go with but none of them are members.
The reason we've never joined up is because of the political stuff and also because of the crap that goes with it. But we are now finding that membership would get us into a lot more events that we want to do and get us into more areas.
What's a club in Vic (Yarra Valley area) that we can join, that has as little crap as possible and another question, are trips compulsary or how does it work?

[grungle99]

bbushy

You sound like you are at where I was about 6 months ago.

We had a larger than life group that we went out with just about every weekend. The concerns started in two places - one was when the scenario of friend of friends start to come along. If something by accident happens, you don't know them personally enough to guarentee not being sued. This was a huge concern especially for the organiser of trips. If you go up a track ad jim in the hundred series rolls it trying - can he sue you for implied safety etc.

Secondly the fact that lots of comps, and even parks are closing to the public. I can forsee that a pre-organised permission situation will exist in most parks soon. This will help track damage by getting hte 4x4 clubs to do some of the policing.

I started researching and found that starting a club was not hard.

The 4wdNSW&ACT body helped me out but the is a Vic version for you to contact.

There are three basic steps.

1. Organise a constitution - (ripoff another clubs for convenience) and then via the state gov. register a Non profit organisation. Cost about 100 bucks

2. Organise public liability insurance - we went through TCIS and it cost about $9 per member.

3. Affilate with the state body - (our case 4wdNSW&ACT) cost $11.50 per member.


Overall for about 20 members a break even membership is about $45 initially with possibly a reduction at the first renewel as some costs are one off.
It is amazing how much support new clubs get fromt he comunity.

We have had nothing but positive feedback and looks like our membership base will explode now Canberra has thawed for the season!!!

If you want more information let me know.

It is worth the effort honestly.

Cheers

Grugle

[KGal]

We have the problem of older groups up here. The only group in my area has a lot of older members who only go on day trips on bitumen and if they do happen to go on a 2 day trip they will only camp at places with all the facilities (hot showers, toilets etc) I am looking at having to go an hour to be able to join a group that does do more than bitumen driving. I had never thought though to set up kind of like a "younger" version of the club....an interesting idea I have seen Rotary do it having a Rotaract club I don't see why it can't be that way with 4wding

[Another Nissannut]

As a member of a club in brisbane we have All types of demographics (bloody big word) The club as a whole is family based but caters for all types tourers, newbies, hardcore competitors etc thankfully all can co-exist with little or no drama.

[stevesub]

We are new to the country this year but have had extensive off roading experience both in Australia and overseas. We have been trying to join 2 clubs near were we live snce we arrived here in March but the 3 easy trip rule before you can join is a pain in the butt.

We have wiped one club as after 6 months we had only done one trip, other trips had not been advertised or the dates had been changed at the last minute making it very hard to find out details of when and where trips are held. With only one easy trip every couple of months, it made it too hard.

We have now found a club that suits us that took our money and let us join.

The sad fact is that we have had a lot of experence running clubs overseas and are more than willing and able to do such jobs as mag Editor, Secreatry, committe memeber and with time President (done all these before) but the clubs make it so hard for us to join, yet compain about lack of new members or people to help run the club.

Like others, most of our off roading is by ourselves as there are heaps of tracks in our area but we prefer the club scene. Congratulations to the Range Rover Owners Club of Queensland for letting us join with a Freelander and Troopy.

Yes, we are over 50, we do not want to wreck our vehicles so only want to do easy and medium stuff (maybe some hard but no extreme) - but we have fun and the bitumum is not for us.

[grungle99]

Steve

Again you have been on the end of the common problem with clubs generally - you need to be on the inner cirdle of the sanctum before you can be helpful. Most clubs don't accept the fact that people have skills that may be of huge advantage to the club - instead they make it difficult to join, then even worse - they drive the new members away to the point that they don't re-new the membership. These clubs should look at stats - how many people join and stay joined more than one year.


Our club (bit to far for you buddy) has had an amazing response from public, shops and even other clubs wantign to be part of it. Personally I am stoked it has gone so well and I can see it getting better. Everything is generally casual and people have a great range of skills that will only make the club stronger - let them help I say....


Glad you found a club that is accomodating.

Cheers
Grungle

[grungle99]

Steve

Just checked out your WWW.

Have been to Bribie Island - Don't know if I am full of crap or not but I think I even saw your place - Make me jealous mate.

Enjoy the beauty.

Cheers

Glenn

[Bradtot]

What a load of Crap
I have just found this old thread and I am the one with the damaged vehicle
the writer does not know what day it is.
I am still a member of the LROCWA and proud of it
Great people
I am now 49 but am not the youngest
Wild flower sniffers indeed.
Just because the club wasnt for him there is no need to bag it.
I have run many a great day and weekend trip for the club but I also do it cause I want to do it for me.
I could say more but wont.
Brad:mad:

[Urshtnme]

Hey Brad, each to their own mate. Some clubs just aren't for certain people where as others are.

True about the bagging, I think it could've been worded a little better.

I wouldn't mind seeing some club photos mate.

[Coupland]

What a load of Crap
I have just found this old thread and I am the one with the damaged vehicle
the writer does not know what day it is.
I am still a member of the LROCWA and proud of it
Great people
I am now 49 but am not the youngest
Wild flower sniffers indeed.
Just because the club wasnt for him there is no need to bag it.
I have run many a great day and weekend trip for the club but I also do it cause I want to do it for me.
I could say more but wont.
Brad:mad:

I can see you are still a little ticked off Brad about the incident (4 years on)...

[Bradtot]

Yeah u can say I am a bit ticked off. The reason being that I did not know he even posted all this crap 4 years ago!
He really dramatised what happened and makes it sound like it was a real bad event.
Well I can tell you it wasnt. Yes I did have some troubles but that Rangie I had did 525000kms before I sold it and is still going now.
The author of that crap story has also done the dirty on me with some parts he promised to get and never did even though he was paid for them in advance.
As I say I will leave it there as if I say more I will get kicked off this forum.
I just hate liars.
our club website
www.lrocwa.org
and go to the forum and have a browse around
For a club to be celebrating its 40th year next year and still with active founding members must be doing something right wouldnt u not say so?
Ok am off my box and will settle down now
I am at the moment the club captain vice president:D
Brad