If the cap fits?

There has been a debate – or rather an attempt at debate – on the GWOCGB Forum, in the context of the Club’s declining membership.  It was about what constitutes “politics”, often cited by Wingers as something they really don’t like.

“Politics” seems to be a pretty important membership factor – especially in membership retention, which has been a serious problem for GWOCGB for some years.  The Club has suffered steadily declining membership and took a particularly big hit last year. Generally speaking the new independent clubs are thriving and the older ones are also doing very nicely too; it’s really only GWOCGB that’s in serious membership decline.

So if “politics” is what turns Wingers say causes them to leave the Club, what exactly do they mean by it and what can be done to improve things?

This was potentially a very useful question for GWOCGB to pose to itself and in the privacy of the Members-Only Area of the Club’s Forum it could have led to constructive discussion and maybe thereby to ideas for turning the Club’s fortunes.

Unfortunately it rapidly degenerated into challenging personal criticism and argument and it got quite heated, even by GWOCGB Forum standards.  The webmaster called time and locked the Thread; the discussion was nipped in the bud.

The Thread is still there for Members to see, or at least it was when this Article was published.  It illustrates very clearly to those Members of GWOCGB who don’t already know that friendly discussion comes hard to their Club – and that joining any discussion on the Forum puts you at risk of personal attack if any of the resident bullies takes objection.  Perhaps this answers the question which was posed anyway, by providing a vivid illustration of what Wingers mean when they say they don’t like about GWOCGB’s politics.

There was however a short calm before the storm broke and one or two ideas about what constitutes “politics” were mooted.  For example that discussion of business matters at Club (i..e. Regional) Meetings often takes up too much time, when what Wingers really want to be doing is riding their bikes.

This was a useful observation and it also provided an example, the constructive implications of which seemed to have been completely missed, of a new approach to group riding activities which is actually being handled almost as if it was part of a GWOCGB recruiting initiative and has proved to be very popular.

Maybe those who run meetings do need to make more effort to sense when other people have had enough and it’s time to get out on the road but Wingers who ended up leaving the Club for this reason wouldn’t necessarily say it was the politics; they would probably say that there weren’t enough ride outs or simply that they were bored by the meetings.

But it is perhaps typical of the blinkered view of things which burdens GWOCGB that instead of praising this contributor for his successful initiative in attracting lots of Wingers to what is at least partly under the GWOCGB banner and is part of an attempt to interest them in joining the Club as well, he was attacked for taking Members away from the local Region by competing with them.

However, let’s get back to what constitutes “politics”.  Another idea was that Wingers leave (and call it politics) when what’s really going on is that they aren’t getting what they want – the implication perhaps being that they are selfish or opinionated people  who are no great loss to the Club anyway.   Again Wingers who leave because they are not getting what they want (as opposed to not getting their own way in arguments) will probably say so, rather than call it politics.

And although some drop out or don’t join GWOCGB or any other GoldWing club at all because they say they only want to ride and/or they prefer riding alone or with other sorts of biking groups, the mixture of riding and non-riding activities which GWOCGB Regions have offered has appealed to plenty of Wingers in the past – so why should that appeal have tailed off so much in recent years unless there is something more to it than not getting the sort or quantity of rides or other activities they want?  Plenty of Wingers still enjoy getting together at WingDings, so even though GWOCGB doesn’t offer much of anything other than camping weekends, they obviously still hold their attractions.

Another suggestion was, as far as I could make out, that Wingers have probably left the Club because they found the circumstances or sequence of events which resulted in a substantial number of Members leaving the Club and starting independent clubs (following disputes with the National Committee) too political, so they themselves have since left the Club because of this, presumably in disapproval and presumably of the way the dispute was handled by the Club.  Alternatively, since the contributor clearly strongly disapproved of the conduct of those who had left the Club rather than toe the Committee’s line, so it was their fault for causing others to leave too.  Or maybe he meant the Club was well rid of them, so politics is a good thing if it flushes out and gets rid of non-conformists, even if there was also collateral damage.

Broadcasting arguments isn't likely to help

Is it simply argy bargy that Wingers don’t like?

The same contributor seemed to me to be getting much closer to the real meaning of “politics” when he suggested that “strife” was what turned people off.

If people want contentious debate as a club activity, whether at meetings or on a forum, they will join a debating society or a political party rather than a bike club.

They join a bike club to enjoy friendship with like-minded Wingers and certainly not endless arguments, for which at least one GWOCGB Region has acquired something of a reputation.  And at national level too, Club meetings are attracting smaller attendance and are rarely without controversy of some sort – and some arguments, for example the one about admitting caravans and motorhomes to camping events, never seems to go away for very long, even when it’s supposed to have been settled.  Sooner or later someone will have another go at expounding his traditionalist view on the matter.

Could it be as simple as that then, that “politics” is simply an aversion to endless arguments, in what is supposed to be, above all, a friendly Club?  Anyway that was that as far as suggestions for the meaning of “politics” during this Forum discussion got before it turned into interpersonal argument.

I think there are more aspects to “politics” than this relatively short list and if the Club is to turn its fortunes, it needs to study them carefully and learn all possible lessons.  So it’s a real pity that this potentially useful discussion failed.

So let me suggest some aspects of “politics” too, because even though I am no longer a member of GWOCGB and now think there is a better way to provide national-scale services for UK Wingers, I enjoyed my time in the Club, I didn’t choose to leave and I take no pleasure at all in seeing it going downhill.

Everyone should do it my way

An irritant which Wingers might label as “politics” is having strong views stuffed down their throats, especially if it relates to how they should be riding.  Unsolicited advice, let alone edicts from the ruling committee or anyone else who thinks he or she has a right, is rarely welcomed or appreciated in any volunteer organisation.  Telling a biker what/where/how he should be doing things is more likely to get up his  nose more than most people’s.

So even relatively polite discussions about whether this or that is the “right” way to do things, as if there is only one right answer, can be very irritating, even if the reluctant listener doesn’t take issue at the time.  If Members who express opinions can’t see that there is almost always more than one way of skinning a cat (or marshalling a ride out) and fail to respect other people’s ideas and opinions, it isn’t friendly.

Rules and Rulers

There is a limit to how much in the way of rules and regulations bikers are likely to feel necessary for the running of a club, especially a club which aims to be friendly.  Maybe the elaborate Constitution and the set of Rules which GWOCGB has built up over the years are themselves something of a turn off.

Why does a friendly bike club have to get so institutionalised – and therefore politicised?  GWOCGB’s rule book reads as long-winded, lawyerish, mumbo jumbo – isn’t that in itself a turn off which Wingers might label “politics” if they ever come face to face with them?

People don’t like being bossed around in any volunteer organisation and Wingers are no exception.  They probably get quite enough of that sort of thing at work or at home.  Biking is an escape to freedom rather than a journey into conformity.

GWOCGB grew rapidly in its early days to become the predominant club for Wingers it would have been natural to develop a composite national structure, so that Wingers would be welcomed anywhere at Club events, even when they were organised by local Regions.  And few Wingers would object to the idea of a national Club which is a genuinely friendly national network if it can stay that way.

But therein lies the problem.  A ruling national structure is potentially oppressive.  And if heavy-handed action is taken to get members to toe the line it could very easily be seen as bullying.  Whatever else it might be, being told what you can or cannot do from above isn’t going to feel friendly.

Integrity and fairness at the top

Friends are people whom you regard as trustworthy.  There may or may not be honour among thieves these days, but among Wingers, in the context of their friendly Club, honesty and trustworthiness from Wingers towards other Wingers is rated pretty highly.

Honesty and fairness in dealing with the Club’s affairs and in exercising power or judgement on behalf of the Club is something which Members probably have fairly high expectations of.  So if Committee Members are seen as having done something improper or disreputable, Wingers may feel they are letting the Club down.   Stuff like that isn’t compatible with friendliness and the more there are in the way of whiffs of any of it, the less comfortable some Wingers are going to be with the Club.

Institutionalised Unfriendliness

Going Negative

Attacking Wingers who are no longer in the Club by casting them as non-persons or calling them or the new clubs they might have formed names, and trying to undermine these Wingers and clubs by spreading smears is what politicians call “going negative”.

It can be hurtful and damaging to the targets, especially in the short term, but it can also backfire in a big way because whatever else it might be, it’s not friendly.

The ideal of a single national GoldWing club, serving the needs of all Wingers in friendship is an aim worthy of respect but at the end of the day it’s just one of a number of ways of running a bike club, not a religion, in defence of which holy war becomes justified.

Spreading smears, like those who have joined other clubs have “gone over to the dark side” or are “scabs”, and false information, like saying the Blackpool Light Parade is no longer running, or passing the word that going to the Blackpool Light Parade is now regarded as an act of disloyalty to GWOCGB, carries a risk of being seen as thoroughly disreputable.  And it’s hardly likely to encourage the Wingers who have left because of “politics” to come back either, even if they are not the targets of the smears themselves, quite the opposite.  It just isn’t friendly.

Friendliness is the key

Friendliness lies at the core of what people join bike clubs to enjoy and unfriendliness is the common feature of all the possibilities of what “politics” means to the Wingers who feel driven away.  Maybe it boils down to a feeling that GWOCGB is no longer a friendly Club – or at least it’s not friendly enough for their needs.

There is still lots of friendliness in GWOCGB too of course, notably in the more successful Regions, but unfriendliness has become far too prominent. Taken as a whole, GWOCGB has arguably become institutionally unfriendly.

So it ain’t rocket science guys, if you want your so-called friendly Club to be more successful at retaining and re-attracting members, stop being so unfriendly to each other.

Likewise stop being nasty to Wingers who have left; they are among the people you need to win back. Mixing with them, going to their events and being friendly to them is more likely to cast GWOCGB in a new and favourable light in their eyes than keeping a wary distance, calling them names and throwing brickbats whenever you get the chance.

Just as professional footballers and policemen have to learn self-control in order to stay in the game, so do Wingers if they want to be part of a genuinely friendly club.  And that’s just as true for Committee Members who are overheard saying “more trailer trash” on the radio about Wingers arriving at a Club Event as it is for belligerence on  the Forum.

Personal criticism is always provocative

Personal criticism of any kind, on the Forum or elsewhere, is a particularly potent way of being unfriendly without necessarily intending to be.  It’s easily taken as more hurtful and offensive than just being “a bit abrasive”.  Why be abrasive to other Members anyway within a friendly Club?

I’ve posted personal criticism myself in the private area of the GWOCGB Forum in the belief that it was a way of conducting a robust debate among grown-ups and I was wrong.  I’ve learned the hard way that it’s almost always likely to be taken the wrong way when it’s done in writing and it’s almost inevitably counter-productive.  I have to admit to making an exception for President Obama and Senator Screaming Skull recently, who seriously disappointed me with their anti-Britishness, but they’re not in my bike club and they’re politicians who have themselves been expressing very critical opinions, so they’re fair game!

Anyway personal criticism among Wingers is unfriendly and that’s why this Blog doesn’t normally carry any at all.  Contrary views are welcome, belligerence and personal criticism isn’t.

A friendly approach is never a bad thing

Friendliness is blossoming again in the UK GoldWing Community.  Wingers who meet up on the road or at shared events, like Appleyards Open Day and the recent Cumbria Ride for help for Heroes are behaving in, at the very least, a courteous way to each other when last year that would not necessarily have happened.  The worst of the turbulence, or at least the nastiness of the past two years is probably behind us, thank goodness.   Wingers are riding their bikes in company and thereby rediscovering friendliness between local clubs and/or Regions by direct contact.

Indeed at the Cumbria Ride for Help for Heroes a very surprising and very positive thing happened.  An active member of Lancs & Lakes, who last year was cutting me dead, presumably because he blamed me for the difficulties with the National Committee and the split in the Region, took the trouble to bring a Winger over to introduce to me, which he did by name, using my name too, in a brief but perfectly polite and helpful way.   This was surprising enough from my viewpoint but it was even more surprising that the Winger he introduced had asked for me because he wanted to know more about our new independent Club, GoldWings North West.  The Winger said, and perhaps he had said to the Lancs & Lakes Member too, that he didn’t want anything more to do with GWOCGB; he had tried it and didn’t like the politics and squabbling, so he wanted to try something different.

For the time being at least the Winger who was introduced to me seems to be a lost cause to GWOCGB and to Lancs & Lakes.  Perhaps the L&L Member who brought him over realised that.  And it wasn’t that he had been subjected to any sort of hard sell of GoldWings North West’s virtues and certainly not any denigration of GWOCGB, or at least not from me he hadn’t.  When he had emailed me about GoldWing clubs in the North West (via this Blog) some time previously, I had replied in a balanced and non-judgemental way and I had mentioned Cumbria Wings as his nearest option, and Lancs & Lakes as well as GoldWings North West.  I just gave him the facts.  He’d then tried Cumbria Wings and been disappointed, although to be fair to them it was not because of squabbling.  But he also made it clear that he was fed up with the bickering and arguments he had seen in GWOCGB, presumably elsewhere.  I didn’t ask.

But by bringing this Winger over to me and introducing him in the way he did, the Lancs & Lakes Member left a far better impression of Lancs & Lakes and of GWOCGB than if he had said I didn’t exist, or pointed and said I was that so-and-so over there.  It left an impression of GWOCGB friendliness rather than the opposite.

Heartbreaking times

For those for whom a national GoldWing Club which provides for all Wingers in friendship remains the ideal, these must be very disappointing if not heartbreaking times.   They may have suffered broken friendships themselves.

Maybe they still wouldn’t contemplate leaving GWOCGB themselves after all these years and they’ll try to hang on to the friendships in the Club which they still have, but some have become semi-detached, at least until the climate changes.  Even among some of the Wingers who are still paying their subs there are therefore disaffected and disillusioned Wingers, as the personal testimony which popped up in the Forum Thread I’ve been describing illustrates very well.

Likewise another Forum comment a while ago from a former Committee Member, in the context of the difficulty the Club is having to get volunteers to take up the vacant Treasurer post, saying that he felt driven out when he tried to contribute and would never have believed the nastiness he encountered from other Committee Members.  Surely that speaks volumes.

Turning GWOCGB’s fortunes isn’t just a question of projecting friendliness and suppressing unfriendliness.  It needs willingness and capacity to recognise other weaknesses and deal with them, and to recognise constructive opportunities so they can be exploited.  These skills and personal qualities seem to be in short supply.  If GWOCGB is to stand any chance of recovering credibility as a national Club which can provide for the needs of all Wingers in friendship, maybe it going to take rather more than just finding a new Treasurer.

Anyway, what a pity to see GWOCGB, which was a great Club in its hey day, going to the dogs.

Postscript:

This Article has revived a relevant Thread on GWOCGB’s Forum which sought to welcome the spirit of friendliness which has been reappearing in the UK GoldWing club scene.  This suggestion has provoked some spirited responses which you can view for yourself by clicking here.

Related Articles:

GWOCGB Membership – Worth renewing this time? (December 2009)

What makes a friendly GoldWing Club? (October 2009)

“Support” GWOCGB Style – The Troubles of 2008 (December 2008)

VIP police motorcyclists get personal bodyguards so they can concentrate on looking cool

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW

Rise Safe Back Safe has been holding an annual free event for bikers for five years and it’s built up to be quite a show and well worth going to.  This year it was in Blackpool again but had moved away from the Promenade to the resort’s huge Central Car Park.  This turned out to be a much better venue, with plenty of space, nicely sheltered from any wind and very easy to get to.

There were lots of biking organisations present and some dealers and traders together with an impressive stunt riding display and Honda’s Your First Licence arena for children which was as popular as always.  Since Ride Safe Back Safe is a Safety Partnership scheme run by the Police there were also lots and lots and lots of motorcycle policemen around, most of whom looked relaxed and smiling, with not a single wagging finger being displayed anywhere.

But from a Wingers viewpoint it was notable this year for the bringing together, for the first time at any Event, of GWOCGB’s Lancs & Lakes Region and GoldWings North West, both of which were displaying their bikes.

Barry receives his Award

The GoldWings were all to be located in one section of the venue (this was the Event Organiser’s decision) so it brought Wingers who have known each other for years but been estranged for a while back together again, whether they liked it or not.   GoldWings North West was of course formed just over a year ago by Wingers who used to be Members of Lancs & Lakes.  Would there be tensions?  Would naughty words be spoken? Would handbags be swung in anger?

Caught in the act!

Some of those to whom the encounter was a complete surprise perhaps did take a moment to adjust but this didn’t amount to much and in no time at all civil and indeed fairly friendly relations were established.  As one Winger said to a Club-mate who was giving the impression of  building up steam, we’re all Wingers so why don’t you shut up – and very sensibly he did so.

Spot the unusual feature on this GL1200 trike?

Civility blossomed quickly into friendly dialogue and the Winger who had initially got hot under the collar ended up being the first one to float the idea of further joint ventures.   No one was picking arguments or trying to score points.  Although discrete counting of bikes to see which Club had the biggest turnout probably took place, no one was tactless enough to flaunt the result.

Cumbria Police's Ducati

Suffice it to say that there was a decent turnout from both Clubs and the overall effect was a splendid display of GoldWings which neither Club could have mustered without the other.

To do this on a GoldWing, first remove your windscreen

Also more or less coincidentally, two GoldWing Awards were handed over.

Firstly GoldWing North West’s brand new Award, the Lesley Halley Award for Outstanding Contribution, their equivalent of Winger of the Year, was awarded for the first time.  It was originally proposed as the Club’s annual Outstanding Member Award but some spoilsport thought that name might be open to misinterpretation.

Now that's a patch!

The decision to establish this Award and to name it after Lesley, a very popular and active  Member who tragically died very suddenly in January this year, had been made a while ago.  Likewise the decision that the first recipient should be Lesley herself, posthumously and jointly with her widower Barry, also a very active and popular Member, had already been announced.   But it then took a little time to get an Award made.

Clubs and their bikes side by side on display

Therein lies a tale because by strange accident of circumstances the Volcanic Ash Episode lent a helping hand.  GoldWing North West’s Chairman, Ian Duxbury found himself stranded in the Shetlands, where he had gone on business, for several days.  He couldn’t speak Shetlandish very well so he found solace in the company of the puffins  – in preference to the sheep which, since he lives in a rural area, was surprising to those who know him well.  Eventually things got so bad that apparently he even resorted  to shopping in order to pass the time.  (Now that is shameful, a Winger, shopping!)

More buttons and switches than a GoldWing

The Shetlands is probably the last place you would expect to find a well-stocked trophy shop but they’ve got a good one,  so Ian’s time up there was not entirely spent on drinking whiskey and puffin puffins and he had to stay sober enough to specify the engraving correctly.  “Leshley” was as close as he could manage verbally and his handwriting was also too slurred for reliable communication but after some practice he succeed in spelling out the letters one by one on a chart.

The RSBS Rendezvous being the first practical opportunity,  Barry was presented with the Award by Ian in the Blackpool sunshine.

Brian and his unique Ferrari sidecar enjoying the sea air

A short while later, since diplomatic relations had by then been well and truly been restored, I took the opportunity to return Lancs & Lakes Winger of the Year Award, of which I had been, very proudly, last year’s recipient.  In a way my Award had been posthumous too because by the time I was selected for it by ballot of the Region’s Members, the National Committee had summarily expelled me from their Club.

Handing back Lancs & Lakes Winger of the Year Award

However that was all ancient history on this sunny afternoon in Blackpool and as the photo shows,  I was able to present the Shield to the Lancs & Lakes Rep, Lynne Mason with a handshake and a smile.  This was all done with excellent humour all round, as Lynne illustrated by joking that after the year she’d had she might very well decide to present it to herself!

Womblemobile with admiring Groupie being chatted up

By comparison, the rest of the goings on at the rendezvous were pretty tame – just wheelies performed sitting on the handlebars in front of a row of police bikes, Wingers eating burgers, Wingers eating hot dogs, Bill self-righteously eating fresh fruit because he’s on a diet again.  Just the usual stuff.

There was however a Womblemobile on display which caught my eye as technically unusual.  It had image-reversed writing on it’s skyward-facing bonnet and this puzzled me for a while.  Then I worked out that it was probably there for the benefit of police helicopter pilots who might not otherwise be able to work out what the vehicle was through their rear view mirrors.  Can anyone think of a better reason?

This morning’s GoldWings North West Club Meeting had to be cut short so that we could get to Blackpool in reasonable time and next month’s Meeting might have to be curtailed too, so packed with events is our Season becoming.  Sooner or later however I’m sure we’ll hear the full story of what puffin puffins actually involves, possibly with a practical demonstration since I understand Ian volunteered to bring a few dust-clogged puffins home for R&R in sunny Lancashire, since he had spare room in his pigeon loft.  His pigeons, having come home to roost too, showed initial nervousness on first encounter with strangers but are now getting on well, as all fellow-Wingers should, and sharing their corn humorously, as of course I am trying to do with you.

Shall we turn right next then chaps?

The Central Florida Motorcycle Drill Team, who came to Blackpool for the GoldWing Light Parade in 2008 to display for us, are alive and kicking and they are still World Champions too partly, as i recall, because no one has been brave enough to challenge them for a while.

We became friends with the four Team Members who came over to UK in 2008 and have stayed in contact ever since.   My wife and I (and other members of the Light Parade Organising Team) have met up with them whenever we’ve been in Florida on holiday ever since and their Captain, Randy Rodriguez, will be coming back to UK again for this year’s Parade in  September and bringing his wife, Cat, too.  So we look forward to seeing at least two of them in Blackpool again.

Not as a Display Team this time unfortunately and not to give a Display, but at least Randy will be here and hopefully I will be able to organise a loan bike for him and maybe therefore be able to do some training sessions for us, as he kindly did last time.

They don't usually get quite this close while riding nose to tail!

However this Article was provoked not by the prospect of another refreshment of our trans-Atlantic friendship, pleasant though that certainly is, but by the arrival of a set of pictures of the Team in action this year on home ground.  As you can see these show that the team is still very good at what they do and they are still thinking up new routines.   For example two riders standing up while riding one bike is a new one.

The Team had acquired two lady Riders in Training when we were over there last May and although one of them was perhaps keener on pursuing Smitty than getting her riding skills up to the necessary standard (which was also featuring strongly in Team Humour as I recall, Smitty was shown no mercy at all) the other lady was showing real talent.  And toughness, for learning to ride the way they do is not for the feint hearted.

Look no hands! Two riders standing.

It takes many months of practising, first of all personal riding skills and then with Team Riders on the Training Pad before a rider stands any chance of joining the Display Team proper.  It’s quite a democratic thing; the whole Team has to agree to accept a new Team Rider – not surprising since complete confidence in what all the other Riders will do when you and your expensive bike are in such close proximity to them is vital.

Collisions are not common but they do happen occasionally and bikes do get damaged; the deal is that everyone pays for their own damage regardless, which save any disputes.   The Team often travels long distances to give a Display and only sometimes get expenses refunded, so being a Team Rider is quite a financial commitment too.

Now which way was I supposed to turn next?

As you will see from the photos the Team ride either GoldWings or big Harleys.  The GoldWings are better at maintaining constant speed (thanks to fuel injection and an ECU) while the Harleys can turn a bit more tightly.  They reckon you can get a GL1800 down to an 18 foot diameter circle (as an absolute minimum, don’t try this at home!) while a Harley can be turned in as little as 16 feet.   Some Riders have a Harley and a GoldWing and I even met one who preferred the comfort of his Harley to his GoldWing, although I wasn’t convinced that was his real reason for the preference; I suspected he was secretly addicted to vibration.

He looks like he's standing still because he is standing still!

They are a great bunch to spend time with and we look forward to continuing our international friendship.

Following the great success of their display at the 2008 GoldWing Light Parade and their generosity in teach a few UK riders some of their skills there was talk of forming a UK GoldWing Drill Team.  We got as far as riding tight circles with four of us nose to tail and some simple flaring and outward turns from and back into pairs.

Sadly the upheavals in the UK GoldWing Club scene put paid to that idea but maybe all was not lost and 2010 could see that prospect emerging again in due course.  It was certainly a lot of fun learning and, albeit maybe beginner’s luck, no one collided.

Finding a Training Pad wasn’t going to be difficult but there are difficulties finding suitable venues to give displays in UK; there just aren’t the same number of big flat car parks etc in our over-crowded little Island to provide the necessary space and flat surface.  Trying to do it on grass is, according to the experts, a big risk too far.

If you would like to see more of the Central Florida Motorcycle drill team in action please visit their Website by clicking here.

Click on the image for an enlargement

Holding a non-camping social weekend for GoldWings at the darker ends of the biking season, to allow Wingers to show off their display lights, is catching on.

Norfolk Wings are holding one in their part of the Country for the first time this year and would welcome plenty of support.

The Parade itself is on the evening of Saturday March 27th in Hunstanton, Norfolk, a small holiday town on the North Norfolk Coast.

Proceeds are to be donated to the local Air Ambulance so it’s all in a good cause – and the Town Mayor is joining the Parade as a passenger on a trike.

The social weekend is based on Manor Holiday Park, where the accommodation is in chalets but they will also allow caravans and motorhomes on site but no tents.  Day visitors are welcome to join in the Parade too and they can also enter the Holiday Park on payment of a visitors fee.

Inscription (i.e. event registration, payable to the Organisers) costs only £2.  The Event is being run “under GWOCGB Rules” so non-Members of GWOCGB/GWEF are made to feel welcome by being charged 50% extra.   However everyone pays the same for accommodation, which is at a discounted rate, so an extra £1 isn’t the end of the world.

Photo by Beverley Eele, click on it for an enlarged view

This Event is being held in a small holiday town at a quiet time of the season when the easterly winds from the North Sea will probably prevent sunbathing and discourage bathing in the sea but North Norfolk is an attractive area to visit, Manor Park has a heated swimming pool as well as a bar and no doubt that will be warm and welcoming.  Entertainment is being laid on and they serve food there too.  It should be an enjoyable social occasion and a fine way to start off your GoldWing biking season.

Bob Summers, who thought up the Blackpool Illumination Light Parade, now in its eight year, has been pushing for GoldWing Light Parades to be organised in lots of coastal towns around UK.  It’s a fine way to show off GoldWings to the general public, raise money for charity and also have a good time.  He’ll be delighted that this new Light Parade is happening.  And as the Lead Organiser of this years Blackpool Light Parade so am I.  Well done Norfolk Wings for giving it a try.

For further information visit the Norfolk Wings Website.

Lots of Wingers who are still very active in their own Region are no longer bothering with the Club at national level.

For example Yorkshire Wings Region counted heads recently and discovered they had 76 (yes, 76) active Regional Members who were no longer members of GWOCGB.

Even though Yorkshire Wings has been a troubled Region in recent times and is currently facing further challenges (even committed GWOCGB loyalists are planning to break away as a separate group) this must be quite a big proportion.  And this pattern of disaffection with the national Club is likely to be reflected fairly widely across other Regions and it therefore presents quite a challenge to the Club’s National Committee.

Can they risk trying to force people to pay up or be thrown out altogether, as they would have done more or less automatically in years gone by? Or has the penny dropped at last that doing this would simply accelerate their loss of members and lead to further breakaways?

Subscriptions up by 10%

Meantime the Committee have decided to put the subscriptions for 2010 up by about 10%.  This at a time of almost negligible inflation and of course also a time of economic recession.  Joint Membership (i.e. for a Winger couple) is now going to cost £50.

This is expensive by comparison with most other motoring and especially bike clubs. (The Honda Owners Club is £25 for a couple, GoldWings North West is only £12 for a complete family, including Federation subs.)

People who can still afford to keep and run a GoldWings aren’t necessarily going to baulk at a £50 per year membership subscription for a Club which is at the heart of their enjoyment of the bike, if that’s how good the Club is from their viewpoint, but some might.  The subs will be almost as much as annual Road Tax for a GoldWing and about the same as you pay for annual breakdown cover.  Either-or choices might well have to be made by some Wingers in these strained times.

Of course if subscriptions keep going up by 10% or so each year there will quickly be a point when membership of GWOCGB is just too expensive to make any sense at all.  Even if the Club does still hit the spot.

And maybe we need to distinguish between the Club you enjoy regularly each month or more often and the Club as in other Regions or at national level, with which you probably have less regular contact.   Or maybe the other way around, for there are GWOCGB Members who don’t bother with a Region at all yet still continue their Membership.

Whatever your personal interests in or usage of the Club might be, rising subscriptions might cause you to wonder whether the rise is really necessary and where all the money goes.

Escalating Costs

You will find last years Accounts in the June Edition of Wingspan – or rather you will find one version of them in Wingspan and a different version if you check the official accounts as submitted to Companies House.  These show that the Club lost £24,979 last year, which is significantly more than the version in Wingspan, which didn’t include tax liability.  Losing over £24,000 on a turnover of just over £142,000 is quite a spectacular loss.

Why does it cost so much to run GWOCGB?  Why can’t the Club operate more cost effectively?

For example why was it necessary for the National Committee to spend nearly £6,500 on travel and subsistence last year, nearly twice as much as the year before?  What do they spend all this money on?

And how can a Club of under 1,000 memberships sensibly afford to spend nearly £50,000 each year on the printing and distribution of its Magazine?

Wingspan is often criticised for being repetitive, being two months behind the news and being chronically short of decent feature articles, just the usual Regional Reports and the odd account of somebody’s touring ride to somewhere.  Is it worth keeping Wingspan going at all in this internet age?  What is the role of a Club Magazine in modern times and what is its value in relation to the cost and effort that goes into it making a success if it?

And even if Wingspan is still valued by some Members, is it realistic to expect the Advertisers (who currently pay enough to cover about a third of the costs of Wingspan) to continue to pay the advertising fees when the motorcycle industry is struggling and Wingspan’s circulation has dropped so much?  Why pay £185 plus VAT each month to reach the same group of less than 1,000 Wingers when the internet can reach so many more?

At the recent AGM there was some discussion about cutting Wingspan down a bit to save money but in the end this proposal was rejected.

And this was an isolated cost-cutting proposal, there seems to have been nothing from the National Committee resembling an overall recovery strategy.

The spectacular increase in the Committee’s expenses wasn’t explained or questioned at all.

Nor is anyone apparently concerned that none of the Club’s subscription money ever flows into the Regions, indeed the national Club takes half of any surplus generated by Regional Events so that the Regions made a net contribution of over £2,500 to central funds last year.

(In contrast the Federation pays no expenses, collects subscriptions only as necessary to cover insurance premiums and is already making grants from sponsorship income to its affiliated Clubs to help them out.)

The 2009 Treffen made an unexpected (and in recent years unprecedented) surplus of £16,000 and this may have provided something of a distraction from the Club’s terrible overall financial performance.  It would of course be very helpful to the Club if there was a serious prospect of a sustained pattern of profitable Treffens but historically they have swung unpredictably from big losses to big gains in an almost yoyo fashion – so that’s hardly a basis for anticipating sustained recovery.

Is it sensible to continue to plan for Treffens which have such high fixed costs and such unpredictable receipts?   Next year’s Treffen in Cornwall is currently budgeted to make a loss; whether it does so will probably depend, as it did in 2007 at Carmarthen, on getting a windfall high turnout due to exceptionally good weather. And then there’d be complaints about the toilets and showers being overwhelmed again.

Isn’t there a more reliable and less financially risky way of running what is after all only an annual camping rally?  Is it really necessary to lay out £30,000 or more to set things up?

Where’s the Recovery Plan?

And isn’t odd that after quite a few years of falling membership numbers and recurring big losses on Treffens there has been no sign of anything resembling a recovery plan from the Committee?

There have been calls for more effort from Members to recruit others, to write articles for Wingspan and to help make the Club’s boring website more interesting but nothing much in the  way of initiatives from the Committee.  They were supposed to be running a Wingding for the Club in 2009 (now there’s a fresh idea, another camping weekend!) but even that didn’t materialise.

Is there anyone in a position of influence within GWOCGB who has the awareness and planning skills to develop genuinely new ideas to attract more members and a proper, businesslike recovery strategy?

Sadly the answer is probably not.  They’ve done plenty for the Club in the past of course but the Committee are stuck in old ways and don’t seem to see further than the need, above all, to cling to old values and sustain unworkable obsolete ways – and maybe to cling to their own positions of power too.

If they had any collective creative capacity they would have developed and promulgated something resembling a recovery strategy by now, even if it had to be work in progress.   A few isolated ideas for cutting costs or increasing membership doesn’t constitute a plan.

(I asked the Committee if they had a recovery strategy at the 2007 AGM and there was a stunned silence; it clearly hadn’t even crossed their minds that they should be developing one.  Before the next AGM came around I had been expelled by the Committee as a troublemaker – and was then promptly elected by my Region as their Winger of the Year.  Incidentally, and interestingly, this is more or less the opposite of what has happened to one of the Lancs & Lakes Joint Reps during this, the following year.)

GWOCGB is now a Limited Company and its National Committee are all Directors of that Company.  Holding a directorship carries with it personal responsibilities (and potential liabilities) which extend far beyond the token £1 which individual Members can be asked to pay if the Club goes bust.  I wonder if they realise this.  Surely directors are supposed to actively direct, not passively neglect?

Not really about money?

Despite the spectacular financial loss last year the Club’s problems are not really, or at least they not mainly about money – at least not yet.  The Club still has significant financial reserves and if these were used wisely, in combination with a businesslike recovery strategy, the situation would not be without hope.

But individual Wingers have been openly declaring their intention to quit GWOCGB during 2009 and these are indications of an accelerating trend towards abandoning the national Club for one reason or another.  There have been letters in Wingspan bemoaning the endless belligerence, bitching and back-biting which has been going on.

And Committee Members have been personally involved in this unfriendliness – in what is supposed to be, as its reason for existence, a friendly Club.

For example the last straw to one Winger we bumped into last weekend (a caravan owner as well as a biker) was Debbie Major’s “more trailer trash” faux pas over the radio at the Treffen, which was the basis of one of the complaints in Wingspan.

The Treasurer resigned from the Committee recently because of “irreconcilable differences with another Committee Member”.  No prizes for guessing who the other party in the argument might have been.

Lessons Learned?

During 2008 the Committee tried to enforce their ideas about membership requirements on North Wales Wings and most of the members voted with their feet to form GoldWings North Wales; North Wales Wings is now virtually an empty shell and GoldWings North Wales is thriving.  Another contretemps during the same year, with Lancs & Lakes Region, had a similar effect, leading to the formation of GoldWings North West which is also thriving.

The Committee were able to salvage something from this situation and keep Lancs & Lakes going for a while but since then some conspiratorial chickens have come home to roost in a big way and things are currently pretty ropey there too.  The embarrassing quandary of being asked by the Region to expel their Joint Rep from the Club for shameful duplicity (the Committee having just prior to that having made her their Winger of the Year at the Treffen, arguably for her successful intriguing) may now have partly resolved itself because her husband has sold his GoldWing.  But the Region still faces difficulties, including not having any access to their own funds.

Even the National Committee might have worked out by now that attempting to impose their will on Regions and even upon individual Members – and especially showing arrogance or contempt towards Members – has been counter-productive.  Even they might have worked out by now that the days when a National Committee can dictate things from the centre and expel gainsayers with impunity are now long gone.

Even more ominously for GWOCGB, as well as a sharp increase in the number of independent GoldWing Clubs in UK (and big increases in their membership) during 2009 a new national umbrella organisation for GoldWing Clubs has emerged, offering to do much of what GWOCGB does centrally for a fraction of the cost – and indeed mostly for free.

For these and quite a few other reasons this is not a good time for GWOCGB’s National Committee to be trying to chuck its weight about. They would have to blind rather than just blinkered not to recognise that sooner or later they are going to have to re-think whether and how a centrally-controlled national GoldWing Club can continue in UK.  It’s no accident that centrally controlled national GoldWing clubs in France and Germany have become federations of independent regional clubs because Wingers got fed up of being told what to do and having their money spent for them.

Where does leave the Individual Winger for 2010?

So where does all that leave the individual Member of GWOCGB, finding the Renewal Form in his December copy of Wingspan and therefore faced with a choice of whether to pay the increased subs for next year or to continue quietly enjoying his friendships in the Region without doing so?

Realistically it will make little or no difference to a Winger’s participation in Regional Meetings and activities whether they renew their personal GWOCGB Membership or not.  An odd Regional Rep might be inclined to try to get everyone in the Region to toe the GWOCGB membership line but these days it’s likely to be a gentle hint rather than a bullying demand. If Yorkshire Wings have had to give up trying to enforce the Party Line as a bad job there’s not likely to be much future in it for any other Region either.

Membership of GWOCGB as a national Club has effectively become optional for those whose interests lie in the Regions.  (Regions even have an option to use the Federation’s facilities and still be part of GWOCGB too, so there is an option for Regions, as groups of Wingers, to have the best of both worlds.)

Lots of Wingers defer their renewal until the start of the next biking season anyway and perhaps more will do so this year than usual.

Wingers who like to go to more than the odd Wingdings will perhaps feel that spending the money on subscriptions is worthwhile. Not renewing your GWOCGB Membership doesn’t stop you going to the Wingdings of course, you just pay a bit extra for entry each time.

Same for the Treffens, you can still go but you will pay extra without a GWEF card.  On this basis you will however have to go to quite a few camping weekends to make paying the 2010 GWOCGB subscription worthwhile.

And if you want to look at it in purely financial terms and you are not bothered about getting a copy of Wingspan, the cheapest way to get a GWEF Card (in order to get the cheaper entry fees) is to join one of the other GWEF-affiliated GoldWing clubs, one which doesn’t charge quite so much as GWOCGB.  For example last year it was 20% cheaper to join the Irish GoldWing Owners Club, which one ex-GWOCGB Member did rather than support “that bunch of idiots” any longer.  An Eastern European club might be considerably cheaper still!

Apart from cheaper inscription charges the personal benefit of rejoining GWOCGB largely hangs on whether you think Wingspan is worth paying for.  I have heard one Winger say he was planning to keep up his GWOCGB subscription for one last year so he can advertise his trailer in Wingspan it when the new season starts, which makes some sense I suppose because trailers are uncommon outside GWOCGB camping circles  It makes more sense to advertise a trailer than a GoldWing in Wingspan; better to advertise a bike a wider motorcycling readership than under 1,000 people who already have one.

Oh, and you will lose your entitlement to get into the Members Only section of the GWOCGB Forum unless you rejoin, although you will still be able to access the public part of the Forum – which unless you are into club politics, is where most of the interest of that Forum lies.  Steve Saunders’ GoldWing Forum is much bigger and busier anyway, and it has the advantage of being well moderated.

Value for Money?

On a purely personal, value-for-money basis then, GWOCGB membership is becoming expensive for what you get from it.  But of you think Wingspan is worth paying for and go to quite a few camping weekends each year it might still be worthwhile.

On the other hand if your interest in your GoldWing Club is mainly within your own Region and Wingspan isn’t worth paying over £4 per month for, then renewing your subscription might not be,  unless you feel that you should continue to support what the Club gets up to at national level financially, which some members do as a matter of principle.

Down to Personal Choice

At least paying GWOCGB subscriptions is now optional.  And lots of GWOCGB Members have been opting out of the national Club while continuing in their Regions.  They haven’t been pilloried or thrown out of their Region for doing so as might have happened  in the past and nor would you be.

You might feel that the Club is worth supporting at a national level and you might even think that everything in the garden is rosy and there’s nothing to be bothered about at all.

Or you might feel that it is time for change and that not renewing your GWOCGB subscription this year will save money and help the National Committee to realise they can’t take you for granted – and that they can’t just carry on spending spending spending, especially on hotels and the like.

At least renewal is now much more of a genuine individual free choice for Wingers and that’s quite a development.

And it’s all about freedom of choice!

The amount of money involved is not being released but it’s apparently enough to allow the Federation to cover the whole of its annual administration and IT costs and therefore underpins the services which it is developing for the UK GoldWing Community.

Instead of sucking money out of GoldWing clubs in the form of subscriptions, the Federation will be providing its services to GoldWing Clubs free of charge.  Even PLI cover is virtually free for a Club’s first year of affiliation.  The Federation also plans to make grants to clubs, especially new and newly affiliated clubs, to help them get going.  For further information about the Federation visit its Website.  (GWOCGB subscriptions are again being increased by about 10% for next year.)

For further information about Knutsford Honda (which incidentally has four GL1800s on special offer at present) please ring 01925 752600 or visit their Website.

The accounts for the 2009 Blackpool Light Parade have been finalised and although a detailed breakdown has not been published (because it contains some commercially sensitive information)  a breakdown of how the surplus is to be distributed is given.  No personal expenses of any kind were paid out.

The lion’s share of the surplus goes to charity (North West Air Ambulance and Blackpool’s Children’s Hospice) with modest grants going to GoldWings North West and GoldWings North Wales, the two Clubs which helped with the work of running the Event.  Both Clubs are relatively new and this money will help them to kit themselves out with things like banners for use in future fund raising displays.

In accordance with the Federation’s policy of not accumulating financial reserves only a small amount has been retained by the Federation and that will not be held on to for long.  The Federation has made it clear that any surplus funds will be used for the benefit of the UK GoldWing Community as soon as practicable, for example by making grants to help newly formed clubs get established.

The Federation’s Website, although relatively new, is already getting plenty of hits each week, similar to the hit rates of this Blog, the BLP website and the Federation’s Club websites, all of which are doing well.  The Federation Website will continue to be developed as a source of useful reference information for Wingers as well as helping them to find out what’s happening topically.

As part of what seems to have been a failed attempt to orchestrate spoiling action, a handful of GWOCGB Regions recently asked (in the odd case they demanded) that links to their own websites be removed from the Federation’s List of UK GoldWing Clubs.  This has been done.  If any club or Region wants to shun the free publicity which Listing could help with their recruitment the Federation is not going to force it upon them.

It has also been made as clear as practicable on the List that some Regions are keen to be seen as Regions of GWOCGB rather than as Local Clubs in their own right.  These Regions can of course highlight that sort of thing as clearly as they wish on their own websites.  The Federation’s List does not currently distinguish between individual clubs, they are all given equal prominence on the List.

One or two Regions wanted all mention of their existence removed from the List but this has not been done.  The List uses only information which is in the public domain so it will be maintained as complete a list of UK Clubs as possible as a service to UK Wingers and would-be Wingers.

For example Middlesex Wings, which has been written off by GWOCGB because its Rep (leader) is a non-member of GWOCGB, is still listed because it may be (hopefully is) still operating as a local GoldWing Club and even though no website or contact information is currently available.  (As it says on the List, additional contact information for any club can be incorporated on request.)

If the List is developed in future to allow, for example, popup information about individual Clubs to be added, it might be possible to make useful distinctions between Listed Clubs.  Flagging up those clubs which want to be obscure or those which have belligerent tendencies might be inappropriate but it would perhaps be helpful to give some indication of how active a club is and what sort of activities it favours – a bit like  Michelin Guide!

It’s all about Freedom of Choice.

Stuart's Mosel Tour 2009

The Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs, the UK’s GoldWing Community’s national service organisation, is planning its own set of GoldWing Tours for 2010 and it’s also offering to support and promote any other GoldWing tours being run by individuals or clubs.

You may remembers that Stuart’s Mosel Tour of 2009, promoted and reported on this Blog, was described as a prototype.  This was a one-centre, hotel-based tour but the Federations plans for 2010 are by no means restricted to a particular type of tour – any Tour can be included in the Programme as long as it’s available for GoldWings , so camping tours are also welcome, as are multi-centre and roaming tours, as are Tours planned by commercial organisers.

The aim of the Programme is to broaden and promote choice for Wingers.  As the Federation’s catch phrase puts it – “It’s all about Freedom of Choice!”

A modest number of Tours (UK and abroad) will be organised by the Federation itself, using its own pool of Tour Leaders.  It is hoped that over time the number of in-house Tours will be expanded, as more Wingers gain experience and acquire the confidence to lead a Tour.

Another feature of the Programme is that the Federation’s experience of planning and leading Tours will be offered to support Wingers (or Clubs) with planning, administration and troubleshooting their own Tours.

The Federation’s aim is to provide services for the UK GoldWing Community as a whole and all of its own Tours will be open to all Wingers.

This is an innovative way for a GoldWing organisation to be trying to do things for UK Wingers and if it takes off the Programme could prove to be very popular.  It may take a few years to build in scale but the basic resources are there for a successful Programme so let’s hope the idea does get taken up.  The Honda GoldWing is the best touring motorcycle in the world so giving UK Wingers a broader opportunity to enjoy touring with their bikes has got to be a good idea.

For further information and to express your own interest, as an individual or a club, in this Programme please visit the Federation’s Website.

Better than sipping champagne and talking bollocks!

I have been asking myself this question of late, mostly I suppose because I am pleased with (and proud of) the way things have gone in our new Club, GoldWings North West, this year.

We have a great bunch of people and we are really enjoying what we are doing, so as we come towards the end of our first biking season and look forward to the Birthday Party we’re organising for ourselves (and guests, all Winger welcome) it’s been a time to count our blessings.

So what are the essentials of a friendly motorcycle club?  And how do you capture this essence and then hang on to it, so your club doesn’t encounter unnecessary difficulties, become prone to arguments, suffer declining membership or even start falling apart?

We had a Club Meeting a week or so before the Blackpool Light Parade when we were trying to pull the practical arrangements for the Event together.  Almost the whole Meeting was spent going through what needed to be done and mostly also seeking volunteers to make it happen.   It could have been boring and it could have been hard going – it’s often said that all clubs are a mixture of givers and takers, and when it comes time to ask for volunteers to do things, like stand out in the wind and rain to welcome arrivals at Pontin’s, there might not be such a rush.

But our business was conducted in good humour and there was no shortage at all of volunteers.  There were none of those awkward silences which can happen when everyone is hoping that someone else will put their hand up.  There was plenty of leg-pulling and wisecracks but no tension or awkwardness; we were a bunch of good friends working something out constructively together.  As the Lead Organiser, trying to get the considerable list of items ticked off, I was extremely pleased and grateful.  I’m not crowing or taking anything for granted or taking any credit for any of this, I’m simply grateful and happy to be part of it.  A happy club is a source of pleasure for all and I was feeling that pleasure.

Clubs do things for others - like Charities

Nor was I the only one.  Thankfully the occasion didn’t develop into a mass hug-in, we are British after all, but after the Meeting, as I was limping off down the stairs a lady Member whom I knew but not well stopped me and made a point of telling me how much she enjoyed coming to our meetings.  She’s right I thought to myself, we all do.  Our new Club has bonded as a really happy and willing bunch of friends.  Her taking the trouble to tell me that she was enjoying it gave me quite a lift.

So the abundant presence of ‘grin factor’ in what we are doing together as Club Members is clearly an important element of the friendliness we have captured. And the absence from our Club, at least so far, of what might be called the ‘friction factors’ must be also be important.

It’s no use if some members have fun some of the time, even if it’s a lot of fun, unless there is also sustained freedom in the Club as a whole from discord or arguments.  No club can hope to avoid tensions or discord of some sort developing unless they actively guard against it so as well as counting our blessings and celebrating our success, it’s also been sensible for to take stock of what could go wrong and how best to avoid it.

Avoid Cliquishness and Involve Newcomers

Our Club is a mixture of a founding core of Wingers who are established friends and who have worked together well over a long period within a GoldWing Club before the new Club formed, and newcomers – and happily there have been plenty of these; the Club has increased its membership every month and continues to do so as I write.  Some of the newcomers are new to GoldWings and/or to the GoldWing Club Scene, but some are long-standing Wingers who dropped of the Club Scene some time ago.  They see our new Club as worth giving a GoldWing Club a try again.

Doing some things your way isn't selfishness unless you impose on others

Even though it’s early days for any real tension to develop, there is, as in any club, the potential for difficulties at some stage in the future.

These might stem from some individual’s proneness to discord (i.e. a difficult person might emerge as such and might need calming down or fending off) or risk factors for tension might arise in the group as a whole.

For example unless the founding members, who by virtue of the turbulence which led to the split from Lancs & Lakes became a really close bunch of friends, make the an effort to involve and include the newcomers, there will be a risk that they might come to be seen as a bit of a clique.

Likewise if they were to be seen as giving themselves favourable treatment of any sort as the founding members it could lead to disquiet.  So the “old guard” have to work at ensuring that these things don’t happen – which we are, and so far they aren’t.

Including new Members in the development and running of the Club as well as its activities is always an important thing to try to do – so those who are running clubs should always try to create opportunities for newcomers to be involved, while at the same time avoiding giving any impression that they are being used as dogsbodies just because they are newcomers.

Sometimes you need to stop what you're doing, let the hair on your chest grow for a while and reflect for a while

Making an effort to recognise and respect what newcomers are capable of bringing to the party can also lead to some nice surprises.  For example one of our new members, brand new to GoldWings, turned out to have lots of advanced riding and continental touring experience, so we gained an extra experienced rider and ride leader – always useful because most of us starting with GoldWings are pretty terrified of them and need time to gain confidence and experience, I certainly did.  Another recruit has a special interest in cooking barbecues  – proper meat, not just burgers and sausage –now is that useful or what?

Perhaps most surprising of all, one member, who’d been quietly making himself useful over a period of months and becoming known as likeable and willing Club Member without being in any way pushy, amazed us all at the end of the pre-BLP Meeting.  We’d all but finished and Bob, our Chairman, was asking around the room for any other business.  Up goes a hand and he asked whether we knew that use of the image of Blackpool Tower (which we have on our Club’s Badge as well as on the BLP’s) requires permission because it is a trademark (or some such) – but not to worry because he had secured the necessary permission.

Leg-pulling is part of friendship, hostility isn't

There was a pause as we all wondered where this had come from when he added, in way of explanation, because we all looked a bit baffled, that his Dad owns the Tower, so he asked him for us.  He then added that although it was too late for this year, there might therefore be scope for incorporating some features or benefits linked to the Tower and his Dad’s other Attractions in Blackpool next year.  The look on everyone’s face as this came out was hilarious; everyone’s jaw literally dropped in astonishment.

So you see unless you give your new members an opportunity to air their ideas and reveal their talents and resources you could easily miss out on something really unusual.  (And what a cracking bloke, and wife, for keeping it quiet until we had got to know them well enough to value his personal qualities; if we ever had to choose between this couple and their connections there would be no contest.)

Nip Friction or Discord in the bud

Every club, and maybe every family, is likely to encounter tensions and fallings-out about something or other sooner or later.  Among my visitors while I’m convalescing after hip surgery has been a relative who told me about what’s been going on in her Bridge Club for elderly and mostly well-heeled retire people, which made my hair curl.  As a biker I seem to have led a sheltered life, even though I did manage to become infamous within GWOCGB and thrown out last year!

The Club may not be a member's only recreational passion

Clubs aren’t all hotbeds of potentially festering contentiousness of course even if some might be.  So there’s no need to be continually analysing everything and everybody in your Club in case you need to call in the shrinks.  The time to start wondering whether something is brewing in our Club might be if any of us stops taking the mickey out of each other more or less continuously.

And hopefully most clubs will be blessed with a tact among the membership who can  exercise a calming influence as necessary.  It might be someone who has acquired some stature in the Club and feels able to deploy wisdom and tact in a paternalistic way or it might be the natural peacemaking urges of the ladies which nips tensions in the bud.  Not that all ladies are benign peacemakers by nature of course but as a general rule they are more even tempered and less inclined to being opinionated than us chaps – its in the genes and the hormones you know.

Anyway, if there are people who can sense and act upon opportunities to calm tensions and sooth egos it can be a valuable contribution to the club’s well-being and viability.  That’s what friends do for each other in time of looming difficulty isn’t it, tactfully intervene to nip tensions in the bud?

And as it happens, in our Club we also have an ex-Hells Angel (nowadays he’s older and almost house-trained) so if the time for subtly ever evaporates I suppose we can always whistle him up!

Friendliness by example

And of course it helps to avoid fallings-out if you avoid doing anything to pick arguments, especially  as a Club with Wingers outside your own Club or of course with other GoldWing clubs.

Our founding members made a decision as the Club was forming, after our split from the Lancs & Lakes Region of GWOGB, that there would be no looking backwards, no re-living and especially no resurrecting of old difficulties or battles.  We were building a new Club and that’s what we should concentrate on.   No matter whether others might try to perpetuate old arguments or start new ones with us, we would put all that behind us.

Friendly Warden had been persuaded to pretend to ticket his mate's bike as he came back

From time to time inevitably someone would however mention some item of news or gossip about our old Region or about GWOCGB’s National Committee, or something else would trigger a comment reflecting incident or individual from our past.  But whenever this happens someone or other will always interject fairly quickly and suggest the subject was changed to concentrate on the future and the positive.  That’s history they would say, we should be putting it behind us.

We have all benefited from this mutual help to ensure we keep moving on.  Accepting reminders from your friends that you should do so when necessary is useful and no one takes offence.

It seemed particularly important, as our Club rapidly gathered new members who had not been part of Lancs & Lakes, even though some had been in GWOCGB at some stage in their past, not to impose anything about our Club’s turbulent origins on them.  We didn’t want to go through the whole business again to explain the background to them anyway – and why on earth should they be interested in old difficulties.  Our new Club was up and running and there was plenty to look forward to and plenty to do.  There was no value to our Club in going backwards at all, we wished those who had decided to stay in Lancs & Lakes no harm; we would do our thing and hopefully they would do theirs.

Sometimes the right environment makes it easy to be friendly

Some of our Members still are (at least during the current year) still members of GWOCGB and/or Lancs & Lakes.  This was and still is perfectly OK by those of us who aren’t.  We respect their right to choose for themselves as we have done.  And we certainly didn’t expect anyone to join our Club  “to the exclusion of all others” as if they were marrying us or joining some weird sect.  There’s no Club “cause” or “mission” other than to enjoy our GoldWings together.

We’ve joined with other GoldWings Clubs to form the Federation, which will build to become a useful national umbrella organisation for Wingers (as distinct from a ruling national club) but that’s not on a mission either, it’s just a way of sharing things and building liaison with other clubs.  We’re not interested in developing influence over other Wingers beyond creating opportunities and choices for them and we want to see all UK GoldWing clubs flourish, whether or not they want to do things our way or use what we offer.  Their club, their choice.

Don’t descend to anyone else’s level

So we also resolved before the start of this biking season not to adopt any challenging or contentious or even competitive positions in relation to other GoldWing club and not to “bite back” even if someone else seemed to be having a go at us.

We are comfortable with what we are doing and we had no plans to create difficulties for anyone else, so as long as we weren’t being faced with sacrificing our own freedoms to do our thing, we would try to avoid taking issue, even if provoked.  There has been belligerence and there has been provocation during this season of course but we’ve ignored it.  Their belligerence, their friction factor, so sooner or later their problem.

Of course it was difficult to resist a private chuckle if some news or gossip emerged that our tormentors of the previous year had brought difficulties upon themselves, especially if it was down to last year’s chickens coming home to roost.  But even then there was a concerted effort not to crow or show any satisfaction or smugness about it, even in private among those who had been most closely engaged the previous year.   And generally speaking we succeeded.  We’re none of us Saints but we haven’t been dwelling in the past; we’ve been much more interested moving forwards and enjoying ourselves in the process.

Big events are valuable opportunities to make new friendships

So if anyone else seemed to be having a go at us we did our best to ignore it and we did nothing ourselves to undermine or spoil anything which any other GoldWing Club or Region was doing.

For example the Scarborough Light Parade was promoted on our websites.  There was no point in us pretending it didn’t exist, even if it had seemed to us to have been invented at the rush in 2008 as part of a deliberate attempt to spoil the BLP.  Or at least the 2009 SLP was promoted on our websites until the Organisers asked us to stop doing so, with which of course we complied.

Nor did we complain or react when one of the SLP Organisers tried to put it about that our Parade wasn’t a proper Parade any more.  Nor even when the GWOCGB Chairman, Chris Hinds, announced at a GWOCGB National Meeting that our Parade wasn’t running this year.  Nor when a nasty letter was published in Wingspan implying past financial abuse and discouraging attendance at this year’s BLP.  There can be no doubt that the word was being put out this year within GWOCGB that going to the Blackpool Light Parade in 2009 was considered an act of disloyalty to that Club.  Now is that sort of thing sad or what?

Of course I have to own up to taking an opportunity to poke fun myself on this Blog early this year at Tony Walton, one of the instigators of the SLP, but hopefully it wasn’t in a nasty way, just a bit of light-hearted fun when he took his bat home temporarily after a public falling out with his fellow organiser.  Since then readers of this Blog will hopefully have noticed that I’ve steered clear of poking fun at Tony or anyone else in GWOCGB, even though there have been lots of funny things happening which would have been newsworthy and entertaining.

Hopefully the day will soon come when I can write humorously about GWOCGB Wingers again (just as I do about our own) without someone being paranoid and outraged.  But for the time being at least I’m trying to be especially unprovocative in the interests of peaceful coexistence.  Let’s hope the penny drops with others that it is now time to live and let live.

The social side of a bike club may involve exposure to products containing alcohol

Friendly chance encounters

Whenever our Club’s path has crossed that of Lancs & Lakes or any other GWOCGB Region during this season we’ve greeted them as fellow Wingers in a friendly way – and to give the GWOCGB Regions their due that’s mostly been roundly reciprocated, as of course it should have been.

Appleyards Open Day was the first time GoldWing North West regalia was worn at a gathering where there was plenty of GWOCGB regalia about and that passed without incident, or at least nothing worse that the odd person carefully avoiding bumping into people they didn’t want to have to greet.

Just occasionally there was a blunt rejection of interpersonal contact by individuals and maybe that’s understandable if those individuals felt strongly about something in the past.  As I said, we’re not all Saints.

So we did encounter situations of awkwardness or guardedness which were either amusing, irritating disappointing – and the odd occurrence which was hurtful and sad.  A long established member of Lancs & Lakes, who’d been almost the Region’s mascot in recent years and had never fallen out with anyone at any stage, had been really devastated to have to witness the break-up of the Region which he loved – as indeed all of us who had been part of that Region during the previous four or five years when we had enjoyed a friendly and successful time must have regretted the loss.

This old guy didn’t want to lose any of his friends when the split happened.  He went to Lancs & Lakes meetings as well as ours and we didn’t see all that much of him during the early season.  But after a few months he was coming to us regularly and he had clearly made his mind up to abandon going to Lancs & Lakes.  It was some time later that he confided that he had been subjected to open criticism and snubbing within Lancs & Lakes for having anything to do with us:  “I’ll not be treated like that again” he said.  Their friction factor, their loss of a member – and unnecessary it was too.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that demanding of your friends that they join you in bigoted hostility to former mutual friends is a recipe for losing even more friends.

And who wants to stay in a club where you are given a hard time for also belonging to another one anyway, whether or not there have been disagreements?

Institutionalised unfriendliness drives people away

And of course that’s the great sadness of what keeps happening within GWOCGB;  allowing and sometimes even encouraging belligerence toward others or even trying to organise it’s members to be hostile aand belligerent to other Wingers.

Mementoes of friendly times

A friend loaned me his copies of Wingspan to read while I have been convalescing from my operation.  There is the usual healthy indication that the Regions enjoy themselves riding their bikes and in lots of other ways; as local “clubs” they generally do quite well.  And they generally get on well with other Regions when they share camping weekends too.  Likewise when they share an open event like Stars & Stripes they get on with other Wingers, GWOCGB or not.  That’s what GWOCGB Regions do well.

But there is also the familiar pattern in GWOCGB of “bitching, back-biting and complaining” as one member called it recently in Wingspan’s Postbag.  It crops up time and again in GWOCGB and has done so since long before 2008.  As in this recent example, someone else also usually pops up to call for an end to it all but that never seems to stop it happening again.

Perhaps saddest of all of what I read in Wingspan, there’s a letter in a recent edition reporting appalling insensitivity and rudeness by a National Committee Member to a guest on arrival at the Treffen – the recipient was a former member and therefore a potentially returning member.  Odd that this should have been published, or at least odd that steps were not taken to publish an explanation or apology to accompany it.   Publishing a letter about a shameful episode like this without additional comment is almost like saying behaviour like that is OK – and we don’t even care if you all know about it either.

Chairman Bob makes a noble personal sacrifice for charity

And of course it wouldn’t be in his interests for me to name the Winger who lent me his Wingspans; he would be almost be bound to be given a hard time for doing so.   GWOCGB members at large are probably inhibited about putting their name to comments on this Blog for the same reason too.  Fraternising with the enemy in any way shape or form is more than frowned upon, it risks being pilloried or worse.

And the pursuit of opportunities to pick arguments continues.  Most recently of all, an Officer of GWOCGB tried to orchestrate the Regions into demanding that links to their websites be removed the Federation’s List of UK GoldWing Clubs, i.e. we don’t want them advertising our Region’s websites, we don’t want anything to do with them, we want to pretend that they don’t even exist.   Their Club, their friction factors I suppose.  But isn’t it all a bit shameful for a Club which, according to its own Constitution, holds the promotion of friendliness to be its principle aim? Nothing much wrong with GWOCGB at Regional level apart from the odd lumpy patch here and there, but centrally that Club is seriously dysfunctional.

GWOCGB might still be a friendly club in some respects but the selfish complaining, the conspiring, bitching, back-biting, intimidation and bullying which clearly goes on and on and on is hardly doing the Club’s prospects of recovery from declining membership any good.

There is perhaps hope of better, eventually.  Members do regularly object in Postbag to the recurring manifestations of unfriendliness, so not everyone accepts it meekly.  And the silent majority in the GWOCGB Regions are capable of quietly withholding their approval of the unfriendly antics which go on in their name, even if they aren’t inclined to take issue with them openly.  For example currently only a small handful of Regions have taken this latest call to arms (about removing Regions’ website links from the Federation’s List of UK GoldWing Clubs)  seriously.   Likewise when it comes to encountering other GoldWings and groups of them out and about, it’s only the odd one who isn’t at the very least civil.

It’s no business of mine how GWOCGB conducts its own affairs these days of course – and indeed it is potentially helpful to what we are trying to build nationally if GWOCGB continues to operate centrally in what can only be described as self-destruct mode, so why should I be concerned?  Well I’m not really, because the the hostility and deliberate spoiling actions which have been directed at our Club and our Federation during 2009, although shameful to GWOCGB’s credibility as a friendly Club, haven’t done us any serious harm.  For example the drop in BLP numbers this year was significant, but it was a small fraction of the 300 odd GWOCGB memberships which were not renewed in 2009, nearly a third of the total.

We in GoldWings North West and the Federation will have no difficulty getting on with our lives and getting with enjoying our thriving Club by continuing to ignore the spoiling tactics.   But wouldn’t it be better for the UK GoldWing Community, and especially for the prospects of GWOCGB’s  membership numbers, if the unnecessary, counter-productive unfriendliness stopped?

Summary

So there we are, some thoughts on the things which help and hinder friendliness in a GoldWing Club and in the GoldWing Community as a whole.

It isn’t rocket science.  It boils down to being friendly yourself, i.e being considerate of others in your own actions and respectful of their preferences when they don’t coincide with yours.

And surely this means being considerate to Wingers outside your own club as well as within it – or at least not picking petty and unnecessary arguments with them or trying to spoil what they are trying to do.

If we, the UK GoldWing Community, didn’t quite manage to put the turbulence of 2008 behind us in 2009, let’s at least hope that it won’t continue into 2010.

Postscript

In case this Article has got a bit too pseudo–psychological or, God forbid, too political, let me assure you that I don’t spend my time notching up black marks against GWOCGB, nor continuously analysing everything or anybody in my own Club in case they or we or I need sending to a shrink.  I don’t have to do that, I know we’re all slightly potty, we’re bikers for goodness  sake.

As I was writing this Article, pondering on this grin factor or that friction source, I kept thinking of what I have come to call The Wisdom of Dennis Green. I think it’s almost worthy of being adopted as a Winger’s motto so I’ll share it with you.

Dennis and I were on tour with a group in Germany a few years ago and three of us were playing truant from a civic reception we were supposed to go to in City Hall as, believe it or not, honorary ambassadors of Wickersley, a Parish of Rotherham in Yorkshire, which happens to be Twinned with the German town where we were staying.   We truants had been riding for an hour or so on nice roads and must have pulled over for some reason, probably so that I could work out how we’d got lost.   Dennis, relishing the moment,  suddenly piped up with “ This is a lot better than sipping champagne and talking bollocks”.

And he was right wasn’t he?  Owning a GoldWing is a real privilege, so we should make best use of that privilege by enjoying our GoldWings and  dealing with other Wingers in a friendly way.

Our GoldWing clubs must be a means to that end or they are worth nothing at all.  Imagine a Winger spotting a GoldWing stopped by the roadside and looking for his own club’s badges or pennant on the bike or riding gear before deciding whether to stop and help.  Wouldn’t that be awful?

Finally, at the end of my 2009 biking season and as part of my expression of personal gratitude for the friendliness and friendships which I have enjoyed riding my bike this year, I would like to add a personal thank you to Bob Summers.  Bob has led GoldWings North West extremely well during it’s first season.  We’ve all worked at it and we’ve all really enjoyed it too, but Bob has worked exceptionally hard and his leadership has been exemplary.  He has given our Club an excellent foundation year, based upon which we can be confident of many happy biking seasons to come.

Roll on 2010!

Click on the image for an enlargement

The Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs began quietly earlier this year with the joining of forces of two newly formed independent GoldWing Clubs to develop a new national structure.  It is now ready to offer the opportunity of involvement to all UK GoldWing Clubs and Wingers, whether they are also linked to other organisations or not.

The revolutionary thing about the Federation is that it is not going to try to become a ruling body, so no attempt to control or tell GoldWing Clubs or Wingers what they can and cannot do, instead it’s going to do things and make things available which will help Clubs and individual Wingers do their own thing – and to publicise them, if they wish, as a way of inviting other Wingers to join in.

So, no rules or restrictions, no costly subscriptions, just useful, reliable services and facilities, either free or at minimal cost.

The Federation’s Website has been designed to present, in simple and clear terms, what’s on offer.  It will help Wingers to find a GoldWing Club to suit their needs and it will also help a Winger to start forming a new Club if that’s what he or she wants to do.  No-one owns any territory or any rights to demand that other Wingers steer clear or should seek permission or pay for the privilege of being a recognised GoldWing Club or to run a recognised event – the Federation recognises everyone’s freedom to do their own thing, whenever and wherever they wish.

So there is a List of UK GoldWing Clubs on the Website, as many as can be found.

And an All Clubs Events Calendar to provide as comprehensive a list of GoldWing Events and Activities as possible.

Any Club or Winger can have an activity or event listed, whether they are affiliated to the Federation or not.  There are no restrictions, no password protection of information – it’s a freely available service for the whole UK GoldWing Community.

There is also an opportunities for Clubs to Affiliate to the Federation to receive additional benefits, like robust and reliable PLI insurance and a free off-the-shelf Club Website of their own.

And there’s an opportunity for individuals to become Associates of the Federation, with help to form a new Club themselves if they wish, or simply to take a more active part in this new national GoldWing umbrella organisation.

No rules, no compulsion, no exclusiveness, not even gentle coercion,  just opportunity and choice.

It’s all about freedom of choice!

The Federation of United Kindom GoldWing Clubs is sponsored by Knutsford Honda, the North West’s new full service GoldWing Specialist Dealer