It’s a while since I wrote anything about the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs, so here’s an update on the progress we’ve been making.

The basic idea of the Federation as previously described on this Blog is unchanged but things have moved on a little and the ideas have been developed.

The Federation has already been formed and its website will be launched within the next few weeks, containing details of the services being offered, i.e. what you get for joining, and of course how to join.

The Federation already exists as a body corporate, as the lawyers would say, in the form of a Club. It therefore has Officers: two Joint Acting Hon Chairmen, Bob Summers and Dave Turvey, and an Acting Hon Secretary/Treasurer, which is me, Stuart Ormerod.  We also have an Honorary Webmaster, Nigel Mackintosh and I suppose in theory he is “Acting” too, although its difficult to see anyone else being either capable or willing to take his place.  A lot of the development work has been IT related and so it has fallen to Nigel, who has done a great deal of work.

This small team, with the help of other friends in the UK GoldWing community, has been concentrating on developing the services and facilities which will be offered to GoldWing Clubs, i.e. the “product”, to the stage where they can actually be offered. Hence the impending launch of the Federation’s website, which is how the Federation will project itself.  There are no plans to have people filling in paper forms or to send out paper newsheets or magazines – the Federation is born during the internet age and that’s how it will communicate.

Founding Principles

The principles behind the Federation haven’t changed but it’s worth reminding everyone what they are and fleshing them out with a  bit more detail, to illustrate what’s new about the Federation, compared with what was previously available on the UK GoldWing scene.

The Federation is, above all, about freedom of choice among Wingers.  So it has been structured to help them to find or form and also to operate their own GoldWing Clubs.  Likewise it will help GoldWing Clubs associate with each other.  It will have national scope but it will not try to become a national club or a national controlling or regulating body. A bit of friendly arbitrating maybe if Clubs are in disagreement, but that’s as far as it will go.

It is therefore a Club of Clubs rather than of individual members, although provision is being made for individuals to join too, as a way of either finding or forming a Club to suit their needs.

There are to be no restrictions on what Wingers can promote using Federation facilities, as long as it’s legal and doesn’t offend public decency.  The widest possible range of GoldWing-related interests, activities and events, will be encouraged and facilitated without allowing any of them to dominate and obstruct the others.

So for example camping events are certainly included (and GoldWings North West is holding its first Open Camping & Barbeque Weekend in August) but neither camping nor anything else will be entitled to take priority over any other activity or event.  It’s all about freedom of choice.

There will be, as far as practicable, no Federation Rules.  The GoldWing Clubs which join the Federation and use its facilities will remain completely independent as Clubs and decide for themselves whether they have any rules or restrictions and if so what they will be. Hopefully they won’t be unnecessarily restrictive but that’s up to them.

If someone wants to form a Club which restricts membership and attendance to Gaelic-speaking owners of dark green GL1500s that’s perfectly OK.  It probably wouldn’t work of course, but the point is that the Federation will not refuse to help give something a try if someone wants to do it.  Above all, the Federation isn’t going to try to boss anyone around. It’s all about freedom of choice.

The Federation’s aim is to make itself useful to GoldWing Clubs without in any way being a burden on them, financial or otherwise.  It will do this, indeed it is already doing it for the two founding Clubs, by providing services such as webhosting and arranging PLI cover which are better and/or cheaper than Clubs could organize for themselves. The Federation will make things available “off the shelf” to save Clubs having to develop their own from scratch.

The Federation will be run as a low-cost volunteer organization, exploiting the professional skills and talents of its volunteers. Even during the set-up phase, it will seek only the minimum of funding from affiliated Clubs.  As the Federation becomes established and in a position to raise money itself, for example by sponsorship, advertising, donations or selling Federation regalia, it will seek to reduce the cost of affiliation to the Clubs.

It may still be sensible to require Clubs to pay something for what they get even if the Federation could provide it for free, for example still pay for their PLI cover, but in principle the Federation will not seek to make any money out of the Clubs at all. It’s there to serve the Clubs.

Nor will the Federation try to become a “brand” which can then be exploited for someone’s or some company’s gain. If surpluses are created, they will be used without delay for worthy purposes, like making grants to GoldWing Clubs or donations to charity.

There will therefore be no need for a pot of Federation money, just a modest amount of working funds.  And if there’s no pot of money worth arguing about, there can be no arguments about who controls it or how it can be spent.

And if the Federation doesn’t exercise any power over its Clubs and there isn’t a pot of money, the people who get involved in running it will not be tempted by any prospects of power or privilege or gain, they’ll be doing it for the best of reasons.

Cost of Joining

Initially, because of course the Federation is starting from scratch itself, Clubs are expected to pay £5 per year per Club Membership to the Federation when they affiliate (i.e. per membership rather than per person, so couples and families pay only £5 too.  That’s it.  Anything else a Club chooses to raise in subscriptions it keeps for its own use.

This £5 charge is mostly to cover the cost of PLI insurance premiums with a bit added to provide for webhosting fees and other essential expenditure.

None of the volunteers who are running the Federation have claimed a penny in personal expenses and it is not anticipated that they will ever do so. It a small team, most things are dealt with by phone and emails, so only occasional meetings are necessary (only one so far) and they meet as friends in each other’s homes.  So no hotel bills, no mileage charges; not even claims for phone bills.

Clubs decide their own budgets and subscriptions

The Clubs which join the Federation remain independent, so they decide for themselves what subscriptions and other charges they make to their members.  For example, GoldWings North West and GoldWings North Wales have already decided to do that differently.

GoldWings North West wants to spend some money on things like Club Banners, so it is collecting subscriptions of £12 per year, of which £5 goes to the Federation and the rest is kept by the Club.  They are also running raffles, selling regalia and other fund-raising activities (as well as collecting for North West Air Ambulance) to get themselves established.

GoldWings North Wales sees no need to do that, so it’s subscription is set at £6 per year, only £1 above the Federation’s requirements.  Both Clubs are of course free to change their approach any time they wish and in any way they wish.

Even when it’s just starting up, as GoldWings North West has been doing, it’s difficult to see why a Club which is a volunteer organisation should have to charge much more than £12 per membership per year in subscriptions if it’s being properly run. The Federation will of course provide advice to Clubs which are forming on how to set up and manage their financial affairs.

Individuals can join too

The Federation is primarily a Club of Clubs rather than of individual members, but it’s also there to help GoldWing owners and riders, and indeed anyone who is interested in GoldWings, find or form GoldWing clubs.  Individuals may therefore become Associates of the Federation, paying the same annual amount (initially £5) to give them access to Federation facilities and services as they would enjoy as a member of an affiliated Club.

Although it will be entirely up to individual Clubs whether they allow guests to attend their meetings or events it is anticipated that most of them will make members of other Federation Clubs welcome, indeed hopefully they will make all Wingers welcome as guests, including of course individual Associates on the Federation.

The Scope of Federation Services

How would the Federation put its founding principle into action, how would it facilitate freedom of choice for Wingers?  What would the Federation do for local groups of Wingers which they couldn’t easily do for themselves?

Well one obvious thing would be to publish a national calendar of events, so that local and other Clubs could publicise their meetings and activities in order to make themselves known to potential visitors and new members.

Federation Website

So a Federation website has already been developed.  Nigel has been creating new websites like mad in recent months and all his rich technical experience, combined with our own experiences with Blogs and Club websites has gone into the pot of ideas.  We think we know what the Federation website should, and more importantly should not try to provide.  It will contain an increasing library of resources for GoldWing Clubs, including sets of model club constitutions and rules from which Wingers forming a Club can choose, advice about bank accounts and subscriptions and access to a model club website which they can take off the shelf, free of charge, tweak to their own style and colour scheme, populate with information and start using,

But the Federation website does not include a forum, at least not for the foreseeable future..  A selection of excellent, well moderated, GoldWing forums for technical stuff and world-wide exchange of ideas already exists, so we see no point in trying to duplicate them.  Forums at Club or even national level can tempt people to get all political and sometimes blatantly belligerent or even worse.  We don’t see enough real value in a Federation forum to take the risk of having to deal with that sort of thing.

We are however considering incorporating some sort of on-line notice board or dialogue facility to allow Clubs and Associates to post notices or questions on the Federation website, such as “Anyone interested in forming a Club in Knotty Ash?”, or anywhere else, or “Any support for a Touring holiday to ……?” or “Anyone thought of this idea…..?”  But postings will all be subject to editorial approval before publication; it won’t be a free-for-all forum on which people can climb on their soap box to have a go at others.

Events Calendar

The Federation website will incorporate an All Clubs Events Calendar, with the aim of providing a one-stop-shop for information about everything that’s happening on the UK GoldWing scene.  There will be no rules about who can advertise what of course, any Club can publicise any type of activity or event on this calendar as long as it’s legal and as long as it’s not indecent.

An All Clubs Events Calendar has of course been published as part of the Blackpool Light Parade website since early in 2008 and it’s been one of the most frequently viewed Pages on that website.  Subject to the technical issues of transferring it being achievable, that Calendar will move to the Federation website once it is launched.

Model Club Website

Potentially one of the most valuable services the Federation is prepared to offer its Club is an off-the-shelf Club website. This will be provided, with webhosting, free of charge to affiliated Clubs.

The prototype for this website is already in use by GoldWings North West.

The “engine” behind this website allows for a wide choice of colours and styles which are fairly easily adjustable.  Even more importantly the content of the website is also more or less completely selectable by the users and entered directly by them. Anyone with ordinary, basic computer skills can easily learn to use it to good effect.

Bob Summers, who wouldn’t claim to be a computer whizz kid, was given this prototype website to start using a couple of months or so ago and he got the hang of it in no time.  You can see for yourself how successfully the idea has already been exploited to create a really interesting and dynamic Club website. It has all sorts of clever presentational features that Bob has gradually been exploiting.

Another Club could use the same off-the-shelf “website engine” and choose their own style and colour scheme to make its website look either similar or quite different, as they choose.

Bob was a website novice when he started and he is already a bit of an expert, at least in terms of getting information and pictures on to the website in a presentable and interesting way.  And he is prepared to help new Clubs get the hang of getting their website up and running when they are beginning.  There’s no need for a Club to go as far as incorporating all the stuff Bob has been putting in, but it’s all there if the Club wants to use it.

By the way this model Club website will be equipped (optionally) for on-line Club regalia sales, also free of charge. We have made arrangements with a supplier to accept on line orders from any Federation Club website.  Members of affiliated Clubs will be able to order their own Club’s regalia on line from their own Club’s website as well as a range of Federation stuff from the Federation website.  It’s essentially the same technology that provides the Blackpool Light Parade merchandise, which will be expanded as necessary to accommodate a larger range of embroidered garments, badges, pennants etc.  It relieves the Club of any need to be involved in taking orders and collecting payment for regalia at all, yet they can still make a small profit for the Club out of regalia sales if they want to.

PLI Cover

The third obvious way in which the Federation can help independent Clubs is by arranging PLI cover for all Club activities at economic rates.

In this litigious age, any organizer or leader of any type or organized activity, even a group ride among a bunch of mates, needs to have an eye for how to cope with being sued.  We’re all mates until someone ends up suffering a serious injury or loss, then the compensation lawyers get involved and anyone who has any accumulated wealth, such as equity in a house or even a valuable motorcycle, is a potential target.

So it’s no use having Club PLI cover which is restricted to “recognised events”, Clubs need PLI cover which embraces all their ordinary activities, which is what the Federation provides.  The Federation will make it crystal clear what is and is not covered.  Essentially it covers all normal biking club activities and events but like all insurance there are a few exclusions.  The Federation’s PLI is arranged via the BMF so Clubs can affiliate directly with the BMF and get it that way if they wish.  What the Federation does is package and present PLI cover clearly so that a GoldWing Club can rely on it suiting their needs.  There is also a financial saving because of economy of scale; bundling Club memberships together effectively buys PLI cover at bulk-buy rates.

And maybe lots of other things too ….

There will be other things the Federation should try to provide for Clubs too, like working with combinations of Clubs to organise larger scale events, in the same way the Blackpool Light Parade is organised.  (The 2009 BLP is a cooperative effort between GoldWings North West and GoldWings North Wales, under the Federation’s banner.)

We have learned from experience with the Blackpool Light Parade that these things can be done without laying out big sums of money and without taking any financial risks.  Neither the Federation, nor I suspect any of the Clubs who are likely to affiliate, want to speculate in this way.

And this repertoire of larger events will in due course include camping events, which are of course very popular among Wingers.  GoldWings North West’s Open Camping Weekend at Kirkby Lonsdale in August is something of a prototype.  Any Winger will be welcome, there are no restrictions on what you sleep in (tent, caravan, motorhome, B&B, hotel, igloo) and the camping charge (only £5 per person per night) will apply only if you actually camp.  Details are on the GoldWings North West website.

In due course there may be scope for a national-scale summer meeting along the lines of the US WingDing.  Don’t hold your breath but we’re already building excellent relationships with our motorcycle’s manufacturer and dealers – and we have a track record of running large Events successfully, without laying out or losing big sums of money.

International Potential

The GoldWing European Federation (GWEF) has existed for some time and it has developed a system for allocating non-conflicting dates for national rallies.  It has evolved a set of restrictive rules about who can do what and how and when.

Currently GWEF has no practical significance at all for UK Wingers unless they want to take part in GWEF’s calendar of national camping rallies in mainland Europe, or to attend GWOCGB’s calendar of UK camping events, at which extra is charged unless you are a member of a GWEF affiliated club. (It’s possible to shop around among the various GWEF clubs for the cheapest annual subscription if your principal aim is to minimise the cost of your camping weekends.)

Our Federation will facilitate biking activities in Europe and indeed is already doing so.  My Mosel Tour last month (reported on this Blog) was a prototype for a Federation programme of European Tours for Wingers.

As our Federation grows in size and scope it may one day involve itself with GWEF, or perhaps directly with other federations or clubs in Europe, to foster international cooperation.  But it’s difficult to envisage joining in with a highly restrictive system such as GWEF currently operates, which really only caters for camping events. (By the way the GWEF’s Committee’s decision to hang on to 20,000 Euros for its own future use instead of dishing it out as expected is currently raising a few eyebrows around Europe.)

We have nothing against camping events of course and would like them to be included, same as everything else, in the Federation’s scope of interest, but we want to be quite a bit more unrestrictive than GWEF is currently being.  I would guess that when we get around to talking to them, there will be plenty of European Wingers who will be interested in the same freedom of choice as we are promoting in the UK.

Democracy can wait

In developing the Federation idea and putting it into practice, we have been much more concerned with developing the “product” than the organisational structure of the Federation, which we feel can evolve in due course. The Federation will not become a controlling body and there’s no big money involved, so issues of who runs it and who’s in charge don’t really matter, at least not for a while.

Clubs also retain their own independence in all things, so if they are dissatisfied with the Federation they will be free to vote with their feet.  For example there is nothing to stop any GoldWing Club arranging its own PLI cover with the directly BMF and it won’t cost that much more than via the Federation.  The Federation will attract Clubs if it does a good job and lose them if it doesn’t; there is nothing to hold them captive except the quality of what’s on offer – and that’s how it should be.

The four people who are building the Federation are a small team of friends who work well together and who have complementary skills.  But we are not a clique and we’re certainly not a power-seeking oligarchy.  If anyone else comes along offering new ideas or skills we’ll be delighted to listen and if they have something worthwhile to offer to take them on board.

It’s all about Freedom of Choice

In summary the Federation is not setting out to be all things to all men, it’s just trying to offer enough to make it easy for Wingers to do their own thing without having to start from scratch, and without undue interference.

Why shouldn’t local groups of Wingers, or other groups who share a special interest in GoldWings, be free to pursue their interests without interference, yet be free to associate and cooperate with other GoldWing Clubs too?  Who needs a national or international ruling body?  Who needs national or international rules?

Other independent Clubs are in process of forming and both these and some existing GoldWing Clubs or Regions of GWOCGB are talking to us about affiliating, even before we’ve launched the Federation properly.  There is no hurry and it’s not a competition, especially with GWOCGB.  I personally would like to see GWOCGB survive its years of decline and its financial and other current difficulties and continue to provide camping weekends for those who want nothing much more.

All we’re really doing is providing some fresh and creative thinking and turning it into a basis for choice.  It’s all about freedom of choice