[woodcote]

Interesting you say that Gordon...

Two of us set up the club and had useful skills for what was needed at that time - one of us ex-army and the other a former senior nurse. We were certainly very focused and organised and shared a vision of what sort of club we wanted. We didn't know if it would work, but any losses were covered by just shy of £800 of community development funding that covered a full year of hall hire, public liability insurance and other start-up running costs - but no equipment. Choosing HO meant it was a very economical way of buying the kit to start the club and our fallback position was that if the club didn't work out, we'd end up with two really nice HO home tracks!

Since then, our members have been incredibly generous in developing the club's infrastructure at hardly any additional cost - bespoke driver stations, plug 'n' play power taps, deadstrip, table extenders, bespoke Race Management System have all been built and maintained by people we've meet since the launch - all with skills we don't possess. The club is now run by a 12-strong organising team who share the work around - designing tracks, turning up early to set up (4-8 of us build a track in about 50-60 minutes), running race control, writing race reports etc. Pretty much everyone stays behind at the end to pack away - it takes about 15-20 minutes. I make a point of involving younger racers with tasks on the night - if they want to be involved, which they usually do - so our race control team and newbie mentoring service probably has an average age of around 18. Maybe that's why we have three young adults (20-21) who have raced with us for most of the past ten years, plus a good handful of youngsters that have stayed until they start in full-time work or go to uni.

It is quite humbling to consider how the club has been part of the lives of dozens of junior racers and a little scary to think that we have probably had some influence in how most of them have turned out... And we have helped some grown-ups through very tricky times in their lives too, just by being there and providing a fun night away from life outside. So we are a refuge - no politics, no religion, no swearing (or not much), no 'grown-up jokes' - everyone is welcome whoever they are, whatever they are and wherever they are from. We are all just there for the racing.

The digital revolution happened in 2014, after one of our racers introduced us to the after-market RMSs for Scalextric digital. We rug-raced at his house and thought about trying a couple of events at the Barn using his kit. It worked really well - his annual rug-racing fortnight has now become five Wednesday evenings and five all-day Saturdays at the Barn. Mike's kit has been added to and/or replaced - plus the club has paid for a number of quite big upgrades (funded by some one-off commercial events). Scalextric also gave us a set in 2014 to run two Scalextric World Championship rounds - and that kit really helped kick-start the Digital club.

Financially, the club is self-sustainable on the income from the race fees. There has been no extra injection of personal cash since 2009 and Robin was paid back for some of his initial investment. We still run with the £800 grant as a contingency fund. Some years we make £100, some years we lose £50. Currently, the balance in the account is £1970.00, but I will soon be buying the 2019 trophies, 2020 race winners medals and paying our insurance premium plus the six month's hall hire. That'll take us back down to nearer the £800.

We do have people who commit a lot of time to the club, but that's because it's a fabulous club and they get out as much (if not more) as they put in. Being part of running the club has to be fun and rewarding, otherwise people wouldn't choose volunteer their time. It's the same as with the racers - if they don't enjoy the race events, they won't come back.

Maybe that is the crucial point - there has to be regular reflection on how the club is working (or not) and make any changes that are necessary to either freshen things up or return the club to its sweet spot. I'd say that's not always an easy skill - to be able to see what needs to be done for the good of the club and have the confidence and energy to make it happen, even if it ruffles some feathers. I guess that's what leadership - individual or collective - is about. I'd guess that clubs that thrive over a long period of time have good leadership.