[Gordon Steadman]

Yes indeed.

Synchronised swimming is sport and slot cars are toys.

[dvd3500]

Curling... golf...

[Gordon Steadman]

I do wonder where sport ends and games begin. I find it hard to take anything that involves getting a ball into a hole or net seriously and darts too. Not that I don't enjoy playing them but playing rather suggests a game.

I guess I just don't do spectator sports/games. Why get vicarious pleasure when you can do it yourself?

[woodcote]

But instead of focusing on what doesn't work I though I would try to find out what DOES work.

If you have a healthy, successful club or at least a regular set of meetings for slot racing, what are the things that people really like and enjoy and make them come back?

   

Our club in Worthing - running both HO analogue and 1/32 Scalextric Digital - does seem to work, if you're looking for a big, low-cost, family-friendly slot car club. This was our tenth season and - in terms of attendances - it was our second worst, averaging 19 racers per event over the twenty Wednesday evenings and four all-day Saturdays. For the ten years, our average varies between 18.9 and 25.4 racers per event and has dipped below 20 only twice. Our highest attendance was 36 (with eight 30+) and the lowest 11 (twice - with 15 events of 15 people or less). Twenty to twenty-four is an ideal number to fit a heats & step-up finals format between 7 and 9.30pm. For our HO and digital team races, thirty-two people is great!

In terms of attracting new racers, this year was better than average. Seventeen people (ten who were under-16s) raced HO for the first time, 13 making return visits and six already having bought cars for next season. Eighteen people raced Digital for the first time, eight making return visits (more may do so) and those eight have all bought or are buying cars for next season. Only four of the new digital racers were under-16s.

Four or five of those newbies came along with an existing WHO racer, around ten said they found us direct on facebook, twitter or instagram; seven came as a result of the ARC Air track at a local windmill (four raced, three couldn't make it but came to the next WHO race); two chaps found us via another slot forum; three we met through our ARC Air track at Gaugemaster's AutoFest; and another two had been receiving our pre- and post-race emails for three years having given us contact details at a local fair where we had a Micro Scalextric track.

However, that's only part of the story. Most people had also checked out the pictures, videos and reports on our website and social media platforms and seen we were a family-friendly, welcoming and lively club - they liked what they saw. Our website and social media are all about creating a buzz around our events, give clear information and are reasonably free from slot car jargon. When people turn up through the door, we do have to make good on the promise of a warm welcome and a fun evening. I think we do okay.

Price-wise, new racers can participate fully in fifteen (14 from next season) HO events for only £3 per race (£2 under-16s). We have no membership fee and no car purchases are necessary. The club cars I prepare and maintain often run better than some racers' cars. A package to run in all three HO classes - F1, Nascar and WHO Mod - will set you back £39 or £33 if you decorate the Nascar body. This buys you an AFX Mega-G+ Gen6 Nascar, an F1 body and a pair of silicone tyres. There's no reason why that shouldn't run well for 2-3 seasons with maybe new shoes (£1.30 a pair) and a new pinion (£1) each year. The club provides 55-ohm DS controllers, which is what a lot of racers eventually buy themselves.

For our Scalextric digital racing, the entry fee is the same £3 and £2 per Wednesday evening or per session on a Saturday (so £6 and £4 for a morning and afternoon). No car purchase is necessary on a Wednesday - we run a club car team race and then finish with a Trans-Am pairs race where new racers are invited to pair up with an owner-driver - or a newbie pair might get loaned a car. The evening format is designed as an introduction to digital racing - gradually increasing the complexity of the digital simulations through the evening - and there is always a team mate to help out and to offer encouragement. If there are no newbies, it is still a cracking evening of racing.

The Saturdays are our least accessible events. They still include a Club Car Rotation race, which takes up almost all the morning and a 45-minute GT team race in the afternoon where newbies are integrated into the teams. To participate fully in the day, a Scalextric BTCC car is required (£42.50 chipped from Jadlams + £3 for a pair of tyres) for the three 16-lap BTCC sprint races. Eventually racers look at getting a Scalextric GT3 car (same cost) and maybe a Slot.it Group C - although the Group C race is the shortest of the day. We had ten racers buy Group Cs for this year and a few more planning to get one for 2020. That a bog-standard Slot.it is the pinnacle of our racing, might just sum up the accessibility ethos of our club.

Anyway, that's a few things about what does work for us, both in terms of running a club and attracting new racers. It is important to say that what we have - a big, low cost family-friendly club - is exactly what we set out to create in 2009-10. It won't be everyone's aim.

There is loads more on our website: http://whoracing.org.uk/ and here on SlotRacer Online.

[Gordon Steadman]

What that seems to prove is that you need one or two really committed people who are prepared to put in the time, effort and not a little cash to make the whole thing run well. This comes as no surprise at all.

Most people will happily turn up if someone else has done all the hard work. I suspect that any club covering whatever subject works on the same principle.

[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.

[Gordon Steadman]

I'd guess that clubs that thrive over a long period of time have good leadership.

Yup!

[dvd3500]

Thanks woodcote...
So it seems to me that having a decent environment that evolves is a very important point...
Finding out WHAT needs to evolve also seems challenging...

[Scuderia_Turini]

A crucial aspect for a club is to have a vision of what its about - like a published constitution or at least a 'mission statement'.

Its no good having a club dominated by well-established members if you want to attract younger members. Younger members will want info and results on Facebook or other social media whereas the more well-established members will say "I don't do Facebook". 
By "younger members" I am including 20-somethings and such. 

Good leadership will promote the club appropriately. Leading a group is about moving forwards to meet the goals and ambitions of the group.

Of course if the aim of the club is to cater for hard-core, scratchbuilders then the Leadership should follow an appropriate path.

Leo

[dvd3500]

Mildly reviving this after the Holiday break.
One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be what i am calling an "intermediary gap".

I see a ton of questions in various forums with people needing fairly basic help. Things like adjusting braids, replacing parts, mild tuning:
There are lots of videos and posts about this introductory things.

What I also see are lots of exchanges between experts. Abbreviations abound and it all becomes specialized jargon quickly.

What I think is missing something to bridge the gap.

For example it is yearly hard to know exactly what is required. For example, I know there are lots of aftermarket chassis available that require "a slot-it motor pod". The thing is, there are dozens of slot-it pods out there... which one?!

Also I personally feel you have to have lap counting and lap timing. I almost never see this mentioned.

To that point, while there is a lot of ino about tuning the cars I don't see a lot of before and after videos or comparisons.

If it weren't for woodcote's input here, I don't think I have ever seen documentation on how to run an event...

What do you all think?
Or am I exceedingly thick? (entirely possible....)