Everyone,

Given the success of the regional forums and our desire to support regional clubs, we would like to gather feedback on the types of features/functions that are needed to support local organizations. Here are some ideas we've come up with to date:

Give us your feedback as we're giving this serious consideration due to the the need to better connect owners and enthusiasts now that MINIs are becoming more plentiful. Let us know what we can do to help you locally.

To send your thoughts, just reply using the link below or send an email to feedback@northamericanmotoring.com.

As always thanks for the feedback! Keep it coming

Mark

 

mferguson,

Yes, connecting with local MINI owners would be a great feature on this site. I will be receiving my MINI in 3 to 4 weeks and am anxious to meet other owners in the Indianapolis area. I've only been in contact with one other soon to be owner but I know the INDY dealer has sold over 150 MINIS, so they are out there. My questions don't have to do with the site so much as they have to do with a local MINI club in general. I've never been involved in such a club and really don't know what they "DO". I get the general idea, but would like to know the specifics. Questions would include:

How do you organize a car "Rally"?
What exactly is a "Rally" - Is it a bit of an organized "race" with stops?
How involved do members get? (Yes, I know that some get VERY involved!)
Is there an official organization that a MINI club would join?

The list could go on and on. I haven't even looked for a thread about this - perhaps I will find loads of info about these groups right here buried behind my screen. Any information or "Meeting Place" on this site for local groups would be welcomed.

Cheers
GROSS67 ops:

 

Mferguson,

I'm not sure about other clubs, but the Chicagoland club already has its own website. I'm sure there are clubs that could use the web help though. The ability to learn what clubs and options are available (via links, etc) in each region would be great.

Gross67,

I am happy to tell you more about clubs & what they do... car shows, rallyes, cruises and social functions are just the beginning. There is a Chicagoland club, but I don't know of an Indiana club off hand. I could check with those folks who would know. Email me if you're interested NekoWoman@aol.com

As for a national club, I'm involved with MINICCA -- Mini/MINI Car Club of America. It's just starting up, but you should be able to join very early next year.

 

Mark,

Great idea! I think a presence for local clubs on MCO would be a BIG help, especially for recruitment. I, for one, learned a lot about my local Mini groups which I would never have known existed had I not visited MCO. I think even if a local club has its own website, a presence on MCO would compliment it nicely and visa versa.

 

This is a good idea. What sort of pricing were you considering for offering this to clubs?

 

Frozenquest,
Pricing will likely be in the range of $50 per year plus domain name registration fees. I'll be posting more information about the club functionality in an upcoming member email (around the first of February). Stay tuned!

Mark

 

Mark,
This is EXACTLY what we need! Several of us in St. Louis are putting out heads together to come up with a single community for St. Louis MINI people. We look forward to reading more about this in your e-mail!

Aaron

 

Happy to be here.

I'd like an STL (Saint Louis, MO) - specific forum.
No Chicago posts.
No checking to see if there's new messages,
finding new messages, then finding they're
not related to me.

I'd also like an RSS feed (like blogs export) so it would be
easy to check on new topics and messages.

(Am I posting a new message, or editing my own message and posting
a revised edition ? Will hit submit and find out.
Mystery icons --)
:evil:

 

The weakest link in these clubs is that there is no link between MINI owners and the town or city they live in. I would like to see an owner's city and state displayed in member's lists and then be able to find and filter per city and state. I live in the STL area but I would like to find out if there are club members in my small town of Edwardsville, Illinois, a part of the STL metro area. There are at least five MINIs in Edwardsville but I can't contact them through the club because the club does not display city/states. When I participate in an event hosted buy the STL club, I would like to be able to email folks in my area to plan a caravan drive from Edwardsville to the event ... just that much more fun. We could also plan local events like "Wax our MINIs in Township Park Day" with a stop at Steak 'n Shake for lunch. I can't do any of that with the way club sites are set up now. Hope this helps out!

 

Yes, Mark this would be a good thing.

 

I've been considering some ideas like this for a while. I'll look into this further as we move to a new software platform for the site (coming soon). Thanks!

Mark