An Inevitable Downturn?

At some time or another we all find our club having a very static or dwindling membership base. In the last few years, many clubs we have spoken to are reporting this as the norm. But is the downturn inevitable? General interest in classic cars is booming, attendance of the major indoor car shows is spiralling and clubs are still taking healthy numbers of new members. But in 2014, the FBHVC released figures to us that revealed that, on average, the number of club members across the board had falled by nearly 10% in the preceding 5 years. So what’s causing it?

In this two-part article we draw on our own experiences of static and dwindling membership numbers to try and pin down the factors behind these membership trends, and consider some of the changes you can make - both procedural and behavioural - to help turn the decline around. We’re not saying it will work for every club, but if you can be sure you are doing these basic things right, you are on firm foundations to help turn the decline into growth.

Welcome to the first in a series of blogs by The Rover P6 Club on managing a classic car club in the digital era. The Rover P6 Club has been particularly successful through the integration of key Social Media and online outlets and in this series we want to bring our experiences to the wider community, backed up by our own statistical analysis of how to successfully use the “new” online tools available to all of us, for free, to enhance our presence, demonstrate our effectiveness and allow the Club achievements to be the sole driver of WHY people should join our clubs.