What is the point of joining a Centre ?
What is the point of joining a Centre ? Many Centres give members a free rally book, many make members pay, and give a vote at the AGM.
Rally books can often become out of date the day they are sent to the printers so it is always recommended to view the Centre's website for current news and information. So if you don't want a vote at the AGM and let's face it many committee positions are filled unopposed what are the advantages of joining a Centre ?
Comments
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Our centre has negotiated a significant discount with Jewsons for gas - so it's worth my being a member just for that.
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Hi Bill,
All comments on here are very interesting and we suggest all Centre Rally secretaries keep us up-to-date about the success (or not) of their Centres.
With the help of Centre Members and Committee Members we hope that Rallies will be well attended and that word will spread on the merits of getting on board to help with the operational needs of running a Centre.
Hopefully all attendees of Rallies and Centre events are grateful for all the hard work put in by the likes of you Bill and hopefully our Centres will continue providing a great opportunity for like-minded tourers to come together for years to come.
Regards,
Helen
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You might say that but visiting members might be trying out rallying and as a consequence join a centre as we've done. We sadly don't have time to get deeply involved but are aware of the work that goes on behind the scenes so I hope people like us aren't going to feel guilty! I just feel lucky that we get the chance to join in when we can and would be more than happy to help out if needed.
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I've personally got no problem, with non centre members attending Rally's. I also appreciate that people don't neccessarily have the time or inclination to run or organise anything within a centre, that's fine. I would prefer that they joined a Centre as the centre gets a small amount of money. Before anyone starts getting their knickers in a twist over this I would point out that on occasions the clubsite network has made losses and been subsidised and of course the CL network is effectively subsidised a benefit for members as CL owners don't pay anything afaik to be approved and listed. I don't have a problem with this.
What I do have a problem with, is the attitude of certain members who think that Rally's some how magically organise themselves, life's not like that. Well not on my planet
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We've not rallied within this club but I wholehearted agree about the amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
Joining a group is something that crosses our minds at times but apart from new friends we're not sure exactly how joining a centre helped as you can rally with any centre. If you say there is a small monetary gain that is a reason.
If you join a centre does that preclude you from using other rallies? List of rallies are available online, the leaflet produced didn't include some centres this year 😉 reasons discussed on another thread, so on the face of it there seems little point. CL'S details are fully available without the log in requirement, only directions are withheld., unlike the C&CC where go learn anything about their CS you have to be logged on.
as I type this I'm still not sure why you'd join a centre, it certainly isn't clear. The centre you join gets small monetary gain and you pay rally fees to the rally you attend. Am I missing something?
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Bakers2.
Being a member of a centre does not stop you going on other Rallies. Also you do not have to live in the same area as covered by the centre. We for instance live in North Wales, but are members of the Cheshire centre. The money given to the centre by the club is to help in the general running of the centre, flag poles and tea urns don't buy themselves
.It must be remembered that centre's are run entirely by volunteers, so maybe a Rallies get missed from the central brochure and the information may not be given in an identical way by individual centre's. On a personal level we worked out that we have run 33 Rally's I can't think of a single Rally where we haven't in some way out of pocket running a rally. This is not a moan btw but it is the reality. I am sure a lot of Rally organisers are in exactly the same position. But as an attendee, we find Rallies good value for money and fun as well.
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Thanks Boff. Will definitely good it some more thought. Seems like a sensible thing to do especially if we can find a rally we fancy.
I do understand that you're not moaning but you shouldn't be out of pocket at all, you're giving your time for free so that should be sufficient! There is enough money within the club to fund sufficiently 😉. Can't see the staff doing it in the same spirit 😉. To be this is the club part! I can't change things but I can voice my opinion 😂.
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I'm quite happy to do it my way, as I said it wasn't a moan just the way it is a hobby. I would expect the staff for one minute, to do anything for free. I have a day job and I certainly don't do that for free.
You don't say what part of the country you are in but I would say is just try a rally. What's the worst that can happen? It costs you £20 and you wasted a weekend, alternatively who knows you might enjoy it.
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I always advise any CMC member to try at least one Rally or perhaps more than that to decide if the formality of a CMC rally is for them.
A point made earlier by Boff I think, that organisers of CMC rallies are sometimes finding themselves out of pocket.
This is deplorable and should never happen. Rally and entertainment fees should reflect the true costs involved. A bit of proper accounting should fix that, making sure that the income from fees match or even surpass the expenditure.
K
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I was surprised to hear anyone was out of pocket too, hope this is something that can be sorted, the rallies ought to be self funding.
The problem with all voluntary work is that you don't always feel appreciated but the success of rallies depends on the volunteering organisers. I always appreciate them and send a thank you, may be others do too, I hope so.
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Look it's not deplorable, it's not a scandal and I am certainly not looking for any money. Whatever I do and spend I do on a voluntary basis of my own free will. The moment I cease to get anything out of it I will stop.
What in truth I object to are people who post on here, that c&cc rallies (meets) are much better because you don't have to book. I wouldn't run a Rally under those circumstances. I have even been accused in the past for saying that. Saying that 99% of people are great
All I ask for is this. At the end of a Rally if you have enjoyed it go and just say thank you to the organisers. You know even if you haven't enjoyed it go and thank them anyway, because I assume that nobody sets out to run a bad rally. Just don't book on one of their Rally's again.
In someways it is the centre members who still use the club as a club and not a multimillion pound leisure business. Whitch is why if it costs me a couple of quid because I haven't claimed for any fuel for running arround, I'm not going to loose any sleep. But equally if someone else has different circumstances then they need to feel under no obigligation to do the same.
PS Bill sorry for thread hijack.
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Good post Boff.
I will run about 4/5 rallies next year, including one of approx. 125 vans, and will attend another 10 or 12. I fully appreciate that some CAMC members don't ever want to rally but if enough people see no advantage in joining a Centre, because they can still attend rallies anyway, there will be less people to organise them. I have seen a drop in rally attendance over the past 10 years with only a small number of rallies increasing in size. Many rallies that I had to book in January each year can now be booked at the last minute.
Marshalling has got more complicated including fire and safety aspects as well as VAT accounting and we need to encourage and train more marshals. These are skills best learned within a Centre in my opinion.
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Bill. I think that's some people just think that a rally runs from Friday to Sunday and that's all there is to, it from the point of view from the organiser.
To give an example we have/are running 5 rallies this year. Including a week long Rally in the Cotswolds at the end of October. This is what we will have to do. Firstly all Rallies for the following year have to be agreed and ratified by the date of the AGM which is held in September, this means for a Rally that is being run late October 2017, it had to be agreed and proposed by Mid-September 2016 13 months in advance and a price worked out for the rally, in our centre it is the Rally officers that do that not the rally Sec.
Obviously Cheshire is not part of the Cotswolds so the Rally sec has to get permission from the appropriate Centre to run a rally on their patch (aka 4b)
From January ish we start to get bookings, so they need to sorted and recorded.
There is on going discussions on what we are actually going to do are we going to have socials etc, etc. Keeping in contact with the land owner
Our co-organisers will sort out a quiz
A couple of weeks before the date of the Rally we will send The cheques to the centre treasurer, who will send us a cheque back so that we can cover expenses hire of the field etc. Plaques need to be chosen and ordered
We will go down a day early, I will effectively take a day's unpaid leave. We will cart down extra stuff which means we will go in 2 cars. Either latter that day or early on Saturday. We will go out and put up signs to the venue.
On the morning of the Rally the field will be pegged, so that the correct spacing is observed, Water and CDP also signed.
During the day as vans start to arrive we will be siteing vans only 20ish, but we can't stand down until the last van has arrived. Most likely during the day my wife will go out to do some basic shopping for tea biscuits etc for opening get together.Sunday opening flag
rest of the week events as organised ( We try to have some social events but also plenty of free unorganised time so that people don't think that every waking hour is accounted for).Friday night closing flag van prizes given out more tea coffee cake and biscuits. Obviously all the signs put up need to be taken down.
Saturday make sure everyone gets off the field ok.
Sunday travel home and sleep.
After the Rally make sure that the accounts balance including the vat, Chocolate biscuits vat rated digestives are zero rated iirc bit of a nightmare send off final accounts to treasurer.
Obviously I don't do all that by myself there is 4 of us doing various jobs. But you we are going to do all that on the off chance that you might turn up then think again!
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Yes you can rally with any centre as long as you are a Club member but you cannot have your say in how the centre runs, vote at the AGM, run a rally (though non-centre members can assist but not actually marshal in some centres) and obviously you cannot stand for committee.
We are at present non-centre members as our membership of the local centre lapsed and as my husband was ill (and he is the driver) we stopped rallying for a while, we are slowly getting back but don't rally with one specific centre at the moment, choosing where we want to go rather than specifically choosing one centre. We still have friends in our local centre but also have many in other centres and also attend a few region events with rallies run by the different centres in our region. Perhaps when we are free to get out more often again we will resume our membership and who knows might even run rallies again, fingers crossed we will get there.
I agree that rallying is the real 'club' side of the CMC, it was our social life for nearly 30 years and our children grew up with it (and benefited enormously)
Alison
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I know you already do this Alison but others might not be aware that if you want a taste of what helping out is like I think the National Rally Booking Form gives you the opportunity to offer "something back." So anyone can have a go and join in with the background work.
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yes Brue, volunteers are always welcome at the National if anyone wants to offer their services
Alison
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I have posted before that many years ago we joined the Club to be able to take RP cover for our first caravan holiday abroad. We continue to be members for two main reasons which are the great savings to be made with ITX fares and to be able to attend rallies.
We have made great use of rallies over the years, mostly with children and grandchildren, and will shortly be off to a Wilts Centre rally at Pentewan for two weeks-as the crow flies only a handful of miles from home. Our involvement on rallies will vary from very little interaction with others, on say an adventure park rally, to a lot of contact and social interaction but we always attend Flagpole to show that we appreciate the efforts that others have made so that we can enjoy ourselves.
No you don't need to join a Centre but if doing so helps them with funds that allow them to put on rallies for us all to enjoy then why not?
Photos from rallies so far this year.
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Hello, SWMBO and I are new members in our second year of membership. We haven't been to a rally yet but we do intend to. We have been to a THS (with the other club) and thoroughly enjoyed it, and we wrote to officially thank the organisers.
So 'What is the point of joining a centre'?
Well I presume that if nobody joined there would be no rallies.
Thanks to all those who do join and thanks to all those who put in many hours of unseen hard work so other caravanners can have a great weekend away.
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yes indeed, without centre members there would be no rallies, no Regions or Divisions, probably no National as most of the volunteers who run it come from centres as indeed do the Executive team who organise it and the Chairman who presides over it, let's not even think over how the Club itself would evolve without them.
Alison
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