younger members thread.

[marcusthemoose]

i don't want to be "age-ist" but would any members on here in the sub 25 category like to join in this thread where we can make suggestiojns on how we think the club could be more "friendly" to younger members. please be sensible, as i think it will be in the good of the club to have younger members input, and make help bring the club upto the social and modern level of the mini and vw clubs about. having a designated thread will help to keep things contained rather than scattered, and will allow the people in important places to see these ideas. thanks

[chickenjohn]

Oh, no! Not this old chestnut again!

1) the Minor is not a Mini or Vee Dub and it never will be, we do not have surfer/hippy/drag race culture or Michael Caine/ Monte carlo rally etc history that goes back to the 60's. The Minor's appeal is different, It is a nice car for nice people. Nurses, teachers, vicars etc.

2) There is no demographic crisis in the club or Minor ownership, Young people are buying cars, but the majority of new members are 40-50 somethings. As long as we keep attracting this age group on a rolling basis over time then there will never be a demographic crisis.

3) "Younger" people are of course welcome, as equally as are older people, or anybody who likes the Minor. I was 31 when I bought my traveller.

4) It is getting harder for 20-30 somethings to own a classic car these days due to the cost of housing, and not having the space/ time to work on restoring/maintaining a classic car. They have to run it as a main car as they cannot afford/ do not have the space to keep a weekend car.

5) We need to promote Minor ownership to ALL regardless of age.

[billlobban]

Marcus being far outwith your target audience, in fact I think Ive got trousers older than that, I think its an excellent idea to make the forum and club more attractive to younger members. Far to many dinasours like me on here as it is

[LouiseM]

Following the "young owners" stand on branch avenue at the national rally I know that Matt (mcoles) was interested in looking into the possibility of perhaps forming a young owners 'branch'. I'm not sure if that would be possible or not, and agree with chickenjohn that we need to promote Minor ownership regardless of age, but I'm sure that the committee would welcome any ideas & suggestions from younger members.

[RobMoore]

Why should we segregate our club into old and young?
I am 46 almost 47 yet I often feel like I'm 21.
I'm all for promoting the club to a younger audience but we do not need a special branch for young people. I do think having someone young on the commitee would be a much better idea. We need as a club to cater for a full audience and not just focus on the flat cap pipe and slippers brigade.
This my 1st classic - discounting the 2 beetles I had during the 80's as I didn't class that make as a classic.
I chose moggy for 2 reasons, availability of spares and ease of maintenance.
We have a wealth of knowledge in this club both young and old, lets keep hold of this and ustilise it

[MColes]

My idea for a young person's branch (which I have not approached anybody on the committee about yet) is not to segregate the club.

Following the spot the young people were allocted on branch avenue, I thought it would be a good idea for the 'young people' to be recognised as a group of people. Being allocated our own stand at the national gave people the opportunity to see that there are younger members in the club, for people to offer us their support and encouragment, as one gentleman said "it's good to see younger members, you're the next generation, you will be the ones making sure these cars are here when I've long gone".

Also there being a seperate stand for younger members encouraged more younger people to approach the stand and ask us questions, Stephen had a 'younger person' so interested in his car and Minors in general that he took him out for a drive in his car and I believed he is now completely hooked and can't wait until he can get his own Minor. I also had a few people approach me asking how much I pay for insurance so that they could pass the information onto their son/daughter as they are interested in buying a Minor.

So to comfirm, I am not trying to split the club into young and old, I am simply trying to give the very small percentage of younger people a voice as sometimes it can appear that because we're young and a minority we aren't listened to. Having a specific young people's branch would attract more younger people as younger people can be put off by the idea of joining a club of older people (no offence intended, but it is true). I'm not daft, without older members us young people would be stuck as there would be no one to learn from, nobody to show us the error of our ways and how to do things properly.

So lets get more younger people into the club to carry on this great tradition of Morris Minor ownership!

[ratrodmog]

Oh, no! Not this old chestnut again!

1) the Minor is not a Mini or Vee Dub and it never will be, we do not have surfer/hippy/drag race culture or Michael Caine/ Monte carlo rally etc history that goes back to the 60's. The Minor's appeal is different, It is a nice car for nice people. Nurses, teachers, vicars etc.

As a 22 year old Minor owner I would like to disagree with this statement. The Minor does have a big rally heritage to be proud of, it just hasn't been kept up like the Mini has. Maybe this could be a good route for the next national, a Minor classic rally stage . Also there is a huge drag racing scene for Minors, mainly in the US and New Zealand, but there are quite a few in this country. With the like of JLH helping the racing scene along I think it will be huge in a few years.

I have said it before but I will repeat it, the club as a whole needs to take a leaf out of the Mini and VeeDub clubs book and get more up-to-date. Gone are the days of sitting around your car drinking tea in a field and now is the time for racing, live bands, show 'n' shine ect (I have a huge list of ideas for the national and the club in general). Young people are the future of the club and if they are all put off then who will carry the Minor on in the future. Just to be clear, I'm not saying scrap how things are currently done, just tweek them and be more open to trying new ideas.

Phew
Cheers

[hotrodder13]

i agree with ratrodmog, my dad and most of his hotrod friends started off with a minor, and did them up slowly like what i am doing, and still there are a few minors at the hotrod shows,

as one of my friends watched me do mine up, he is now considering getting one becuase he like the looks better then a vw bug.

[Alex'n'Ane]

Just to say i totally agree with matt Although i couldn't make the national (A levels ) it does definitely seem like a nice idea to have somewhere the younger members can talk and meet and stuff. Just a suggestion but possibly a section on the board? similar tot he custom& modified, series MM etc sections?

[MColes]

Those people that are keen to form a younger persons branch please let me know via PM, this will add more weight to our suggestion when I contact the committee in the next few days.

[wibble_puppy]

mcoles what an absolutely terrific post, that was a breath of fresh air. It's great to hear about the way that people responded to your stand at the National.

I'm a billion years old but am all for people sharing the daft addiction which is Morris Minor ownership. Theclub has been doing it in a certain way for aaaaages and it's always good to try out different approaches IMO.

Incidentally I'm not at all nice. And my Minor is such a ridiculous colour I don't think a district nurse would be seen dead in it, in fact I shall go in search of one tomorrow and prove myself right

Good luck with your quest, marcusthemoose, seems to me you are already doing a good job

Onwards!

[marcusthemoose]

my idea was never to divide the club, more to get an opinion of what younger owners want from the club.

i don't mean to sound harsh, but when people say they feel like 21, they aint. they don't fully know or understand what is going on with younger age groups- and diversity would keep the club fresh and exciting. young owners are out there,we just need to give them a voice.

the suggestion actually came from Kevin, and i decided to act upon it- don't know if it will take off, but judging from the number of views and replies since it was posted earlier on to day, its got peoples attention.

again, not wanting to sound mean, but i believe it is easy for the club to get stuck in the same old rut, and younger members may change the club, and help the morris minor lose its "old woman" image. (one kid at school actually said he wouldn't get one because they look like a peado's car) and these are the misconceptions i am hoping to combat. i don't think anyone wants it to turn into a VW type club, because we all know how "clicky" and boring (and expensive) they can be, but simply to bring the minor closer into society.

i value all opinions, but i think it may be better if we could get young peoples opinions, rather than opposition- you never know, this may fall flat on its face, but we don't know until we give it a go!

[charlie_morris_minor]

i agree with ratmog.. my trouble is that i will be too old to join you

i purchased my traveller and joined the club when i was 18.. then left a year later, only rejoining more than 10 years later. I am not saying that a young register would have kept me as a member but i do not think it would hurt.

chickenjohn i am not sure if you are on a wind-up

1) the Minor is not a Mini or Vee Dub and it never will be, we do not have surfer/hippy/drag race culture or Michael Caine/ Monte carlo rally etc history that goes back to the 60's. The Minor's appeal is different, It is a nice car for nice people. Nurses, teachers, vicars etc.

speak for yourself! As a youngster I was a goth / hunt sab with blue hair I am not a nurse, teacher, vicar etc and that middle class attitude real does scare me. maybe you would like to ask people their job / earning potential before allowing them to join the club?

2) There is no demographic crisis in the club or Minor ownership, Young people are buying cars, but the majority of new members are 40-50 somethings. As long as we keep attracting this age group on a rolling basis over time then there will never be a demographic crisis.

40 / 50 year old's come along find what they want and stay.. 18 year old's come along and leave .. might be interesting if the club could analysis the renewal rates over under 25's compared to over 25's if we continually wait for people to be 40 before feeling happy in the club they will have become interested in other makes / models and not get into moggies.

3) "Younger" people are of course welcome, as equally as are older people, or anybody who likes the Minor. I was 31 when I bought my traveller.

i was 18 when i purchased my traveller what is your point?

4) It is getting harder for 20-30 somethings to own a classic car these days due to the cost of housing, and not having the space/ time to work on restoring/maintaining a classic car. They have to run it as a main car as they cannot afford/ do not have the space to keep a weekend car.

isn't that the point under 30's have specific problems which apply more to them than other ages. That is why we have registers for lcv / MM etc etc so that people with the same type of cars and hence same problems can get together and share knowledge and ideas.

5) We need to promote Minor ownership to ALL regardless of age.

this i think is the only one I agree with you on.

[MColes]

i agree with ratmog.. my trouble is that i will be too old to join you

Charlie, you may be outside the age bracket to be classed as a 'younger member' but if ever the idea of a young persons branch gets off the drawing board (well...out of my mind and into existance ) and we organise rallies etc. 'older members' (no offence meant) would be more than welcome to come along to pass on their knowledge

[marcusthemoose]

second that

[stephenpolhill]

I reckon we should promote younger owners by having a seperate section at shows and rallies and perhaps a bit of the forum so we know who are those younger owners. However as mentioned its a bit harsh to disallow people who are over the age group. I am 18 and appreciate both the modified cars and the original ones so what is the difference between the current forum and group and adding a younger section.
Rallies are OK as you can talk to everyone there however on the forum it might get a bit 'sided' with the younger vs the rest.
Theres my thoughts

[Sidney'61]

1) the Minor is not a Mini or Vee Dub and it never will be, we do not have surfer/hippy/drag race culture or Michael Caine/ Monte carlo rally etc history that goes back to the 60's. The Minor's appeal is different, It is a nice car for nice people. Nurses, teachers, vicars etc.

Are youngsters not nice people then? thanks.

I'd just like to point out that of the 5 cars that appeared on the young peoples stand over the course of national 3 of them were completely standard and all 5 are used as daily cars, we own minors because they are interesting, fun and practical cars so rally history or hippy culture is not at all important.

The stand at the national helped people to notice that there are younger minor owners out there and helped other young people to come forward and ask questions so a young owners branch would help to bring in younger members to the club, whether they like their cars standard or modified.

Surely a young owners branch would 'divide the club' only as much as a series MM or minor million owners register would.

[pskipper]

I think the main thing chickenjohn was pointing out was that this has been suggested before and no one did anything about it. Don't take umbrage at the way things are phrased, if you are serious about a young persons branch (which sadly I no longer meet the requirements for) then get together and contact the committee, they should be able to tell you all the requirements for becoming a branch

[GAS]

Club 18 to 30ish

[Blaketon]

I can remember a time when Minors were owned by young people with “Nuclear Power No Thanks” or CND stickers in the windows, in much the same way as VW Beetles. I am not commenting on those issues specifically but for some reason the Beetle has retained that kind of image (Which I have to say is more about image than interest in the cars) amongst some of its followers but for some reason the Minor has simply matured.

Speaking as someone who has had a lifelong interest in old cars (At one time I had an interest in contemporary cars but somewhere after 1980 there was a kind of cut off) and since the closure of the MG factory made even late model Abingdon built MGs collectable, I’ve been involved in the classic car scene. I joined the MG Car Club at the age of eighteen and never once considered my age or anyone else’s to be an issue (And to be fair, I never found that anyone else considered it an issue). I was interested in owning an MG and that was all that mattered. At the time, only the MG Car Club (The original club for MGs) catered for all models. I was interested in MGs of all ages (Maybe not every “MG” ever built), so this was why I chose the MG Car Club.

If I as an eighteen year old could have an interest in a fifty odd year old MG M or J Type Midget, I see no reason why the eighteen year old of today cannot be interested in the fifty year old Morris Minor (How many of the London to Brighton cars are driven by people as old as they are?). You either have an interest or you don’t; you can’t force it and I think that to try and give the Minor another "Image" (Assuming it even has an image) to artificially create such interest would be wrong (And it might be rather patronising).

Of course we need young blood and I welcome it. Since classic cars have now come to encompass the mass production years, it has grown (Even if survival rates are low and will get lower in my view) and there are a lot of cars out there that will be without owners if young blood doesn’t come through. However, we don’t need to encourage every youngster into the classic car scene. We have always been a minority and will always be one. You will never persuade the average “Motorist” to have an interest in classic cars, no matter what their age……..if you were to try you would need to do power steering kits for the Minor, plus a whole host of other pointless accessories, to make the Minor more “Acceptable” to that type of person.