New Lincs Uni Motorbike Society! (Any tips for running it?)

[x.carol]

Hello!
I'm finally living the dream and starting a Motorbike Society here at Lincoln University!
It's still being assessed for approval but I'm hoping to offer such benefits as subsidised petrol and camping costs. And also community support for any questions about starting/progressing into motorbikes and organising rides & rallies

Yes, this is a shameless plug asking for people to join the Facebook page here!

but also to ask any advice for a complete noob wanting to make a university society work if anyone here has any experience or words of wisdom?

Thankyou!
Carol x
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Yammy Viragoo 535 ♥

[fatpies]

TL: DR

Go find the Lincs/York university skydiver BCPA groups.

Emulate them, job done.


In effect they have regular meet ups, gear is shared and they use their combined purchasing power and block buying power and the rivalry between Langar (notts) and Hibaldstow to get cheaper jump tickets and preferential treatment from dropzones. Much to my Chagrin as they get priority at dropzones. And people like me get bumped off jumpships in preference to them.

There is also insane amounts of drinking and people meet up no matter what the weather to mess about. There is a mentoring system whereby qualifications are encouraged. With biking I suppose this could be emulated with road craft.
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"It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one"

[multijoy]

Run, don't walk, away!

In all seriousness - check that you can actually do what you want to do - I think you might run into difficulties disbursing union funds to members by way of a petrol allowance, you certainly run the risk of HMRC wanting to have a quiet word.

Other problems (and I speak as an ex-union staff member, so I've seen a few of these come and go) will be that you'll need to have the society open to all and so you've got to balance the wants of a) full licence holders b) L platers c) those who have neither and d) those who want neither.

Aside from the drinking club aspect (which is quite legitimate, before I come across as preachy!) consider the practical possibilities:

- Stock of loan equipment (jackets, gloves etc. for newbies or members in need, or leathers for track days)

- From the university estate, procure a lock-up/garage for storage, bodging or both

- tools for the above (but for pete's sake implement some sort of system to avoid them walking off!)

- touring. Aquire some GPS units/ mapping, facilitate a tour (perhaps a backup van could be the 'added value' to distinguish it from some mates going off on a trip)

Other issues - prepare to fight with the Friends of the Earth or other similar societies, both for funding and the high horse etc.

H&S - the union will be (wrongly, you'll all be adults) concerned with liability. Be careful with what you arrange/ run and merely facilitate wherever possible. Consider making contact with an IAM group, if that might ease the passage.

Finally allow for the fact that, in any given uni club, you'll have a percentage who can't go anywhere without popping a wheelie, a percentage who wouldn't dream of starting their bike without a 32 point checklist and everyone in between - don't sweat the differences but don't allow one point of view to dominate.
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'11 CBF1000A, '99 C90, '98 CB500
silky666: He rode amazingly well considering his bike is the weight of a small van and had slicks on.

[Rogerborg]

[TheDonUK]

Forget subsidised petrol...

Best idea would be a garage somewhere on campus where bikes can be securely stored/worked on...
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[Teflon-Mike]

Motorbike clubs are a peculiar 'thing' & there's many different kinds.
What 'kind' of club do you want?

If you look at non uni clubs; you have sport clubs orgainising anything 'competative' from trials competition, to road racing... I doubt that you'll get a high take up for a Motorcycle-Sport club, at uni, drawing mainly from road riders....

As such model of other sporting activities, like Sky-diving, rock-climbing or kyaking etc...

Only motorsport-soc I ever came accross was at a College of FE, and it was the 'Kart-Club'... Tech Tutor was a karter, and the club had standing tradition for entering a long existant 'School-Kart' championchip, with metalwor-class made karts, in endurance type races where all the club members got to drive....

So, for Road-Riding, you would be looking more along teh lines of a Motorcycle 'Social' Club, or Motorcycle Rally Club.

Coventry had one; 'The Furry Teeth'... I was a member of while at Uni.... they had a weekly meet up in the SU Bar, which rapidly ended up absorbed into the 'Rock-Soc' disco, as we were nearly all members of both! And...... err, that was about IT actually!

Seriouse Trike Builder had a go at setting up a mechanics self-help group... he got rather frustrated by that; ended up with him running around town on his trike, laden with tool boxes to 'Help' fix up a clapped out H100 or something; doing all the work, to find it needed a new brake cable or something, departing, leaving fellow soc member to get a cable, then finding he was being 'rubbished' behind his back, becourse, for all his good will and work, impoverished students expected a free fix, and didn't get it, when left to buy their own bits! "Couldn't fix My bike!"

There was a couple of attempts at organising ride outs; but as said; we had a Lad with a C70, another with an old CB125S, teh lad with his trike, another with a classic Triumph, another with a CR250 Motard; one with an XJ900, another with a MHR Duke (post Grad!) Some-one with a GSX550, and all points in between....

We actually 'lost' the lad with the C70 on the first ride out one year; Lad with the CR250 ended up going pillion with the lad with the Trumpet, becouse his bike nipped up; Lad with teh Duke was rather peeved that lad with the CB125S got to the 'Green Draggon' in Stratford before every-one else..... "But I live here!? He said. This is my 'Local'!

So you ended up with ride-outs deteriourating into groups of two's or three's, and ideas about going to places like Matlock, coming to nothing......

My Lad, got involved with Uni Bike Soc when he was at Huddesfield; aparently they did a lot more; mostly ride-outs, but they piggy backed off the local 'native' MRC & MAG.... and basically joined thier events, and swelled thier ranks....

WHICH is probably your best bet. RATHER than trying to do something completely independent; trying to affiliate with an existing and active club.... BUT you have to watch the accounts VERY carefully...
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[chris-red]

I was on the committee of the Portsmouth Uni Bikers.

The most important thing is not to take yourself to seriously.

With the funds we were given by the uni, we took everyone to the NEC bike show. That pretty much blatted our budget, we had weekly meetings (piss up in the pub) on Wednesday then weather permitting a ride out on Sundays. Pub Crawls once every few months and a camping trip once a year.

Getting members will be difficult from scratch, I would suggest in the first year flyering bikes parked around the uni, the next you will need to be out in force at the freshers fayre see if you can get bikes by your stand (We did) and every now and they rev the shit out of something with a race can to drum up interest. This is where you will get most of your members. We also offered pillion rides to girls at freshers (only hot ones) and drummed us up some groupies.

All in the bike club for me was excellent I had a great time, and made many awesome friends.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
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[Im-a-Ridah]

Try having the society campaign for something very beneficial for all, first on the list to me would seem to be decent parking areas for motorbikes on campus, and some secure indoor lockers for gear. You should be able to persuade the uni to help fund the lockers! Forget subsidised petrol ect, the benefit will be minimal. Shared tools ect are just going to go walkies, more trouble than its worth TBH. The other obvious thing would be meeting up for ride outs.

I've never heard of anyone setting up a drinking society, though I'm sure many have tried, which is quite strange considering how popular it would be. The closest is probably the LGBT society whose common purpose is getting drunk and being attracted to each other, oh and a few liberal rights campaigners.

[johnsmith222]

[pits]

You will need a set of rules.
1. You can't just join, you need to be invited by an existing member
2. You must spend at least 3 months going to every meeting but waiting outside campus
3. You must earn your vest.
4. Your first vest (denim) may not be adorned with patches until patches are earned.
5. Most patches are earned by nodding at other bikers, however other patches can be earned under special regulations
5a. Flaming Skull C90 patch is earned by owning a C90
5ab. Flaming Skull C90 patch can come with nodding flaming skull for top box if you nod at other bikes whilst riding a C90
5b. Knobcat patch is never earned, never bought, never worn, unless it is bestowed upon you, similar to the matrix of leadership in Transformers The Movie.

6. After a minimum of 3 terms in club your Denim vest maybe changed for a leather vest (all patches transferable)
7. Leather vests no longer earn patches, they earn tassels, tassels are earned again by nodding, every 3 nods is 1 tassel, nods must be seen and allocated by an elder member, and nods are exchanged in 100 nod increments or 30 tassels, 15 tassels per arm.

8. Back tassels are only earned when you have an epic bike (CHRI5 would have multiple rows of back tassels)


I mean that is just a starter for a set of rules.
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Stinkwheel: You have no right to free speech
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[stinkwheel]

Comittees do not work.

If you try to organise a bike run by comittee, it will never happen.

The comittee should agree they want to go for a run and to where. Someone should then take or be delegated the responsability for telling people when and how.

Or, the comittee decides that they will have runs on certain dates and members take it in turn to organise where and how.

For example. The club I'm in at the moment has decided on a run every two weeks through spring, summer and autumn and has nominated two people to do the run diary. Anyone who has a suggestion or want for a destination reports to them. Anyone who has or knows of something else that would clash with a run date reports it to them. They then come up with a run diary.

Our University bike club used to have a chip-shop run in the evenings every first Tuesday. Free fuel for the person who organised it. We also used to have a camping run at the weekends nearest the Spring and vernal equinox and a bigger run for the Summer solstice. If other people fancied going to something else, they put their idea up at a meeting, this was always most successful as a "done deal". So "The Clachaig Inn is having a world beers festival. I'm going up on the XXXX and I'm booking into the hostel up the road. Anyone else want to come too?"

Money is problematic with university societies. My advice is once you have enough of a float to put down a deposit on a function room or order in a load of T-shirts etc. Stop. It causes nothing but trouble and eventually the University will snaffle it the one year your membership drops below the specified level. It also causes resentment by people who have moved on from the University and feel they put a lot of money in and someone else is spending it.

Good luck. The Edinburgh University MCC closed down shortly after I left Uni. due to lack of interest and insufficient student members. In it's heyday it had 140 members and owned a fully equipped machine shop and workshop. Doesn't seem to be the interest in bike clubs that there once was.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[chris-red]

[Rogerborg]