[royce]

Welcome to the Suzuki 4wd Clubs and groups section

What is this section for?
This is for Suzuki 4wd clubs and groups in Australia to tell Auszookers about themselves and share what they get up to, so they can provide contact info here, tell everybody about upcoming events, meetings and get togethers and post pics from these trips

Why cant I start a thread?
Access to start threads is limited, currently the only people that will be allowed access are those approved by clubs wishing to participate, some clubs may wish to not partake in this at all and some clubs may wish to be measured in what they post, which is good cause nobody likes lots of spam.

How do I gain access
Currently access is only available to correctly setup and registered Suzuki 4wd clubs in Australia, users wishing to gain access will need to provide me with suitable proof that their club wishes to participate in this section and that they are approved by the club to do so.

Like always this is a trial section and may change or go away at any time

[Fatzook]

So how does this work? Is it only designated spokespersons from a club that are allowed to post here? Or will any co-op club member be able to post?

I guess what I am asking is if this section will be giving the AZ hoard a good look at what the australian suzuki 4wd club community is doing, and what they stand for; or will it be more about the individual club members and what they get out of their membership with their respective clubs?

[royce]

for clubs as an entity to tell people about them, not individuals, there is a whole forum for people to talk about themselves already

[Built4thrashing]

here any reason this is just for suzuki based clubs? What about all the clubs that are multi vehicle clubs. My club iallows any make or model to join as long as your keen to use it. Club is mostly trols and land bruisers but there are several zooks and almost every manufacturer represented.

[royce]

Why is it a Suzuki 4wd forum and not a general 4wd forum

for now, no other clubs, see if it works first

[Built4thrashing]

royce wrote:

Why is it a Suzuki 4wd forum and not a general 4wd forum

for now, no other clubs, see if it works first

sounds like every post that refers to "the other makes" sould be deleted then... ...lol

All good. Let me know when i can post up details of a Multi vehicle club..Like the CCJC

[alien]

would be good if there was some sort of template for clubs to fill out containing how frequent meetings are, how frequent trips are, where the trips generally go to, cost of membership, cost to attend outings, benefits of specific club's membership (like club rego available, or any discounts associated with the club) - that kinda thing.. Im sure theres other things i've missed.

[Gwagensteve]

I agree. Something like this?

State:

Town: (Might be relevant with big states?)

Meeting Date:

Meeting Location:

Joining Fee:

Cub magazine: Yes/No

Club website: (Insert URL)

Membership Fee:

Compulsory equipment:

Non suzuki's Welcome?

Attitude to Visitors: (i.e can non members attend trips to test drive the club etc)

Primary focus: (Day trips, weekend camping etc. Most clubs run tend to run more of one a rot of trip than any other. Joining a club that does mostly weekends away of you for on Saturdays etc could be an issue)

# of trips per year?

Trip standards: (Not Easy to Hard or Xtreem or something - give some guidelines - i.e we run easy to medium trips that are suitable of standard vehicles, medium to hard trips for cars with a locker and tyres, and hard trips suitable for cars with twin lockers, gearing and an experienced driver.Many clubs have very different ideas about what a hard trip is.

In relation to B4T's question,

I'm not sure what to make of the "non suzuki club" clubs posting in this section. There are plenty of non-make specific clubs that might well be suzuki friendly, however, there are many that aren't, and whilst they might have a couple of members who battle on copping crap for their choice of car, it might not be the ideal club for an inexperienced member.

However, in some smaller towns, there might not be enough population to support a Suzuki specific club, but the local club has a core of enthusiastic Suzuki owners. I believe the Geelong 4WD club is an example of this. There are a number of members who have suzuki's as second cars due to the tight/muddy nature of their local areas, whilst keeping large cars for longer trips.

I believe there are suzuki specific clubs in all capital cities. We have members who are in more than one club because of their location or vehicle choice.

Steve.

[Built4thrashing]

That template would be good. I agree, you would not allow single make clubs to post (ie nissan, toyota,cruiser etc) but for clubs like mine we allow all vehicles to join and at present there are 3 active suzuki drivers and there is alot of interest from others. we rate out trips from No 4wd to extreme.

As with most clubs there will always be bragging wars over vehicles but we found the club benifits from the different vehicles. allows for more variety of trips. Every long weekend we have trips and they tend to be family friendly.

The suzuki club is a great club if you own a modded sierra or Vitara. The few trips i have been on in the past i enjoyed greatly but now that i have a young family that wants to come the zook trips are not as suitable.

We could discuss this till we are old but different clubs are suitable for different people.

[Fatzook]

Maybe there is a template......

But that would be between Royce and the applicable club would it not?

[royce]

Gwagons template might inspire some people but I am sure any club that wants to participate can tell us as much or as little as they want to

There are also numerous other sections that people can ask and learn about all sorts of other clubs

[Built4thrashing]

Something else to add to the template is your involvement in said club and how long you have been a member.

ie committee poistion or president or regular member

[Gwagensteve]

I don't think that's relevant at all. If the person positing is authorised by their club to post it makes no difference whether they are committee or how long they have been in the club.

There may well be scope for a "how great is my club" section where they stuff might be relevant, but there's no need in a template of info about the club.

Steve.

[Gwagensteve]

It surprises me that after almost two months, there are NO other Suzuki clubs or even roughly organised groups that are interested in publicity.

It seems, for example, the SA Zuk club isn't very interested in Suzuki's any more (and thats what sometimes happens - the Vic club was like that in 1993 when I joined) but there is a loose group that seems to be getting rolling form here who could contribute to this area of the forum.

The NSW Suzuki club is active and healthy AFAIK, yet they aren't promoting their club on here? There would have to be few better platforms to appeal to potential members?

Steve.

[Maxi]

Ive been to SA club meetings and there is no one below the age of 50 and no one drives sierras. all non zuks and grand vitaras etc.

I didnt see the point in wasting my time.

[Gwagensteve]

That's why I suggested there might be room for a loose group to get going based from AZ that can run their own trips. When I joined the Vic club, most of the active members bought their sierras in the mid 80's when they were young and had traded them on dual cabs, patrols etc. They were starting to have kids, going on camping trips etc and whilst the club was really welcoming, and younger than most 4WD clubs, there were often no suzuki's on trips. Basically they bought sierras because they were cheap and traded out of them as soon as they could afford to.

It took a few years of membership before I noticed people who bought sierras because they wanted a capable car for day trips joining.

Club dynamics can be slow/hard to change though - it requires a "critical mass" of members to join to change the focus.

Steve.

[neofitou]

There are a lot of SA guys on this forum, if you all joined the SA club it would change the club instantly.
You would only need 2 or 3 from here as a start really, rather than start informally all join the existing club..

Pros
You would have a place to meet up, talk about and arrange trips etc, you add them to the club trips, you get liability insurance and guidelines (like no drinking on trips which is a big positive).
When someone like you does turn up, there's hard trips and someone does have a sierra or a built car and they stay too.
Shooting the shit about cars, builds, personal crap etc is all out of the way at the meeting = more time for wheeling on the day.

As a car club member "enthusiast" you can get insurance from Shannon's, which can cover mods so long as they are legal and is cheap, cheaper than budget direct for my Paj & Sierra for example (RACx Total Care FTW though).

When it comes to committee stuff, GV drivers are better suited anyway. Nobody wants to do admin if they can be fixing their car instead..
They can organise t-shirts food stickers etc as they have nothing better to do.
Parts sharing is way easier.

Cons
GV or Gwagen ;) drivers can waffle on. easily avoided
There are tards in some clubs, harder to avoid, but fun to have a laugh at with the cool kids.

[Maxi]

Yeah if other sa guys are interested, i would be too..... although most perks you mentioned wouldnt apply to me since im already a member at another club.

[Shansh]

would be good to have something in SA, the hard part is getting that "critical mass" to get the ball rolling on change & then changing the focus of a club can be a tough thing

that being said, an active group who was enthusiastic about zooks in my opinion could be a lot of fun..........

[atari4x4]

Personally for now I'd rather have something similar to what the guys in Perth are doing, I've done the club thing with Classic Fords & it sucked the big one apart from scamming cheap club rego.

The informal meets could be the beginning of hijacking the SA Suzuki Club but when you look at the events for 2012 it's not looking promising.

16 January 2012 - General Meeting

26 January 2012 - Australia Day Progressive Lunch

10-12 March 2012 - Adelaide Cup Weekend - Port Hughes

23-25 March 2012 - FWDSA - AGM - Strathalbyn

6-9 April 2012 - Easter LWE - Mt Ives

Christmas in July - Mannum

Sounds right up my alley :lol: but I don't want to get my new lambswool seat covers dusty on my Mitsubishtotaissan, so we're going to have to say on the tarmac & stop at every winery for cheese & crackers...

I think we need to kick off with a proper AZ meet & greet somewhere & go from there, would be cool to get a heap of zooks together on the foreshore somewhere like Moana on a nice day.

[Chop]

Yeah a casual meet up is the go, i can't believe suzuki in the city sponsors that club anymore. Prado's , pajero's and prius listed as their cars.
Being in a club here won't get you much, only if your doing alot of touring and get club discounts for some property access.

[Maxi]

Agreed. Words cant describe the levels of boredom edured through their meetings. id hate to think what the trips are like. im sure the caravan parks are lovely destinations though

[steve]

atari4x4 wrote:

but when you look at the events for 2012 it's not looking promising..

I'm not sure about that club, but usually lack of the right events is because there's either no one with suitable cars or no one wants to run all the events. I find the main problem with clubs is the attitude of "why should i have to do anything", so then it's all left up to just a couple of people to do everything, then after a while they all get a bit fed up from lack of input and lose interest, and when new people come along they don't see anything happening and go away dissapointed.

So are we making the AZ Suzuki Club, with groups in each town around Australia? Royce can be the Grand Wizard

[Shansh]

ok then lets see what dates people are available for an informal proper AZ meet n greet

a BBQ down on the coast with a bunch of AZ'ers sounds pretty good, bring yer own tucker n a few beers if thats your thing, that way the organising doesnt come down to just one or two people.

[Gwagensteve]

I don't want to be a hater here at all, but I am a strong supporter of actual "clubs" (i.e incorporated bodies.) If the SA "Suzuki" club is as terrible as I hear, then there might be room for another actual club that meets the needs of SA 'zookers.

Clubs do take some administration, but do offer benefits, most critically, indemnity insurance for trip leaders, committee members etc. Whilst our club has never been subject to a claim, there have been a few clubs in Vic that have been sued for total loss of vehicle when a club trip has gone pear shaped and someone sinks/totals a car because a "trip leader" said they would be OK driving the obstacle in question.

If someone on here is acting as an organiser of loose trips, it might be worth having participants signing a disclaimer or waiver so there is some sort of acceptance that in the event of an incident, the claimant relies on their vehicle insurance etc rather than pointing the finder at the organiser.

Like I said, don't want to be party pooper, but everyone on a trip needs to know the ground rules before anything untoward occurs.

Steve.

[Chop]

I can understand that steve, maybe there should be disclaimers/warning in the trip section.

[Maxi]

Its not as easy as just starting a club and becoming accredited. 4wd sa are not easy to deal with.

[Maxi]

[quote="Shansh"]ok then lets see what dates people are available for an informal proper AZ meet n greet

a BBQ down on the coast with a bunch of AZ'ers sounds pretty good, bring yer own tucker n a few beers if thats your thing, that way the organising doesnt come down to just one or two people.[/quote]


Im keen, just need a place and more people now!

[atari4x4]

SA meat n greet thread started here = viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30326

[MrRocky]

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