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NEGATIVE Charter Club Feedback

derost

beemerFROG
This certainly not about the set of the club area, that looked great and in a great location... but instead of one clubs attitude in particular.

Being from Northern Illinois I thought I would stop into the Chicago tent to find out more about their club as I am not a member. I was immediately greeted with glares and looks of disgust identifying me as an outsider.

I said hello and said that I wanted to find out more about the Chicago charter as I live in the area... some a$$***e peers over his news paper and says "we are in Chicago... and we are a charter... what else do you want to know? Ya know you can just got to our website."

"OK... so can you tell me anything else?"

"We meet once a month in Villa Park" said another grumpy member

I had enough so I just walked out... at least a gal who was in there was nice enough to come after me and appologize for the attitude. I always heard the club was nasty and just a big click but didn't want to believe it.

I hope other riding clubs actually feel that recruiting new members is a GOOD thing. And for others in CRBMW that are actually decent, I'm sorry you are being represented in that manner.
 
This certainly not about the set of the club area, that looked great and in a great location... but instead of one clubs attitude in particular.

Being from Northern Illinois I thought I would stop into the Chicago tent to find out more about their club as I am not a member. I was immediately greeted with glares and looks of disgust identifying me as an outsider.

I said hello and said that I wanted to find out more about the Chicago charter as I live in the area... some a$$***e peers over his news paper and says "we are in Chicago... and we are a charter... what else do you want to know? Ya know you can just got to our website."

"OK... so can you tell me anything else?"

"We meet once a month in Villa Park" said another grumpy member

I had enough so I just walked out... at least a gal who was in there was nice enough to come after me and appologize for the attitude. I always heard the club was nasty and just a big click but didn't want to believe it.

I hope other riding clubs actually feel that recruiting new members is a GOOD thing. And for others in CRBMW that are actually decent, I'm sorry you are being represented in that manner.
I know you wouldn't have gotten that response with my club, the Indianapolis BMW Club. We signed up a new member during the rally. Must be a Chicago thing.
 
I'm sorry to hear that you were greeted that way. I work hard to welcome members to the Chicago Region and am surprised and disappointed by your reception.
 
I know you wouldn't have gotten that response with my club, the Indianapolis BMW Club. We signed up a new member during the rally. Must be a Chicago thing.
Hardly a Chicago thing. A lot of us work hard to welcome new members and that includes prospective members. Obviously not all of us and I hate to see us painted with a broad brush.
 
A whole lot easier to tear down than build up a reputation

DE Frog's post just shows how it's a whole lot easier for a few bad apples to tear down the reputation of a club just by being jerks in a situation like this. Don't know who they were but really saddens me to hear this happen.

In contrast to this we have people like Norm Phoenix, the ONLY guy to ride to all 40 bmwmoa rallies; and Alice Hanes, both Norm and Alice are MOA Ambassadors. Alice has hosted a first friday of the month gathering at her home for BMW riders for over 30 years. And there are just a whole bunch of genuinely nice caring people in the group.

Guess there is, or should be, a lesson in this for all the Chartered Clubs out there-- we just have to work at making our clubs welcoming to new and old members, it's real easy to get complacent about this issue. Especially as most of the Clubs have relatively open memberships- anyone who wants to join can do so-- so it's really important to have a clear mission statement which emphasizes the importance of new membership, and how to make sure that happens.

I sent a note to the author, hopefully we will have a chance to meet and he (or she) can get a better impression of our CRBMWOA. Ironically Chicago Region BMW people were among the small group of people who got the BMWMOA started!
 
This sucks. I have been wanting to check out a local BMW group, MARS looks pretty cool and I got an offer to join. From what I can tell they are a pretty progressive and fun group of people. I will get around to joining eventually.

I looked at another local group here in PA that I wont mention, we never met, but I am reluctant to meet because I don't want to meet a bunch of old stodgy grumps. Not saying this is the norm or anything, just my minor social phobia.

I can't imagine how that must have made you feel/pissed you off. What a bummer man.
 
Hardly a Chicago thing. A lot of us work hard to welcome new members and that includes prospective members. Obviously not all of us and I hate to see us painted with a broad brush.
I'd like to thank DERost for posting this. I've spoken to a few people and they have confirmed that the issue is more widespread than I would like it to be. We're certainly not all like that, but he is not the only person to get that impression.

I should note that I'm currently the president of the Chicago Region club. This is an issue I need to face and hopefully deal with and resolve.

DERost certainly owes us no second chance, but I will nevertheless invite him to attend any of our events, particularly things like hot dog nights. We generally have a friendly group that shows up for those. (Details at our web site http://www.crbmw.com/component/option,com_gcalendar/Itemid,55/ )
 
I am a member of the Chicago club you are talking about and I was at the rally however it was NOT me that you talked with or saw.

I am embarassed this happened to you and please accept my sincere apologies. If you go to our website, www.crbmw.com and click on the "events calender" you will see that we have a "Hot Dog Night" every Monday night somewhere in the Chicago/suburban area where we just meet, talk and eat hotdogs or whatever. We have some coming up in Palatine,Round Lake,Huntley and Batavia and if you would be interested in attending your hot dogs are on me.

Again, please accept my apologies for how you were treated and I hope you will consider coming out and meeting us.
 
This sucks. I have been wanting to check out a local BMW group, MARS looks pretty cool and I got an offer to join. From what I can tell they are a pretty progressive and fun group of people. I will get around to joining eventually.

I looked at another local group here in PA that I wont mention, we never met, but I am reluctant to meet because I don't want to meet a bunch of old stodgy grumps. Not saying this is the norm or anything, just my minor social phobia.

I can't imagine how that must have made you feel/pissed you off. What a bummer man.

MARs is a great bunch and Tom has done a fantastic job as president! He keepsmusntogether with the help of other club members and we now have regular get togethers and rides. Come join us, Hex and all!
 
I'd like to thank everyone for the support and good wishes. I must make clear that my intentions are not to put anyone on the spot for the sake of retribution, but to point out areas that need to be addressed to help the ENTIRE community, not just one club. I hope that all clubs reading this take something constructive away from it and don't think of it as ammunition against "the other club". As much as I love the brand and it's product's, it is the support of the riders behind the scene that drew me to my first BMW and have kept me there since.

Thank you to Scott C., Hank Barta, Jerry Sjostrom, and the others from the Chicago club that have been very gracious in their reaching out with kind words. I will certainly attend the upcoming hotdog run and do so with a fresh and open attitude.

Scott C., you're buying? Would it be rude to bring tupperware? :eat
 
This is painful to read. I walked into that Chicago Region club meeting room 22 years ago knowing absolutely no one and a couple folks went out of their way to make me feel welcome at that first meeting. I probably wouldn't have even continued with BMW MOA had I not had that positive experience with the Chicago Region club.

Hope we can do better next time.
 
Give it another shot maybe Doug.
You've got a lot to share I think it would be a win/win.
Tech day next year?
 
I don't think it is all that unusual for these clubs to be clickish.... Before attending the rally, I contacted the Gateway club in St. Louis and introduced myself on their web site, and asked if it would be OK to stop by their tent and introduce myself at the rally. Didn't get the pleasure of a reply from their membership chairperson.... So, I guess it's a second club that doesn't really wish to bring in new members.....Oh well, life's too short to fret about the small things....
 
Give it another shot maybe Doug.
You've got a lot to share I think it would be a win/win.
Tech day next year?

Thanks Wezul... but as for the tech day, we both know you just want more of that BBQ we served! LOL
 
Negative feedback that turns out to be a positive.

I know several members of that club and I know that the person(s) that you spoke of are not representative of the club as a whole. They go out of their way to sign up new members. They volunteer at the m/c show and (wo)man the booth.

I applaud the members who took the time to reach out to you after this incident and hope that your future interactions turn out to be more positive.

And I applaud your courage to speak up when you could have just remained silent. Had you done that, there wouldn't have been the recognition that there is room for improvement.

A tip of the helmet to all involved. :kiss
 
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