Motoring Alliance is now reprising the Roundel Magazine column Bimmer Lite written by Marc Biunno (aka Bimmer Lite here on M/A). Thanks go to the editor of Roundel, Satch Carlson and to Marc. We've posted the first three articles in the Library and will add more every few weeks.
Nice articles. Had a good time reading them. But you should know by now that it's a MINI not a Mini.......:lol: Keep up the great writing!
I've pointed this out before and was told this is an editorial style decision taken by the editor of Roundel. Much like they print X50 for the xDrive50i.
Yep - MINI says that MINI is spelled MINI and Roundel spells it Mini. I guess part of running a magazine is being able to choose the style with which it puts words on a page, even if that means modifying a company's attempt to literally make their brand jump off of it. Catch my drift? - Marc
Thanks so much! Not to shamelessly plug the BMW CCA and Roundel, but it's a column-heavy magazine with lots of different personalities. Sadly since membership is down and advertising $ is down, our columnist-heavy persona might be going away sometime soon. - Marc
Unfortunately, I have found that most of the time the MINI is soundly downplayed in the mag. One reason I have not joined BMWCCA.
Yep, you're absolutely right that the MINI is not a major part of the publication. MINI owners definitely do not represent anywhere near a majority of the over 80,000 members of the BMWCCA. Obviously, each issue can't speak to all of those people, but we do our best:smile5:. - Marc
This really ought to be a new thread but.... What got me torqued in the last issue with all the hoopla over the E-30 meet and the president even making the thrust of his column the lengths the CCA is going to attract new members by attending events outside the normal CCA scope such as the E-30 gathering. It's not like we MINI owners don't have a few events of our own every year that number in the 100's of attendees. A CCA presence at AMVIV, MITM, MOTD, MOT or the many other events would probably go a long way in making the MINI owner a lot more welcome in the CCA fold.
...and to go a step further with your point - membership in the CCA is DOWN, so wouldn't it be prudent for the powers that be to consider REALLY attracting as large and enthusiastic a crowd as the MINI afflicted? But we're treading in murky waters here; if you attract too many MINI owners - is it still the BMW club? And if so many MINI owners can unite to form a national club themselves, why don't they? In any event, these are fun questions to consider. I still love Nate's idea from a while ago to set up a MINI SIG (special interest group) as a first step in attracting more of the MINI fold to the CCA. - Marc
Hey all - just a heads up that I'm going to get a few more columns to Nathan soon for posting here. Hope you're enjoying them. - Marc
It's a two pronged problem. Vince, Mark's predecessor, really tried to get more MINI owners into the BMWCCA--it was his number one priority. It's how I joined. The only reason I hadn't joined earlier was that I automatically assumed that the BMWCCA wasn't for MINI owners. Vince set me straight, and I'm so glad he did....I think this is still a common misperception, or, even more likely, most MINI owners don't even know the BMWCCA exists. The BMWCCA doesn't really advertise the fact that MINI owners are eligible (there were a few grumblings a while back that even though you could join, MINI owners weren't exactly welcomed with open arms. Nothing is further from the truth in the Wisconsin chapter; a MINI owner is one of the head HPDE guys, and I've had nothing but great experiences with the group). Some dealerships will actually steer folks toward the BMWCCA, or at least make them aware of it's existence--I have yet to hear of a MINI dealership do the same. Considering all the MINI owners out there, I think Vince had it right that this was the next most logical avenue to increase BMWCCA club membership, but the question remains how to do so. One would be for the BMWCCA to be proactive in getting the word out about the club to MINI owners, another would be for the dealers to mention, like they do at many dealerships to folks buying performance BMW's. The releationship between the BMWCCA and dealerships is more symbiotic than it is between the MINI dealership and the BMWCCA, even though many times they're housed under the same roof. I have written at every opportunity until I was blue in the face to try and increase MINI membership--for the simple fact that the more MINI's out on the track, the more fun it is. And MINI owners all in all tend to be a great group of people, and I would think, are just the type of enthusiastic nuts any car club would be glad to have. It seems the local chapters are great at making MINI owners welcome, but I still have the thought that maybe at the national level the average MINI owner is more of an afterthought rather than a priority for the BMWCCA; the focus seems to be elsewhere. It's really a shame, because the survival of club may hinge on expansion. I'm just not so sure the upper echelon of the BMWCCA wants a club with a substantial contigent of MINI owners--it seems a small number is ok, but nothing more....I guess what I'm trying to not so eloquently say is there seems to be a disparity between the national organizations enthusiasm for the MINI, and the local chapters. Maybe the way to increase membership is via the local chapters getting the word out rather than the BMWCCA national organization.