I've been a BMW CCA member ever since I learned that MINI owners are welcome back in February 2007. I'm not renewing this year. It is not the $48. I can afford it. It is because of the following. Roundel has gone downhill over the past few years. First it was the MINI owning columnist that started writing about anything else besides MINI stuff. Then he was replaced and the new guy isn't much better. Sam Smith, who almost never had a bad column has left for Road & Track. Can't say I blame him. Then we get to the way MINI owners are treated in the magazine. It is like we are second class citizens. I could tolerate that when I was in a region that embraced MINI owners, and well, were more Car Guys than just BMW Owners. Here in the Ohio region I've been shunned twice at local meetings. Emails for regional officers go unanswered if I say I am a MINI owner too. Seems to me the Central Ohio region just doesn't care. You say what about track days with the CCA at Mid-Ohio. We'll, if they don't care enough to be polite at a meeting they sure are not going to like it when my MINI goes by them on track. There are other groups in the area that are happy to see me on track. So it is with a little bit of heavy heart that I find myself no longer wanting to be a part of the BMW CCA.
I dropped my BMWCCA membership a few years ago for many of the very same reasons... The final straw was when in a local chapter publication they applauded a BMW driver for something like a 10th place finish in a ST Grand Am race whilst not a word of mention that in that very same, exact race, an RSR Mini Cooper finished second. When I contacted them about the omission I was given a not so nice brush off along with the need for them to cover Mini. Contact with the national board yielded a bit more tact in its reply but basically the same result... To put this in context, this happened not a month after the National Club President wrote an article in Roundel about how memberships in BMWCCA were in decline. He was asking members for ideas on how to increase membership and involvement in the club. Both my contacts were in this vain and how the club was doing little to include Mini Cooper owners... Even though we also own a three, we decided that there were better places to enjoy our hobby..
Interesting.. Windy City (Chicago Region) has been trying to get more MINI people involved.. There are many BMW members who also own MINIs, and several MINI owners who participate in the driving school/autocross side, but I am definately in the minority at the social events being a MINI only owner. I have however, been completely welcomed at events. I evaluate my membership each year, and have continued it.. I initially joined for a drivers school, and more than got my money's worth out of the membership by taking my daughter to a car control clinic shortly after she began driving. My problem is that MINI related events take precedence over the BMW events, so I don't participate in as many events as I'd like.
I hate to hear the treatment you both received. My local BMWCCA chapter is great. They are good about including everyone, even those Porch guys. :biggrin5: I joined BMWCCA back in 2000. There has always been a small group that had their BMW nose stuck up in the air. But I don't have to deal with them very often. I don't blame you I would drop out if it wasn't for the local group. We will always have Motoring Alliance.
I remember that column in Roundel where the President asked what they could do to increase membership. I wrote to him as well as a MINI owner and told him about Motoring Alliance along with all the members we have here that are MINI owners. Never did hear anything back. Then at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix last year I met the executive director. We talked about how to bring more MINI owners in the fold. We talked about getting more MINIs over to Octoberfest which was held right here in Columbus last year. Then when I tried to follow-up, crickets.
Exactly Nathan.. I'm sure that there are good and bad chapters too, but every time I have an encounter with them and was in the Mini I got the second class citizen treatment and was told to ride at the back of the pack... One year at the Vintage, I lead a group on a short drive from Old Salem to a winery, took the Mini and I would have gotten the same respect had I been driving a Pinto... This does not grow a National membership.
I joined BMWCCA back when I first got my MINI. My reasoning being that I would do track days with them. Wow a monthly magazine & everything. After one weekend with them I decided to use other methods of getting on the track. The feeling I came away with was far from warm & fuzzy. So much so that I thought something must wrong with me or my MINI. In fact I worried that maybe I had a case of early onset leprosy.
IMO, Roundel has been bilge for years. I gave up my membership several years ago partially because I don't have time for doing many track events, and partially because I couldn't stand the mag. Not so much for the lack of MINI stuff. More because the editorial obsession with Porsche. The writers constantly compared BMWs to Porsches in a way that smacked of insecurity. After reading years of the magazine this is what I learned: BMW is better than Porsche.
When I contacted our local BMWCCA chapter about attending one of their drives I was politely asked why I did not coordinate a similar drive for a Mini group. I read between the lines as we have our own club and you have your own club.
Well, I guess I'm on the other side of the fence... It was Vinnie, the writer before Mark, who got me in the BMWCCA, and eventually led to me going down that slippery slope onto the track. And the BMWCCA has made lip service to increasing membership directly through the MINI crowd, especially in the face of declining membership, where there is the most potential for expansion. The problem is that it has been poorly implemented. Who, for example, hears about the BMWCCA from the dealer when they buy a MINI? Virtually no one. Not the case if you buy a BMW. I like Roundel, but it doesn't do enough for the MINI crowd the BMWCCA is trying to attract. Part of the perception is there is enough MINI stuff already, and no one is going to come to Roundel for that anyway. That perception may be right, but I think it's worth a shot to try to do more for the MINI crowd, if BMWCCA is sincere about attracting MINI owners. I try to promote the BMWCCA to MINI owners ad nauseum, but we're are own worst enemies--the MINI crowd for the most part has stayed away from it. I really would love to get more involved specifically with this, but I lack the time with three kids and a busy job. When the load lightens, I really want to get more into it. As for that column, who knows who'll be writing it down the road.....
:wink::wink::wink::wink: List of things wrong with my ol buddy Crashton................let's see I've got that list around here somewhere but it's just as long as the list on me and that's waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy too long for this forum.:crazy::eek6::lol::lol::lol: Jason
:wink::wink: Nathan WAIT---we need to throw some profanity and sleeze in there.:wink::eek6::lol::lol::lol: Jason
Good idea, because the push was supposedly to make MINI owners welcome to the BMWCCA, rather than feel like the ugly step-sister. It's disappointing how some of the people in this thread have been treated by some of the BMWCCA chapters. My experience has been exactly the opposite, and I'd hope that everyone else's would be too.
Lone Star Chapter in the Dallas area was great. There are lots of MINI owners in that region in the CCA. They were wonderful, didn't matter the car. Here in Ohio. Wow..what snubbery. It like an art form.
These guys in the local chapters need to understand that they're killing their own car club if they're going to maintain that attitude. The BMWCCA does not have the luxury of snobbery at the present time, if it's planning on maintaining membership, let alone growing membership. Some local chapters get it, others don't. In our chapter, the head instructor used to own a MINI, which he drove for years at HPDE's until he wrecked it (not on the track), which is the only reason he isn't driving it anymore on the track. And he is very well respected. The more I think about it, I think for it to work, I think what's going to need to happen is MINI owners are going to have to be in some way shape or form involved in the local chapters in some form of leadership/organizational role, because I don't think the national organization is going to be capable of making the BMWCCA more MINI friendly from the top down. It may be able to encourage the local chapters, but that's about it. I'm getting more pessimistic about the national BMWCCA/MINI relationship the more I read this thread, and the more I think about it. Bummer. It may be that MINI's are welcome at a few local chapters, but nationally, not so much. The BMWCCA has got to know it's shooting itself in its foot if that's how its going to go. The last time I wrote an editorial to Roundel that was published was about three years ago, may be time for another.
With BMW car ownership increasing every year, why do you suppose membership is in decline? If they have an attitude about MINI now, I wonder how they'll react when there are "BMW's" with MINI engines and platforms under them? IE: front drive BMWs...... Kinda like the attitude Porsche Club had towards 914's, 924's and 928's, then later 944's and so on.....eventually they figured it out. But PCA is still dominated by 911 variants......
It's one thing to try to attract new people from a different vehicular pool because you're genuinely interested in them as full fledged members. There's a big difference between that and sniffing around for a potential pool of new bodies because they'll boost numbers and their dues will help pay bills so the "real" members can continue to enjoy the club. You can't really say the BMWCCA is all one or the other in terms of attitude toward MINI owners because there are certainly folks of each mindset, but based on things written in this thread alone it's obvious there must be plenty of members and/or organizers who are firmly in the "MINIs aren't BMWs so their owners don't qualify" (or "aren't welcome") camp. Encouraging MINI owners to join won't change that attitude among the diehards and any place where they're in the majority MINI owners will continue to get the cold shoulder.
Huh, this is the first I've heard that there is a national BMW car club. I guess I just assumed that there would be just a bunch of local BMW clubs, like there are local MINI clubs. I'm a member of two local MINI clubs, they keep me busy enough. Besides, I don't have a BMW, I have a MINI! Dave