Taylor Johnson - President

[Senor_Taylor]

Hey everyone!

First off, I would like to state that this will possibly be the shortest thread I've ever posted. Hopefully with minimal whining about regretted purchases of cheap, high mileage cars.

Secondly, I would like to start off with some things I have accomplished this year as VP. I originally planned to run as President last year, but I asked Sam to come back and teach me everything he knew about being president. Doing so, I shadowed him this year just about every step of the way so I would know exactly what to do this year. In doing so, I took over many duties to usual President would.

This year, we had our highest turn out ever at Student Org night and had right around 50 people show up to our interest meeting. I have held many social gatherings, at my expense, for the club at my house including parties, cookouts, and semi-formal events. We have had lots of cruises and even went on a mega-cruise at the beginning of the year. I pushed extremely hard to get lots of current students to Turducken as well as the College Solo and I feel as though we had a good turn out as well as pushing for new apparel items this year including our first ever screen printed Hoodies and the long lost Miata design, as well as ballin' flex fit hats. After that, we all busted our butts to bring you the biggest MM car show in history as well as a full field at the karting event. Next year, we may possibly have the largest amount of MM money to spend on club activities ever.

Lastly, this is what I hope to accomplish this year.

I've spoken with Jake and other alums over the last three years in order to find out what made other years so great. I will try my best to get students to the track, starting with Hyperfest and moving on to regular track weekends. I will be e-mailing NASA to see if we can work out something where we can guarantee student attendance. This is priority.

I also want to try Karting twice. It will be tricky, but with a new indoor facility opening at Summit, I think it is highly possible.

Also, I've spoken with Jake and will talk with Ray to get the College solo back to its roots. I will contact every school I can think of and I will make this event huge!

Lastly, my goals will be the same as every year. I will make this club be known campus wide and we will have the most active students ever. MM will be THE club to be in because of its great cause and awesome members. We will get people involved in motorsports and into car culture like never before. This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of goals of mine, as I wanted to keep this short. I also know some of you worry that I can't serve the club as well as I could because of my crazy work schedule, but I promise I will continue to contribute every hour of my life not in class or at work to this club.

Thank you for reading.

[rherold9]

I'll start with the questions.

How do you plan on paying for two karting events a year?

[*insertusernamehere*]

What's the NASA plan? Also what do you have to about the College Solo?

[Senor_Taylor]

I'll start with the questions.

How do you plan on paying for two karting events a year?

That's just a thought if we have enough money. Once we count the money from the show, I'll have a better idea on the plausibility of it. I know we made at least (152 cars X $5) from the show.

What's the NASA plan? Also what do you have to about the College Solo?

NASA plan that Jake and I talked about was a permanent worker position for an MM officer with reduced responsibilities. That way we can always have someone at the track that can show around the new members and hang out with them. Again, this is an extremely involved solution, but it's in its early stages. It also depends on who the officers are next year whether or not it will be possible, as well as how the summer goes for me financially if I can afford to miss an entire weekend of work (80% of my income for the week) like that.

[*insertusernamehere*]

. It also depends on who the officers are next year whether or not it will be possible, as well as how the summer goes for me financially if I can afford to miss an entire weekend of work (80% of my income for the week) like that.

Just a tip going into next year remember you don't have to be the one to go to everything or be responsible for everything. So other officers can be the one to go to the track. Remember to talk it out with all the other officers before you decide on doing the plan, if no one else has any interest in the track you'll be stuck doing it and losing 80% of your income once every month. This plan is really big on communication so good luck!!

[Senor_Taylor]

Yeah, it'll be a thing to celebrate it the plan comes to fruition, but I'll definitely look into it. Yes, I agree I need to let other people do more, but that's a part of my personality I need to work on, haha.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Lastly, my goals will be the same as every year. I will make this club be known campus wide and we will have the most active students ever. MM will be THE club to be in because of its great cause and awesome members. We will get people involved in motorsports and into car culture like never before.

Examples for how to achieve these things? Where will all these car people come from? I've always found this goal of yours so interesting lol

[Senor_Taylor]

When I sent out the mass e-mail, I probably had about 10 people like the MM FB page immediately and I had about 5 people either message me on Facebook, Post on these forums, or come up to me at the car show and ask me about joining. The car people are out there, they just don't know about us.

There's not much MORE I can do, but I will continue to push for wide exposure. Like how I wanted to make our sweatshirts stand out more (and achieved), as well as mass e-mails, getting more likes and shares on the FB page, the twitter account I run, getting an MM banner, using the large pong table to advertise, getting ads on the bus (properly this year), getting actual flyers for the show, my MM business cards that I leave on people's cars, etc.

Two step process.
1. Make sure people KNOW about MM
2. Make sure people join and STAY

So the second part is how I try my best to meet every single person that steps into a classroom meeting or MM event and introduce myself and the other officers, give them my contact information, and make them feel welcome. My last two years as an officer, I feel I have done a better and better job each time, so I suspect this next year we will have our largest active member group ever.

[Jake]

I don't think I'm alone in asking what I'm about to ask, so please take it seriously.

It feels as though the past year or so has been successful, with good turnout at events and pretty decent participation. The in-person interaction between students and alumni has been largely positive. This is in stark comparison to how officers interact with alumni online.

There is constant "we know better" and "it'll be fine" which is precisely not what you want to hear as someone who helped make the 15+ year history of the club be positive and successful. There is a "stream of consciousness and thoughts" type of posting that I see a lot of - most recently, the "we may not do a cruise" post -- which leads to a lot of unnecessary questions and backpedaling from officers.

How do you plan to eliminate this problem for the upcoming year? The attitude that has existed online is really not acceptable from those in leadership positions, and it does nothing to keep me or others interested in the success of this group.

Further - on a tangentially-related topic - is there going to be an effort to get the club back toward a "doing" club instead of a drinking club? I never see posts/photos about big wrench days coming up or Top Gear nights, etc. yet I see a LOT of invites and posts about "super rager" type of parties. Parties are great, but I would like to see more varied social events publicized. What can you do to change that?

[rherold9]

Parties are great, but I would like to see more varied social events publicized. What can you do to change that?

Not to take away from Taylor or his answer. Most students have posted in the group chat on FB about wrenching.

[Senor_Taylor]

Okay, first off, the forum communication is my fault. I like to keep everyone up to date and some times I rush to post before it is 100% certain.

Secondly, Ryan is correct. We have had MANY wrench days at least 5 for my E46 alone, and probably as many for the Miata,, but we don't post them up formally. All of the pictures that were taken are in the group chat if you wish to see them. The number of east side trips, group dinners, wrench days, and overall MM time far outweighs the partying and drinking. I DO NOT throw a party exclusively for MM's sake but once a year, which is the aftershow party and ONE of my cookouts, the other cookout is my money and not MM related, as well as the zip ties, my birthday, my roomies birthday, etc. I have a life and friends outside of MM and those parties are for them, I just happen to invite all of MM since they are also my friends. These are not club parties. Please consider that these parties are not in lieu of club activities, but merely in addition.

Lastly, in regards to the interactions with alums online. I do appreciate and STRONGLY consider everything you all suggest, but you are not the end-all-be-all. Things are different now than they were when you were here and things will continue to change. The people we have, the connections we can use, the process to get things done, all change constantly. Nothing is ever done 100% perfect, so if you suggest something to be done that you feel is necessary, we may have something else that we feel is more important that we are dedicating resources to. It may seem like we are leaving things out, but we are adding in other areas.

Now, I know all of this seems ridiculous and I'm being an ass, but I'm being 100% honest with you. I'm not here to kiss anyone's ass, I'm here to make this club as great as it can possibly be.