Tyler M - PR/Secretary

[Tyler.M]

Dearest MMerÔÇÖs,

My name is Tyler McAvoy, IÔÇÖm a senior English major, and I will be staying in school another year to get a double minor in political science and philosophy. IÔÇÖve been working in the Madison Communications office for the past 3 years as an editorial intern, and IÔÇÖve established many connections through this. JMU has a lot of red-tape to cut through, but IÔÇÖve dealt with enough of it to know how to properly work the system.

IÔÇÖm going to cut to the chase; IÔÇÖm running for Secretary for ÔÇÖ12-ÔÇÖ13.

Over this past year, MM has floundered. We havenÔÇÖt been recruiting extensively. We havenÔÇÖt been friendly. We havenÔÇÖt offered any (good) go-fast events. Heck, few of us have even seen a sexy exotic this year, and that, in a car club with as many connections as we have, is a tragedy.

So, I have slew of ideas to change this around, first and foremost: recruitment.

Recruitment has been pitiful this year. Not only did we disregard Student Org night, but we didnÔÇÖt do anything to make up for it. So many nice cars are driving around campus without an MM window sticker and it makes me sad: WeÔÇÖre wasting a huge opportunity. Car culture is so multi-faceted, itÔÇÖd be a disservice to not get everyone from drifters to those guys with jacked up pick up trucks involved in MM.

Next year, recruitment will be much more widespread. Sure, weÔÇÖll do Student Org night, but beyond that I plan to also make MM more visible throughout the year. First: signage. Not exactly flyer bombing, but we need to make MMÔÇÖs name more consistent on campus. Hand out flyers on the Commons. Throw up some chalk around campus. Get a mass-email or two sent out around the big events, and coverage of said events by The Breeze. Participate in the Relay for Life, work concession stands, have a ÔÇ£Wear your MM stuffÔÇØ day, and invite people via Facebook and Twitter to learn more about what we do. I also want to tailor some events for those of us who are motorcycle enthusiasts, too. ItÔÇÖs basic stuff, and thereÔÇÖs a plethora of other things that I havenÔÇÖt thought about, but my philosophy: the bigger the club the better. The more people we have, the more money we can get from dues, the more connections weÔÇÖll have when setting up cool events, and, in general, the brighter the future for the club.

Second: cohesion. WeÔÇÖve been split and separated lately for various reasons that have been discussed before. We need to bring everyone together, especially alums that have become disenchanted with the club after this past year. So itÔÇÖs time to bring them more into the equation. Dan, Jon and I plan to hold video-chatting sessions over the summer once a week, and allow any alumni (and student for that matter) to join and offer input on how to turn things around next year. I also plan to have a webcam set up during every MM meeting for the same reason; so those of you alums who want to see how the meetings are going can watch from the comfort of your sofa at home. For those of you who canÔÇÖt figure out a webcam and canÔÇÖt make a viewing, IÔÇÖll also take minutes for each meeting, and plan to have an event overview before AND after a major event, and post these to the forums.

For students, there will be more social stuff to do, too. Here are some of my ideas: Bringing back MM lunch once a week on campus, would be a good start. Having MM parties, cookouts, wrench days (which were essentially non-existent this past year), and 33 cruises would be further good baselines. Not everything we do has to be extravagant or particularly auto-centric; as long as weÔÇÖre establishing friendships, we can really get this club going in the right direction.

Lastly: communication. Without current students and alum knowing whatÔÇÖs going on, how can we say we have any cohesion at all? There has been a lot of confusion lately about what we were doing and when, and with the adoption of an accurate calendar, this problem can be solved. We need to plan nearly all of our major events from day 1, and set up sub committees with an officer as the head to plan the event. I propose also that we have more solidified dates for the biggest events such as the car show, which would allow us to reserve the lots needed, and talk to our sponsors well in advance of the date, and would be recurring, annually.

Besides that, and I know Jon and Dan will talk about this more in depth, there will be a much bigger focus on getting the finer details ironed out. A lot can go wrong when the small things are disregarded, and we can definitely solve this through much better communication.

Though the forums are a great tool for keeping in touch and posting details about events, many students seem to shy away from it or donÔÇÖt check it regularly. Thus, we should bring back the MM mass texting that we had in previous years, and utilize our Facebook page more than we currently are. Though the forums will still be the focus of most of what we do, social networks offer more connectivity. I also plan to set-up an old school phone tree too, to help further this communication, and get numbers circulating around. The more avenues we have to get in touch with each other, the better.

IÔÇÖve written a lot, but these are only a few of my ideas. I really love this club, and I want to get it back to its former glory. IÔÇÖm a huge proponent for efficiency and making things easy, and IÔÇÖm more than ready to do the work required to get this done. IÔÇÖm open to any and all suggestions, and I really look forward to working as an executive chair this upcoming year.

IÔÇÖll collect any and all questions you have for me and answer them all at once on this forum. If any of you would like to talk to me personally, PM me, friend me on Facebook (Tyler Lincoln) or send me your number and we can chat. Looking forward to all questions/comments and concerns, and meeting those I havenÔÇÖt yet.

[JustinG]

What are your major commitments outside of your class load? Do you work, participate in any other clubs, etc?

[Jake]

Good ideas, Tyler. I like the "webcam at meetings" bit, and summer web chats. Happy to help you figure that out if need be.

With the right amount of initiative, you can make "PR" - legitimate public relations - a pretty big job for the club, and still leave countless duties for the Prez/VP. Do you have the free time to do that?

Also - the website was largely neglected this year... i.e. continual calendar updates, front page updates, emails to alumni, etc. How are your web skills to work on that sort of stuff? It's basic CMS editing (WordPress) and some simple HTML sometimes.

[Cody]

For students, there will be more social stuff to do, too. Here are some of my ideas: Bringing back MM lunch once a week on campus

I like this but how will you get students to attend?

Having MM parties.

I learned this year that our current membership isn't heavily involved in "this scene". How can you involve those that aren't? How will you work on a proper JMU ratio so people come out?

Cookouts.

We have our very own grill now, I LIKE

wrench days which were essentially non-existent this past year.

I feel like I heard the "I'm broke and do nothing" excuse a ton this year. How will you make sure EVERYONE knows when someone gets parts and make sure those who have parts alert the rest of the club?

and 33 cruises would be further good baselines

Go for it


I would love to see the club provide more content online of what we do and have from the track FB updates. How do you plan to keep up the hype online? I'd like multiple examples.

Do you have any photography, videography, or graphic skills? If not do you have relationships with people who do and are enthusiastic about cars (this will make life easy).

[premiershine9]

Do you have any photography, videography, or graphic skills? If not do you have relationships with people who do and are enthusiastic about cars (this will make life easy).[/quote]


I have MANY resources here through my Society of Entrepreneurs connections including 3 professional photographers and film makers - two of them recently made the short film of the M3 detail I just performed. We are pretty covered there!

[premiershine9]

Not to mention I have done business with, and will continue to do so in the very near future with Scott Bradford (MM alumn) and will be working with him and Tyler to get some graphic work done if need be.
This is another example of the many resources that we all can pool together once our exec. team is settled next week and over the summer.
- D

[Cody]

Dan- yeah Jake and Riley do work. The Summit Point video on our site is a product of that. I'd like to hear from Tyler as well though

[Tyler.M]

What are your major commitments outside of your class load? Do you work, participate in any other clubs, etc?

Great question, I do have another job outside of class, which is a job as an Editorial Assistant for JMU's Madison Magazine. However, this is a really low key job. It never takes up weekends, and only takes place during the day 'til around 5 when I have to be in the office, or I take "off" days and do much of the work from home.

I"m not involved in other organizations either. Sure, I'll do some outdoor adventure things through UREC every once in a while, but nothing major.

. Do you have the free time to do that?
.How are your web skills to work on that sort of stuff? It's basic CMS editing (WordPress) and some simple HTML sometimes.

The way my semester is shaping up, I'll have PLENTY of time on my hands to do proficient PR. In regards with CMS editing, I do a lot of it through JMU's Be the Change blog and I am fairly familiar with it. I've done a fair bit of HTML stuff, but it's been awhile. From what I've seen, the stuff on this website should be fairly easy to manage, and I'll be sure to pick your brain a lot just to make sure I"m doing everything right. But I have done it before, so that also shouldn't be too insurmountable a task.

I like this but how will you get students to attend?

Easy, provide a set time and place, and make this recurring. Humans are creatures of habit; if the club provides students with a place to go during lunch time, especially when they haven't really discovered a bunch of friends to eat with at the beginning of the semester, you'll attract them. I'll be there, I know some of the officers will too. People crave a social aspect, and providing a group to eat with will always be favored over eating alone.

How can you involve those that aren't? How will you work on a proper JMU ratio so people come out?

The focus isn't getting as many people "out" as possible, it's just about hanging out with club members. People don't want to drink or party or whatever? That's fine, it's not a mandatory thing. My idea is that we'll offer a bunch of different things to do, so if a person can't go to a party or doesn't want to go, it's not like that'll be the only time they'll have a chance to hang out with club members that semester.

We have our very own grill now, I LIKE.

awwwww yeahhhhh :thumbup:

I feel like I heard the "I'm broke and do nothing" excuse a ton this year. How will you make sure EVERYONE knows when someone gets parts and make sure those who have parts alert the rest of the club?

Easy again, make them more defined about time and place. Schedule them early on so people can plan projects around wrench days, especially on bigger stuff. People would know well in advance when a wrench day was happening, and could save up for a big project to do on that day. It all comes back to scheduling. Besides that though, there would be more of an emphasis on making it an educational experience too; you don't really learn very much about working on a car until you do it. Even those who don't have any money to do a project can still help those that are working on one.

I would love to see the club provide more content online of what we do and have from the track FB updates. How do you plan to keep up the hype online? I'd like multiple examples.

We keep up the hype by having something to be hyped about. If we provide events and stuff to do, and do it on the regular, then let people know via FB, we'll have the hype we require. I'm not really into asinine quotes of the day or daily pictures of some chopped and dropped Corolla. It'll be about substance. If we start doing a lot more events, put these up on FB, then the hype will generate itself. I'm not really looking to make anything go viral, just allow people to see what we're up to much more visibly then what the forums provide to the general public.

Do you have any photography, videography, or graphic skills? If not do you have relationships with people who do and are enthusiastic about cars (this will make life easy).

. I do have photography and videography skills, but no graphic ones. Fortunately, I do have several people that I can rely on here at JMU to get this taken care of. Some of the other officers also know people that could help us out with this too.

[NTIman]

I love the idea of the meetings on webcam, since even driving from Winchester after work is a PITA.

However, I am a student too, and so far I have always had a class the night of a meeting anyway. Would you be open to posting minutes, notes from the meeting, or a general rundown of what went on?

Secondly, there was mention of a potential fundraiser at VIR, providing quality (instead of not so much quality) meals for workers, etc... I haven't heard anything else about it since the discussion in the paddock in March so I don't know the status of that, but how would you help to see that there are enough people there to properly staff an operation like that (or a coffee and doughnuts table at VMP) seeing as how it is a good distance from JMU?

[Cody]

The focus isn't getting as many people "out" as possible, it's just about hanging out with club members.

I totally agree but I feel like that's not a "party", sounds more like the usual top gear night of yesteryear. From the tales the alumni like to tell it seems like we had quite a rep several years ago. Good parties can definitely bring in some new members.

I'm not really looking to make anything go viral, just allow people to see what we're up to much more visibly then what the forums provide to the general public.

I'll have to disagree here a little bit. I feel like as PR you should be focused on positioning MM as THE premiere college driver's club in Virginia. You need to have that vision to keep MM growing and ahead of the others. We do awesome things here and hopefully we can increase our network and ability to get the word out. Getting colleges from around VA and reaching out to others out of state for the College AutoX should be a crucial goal for you. Having recaps and media going viral reinforces how far ahead of the rest of the pack we are.

[Jake]

I'm not really looking to make anything go viral, just allow people to see what we're up to much more visibly then what the forums provide to the general public.

Having recaps and media going viral reinforces how far ahead of the rest of the pack we are.

I wanna chime in on the "going viral" part. I work in the industry where "viral videos" and "viral links" are what everyone wants. It's big traffic, lotta new people, etc. It's what MM should want, too. However... when you purposely TRY to make something go viral, it usually comes across as forced and kinda lame. I think if you focus on getting the word out and communicating as effectively as possible, the viral bit will "just happen" as it should.

When officers get elected and added as administrators to the Facebook page, you can see Insights as to how much engagement you're driving with your FB posts, and how many people are talking about you. This is where you can see if what you're doing is making much difference.

Sorry, had to geek out a little bit there. A large part of my job right now is focused on analytics and driving traffic, so I know a few things that are worth sharing

[Cody]

when you purposely TRY to make something go viral, it usually comes across as forced and kinda lame

Exactly, you don't want to force anything and you don't want to post for the sake of posting. It's important to have high quality content from the events we're involved in and making sure it reaches the right people. Throwing in some teasers or making some sort of short series (if videographers had a little extra time on their hands) would be cool for the club to look into.

[Kaan]

The larger the club gets, the more "clicks" you will find. Its a historical trend. There are always people that transend those groups and can bounce around between them all. Even at our "best" gatherings there were still circles of people scattered about. Sometimes its hard to get people to open up.

If your recruitment is successful, this is something YOU will have to juggle. anticipate it, prepare for it, ID the social people that jump group to group. you'll almost need your own "click" of social butterflies to bring the group together.

Also, i'm old... i'm thinking about wearing a name tag to every event i attend

Dont intend to go viral but dont restrict it. we have videos that can be made, youtube channels, etc... use it to promote the club to car show sponsors, club sponsors (this always comes up), event hosts, etc.

[JustinG]

One thing to get the FB page out there more often, then not.

Post up a cool pic from the hot and bothered thread or w/e. Everyday I see a pick posted up from PAS or some other car related FB page on my news feed. Hell it could even be one of our own pics from the track or an AutoX. Anything to get MM up on the news feed EVERYDAY.

Videos are easily had, I know I post up my AutoX videos the evening after the event, not trying to be a self promoting asshat I didnt link it to the MM page, just my own FB page. But theres plenty of videos involving MM on the interwebs, Me, DJ, Peter, Jake, Maeng, Etc Etc. all use Go Pros at Autoxs/track events. Just post up a AutoX run or track lap from our youtube channels every now and then, could be good to show what MM is about to the FB world.

[D_Eclipse9916]

One thing to get the FB page out there more often, then not.

Post up a cool pic from the hot and bothered thread or w/e. Everyday I see a pick posted up from PAS or some other car related FB page on my news feed. Hell it could even be one of our own pics from the track or an AutoX. Anything to get MM up on the news feed EVERYDAY.

Videos are easily had, I know I post up my AutoX videos the evening after the event, not trying to be a self promoting asshat I didnt link it to the MM page, just my own FB page. But theres plenty of videos involving MM on the interwebs, Me, DJ, Peter, Jake, Maeng, Etc Etc. all use Go Pros at Autoxs/track events. Just post up a AutoX run or track lap from our youtube channels every now and then, could be good to show what MM is about to the FB world.

You know, you have never put it that way about the PAS stuff and linking to MM's Facebook page. I always didnt do it because of self-promoting/asshattery/whatever you call it. But we may just have to do that as promotion for the club just to see the name out there more. I don't have the video editing skills, but I sure have tons of video. Maybe pushing ourselves to post as well on there and on here more often?


Edit: Can I have admin access to the MM page? Lets spam the shit out of it like PAS, and then we have another place to direct new members as well and show we are really active.

[CaptainHenreh]

I've always wanted to see MM more involved in the local community. How do you feel about that / do you have any plans for that kind of involvement?

[Tyler.M]

However, I am a student too, and so far I have always had a class the night of a meeting anyway. Would you be open to posting minutes, notes from the meeting, or a general rundown of what went on?

Absolutely, and I intend to do this. I think it'd be a great way to keep track of our meetings and give the meetings a bit more direction. I'm surprised minutes of meetings haven't been implemented in the past (to the best of my knowledge) but it's a great way to keep things nice and organized. Which is good. I like organizing things.

Secondly, there was mention of a potential fundraiser at VIR, providing quality (instead of not so much quality) meals for workers, etc... I haven't heard anything else about it since the discussion in the paddock in March so I don't know the status of that, but how would you help to see that there are enough people there to properly staff an operation like that (or a coffee and doughnuts table at VMP) seeing as how it is a good distance from JMU?

You know, that's a great question, and I'm not privy to the specifics of what happened there or why all of that fell through. What I do know is that a main reason that a lot of our "travel" events have suffered from a lack of adequate transportation, so this would be a good first step. We're going to have to bring back the MM van. If we put the burden on transporting people there more on us and less on club members, there will be more incentive to come out to those events. On top of this, there would have to be an incentive to staff these operations. My thinking is that since we would work collaboratively, everyone who comes to event and is a paid member must volunteer to run a coffee and doughnut table (or anything really) for an allotted amount of time.

Of course, this will take some brainstorming among us execs, but it's a thought anyways. If we can get more people out to these events, a lot of these problems will be taken care of

.

I've always wanted to see MM more involved in the local community. How do you feel about that / do you have any plans for that kind of involvement?

I'm glad you mentioned this. Community involvement is always key to any club or organization, and I don't think MM has really done enough of it. I would love to see us volunteering locally at say a soup kitchen, or do an adopt a highway, or establish a scholarship of some kind. I'd love to see us open more of our events to the public and really expanding advertising beyond JMU, and interfacing with local car groups and clubs. More than anything, I'd really like us to extend our networking across the Motormile too involving them in more of our events. I'd also like to establish better connections with the 3 other college campuses around us, too, I think it's a great untapped potential for collaboration.

What if we did a fundraiser for a group that promoted safe driving (like MADD)? What if we tried to establish some type of relationship with one of the local school systems or somehow supported Big Brother/Big Sister? I'm just spitballing here, but I'd really like to see the club do a lot more philanthropic work. One, it's a great thing to do, and two, it's a great way advertise and get our name out there. I know that sounds skeezy, but if we offered students the opportunity to volunteer and do a bunch of self-less work, we can really change our public image for the better. The focus would be less refuting the fact that we like to drive fast (which some of you mentioned, JMU administration hates us for) but that we drive fast for a reason.

So yes, I'd love to see the club involved in more things around the local community. I'm a townie and proud of it, and I think the local population would be attracted to a car club that's friendly, and has a heart. Cliche, I know, but still prevalent nonetheless.

One thing to get the FB page out there more often, then not.
Post up a cool pic from the hot and bothered thread or w/e. Everyday I see a pick posted up from PAS or some other car related FB page on my news feed. Hell it could even be one of our own pics from the track or an AutoX. Anything to get MM up on the news feed EVERYDAY.

I agree, news freed prevalence is really important. Hell, if we could get some sexy high-res photos to post up on FB daily, all the more incentive to like our page. If we get people to like our page, then we have an even BIGGER audience when we recruit and when we do special events. Good idea, I'd definitely like to do this. We probably have enough high-rez photos on the forums for several years worth of postings anyways :thumbup:

The larger the club gets, the more "clicks" you will find. Its a historical trend. There are always people that transend those groups and can bounce around between them all. Even at our "best" gatherings there were still circles of people scattered about. Sometimes its hard to get people to open up.

True, and to be honest, this will be something that we'll have to handle at every step of the way. It might be difficult to juggle them all, but I think it'd be great to have them too; it'd be impossible for MM to really represent auto enthusiasts without having subgroups. Yet, the can be problematic because strong cliques can bring down a group. So we'd have to manage that, but I don't think it's impossible. As long as we offer enough things for us to do together, I think this should be easy to avoid.

I think if you focus on getting the word out and communicating as effectively as possible, the viral bit will "just happen" as it should.

Yup! Substance. Primary goal of FB is recruitment and easy dissemination of information about events to those who are MM-forum foreigners. If we could post highlights from the forums (cool project threads, pictures, funny stuff) on FB, to get more people interested in the forums, that could help too. And it'd have to be consistent.

Good questions!