justin_watson

Hey guys

Just had a quick look at the SIDC website, wondering if its worth joining? Do you get some good discounts etc?

cheers

J

Cannon Fodder

iTrader: (100)

In my experience SIDC has really gone downhill, a lot of the regional organisers have gone and there's nobody to take their places.

I believe there's been a lot of upheaval and it's not the club it once was, as for the discounts the only two worth mentioning are:

Keith Michaels Insurance already give rock bottom prices and cannot go any lower.

Subaru dealers will give around 10% discount but I get more than that myself through knowing the parts people at my local dealer.

I'm still a non paid member of SIDC and unless they manage to turn things around I won't be paying again for membership. It gives me no pleasure to post this and a lot of good work has been done by them in the past but at the moment it's just not working.

The previous SIDC Regional Organiser for Wales put a lot of hard work, time and effort into the club and his departure was a big loss.

EH52WRX

iTrader: (16)

+1. I never renewed my membership. I believe they have reduced the membership to try and win people back.

sean95wrx

imo you'd be better off joining a regional club

justin_watson

Cheers for the advice guys!

J

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

I was a member for three years when I got my scooby 11 years ago in them days it was £25 but it was the national club and the only one really
True grip was a good magazine then I got Cumbria Scoobs formed as the local sidc rep for Cumbria didnt even have a mobile or Internet and organised nothing

Thier loss as they advertised for a regional organiser and I applied but they had already got someone !!

With Cumbrian scooobs running and TTS I stopped with my local group and the SIDC were at the first Couple of NBO I organised and the last one 6 years ago they had 3 cars there

I have invited them for NBO 9 and got no response whatsoever yet have over 250 cars from 13 other clubs attending this year from southern Scotland ,Wales ,and down to the midlands and all over the north of England
(see details on northern section)
SIDC seems to be the Scottish or more south based with at least 30 clubs all over the rest of the uk taking over

NBO 9 would of been an ideal opportunity to increase membership and show themselves as a national club ?

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

I've been a SIDC member for 10years and STILL think it's worth joining and it only cost 8 minutes on the loud pedal

it was a big club struggling, no member ever went to any AGM's and running it was one Chief and hardly any Indians.

yes there has been some upheaval but it was needed, IMHO fortunately some canny Scott's have finanically put the Club on the straight and narrow

A VERY big expense was the SIDC magazine, which is now free Electronic copy but you can get the Mag printed from Magcloud for £8-9ish if you want

Tony

All I can can say is don't knock it till you've tried it

Tony

Moley

iTrader: (9)

I agree with Tony..... give it a try

ScoobySteve69

iTrader: (13)

I wouldn`t bother. It`s a site for mainly stuck up people who only use main dealers and frown on the peasants and there`s hardly ever anyone on there anyway. I`d ask advice and wait literally days for a reply. Total waste of £35. I didn`t renew btw

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

SIDC do a lot of track days and so do MLR, I'm a paid member of MLR and prefer it that way

wrx fifer

iTrader: (34)

i agree as above been an unpaid member for a long time, dont like the layout, not much happening, and deff get the general opinion they look down on people, just from reading through posts, arrogant and ignorant springs to mind.

but maybe thats just me

Grant

MRSIMPSON

iTrader: (2)

Recently joined, seems like an expensive sticker and not much else, but potentially worth it when it comes to renewing my insurance. Their website is a state though, hard to know what's going on.

Rae

+1
Charge more than gate prices for shows for unpaid members ,even paid members pay more than local clubs eg pad and japfest at combe .
crap on regional organisers who went out of there way to make club events a success .
used to be good but those days are long gone .

bigsinky

stone him, stone him, blasphemer

Tomwrx

iTrader: (54)

im on most forums like other users and im a non paying member on SIDC.
they changed they layout a few months ago but the site has lost a lot of members and has dropped its prices to encourage more people to join,

the layout on the forum is poor and i find if you ask a question very few people will answer it but if a full paying member asks then they provide as much help as they can,

ive spoke to a few members at a few events/shows but most are nice folk as they are there for the enjoyment of subaru ownership etc but like most clubs they do have there stuck up members who think if ure not part of there club then **** off attituide.
this was exactly what happend at modified live at knockhill hill!!!!!!!!!

justin_watson

I feel like iv opened a can of worms here!

I think I shall leave the membership for now but keep checking the website to see what's on offer.

I live in the Hull area, is there any regional clubs near me?

stum450n

I think everyone's going to take away different opinions from any club they get involved with be that positive, indifferent or otherwise - that's just the way of the world.

Years ago I was a member of a regional club (one of the biggest in fact) and I loved it. Trouble is, I moved away - at the time I gave this forum a go and found it wasn't for me and started using SIDC. Personally I much prefer it and with time I've gotten more and more involved within the club to the point where for the last year I've been Editor of the club's magazine True Grip.

Whilst I appreciate everyone's points about SIDC (even the negative ones), I do however disagree with a number of the points made.

Firstly though, I think it's worth pointing out that as little as 9 months ago, I would've been in agreement. The club was in massive decline, was carrying some serious debt and it appeared to be in the process of being taken over by the Scottish ROs. In all honestly, I even got to the point where I was fully prepared to walk away from the club and True Grip. The reason for the club's decline was, as pointed out already, down to the skeleton Committee of the time having little or no support and they were simply spread too thinly.

I did however stick with the club and over the last 6/9 months it has gone from strength to strength. In all honesty, the new committee are amongst the most dedicated, passionate bunch I've ever had the privilege of knowing and that really has shown in the direction the club's now taking. Membership has been reduced to £20, there are more benefits and incentives, more events and our ties with Subaru UK are stronger than ever. To the point where for the past two issues of True Grip we've been given world exclusives from Subaru over any other magazine - an Exclusive interview with Paul Tunnicliffe (Subaru UK MD) with questions asked directly from within the SIDC membership and the first look at Subaru's Pro-R Time Attack car and products.

In response to the comment about event tickets through SIDC costing more than regional clubs or even on the gate, that's simply not true. In fact, we're currently talking to the organisers of both Trax and Rally Day about the club subsidising ticket sales so they in fact cost less than the can be purchased anywhere else. (Not forgetting that we are one of the few clubs that actually bother paying for indemnity insurance for shows to ensure that our members, their cars and any visitors to the stand are covered should the worst ever happen.)

True Grip was relaunched in a digital format over a year ago now and that too has gone from strength to strength. At the time it was digital or nothing as production costs were excessive in relation to the club's income to say the least. Within two issues, the mag was nominated for the 2010 Digital Magazine Awards and eventually ranked 4th best digital motoring magazine in world, just behind Mazda, Ford and Harley Davidson with their colossal marketing budgets (even finishing ahead of Top Gear magazine in the final rankings!).

Since that point (and as Tony quite rightly pointed out) we've also added the ability to purchase printed copies once again from MagCloud's (HP's print on demand service) - all this at no extra cost to the club or members who choose not to purchase printed copies.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes the club was quiet, it was overpriced and yes, it was struggling but with the efforts of the club's ROs, the committee and its members, that is well and truly in the past and the positivity surrounding the club is once again back to the level members deserve.

With the club now firmly out of debt we now have the opportunity to look to the future and make sure that members genuinely benefit from the club's success.

Well I've rambled on enough but I hope that helps explain some of the issues the club may once have had.

Stu Mason

Editor, True Grip Magazine

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Hull Scoobs ?

https://www.scoobynet.com/northern-e...in-please.html

All 585 pages starting in 2003 LOL

Shaun
(born in Hull)

justin_watson

Cheers mate!

J

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Which part of the Hull area are you from? Just curious

Shaun

justin_watson

Welwyn Park mate

J

StanS

iTrader: (3)

I suppose I'd better be the "non stuck-up" person on this forum to acknowledge your response. Thanks for clarifying the points.

Little Green Goblin

In SIDC's defence, you had received a reply from the chairman the day before you posted this to explain why we would not be attending NBO 9 this year - hope this now clears the matter up.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

Yes That is correct
Just logged on last night and spotted it

Thanks for the reply

Its a great shame that the SIDC could not get together a few members for it's Stand but there is always same weekend next year for the NBO 10

STI Pretender

Some very valid points raised about SIDC but the new committee are working hard to turn things around.

As Stu says the Scottish RO's decided to do something about it last year and although there was a lot of negativity about us trying to make it a Scottish club I think over the last 6 months it has been proved that we are working hard for the whole of the UK.

Stu & Rachel has done amazing work on True Grip, the club is back on an even keel financially which will allow us to look at spending money on improving things and we are talking with Subaru UK, garages and other companies to bring the best deals to our members.

As for NBO hopefully SIDC will be represented there next year.

We are continually looking to improve the club and know the future will see the club go from strength to strength.

Robert
SIDC Chairman

Cannon Fodder

iTrader: (100)

In response to the above post - South Wales always had a large presence on the SIDC stand at the local events ie Japfest, PCAD and Rallyday but it all seems to have fallen apart from the members point of view in South Wales.

Is there anything in the pipeline for a Welsh RO at the moment?

I've organised a stand for South Wales Scooby's at Rally Day where we will have 25+ cars in attendance but I've/we've only done this as we feel we've been abandoned for the want of a better word.

I was thinking of asking about the RO position in South Wales but quite frankly I don't think I would be able to give it the time required.

DannyBoy007

iTrader: (7)

I was a member for many years but will not be renewing. I always got the impression that more effort was put into the show and shine comp rather than providing anything else to the other members whilst at shows. I got the impression it was very clicky, if you weren't in that gang you were lucky if you got a grunt if you approached someone or asked for advice etc. I don't know what happened with the RO's etc But again nothing was really communicated about what happened. you have all of email addresses, nothing wrong with sending a message to everyone explaining what happened.

The mag for me pointless and a waste of money.

With SIDC pulling out of santa pod, for a reason that was never communicated to the masses. It turned out to be a very expensive way of getting club parking for castle combe as that was about all that the masses were using the club for. The last show I addended we were treated like school children having to provide proof of who we were and providing proof of membership. All of this took ages. not what you want when you've driven 3-4 hours to get there.

I would rather park in with the door dingers than have to go through that rubbish again.

I understand SIDC are back at the pod now but it's easier and cheaper to arrange this yourself with friends

KJD Mk1

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the kind comments Tyron .

KJD Mk1

iTrader: (3)

As with all clubs you get out what you put in, sure Sidc has had it's problems name me a club that has not.

A lot of moaners just tried to get into shows etc on the back of sidc without actually joining and then got upset when the club rightly clamped down.

I've more than had my money's worth out of the membership over the years, as Tony said get involved and give it a try.

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

Kev,

You have been one of the Best RO's I have ever known. Like Kev I've organised lads of meets, been a member of SIDC for ten years but never a RO, I just did it to help out

Tooo many people think it's an easy job, post up a meet ten minutes typing and Job done.......... "How hard can that be" FFS

1) Lots of people have a "Go" at being a "RO" but fail within a short period of time because of the time and comitment needed. Then what finishes them off completely is the moaners who start complaining nobody's wiped their Bum

2) There is a vast amount of Area to cover the whole of the UK and it's it's all about starting with small monthly county/city meets,

Because without those small meets it really effects the "Regional" meets and Ultimately "National meets" like NBO and Car shows like Japfest and TRAX.

3)So don't just sit back and moan, if there nobody organising meets in your area and not a RO, just have a go and do it yourself if you like it, THEN join the SIDC and i'm sure they will try and help you out

Tony