Form a new Club

Help designing your Logo if you want it

Forming a new GoldWing Club might sound a bit daunting but with the help you can get from the Federation (including on this Website) it’s really very easy.

Nor are you committing yourself personally to anything big or long-lasting by doing so.  By keeping things simple and using the Federation’s off-the-shelf help, which includes all the paperwork you are likely to need and even a ready-to-use Club Website if you want one, you can do it surprisingly easily.

This Page explains what’s involved, what help is available and how to go about getting and using it.

What starts the ball rolling?

The seeds of a new GoldWing club starts with a small number of Wingers, maybe as few as two, decide they want to share a friendship or a common interest based on GoldWings.

They might meet up by chance on their bikes one day and strike a chord of common interest or friendship.  Or these days they might come across each other on the internet (maybe via this Website) and discover a common interest they would like to pursue together yet never actually meet.

These Wingers are effectively forming (an informal) GoldWing Club.

Small or oddball can be beautiful

And it might stay that way.  Small informal “clubs” may never acquire a name, have no need for any formal club status or structure; they just carry on as an informal friendship for as long as they serve their purpose.

For example there is a Club called the “Misfits” listed on this Website which, although they have given themselves a name, is as casual and informal as can be – and is likely to remain so.  They have a name and they decided to broadcast it by making up a website and they welcome new members, so its a GoldWing Club.  But really it’s just a group of friends who got fed up with the politics of (some of) the Regions of the GoldWing Owners Club and decided they would prefer to do their own thing.

The Federation will recognize and help any sort of GoldWing Club, no matter how small or specialised and no matter how temporary or experimental or oddball  it might be.  The Federation is all about supporting freedom of choice.

So for example the Federation lists The Misfits on its Club List and provides a link to its website, so that other Wingers can find out they exist and, if it strikes a chord, make contact.  If they want to use this Website to start publicising themselves they can do so, whether or not they decide to Affiliate.

The next step

There is a point at which an informal grouping of Wingers of this sort will develop or grow so that it’s worth formalising things, at least to some extent.

For example if they decide to collect subscriptions (i.e. to have a kitty to share expenses) so they want to open a bank account.  Or they decide to display the bikes to do a collection for charity, so they have to fill in a form for the local Council to get a permit, and the Council wants a contact name and address of the Club Secretary and/or Treasurer. Or they want to publicise what they are doing to attract potential new members, so they invent a name, someone takes a bit of a lead, someone else agrees to hold the kitty, someone else to fill in the forms, someone suggests a name, designs a badge – Wingers are great ones for having badges or pennant.  After all a GoldWing is an eye catcher, so few can resist adorning their Wing to some extent.

So Clubs can exist without any formalities at all but it can become useful to be just a little bit structured.  And if for example you want to open a Club bank account will be required to establish a formal structure – you will need to at least nominate Chairman or President, Secretary and so on.  You won’t then suddenly need a full set of individual Club Officers, like a larger club might have, it will probably still only be necessary to have two or three – but you will need more than one.

At this stage you might need to write down something about what your Club is called and what it’s purpose is – i.e. a Constitution – and maybe also some simple rules or a statement of who is responsible for what.  This is when the Federation’s library of Model Club Constitutions and Rules will come in handy, because you will be able to choose from these and adapt them to suit your needs if you wish.

The Federation will help with these early stages, including allowing access to the resources on this Website like this Article and the Library of  Model Club Constitutions and Rules, without expecting you to Affiliate or to pay anything at all.  You can also be listed on the Website’s Club List and get some publicity on this Website (and associated websites like Stuart’s GoldWing Blog) about your new Club and what it’s about.

Affiliating with the Federation

You might want to Affiliate from an early stage but you can leave it until you reach the stage when you want PLI insurance cover, i.e. when you start doing organised things, so the organisers need protection from being sued, or you want to have a Club Website of your own.

Although these are included in your Affiliation Subscriptions, so there is nothing extra to pay for them, these benefits are restricted to Affiliated Clubs.

You are welcome to contact us to ask for further information too if you wish by using the Contact Us facility on this Website.  Feedback on whether you have found this Page or any other part of the Website useful would also be much appreciated.