STAR 2018 Full survey results

[STLTHMSTA]

I have yet to read the comments of the survey, only this posted here. Soooooo, Let me start with Carl's comments about organizing STAR. Buddy, you and Denise knocked it out of the park in your rookie year!! 
I for one am pretty flexible and can go with he flow most of the time, so I'm not offended by missing this feature or that one. The only thing I missed out on the the group ride thing. I didn't have adequet GPS to keep the group on track so I didn't sign up to lead. I would like turn by turn directions or I could have made up my own. I would have joined another had more been available. We'll work on that.
Harry, you killed it with the stats, survey and registration and we just can't thank you enough. Dennis, Patmo, Dianne and company.......thanks a million!!


And to the raffle bike. I had it from a reliable source that before the banquet we were still deep in the hole on the bike. Yes, we pestered folks for sale and I felt it too as I was waving tickets around. However, showing what a great group this is we almost made up the cost of the bike in a short time, but we may be in the hole on this one.
The number game is catching up with us on this one. I like Rich's idea of mailing tickets in StaReiw if possible.


Now, keeping with the baseball theme, did Bill Rusk notice the REDS swepped the Cubs in a 4 game series a couple weeks ago???  Just sayin', Bill.    Ride safe.

[brider]

[size=0px]Now, keeping with the baseball theme, did Bill Rusk notice the REDS swept the Cubs in a 4 game series a couple weeks ago???  Just sayin', Bill.    Ride safe.[/size][/color]

Tom,  take a look at the standings today.  Check it real close.  See who is in 1st and last going into the all star break.  just sayin....


Back to the raffle bike for a second.  These are just my thought so take them for what they are worth. 


1.  STAR review is not going to make a difference.  It's not the delivery device it once was.


2. We have to keep the price point of the bike around what the Versys 650  is or we will continue to make very little or less as long as we keep it a members only raffle.


3.  It very well may be time to start looking at expanding the raffle outside of the membership if it "needs" to be a money maker.  It also might be a great way to expose others to the club.  Of course that means all the membership needs to get their duffs and sells tickets to their circle of friends outside of MSTA.  The winner might even pick a cruiser instead of a Sport tourer.  ugh.


4.  If expanding the raffle makes your tummy hurt move the STAR review to electronic only media.  I'm guessing the savings would make it possible for a no profit raffle bike due to the higher price point to not hurt us as much at least for a few years. 


For the record I think #3 is our best long term answer.   


Okay, flame suit on for baseball and the raffle bike!   




 

[Patmo]

Bill....good points there


The Bike Raffle will be one of the key discussions in the next EC call.


One thing that needs to change is how people view it......


Seems to me that it has morphed into a STAR raffle and not an MSTA raffle.  We need to turn that around and will be discussing just HOW to do that.




REDS FOREVER......CUBBIES NEVER!   

[stevegrab]

Among my crowd the raffle bike is a big deal. I think that tickets sales depend a lot on the excitement level of the raffle bike.
I.e. new/or updated and popular in sales and media. Like the Africa Twin. The Versys not so much. Would like to know the ticket numbers for these two models.

We sold 12,000 dollars worth of tickets for the Honda, but it had a cost of just over 11,000 dollars.  The Verseys cost about 7500 and ticket sales were just a little short of that...haven’t seen final numbers on it yet.

The one thing that everyone needs to know and understand is that they are not “stuck” with taking that bike.  The dealers that we have worked with in the past have always said that they would be willing to work something out if the winner wanted something different.


I’ll also point out that in the survey for Colorado Springs we got several comments about the raffle bike.....most were that we needed something that was smaller, less expensive, and more of a Sport Touring bike than the Africa Twin.  The Verseys LT was all of those things.  Yet we sold a lot less tickets....go figure.

Pat if the bolded is really true, that should be published with the raffle details. I don't think it always applies but I have heard that from several other members, usually people on the EC or those involved with the raffle. I can tell you that is certainly not well known among the average members.

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[Patmo]

Steve....stop, please. There is no sense in going down this road and this becoming a he said..they said situation.

I’m sorry (even though I wasn’t involved in any way) that Rich had a problem with the dealer in Vermont.  That’s certainly not been the norm to the best of my knowledge.  Can we leave it at that?

[RichGrab]

I think the bigger issue is that not all members are aware that you might be able to get a different bike than what is being raffled off. Nowhere (as far as I recall) has that ever been publicized in the STAR literature or bike raffle literature. I too really think that needs to be in the raffle bike paperwork sent to members to encourage ticket purchases. Some people will just not want to buy tickets to win something they don't necessarily want. BUT, if they see they have an option to truly get a discount on something they may really want, then some may be encouraged to buy more tickets. Just my thoughts on it.

[stevegrab]

Yes, my point was about the ability to swap for a different bike, I've heard that before as well, but not as part of any official communication to ALL members. Should be part of the raffle bike announcement, not something we here in discussion when somebody says "well I wasn't interested in that bike".

[Ohiomsta]

Come on guys, you have got to know with out being told that dealers take bikes as trade ins. New or used you can trade a bike to a dealer.

[RIDEMYST]

Ditto to what Jon said but I have seen members actually post that they weren’t buying raffle tickets because they didn’t like that year’s bike.........go figure? -JEP-


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[bcd]

I am also a member of the Porsche Club of America. They run multiple raffles per year for brand new Porsches (tickets cost significantly more than MSTA's). The prize includes the car plus an amount of cash that would, according to my calculations, cover nearly all of the tax bill.  The rules also specify that in states where it is legal, the winner may take a cash prize instead (which is closer to the car value, and not the car + cash value).

They also cap the number of raffle tickets per prize. When a certain sales threshold is reached, they add another prize. They typically give away 3 or 4 cars in a raffle.

Now, I'm not sure that these strategies would translate at all to our much smaller club, or to prizes of order $10k instead of $80k+. In fact, I doubt very much that adding prizes based on ticket sales would work for us. But I offer these as examples of varying raffle ideas. Maybe these can help us achieve a more profitable raffle.

[RichGrab]

Come on guys, you have got to know with out being told that dealers take bikes as trade ins. New or used you can trade a bike to a dealer.

Yes Jon that is true. But we are talking about two different things, exchanging a prize for something else versus trading in something. Taking the new bike and using as a trade in is FAR DIFFERENT than the option to put the winnings toward a different bike. For me to trade in something, first I must own it - YES??

[stevegrab]

Come on guys, you have got to know with out being told that dealers take bikes as trade ins. New or used you can trade a bike to a dealer.

Yes Jon that is true. But we are talking about two different things, exchanging a prize for something else versus trading in something. Taking the new bike and using as a trade in is FAR DIFFERENT than the option to put the winnings toward a different bike. For me to trade in something, first I must own it - YES??

Yep, pretty shocked that anybody sees them as the same thing.

Sure I could win the bike, take possession, ride or ship it home (once properly titled and registered) and then trade it, now a used bike worth less than when it was new. Or I could try going to the dealer the club purchased it from and work out something with them. But that is on the bike winner, and not anything the club has worked out as part of the raffle and bike purchase from dealer/manufacturer.

[Ohiomsta]

No, you don't have to own it. You just ask the dealer how much of a credit they will give you on a different bike. The bike remains a new bike, never titled. It would be unlikely that you would get what the club paid the dealer for the bike (the dealer had to hold the bike and that costs him some$$$) Members have traded a bike they won with the dealer before.

[HawkGTRider]

You don't want to try to trade a "new" bike in Tennessee. You're required to register it even if you haven't taken possession of the bike and pay sales tax on the retail value as part of that registration. And it's been my experience that once a bike has been registered, a dealership considers it a used bike even with zero miles on it.


Around here the only option would be to have the cash value of a particular model applied to the purchase price of a different model.

[Patmo]

The one thing that everyone needs to know and understand is that they are not “stuck” with taking that bike.  The dealers that we have worked with in the past have always said that they would be WILLING TO WORK SOMETHING OUT if the winner wanted something different. 

Someone please point out to me where I said that they would work out a full value exchange or that this was any type of agreement between the dealers/OEM and the club?

If someone thinks this says that, they are making an assumption.  This does not say exactly what that “something” would be nor does it say exactly whom they would work something out WITH.