There again of the 2500 how many actually read the magazine or attend an event? You're never going to get 100% participation or anywhere near it.

Attend an event? A big int'l is ~500 cars these days. Reg is ~300.
Read the mag? Probably all those who receive it.

Of course there's a lot of passive "armchair members". Always will be.

Warning: analogy beyond this point...
I've just cancelled my CAMRA direct debit, solely because of our impending travels. I've always been an armchair member - in the mebbe ten-fifteen years I've been a member, I've bought a couple of Good Beer Guides, I've been to two Great British Beer Festivals, and I always get muttered at because of the number of mags kicking about unopened. I then open 'em, flick through 'em, and recycle 'em. So why have I stayed a member? Because I think they do a cracking job in behind-the-scenes supporting and encouraging of something I love, because it's not very much money in the grand scheme of things, and - primarily - because I "get something" in return. The mag. I've never bothered with their website - if, indeed, it does have bits to get involved in (that's how little I've bothered with it) so that wouldn't keep me a member. I'm sure there're other beer fora available, too. But they don't "put something back" in the same way that CAMRA do, because they don't have the official recognition.

There was a time that there would be a fight in our house as to who got to read it first, now it often sits unopened for days before it gets read. Having said that I would certainly mourn its passing. The costs of the magazine while significant are not excessive and the last time I looked hadn't risen for years.

I think the appeal of the club has diminished for younger people who seem not to want to get involved and change it/ mould it, to be more in tune.

I can assure everyone of a younger persuasion that "the old people" that have managed the club in the past would be delighted to see more youth get involved at a management level so that they can enjoy the club from an armchair in a field.

I think it good that Nikki is chairman and this might put a whole new emphasis on the way forward provide she is not held back by Luddites and is supported by younger members and people re joining.

You get back what you put in, in buckets loads.

There has to be a balance though. Just take a look at what has happened to television over that last twenty years where there seems to have been an influx of newly "qualified" university-ites who think that dropping a bunch of Z list "celebs" in a jungle and getting them to eat worms, is good television.

Balance is the key word. At the moment it appears to the younger generation that the club is perhaps a bit old and staid (maybe, though I don't think so personally). The club needs younger people, but also needs older, more experienced members to guide and advise, but at the same time, not criticise and moan about changes. Humanity has thrived on change for the past few hundred thousand years, if we were resistant to change, we'd still be sitting in caves and happily eating raw meat

So to the younger members of I2F, why don't you make 2011 the year you change 2CVGB and make it more relevant to you. Get involved and be a part of it.

Note to Mr.Fieldhouse -Get in there and do it, you're as qualified as anyone else and I look forward to seeing the results.

Very true.

Yeah, I guess.

On the menu around here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak_tartare

Or a carpaccio?

Mmmm

Ouch ...