[Chrislong]

With Southport holding a national, then given any weekend where both are running, anyone interested in doing well at the national will choose Southport - me included.

The unfortunate thing, is that we don't have many new starters who don't do nationals. These should be the core racers of the club who support it week after week. Southport is a good example of this, they even have club meetings when nationals are on elsewhere as they have enough members to do it.

So I wonder, what could help Bury? I am not going to suggest a national for 2009, although it'd be nice, a national will only attract a temporary number of racers for the pupose of pre-national practice, and the club needs a longterm fix, not short-term.

The sportshall fire although unfortunate, I think makes the track better, that space cleared makes the place seem cleaner, so no blame on that. But the whole area is not as "inviting" as it could be for family - not the track, this is a tough one as to solve it involves relocation but there is nowhere else in Bury, and the track itself at Bury IS great and requires no change.

The other thing is the lack of a local model shop, Bury Model shop used to run the club many years ago, and they could generate interest over the counter to customers in the immediate area. Just how much is Ryan doing? (I don't know) but could he be drawn in to be more involved - even to the point of matching the level of commitment Steve Glover put in during its peak? It'd be in Ryans interest to.

Weather has also been bad over this and last summer, perhaps this has put off many new comers we might have had if the weather had been nice?

Chris