Future Directions

The Challenges Ahead for the Club.

A message from Past Club President, Tony Herald.  September 1999

At the recent Sunshine Coast Show and Shine it was interesting to note that two new S Type Jaguars were brought along (not counting the one from Southport Motors). This is a much quicker appearance than the bigger, and more expensive, XJ40's, X300 and XJ8's.  The new S Type is more affordable and hence has made its appearance in club ranks sooner. In a couple of years there will be an even more affordable, X400, Jaguar pitched at a different and younger market than the traditional Jaguar saloons. "So what" I hear you say. The "what" is, for our club there is some important considerations. Our club and its activities are based on the older classic Jaguars and the newer large saloons. When we look at a cross section of our club membership the membership is not young. I would guess that our average members age is close to 50. While I feel that we have a very dynamic club with lots of events, lots of enthusiasm and a reasonable variety of activities this may not be enough to attract the sort of people who are going to buy the new S Type's and the X400's.

We are a Jaguar Drivers Club. If Jaguar bring out new models which attract new buyers, somewhat different to those of the past, we should be keeping pace with this change and making our club also relevant to those new Jaguar owners.

This represents a significant challenge for us all. Not only do we have to figure out just what sort of club and what sort of activities these new owners would find appealing but we have to ensure that we still address the needs of our current ownership.

There is no doubt it will mean change. At this stage I really don't know what sort of change but change is inevitable. The easy thing would be for us to ignore the different needs of these new owners and carry on as we have in the past. That would be easy and comfortable but a recipe for a slow extinction of the club as the membership ages and is not replenished with new blood. It is difficult to know, at this stage, whether these new categories of owners will get caught up in the Jaguar tradition as we have. If they do, some of our current activities will also appeal to them. If they don't, we will need activities based around the fundamental reasons that they have bought their new Jaguar, and these reasons will be quite different to those that attracted us to the marque.

At this stage don't have the answers and I haven't met anyone who has. Almost 12 months ago I was at a lunch with several club Presidents and Robert Shannon of Shannon Insurance, a great club supporter and classic car enthusiast. Robert challenged us to make our clubs relevant to the younger generation because our membership was quite simply ageing away. That challenge is even more relevant given Jaguar's new direction. We cannot ignore it and we can't leave it to "the Committee" to resolve. It is OUR club, all 570 of us, we should all be thinking of it and all developing a new direction. Your ideas would be most welcome.

Tony Herald

Please e-mail us with your views