IAM National Car Conference 2010

[martine]

So who else was there on Saturday?

Didn't you just love the guest speaker: Perry McCarthy?

Any other thoughts about the day from those that went?

[plumber]

Perry was indeed hilarious and calling the last stig "The white poofter" - very funny stuff.
Shame the messages from the day are all well controlled stuff.
Maybe it was my cynicism but the marked difference between the old school IAM guys in suits and the new generation in ill fitting jeans and tee shirts stood out.
Also thought it funny when Steve Bather asked the audience if anyone had heard of Advance Driving UK.

Still cannot work out the new Drive Safe 25.
£40 for an examiner to check you out. SfL then for £99. Total £139 requiring 2 examiner sessions (I understand they are not volunteers).
The SfL itself is £139 requring one examiner to assess you.

All in all a good day which helped me yet again get it into my head that they are running a business and many group members still cling to the charity volunteer label.
Food for thought eh!

[Horse]

Shame the messages from the day are all well controlled stuff.
Maybe it was my cynicism but the marked difference between the old school IAM guys in suits and the new generation in ill fitting jeans and tee shirts stood out.

How do you mean?

[hir]

Did they announce the figures for Skill for Life sales for the last 12 months?

I seem to recall that they were budgeting something like 9,000 sales for the last 12 months. At present there is no sign of that being achieved if lack of new associate recruitment and the reduction in the number of tests being carried out are anything to go by.

If they are running a business, then lack of sales could be the IAM's Achilles heel.

[plumber]

Hello Hir

From my notes Simon Best indicated they are achieving 7.5 to 8K per year SfL sales.

I think in fairness to the guys they are trying to get across the point that in these economically tough times having laudable charity aims requires good business skills and Marketing savvy. For everyday volunteers who put a lot of effort into the groups it is somewhat difficult to take is on board.

Look at the internal competition between groups and HO over delivery of the Drive check 55 product.
- HO packaged as an affordable introductory product delivered by an examiner at a cost.
- (Some) Groups have offered the same objective/deliverable through SO's for free.
I think an example of foot shooting

[ROG]

Comes down to basics

Do we have observers waiting for associates because the price is too high but generate say 10K of income
or
Do we have very busy observers by lowering the price to generate say 12k of income
or
Do we have very busy observers by lowering the price to generate say 8k of income

Is the current trade off correct?

Which principal should be followed - income or road safety - the lower the prices the more are likely to join

[plumber]

Hi Rog,

Yep - all down to economics.

Although we hope that the supply/demand mechanism leads to an SfL price that is not about maximising profit but to ensure survival and enable the policy, educational and training aims of the Institute to be realised. A difficult balancing act even for heart string charities.

If the IAM get too greedy then they will go under. To me the Conference aimed to get everyone on board but its a subtle message.

From the result of a snapshot survey of conference attendees it could be argued that we already have twice the number of Observers than are needed

[Badger]

Maybe it was my cynicism but the marked difference between the old school IAM guys in suits and the new generation in ill fitting jeans and tee shirts stood out.
Also thought it funny when Steve Bather asked the audience if anyone had heard of Advance Driving UK.

1) I wore a suit -- since I'm the wrong side of 70 you can put it down to senile decay
2) But I have been an IAM member only since April last year, which I guess makes me very new generation.
3) I am my group's webmaster, and it was I who asked why ADUK sends our group's website twice as many referrals as does the IAM. Did anyone hear an answer? Don't knock the suits -- we have our uses.

But I did notice that CEOs seem to be getting younger these days . . .

[plumber]

H Badger
Yes I heard the question and Steve's amusing appeal "has anyone heard of this......."

I don't think you got an answer. Maybe the question was too "off message" and the main speaker Chris was getting noticeably irritated at the number of questions he was asked to field

And yes CEO's are looking more like the Child MD of the toilet paper advert. (I'm jealous of him really)

Incidentally after your question I checked and my group site and we have the same situation. We get far more referrals from here than the IAM site.

Admittedly however all small scale numbers but a good point anyway

[Horse]

Incidentally after your question I checked and my group site and we have the same situation. We get far more referrals from here than the IAM site.

Admittedly however all small scale numbers but a good point anyway

Small numbers, but if they convert to members or observers then important numbers.

The question, perhaps, should be "What is the IAM web site 'for'?" I've looked at it a few times recently and struggled to find something which should be easy to hand, such as a 'recent' report which is in the press. is the site intended to be a 'recruiting tool'?

In comparison AD UK is set up for a smaller niche, and is keyword rich for that.

Also important in the equation: what percentage of the club site 'hits' come from search engines or other referring sites, and do those visitors get want they want?

[Badger]

I'm in full agreement, Horse. The IAM site is technically clever, but navigation can be a lottery. And as for looking for, say, your recent research, you are likely to find the right link which then takes you to the wrong page.