i started just simply replying to your comment but then i got a little sidetracked here so lemme comment real quick on this whole sponsorship/dealership/partnership/horseship thing
i have spoken with a dealership about working with the club. they offered us 10-15% discount on parts and service about 4 seconds into the conversation. But I would have to get them some paperwork about the club and a list of members etc.....and since only about 3 of our members live near and/or get serviced by any one dealership it didnt seem like it was worthwhile.
My idea last spring when I tried to set up the mazda owners club of new england in addition to nepoc was the get this big owners group and once or twice a year we held a meet at a mazda dealership during their open house or something. Kinda like the hot cars in the lot bring more ppl in, and the enthusiasm shown by all the owners taking their free time to sit aronud and talk about their cars helps to sell more for the dealership. That in addition to throwing a dealership logo on nepoc t-shirts and banners and whatnot and the dealership could not only give us the parts/service discount but also cash sponsorship to cover some costs.
Unfortunately the reality is miatas are largely off in their own world and arent interested, rx7 owners as they put it "like to hang out with other rotaries, not so much other mazdas in general" the mazda 3, 626, mx6, and rx8 communities around here arent super active. Which leaves us with a few 6s possibly - although they didnt seem too gung ho about the one big mazda club thing either last spring - but even so its for the most part just our protege club. Then you look at our club, as fantastic as it is, I think we made like 25 t-shirts, mark gave at least 5 away I think, i still have 5 sitting around or given away, which means we sold a grand total of 15 shirts.
Now a club that is only able to buy 15 of their own t-shirts.....really doesnt appear to hold a whole lot of buying power. Which makes it less likely that any non-mazda place would sponsor us, and honestly who is buying large quantities of OEM mazda parts from dealers anyways if a dealer was to sponsor us? (the obvious exception being new motor every week kyle..) Not to mention the whole letting us test drive rx8s or something as a club event at their dealership......maybe commie could hook us up but if I was a salesman i wouldnt believe anyone in this protege club could afford an rx8 (even though I know some of us could).
So basically we could get 10-15% off parts/service. But no large population of nepoc members go to any one dealership (in fact I bet the largest population doesnt go to a dealership at all) so I dont know that that is worth their while.
For a meet at a mazda dealership, I dont see why they would say no....i guess we just pick a place in the worcester area since it is most central?
Test drives and whatnot, i wouldnt be quite so sure...
General sponsorship, I dont think any aftermarket company would be interested given our lack of buying power, and I dont think a dealership would be interested in donating funds, but if they did what would we use the funds for? Paying web hosting fees? Paying for t-shirts and stickers up front instead of a couple members fronting the money?
honestly even just an arrangement with a dealership saying club members get X discount would probably require nepoc to become more "official" and more organized and whatnot....and while we are certainly capable of doing so...do we really want to?
[DISCLAIMER]this is a little more than a response just to your meet at a dealership suggestion obviously
but I know more than one person has these kind of thoughts going through their mind since our meets are going so well, everyone is so enthusiastic, and it has been suggested to me before...so i just figured I would cover the topic, let you know that these sorts of things have been considered. certainly open for conversation, but this is where we're at