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A new logo? A new Website? - Reasons for Change
Hi all.
Recently there have been image changes to the National Logo and website and although the structure of MAG has been used in the decision making process to ensure democracy has taken place I am anxious to make sure that this information reaches all corners of the membership and also that you all have an understanding about why and how these changes came about.
Last year when MAG was in a better financial state than it had been from some time and David Short was appointed, we were able to take advantage of having an extra pair of hands on board. Instead of the fire fighting, which Trevor Baird and I had been doing prior to this, we were able to stand back and take stock of where we were as an organisation.
David Short needed to get to know us all and the workings within MAG, so we asked him to spend time in the office as well as meeting all the key players in our organisation - both paid staff and volunteers. We asked him, with a fresh pair of eyes coming in, to do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
He highlighted that one of the biggest weaknesses to the stability of our organisation [which we already knew], was/still is, our reliance on events for the financial running. i.e. if one of the big fund raisers e.g. Stormin or Farmyard Party couldn't run one year, then this would have a massive impact on our ability to continue in our present format. It has been said for years that we need to increase our membership to at least 20,000 to give us this stability. To do this we need to appeal to the wider biking community in a way that we have not done before. We need to present that broad community with an image of MAG that they feel instinctively comfortable with.
We are developing and enjoying significant success in the political arena, where we have been invited to address the Commons Select Committee on transport and other decision making government bodies, to share our expertise and views with them.
We are having success in projecting a positive image within the biking press and we must ensure that awareness of these changes reaches the entire motorcycle community and attracts their attention.
We are crucially aware of the importance of retaining the grass roots support of our core membership and all these changes have been made with the full consultation of the democratically elected National Committee which has unanimously endorsed them. Though MAG is evolving, the change in image has not diluted commitment to core principles by one iota. We can and we will take all of our existing members with us and welcome many more.
If we do not evolve we will become extinct, as an organisation, as a movement and as a family if you will. We will wither and die on the vine.
Now is the time for us to really make a difference by being pro active, not re active. By ensuring that motorcycling has an equal status in transport plans as other valid forms of transport we shall endeavour to protect motorcycling for the next generation.
To do this it is crucial to attract more members.
Change is never easy. However having analysed our problems and deciding we needed to do something about them, we had to try to make sure that the changes would be the very best for MAG.
So, starting in October of last year we, the National Committee, started on this journey to try actively to increase our membership. Never an easy task and one that previous managements had always tried to tackle. We had been trying to update our image via the website for some 4 years and in 2006 after I’d been Chair for seven months, we concluded that this could not be done just using our volunteers. The membership had been crying out for some years for an update to reflect the reality that we are an organisation that speaks for motorcyclists today.
We consulted a new company at the cutting edge of Market Research, whose individual members had a tried and trusted record of delivering the goods to do this and we soon realised that once we started with this process, the visual changes we made would have to be consistent across the whole public face of our organisation.
Questions were asked as to how we arrived at the logo.
- We felt it retained the essence of our organisation, touching on the helmets issue as it does.
- The helmet logo has been significant throughout the development of our organistion e.g. Bikers are Voters, where we had the image of posting votes through the front of the visor.
- The two different styles of helmet were designed to suggest that we have a broad appeal to motorcyclists.
- Having two helmets suggests that you are never alone in MAG and that we are a broad church.
Research on opinions was made using existing MAG members via telephone calls, i.e. cold calling by market researchers organised by Creo, the company whose services we have employed. Bike Forums on various websites were viewed, one to one interviews with bikers were conducted, including interviews with non MAG members, and the final logo was decided upon after consultation with Regional Reps at National Committee meetings.
We must not lose sight of the fact that in order to reach out to the wider motorcycling community we must listen to what that community is telling us.
The market research has clearly shown that MAG is not fully reflecting the complexion of the broader motorcycling world. We have to move with the times, and avoid becoming insular.
Looking at the Logo and the website: ‘MAG – The Heart & Soul of Biking. Are you passionate enough?’
The question appeals to the conscience of the reader.
Decisions were not taken lightly. I’m sure many of us remember hours spent choosing the colour and design of a rally T shirt.
Meetings with the National Committee regarding these issues have taken place in Oct and Dec 2006, February 2007 and twice in April of this year. Overwhelming and unanimous support was given by the National Committee to the course we have taken. In addition e mail reports were sent in between meetings to National Committee members.
The National Committee is your elected body and its voting members are your Regional Reps who pass information from and to the grass roots membership. At times they have to make decisions on your behalf, I urge you to support them. They are also volunteers and are trying to do their very best for MAG.
Yes there is a financial cost involved, though not as much as has been speculated in the biking press. However the message being sent to the wider biking community is that we are prepared to invest the money that you the members raise to protect the future of motorcycling.
Please do not think that in confining consultation to the NC we are expressing contempt for members’ views. The breadth of the presentational changes we are making would have rendered a nation-wide consultation impractical.
Those who remember how long the last debate over the changed logo raged, will recognize that there are times when the leaders of organisations have to accept the responsibility of making decisions. The present dynamics within the motorcycle world as the threat of surveillance-based controls grows at the same time as our lobbying capability has been dramatically enhanced, convinced us that this is the time to make a great leap forward.
Organisations that rest on their laurels become staid and lose ambition. Please remember that we are undergoing an identity makeover not an ethical makeover. No MAG principle is threatened by the cosmetic changes being made.
We’re just trying to broaden our appeal. Your National Committee is determined that MAG will respond to all the threats and utilize all the opportunities currently available to it and we hope that all members will support us in this.
Jane Chisholm
Chair MAG UK
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