Riots on Princess HWY tonight because of the cancellation of easternats

[04redxr8]

Originally Posted by trippytaka

The football codes are able to bounce back from one anti-social behavioural crisis to another. Why? Because they have an organised, well funded business models behind them that puts good PR and marketing people and a lot of money into moulding and fixing public opinion of the players and the codes.

The only way for the motoring community to change the way we are perceived would be to create an official representitive body that helps look after our interests. Rally, drag, circuit, street, business etc... all combined under the one roof. (Please don't anyone mention the PRTC - completely toothless thus far).

Set up like a political party, it would take donations from lobby groups, invite paying members. It would blast the media with feel good angles and stories about the amount of good work we do, like charity cruises and car shows. It would hold huge annual fundraising events. It would have celebrities (like Eric Bana etc) as spokespeople. It would publicly denounce the anti-social behaviour. It would seek to boycott businesses and drag teams that are involved in illegal activities - we all know the kinds of groups I mean. It would pour money into nurturing young racing talent (much like the CAMS rising stars). It would become the face of driver training, nationally. It would fight to get into schools to change the attitudes of young people towards driving. It would fight for the license systems and tests to include driver training (through our training centres, of course).

Benefits for fully paid members would include discounts to workshops and vendors that sign up, much like the NRMA. Discounts to driving events like V8 Supercars etc. It would work with other community groups and events (V8 Supercars, charities etc) to legitimise itself.

It would take a solid 5-10 years to gain any kind of solid momentum in the media, but at least we'd be doing something. Hell, maybe in 10 years it would become a fully-fledged political party at a state level to try and raise awareness against revenue raising using motorists etc.

An no, I haven't been toking on the crake pipe. I'm just living in a fantasy for a second. Anyway, it's a completely legitimate idea and could be self-sufficiant... it's just that no one out there has the kind of vision or $$$$ behind them to get the ball rolling.

This is what I was trying to say. Not a fantasy if others would get in on it. It would be a huge undertaking, but a worthwile one.