MRA Women Racers - Please Read

[PrillerGrrl]

Ladies,

On the basis of fundraising for the MRA, the idea of doing a calendar of the Women MRA racers has been put forth.

Donna is going to call a meeting on Sunday for the Women MRA racers to discuss the possibility of putting this together.

We have already done some preliminary numbers and have spoken to some sponsors and have a potential photographer. The photographer is a well known classic car / pinup photographer and he should make the races this weekend and hopefully will be able to make the meeting to both introduce himself and to allow everyone to ask questions about the particulars of doing a calendar.

This is not going to be a lingerie calendar. This calendar will be classy. The intent is to raise money while representing the MRA, ourselves and our sport in a positive light. We are also contacting some ladies whom might participate as "Umbrella Girls" for the calendar as well.

This is just an initial chat to see what the interest level is and to allow everyone to get an idea of cost, sponsor involvement, and to voice any and all concerns. After this meeting, we will either move ahead with a proprosal to the MRA Board or we will shelve it.

Even if you're not racing this weekend, if you are or have been a racer in the MRA, your attendance is most welcome.

Cheers!

Katie
188

[ctb]

sorry, I don't see when/where you are proposing this meeting. I will be around both Saturday and Sunday at HPR.

[PrillerGrrl]

Donna will make an announcement, I assume over the PA as to where we will meet.

Cheers!

Katie
188

[bluedevil]

As a word of caution. Think this one through very carefully. The CSC has done a calendar for the last several years and has yet to make any money at it. Usually get stuck with hundreds of calendars they cant give away..... Cost to make would need to be near nothing to get this to be profitable.

Its a great idea.... and with the right management could go far... but it has to be available for purchase ONLINE... this way more than local population can buy it and a buy link can be spread all over. In past years its been sold by a paypal addess and total sales to some random person that people out of state have not heard of...... Total sales in that fashion = 2.

[PrillerGrrl]

Thank you so much for your feedback. That is extremely helpful. We are definitely trying to come up with as many ways to promote the product as possible.

I think it would be good to speak with all the potential vendors regarding web exposure and online sales potential.

Thank you!

Katie

[ctb]

K - Do you have a copy of the one from your Canadian Club? It would help me to have something to show prospective sponsors. I talked to one this morning, who may be in on it.

For all of you girls you said you didn't know any umbrella worthy girls...I have a few for you who would be willing to do this for free. Past Coors girls and umbrella girls. If this gets closer to fruition, please let me know so I can let them know. Also, maybe if we can only find, for example, 8 umbrella girls, we could change up the outfits so a few could do two months? Thanks for the prelim work, Kaitlyn

[PrillerGrrl]

I don't have any of my past ones.

I've got a call with the national race director later this week. I'll ask him to send us one of the current ones. FYI, I've heard through the grapevine that this year's was alot more... racey... than past ones.

Thank you for the umbrella girl update!

:-)

Katie
188

[jbrowning]

Hopefully I'm not speaking out of line here. But have you thought of including your bikes and maybe leathers in this calendar. Its just a thought.

Jim

[PrillerGrrl]

Jim,

We appreciate your ideas and it's welcome.

The concept is evolving and I'm sure we're many weeks away from a final format.

The basic framework is racers in full race gear minus helmets, our race bikes, and umbrella girls and possibly umbrella boys, an insert photo of an actual racing shot, and then sponsor info at the bottom for the respective sponsors for that month.

I have previously participated in this kind of calendar but we are definitely going to make it our own.

Thank you!

Katie
188

[PrillerGrrl]

Ladies,

During our meeting on Sunday, we had touched on the idea of setting up a unique thread on the MRA site regarding the calendar. It occurred to me given how much communication that would need to take place, we could end up with an extremely long thread which could become difficult to keep track of things.

I wanted to put it to everyone if perhaps the MRA forum would be a good place for periodic updates to benefit the membership and to keep the board in the loop but perhaps we might want to consider setting up a private "work" site on yahoo or something like that where we could have a calendar, contact list for all the ladies, photographer, etc... and setup our own unique threads for working on different issues, uploading and working on documents, etc.

Thoughts? Do you have a site you've done this on before? I've done this with Yahoo some time ago but now I know there are others like Windows Live.

Cheers!

Katie
188

[smwoerner]

I saw this composite http://realracinusa.com/racelog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/valeriethompson2009.jpg and thought it might help spark some ideas. There is no doubt it’s about racing, the processing makes the colors pop, there is a good emphasis on the rider and the machine, and it keeps things classy.

While I love umbrella girls :) I would recommend going with only the rider. Adding an umbrella girl, racing shot and sponsor logos might make the page too busy.

Also, just do a Google search for calendars and you can find several sites that allow you to publish and sell through their site. I highly encourage you have an online fulfillment option.

In this down economy many companies have to think about what to do for their annual holiday/promotional gift. Maybe coordinate with a couple of key sponsors in different product lines, give them key page placements and have them use it for their calendar as well and their initial bulk purchase puts you in the black automatically and drastically increases your circulation.

I know you already have a photographer, if that does not work out let me know, I have some ideas.

[PrillerGrrl]

Scott,

Thank you for your ideas!

Cheers!

Katie
188