1. Who owns this forum? Who pays for it? Who does the maintenance? We used to have a Nissan website about 10 years ago run by that guy in Cape Town (I forget his name, Andre I think) and after some years when it crashed he couldn't restore it and that I think contributed to the decline of the club. It was an incredibly good forum with an amazing amount of useful information. So whether the NOROC is revived or not we need to think about protecting this site and when it crashes (these things all seem to do that sooner or later) will there be enough resources to repair it?
2. Training: the NOROC made a huge contribution to training. I certainly benefited a lot. I can remember participating in some really dodgy recoveries at Mahem on a Sunday afternoon - the kind that none of us will allow now because we have had some training. The problem with training is that as someone pointed out above, you need a constant flow of newbies to train. I think this NOROC "market" has more or less run out of newbies and this forum is catering more and more for older hands who want to push the envelope to the limit - look a the kinds of trips that attract interest - Baboons, river trip, more extreme one day trips etc. So you don't really need the club any more to provide training.
3. The NOROC organised some memorable touring type trips which I really enjoyed - I think of Witsand and a few to Lesotho - but there was less and less interest in those kinds of trips as time went on - I tried to organise one or two - there was zero interest. So NOROC does not offer anything for those of use that prefer those kinds of trips - we make other arrangements. I think its a pity, but too bad.
4. So from a business plan point of view, who is the "target market" for the NOROC these days? The more experienced drivers are into more extreme challenges and this forum meets their needs without any red tape. There is no stream of newbies because Nissan's product range are mostly soft roaders and they only sell about 1 or 2 patrols a month and they are getting softer and softer in the sense that they have lots more stuff that is not basic and that can go wrong and that is really expensive to repair- that means there is a dwindling supply of patrols that are suitable for off roading. On the other hand the days when the patrol was one of the very few really competent off-road vehicles are gone. The competition have improved their products a hell of a lot and at lower prices than Nissans. So there is less need to own a Nissan - less need to have a NOROC. In addition there is Grants point about other clubs being model based rather than Brand based which is a valid point.
So, sadly, from a bigger picture point of view there does not seem to be a "business case" for NOROC. Nevertheless I will support those that want to try and revive it. But I am not getting my hopes of success up. The historical window of opportunity for that kind of club seems to have come and maybe, now is gone.
