WPC Year in Review - 2003

Since the demise of HondaPrelude.com, many new online Prelude communities have been developed in order to keep the Prelude communities alive. In 2002, every major city in Canada had a well-established Prelude community with the exception of Regina and Winnipeg. This was problematic for the enthusiasts in Winnipeg as they had no place to call home and instead were strewn upon the many Prelude communities across Canada/North America. In January of 2003, what started as an idea among a few local enthusiasts has now become to be known as the Winnipeg Prelude Club.

The club started off slow due to the time of year, word did get out and the first generation Prelude site grew to 20+ members before the WPC outgrew the functionality of the Yahoo! Group. A domain name was then purchased shortly after moving to free web-hosting and forum hosting. The second-generation site saw increased growth, however participation was still low in the early spring. The lack of participation was mostly due to free forums providing poor service and with the future of the Winnipeg Prelude Club in question, people were reluctant to donate to the club. However, with increased participation both at monthly meets and in the online forums, as well as donations from the increased number of core members, the site now finds itself in its third-generation, providing a site which is professionally hosted and easier to navigate. Winnipegpreludeclub.com is both used to keep members informed about their local car community and instep with what's new and exciting in Winnipeg (read: soaked in sarcasm), it also to keep the members informed about issues involved with their vehicles so they can make informed choices and purchases.

The first few winter time meets involved the small group of core members for cheap wings and cheap drinks. A couple of these core members found themselves driving out west to world of wheels in Calgary after only meeting each other no more than 3 weeks previous. Even when the snow had cleared up it was difficult to get more members out so it really put the whole Winnipeg Prelude Club concept into question. One meet in May however changed much of this as we saw close to a 500% increase attendance (close to 15 members). Since that meet there has been several successful meets at the start of each month, with around the same number of Preludes, however a lot of the time it was new faces and new rides. A few of the meets were more intricate, involving going out for pho and bubble tea as well as meeting up with other members later on. With the snow falling, many of the members found themselves storing their cars. In order to keep the community alive, events were still planned both WPC sanctioned and otherwise. After much talk about who was the best, WPC found itself putting their cues to work in a WPC Pool Tournament with a surprise win from an underdog. The club then found itself ending the year with the introduction of the WPC Gallery to start the new season.

WinnipegPreludeClub.com is proud to announce its first financial sponsor, Speed Factor, in the upcoming year. Hopefully this partnership will spawn many more partnerships with other leading import shops and communities in Winnipeg and across Canada. There is strength in numbers on several different levels, so hopefully businesses and other important communities will realize this as the Winnipeg Prelude Club continues to grow. WinnipegPreludeClub.com would also like to thank our local clothing line sponsor Villin for their assistance in helping furnishing the clothes for our beautiful models.

What does the future hold for the Winnipeg Prelude Club? Guess you're just going to have to stay tuned to find out.

 

Special Thanks to the Toronto Prelude Club for creating a Winnipeg-based forum which got this whole ball rolling. Also thanks to all the members that help keep this site alive.