Wow great thread I can't believe I haven't seen this until now.

This is a great push, the reason I started the Random Discussion Thread was indirectly to get ppl closer and hopefully grow their friendships, and make the club big like it once was. This is def a much more direct and useful way!!!

Also, I have not paid the membership due. To be honest I didn't know it was still a paid club, so I am def. one that has to, since I participate in many of the activites. I will be my pleasure to help support the club.

I am also happy to help with any administrative part of the club.

Go SflGClub. Let's blow this sh uppp

 

safe to assume we picking up slammered as a sponcer??

 

I have read through a lot of this thread and there are a lot of great ideas. I personally havent been able to meet in some meets because, not only do i run a business, i do go to school AND have another job. I unfortunately also have a personal life. I cannot always sacrifice time to go to a meet 50 miles away from my house.

I think chapters is a very unorganized idea, but the concept is important. Here is an example: I used to be part of a Mitsubishi Lancer club here in SOFL. Most of the time, the meets were held in Broward county, and even further north. Because of that, there were literally NO Miami members. The club went to ****. The owners didnt care, and it eventually laid dormant. The new Miami members (including myself) put for effort to get everyone animated into getting together, and we established Bi-weekly meets in both quadrants of South Florida. For the first few meets, turn outs were 20+. However, later on the Broward folk gave up on coming down to Miami, while the Miami members still traveled north. Eventually, the club went to crap again because the Miami members felt neglected, since there are sometimes MUCH better meet locations than up there. Thats when i decided to leave. I helped rise that club up from the crap that it was in, and then the new owners couldnt spare the gas to come down, while we had to go to them? Me and others gave up and left.

Point im making is, Towers isnt very centric for most people. For me, from my house, its 50 miles. Its less from my work, but i get out of work at 7. I will always show up late to Towers almost every time because of that.

As far as leadership positions, i think it is very important to have prominent leaders, not just on the forums, but in person as well. TBH, and this is partially my fault, i dont know half of you. Most i know simply cuz we met that other night at the huge towers meet. I know im completely knew to this club, and that has a lot to do with it. I do plan on participating a lot more and showing up to every meet i possibly can.

I will say this though. I am 150% for dues. Getting the benefits of a club should not be a free thing (this includes use of this forum section). However, i do not believe people should be either removed from the club or "suspended" from the club simply because they miss meets. Personally, unless i am an important part of something going down with the meet (for example, a BBQ or raffle), i shouldnt have to explain myself for not showing up to a regular meet, even if i said i was going. There are SOOO many reasons why I would personally have to miss a meet. And frankly, if they are personal reasons, i shouldnt have to share them. I dont ask anything of the club that i myself would never be able to deliver on. But my life was going on before i even bought this car, and i dont think that i have to stop it because i decided to join it. Another example where this wouldnt apply: Assume we save spaces at a car show, reserved and paid for, and people dont show up. This is something that should be acted on. But making it to a Towers meet is not something to kick someone out of the club. Especially since we are paying to be part of the club, not to be kicked out of it. If you are just a ghost to the club, then lack of benefiting from certain club stuff is reasonable. Having to pay more simply because life grabbed you by the ***** is kinda excessive.

Honestly, before thinking of ideas on how to limit new/future members from anything, we should be focusing on expanding the reasons to WANT to join our club. Most people, when they want to sign up, always ask about "What are the benefits". This shouldnt be a question on their minds. That stuff should be obvious to them. What they should be asking themselves is "What can i do for this club to make it better?". And no i did not steal that from an Army slogan.

I have more to write, but i am at work.

 

ABOUT MEETS:

I had suggested a while back that we should maybe change up the meets every other month.

One month the usual Towers 3rd Friday meet. Set a window time frame that we'll be there waiting for the rest to show up and then head out together as a Club where ever we want. Use it more as a cool place to meet up before we head out somewhere to hangout, drink or eat..ect

Then maybe every other month we could hold a meet a bit more south in Miami area like we did before. Once again... use the location more as a meeting point and then head out as a group to have fun. I would suggest maybe even holding the Miami Meets in the weekend so than more may be able to attend do to work schedule differences.

Back then when we held Miami Meets we practically doubled the group in size. Gives more people from different areas of South Florida a chance to attend.


ABOUT FEES:

You know I'm all for it. This may encourage our Beach and Park Weekend Meets again... Kinda miss those. $25.00 a year fee still seams like more than a bargain so long as we continue to have cool events like we use to. A simple incentive of being part of the Club is getting the free Technical Expertise of some of our Club Members. Maybe our Talented Club members should limit there helpful hands to those only involved in our Club... hint hint...

Whatever route we decide to take... lets just start making it happen. I will helps as much as I can with anything the Club needs as usual.

 

I totally agree guys lets get this club going.

 

I think alot of people are missing the point here. So many people are pissing about the distance they are from the meets. I am the furthest person from any meet we have had or will have, but I have not made issue 1 with this. Club membership is about participation and every person does the best they can. Not every person can make all the meets and not ever person have 1000 posts. This is not the point, nor are these things requirements of club membership. Paying dues and involving yourself in a club is not really about what benefits you receive in your hands, its about people sharing a common interest. We meet from time to time, stroke our egos, stroke the other guys egos and have some fun while we are at it.

I really suggest we start over. We all agree that dues are required. We need to determine what officers are needed and what their responsibilities should be. We will then move onto what everyone would like to be able to contribute to the club.

Towers is in the middle of Broward county.

Start: 15616 88th Pl N, Loxahatchee, FL 33470-2876
End: 1904 S University Dr, Davie, FL 33324-5849
Total Distance: 65.4 Miles
Estimated Total Time: 1 hour, 2 minutes

That is the Mapblast Estimate from my house. I do it. To every meet for the last year. I am commited. If my membership is out, It is only by maybe a month. I look at this site almost every day, most of the time several times.. I love my car and I like the people I have met since being involved with this club. I sport our stickers on my car, which I purchased from Danny. I purchased 2 shirts. Which I will proudly wear at our meets that I drive 65 miles to.

So lets stop the moaning and start working. Lets get our current meets working, with enthusiasm and then lets look to expand from there. Lets get some dollars in the coffers and set up a nice daytime park outing that everyone can enjoy and bring their families to. Lets start over with all this in mind.

I was taught the term "Kiss" a long time ago. It stands for "Keep it Simple Stupid". Lets put our ducks in order and start with baby steps. We have a good group of people here, lets just not get too far off track.

Sorry for my rant!

Chris

 

I like this guy ^^ never met him once but I would like to Have a few guys that think like you in my area :-)..
I have been following this thread since it started .. keep up the good work guys.

Also my name is chris as well.

 

Chris, you're enthusiasm is contagious man! Looks like it's almost time for execution.

 

Some more very good ideas, I want to reiterate that nothing about meets will ever be mandatory. This is a car club not a job, we do it because it is fun... If it stops being fun then what is the point of doing it.

I am 100% on with the re-birth, start over of the club. We do need new blood, new ideas etc. I think that once we set up some new officers or leaders for the different areas this could be very beneficial to having meets in different areas. I know broward as that is where I live. I could never set up a meet in miami because I do not know the area. I have attended many meets in miami, and will travel anywhere if my work schedule permits.

We have had people drive down from Jax, orlando, vero and other placed to attend some of out meets. Its not about who drives from where, its is what Chris said, sharing a common interest. This is something we all share and enjoy.

I think that with some support, and help we have a great restart for $25 a year to share a common interest, which goes to us having better meets, bbq's etc.

 

See the problem that i mentioned the distance is NOT because of the distance, but rather for the idea of kicking people out for not showing up. I have no problem driving to Towers or other areas to meet up once a month, or even twice a month. My statement (which was obviously overlooked) was simply about my availability. I wouldnt want to be kicked out simply because i couldnt show up or whatever. Im not implying that i make more of a sacrifice than others to go. Its simply that if i cant go, for whatever reason it may be, unless i was in charge of something, i do not wish to be punished for it.

That being deflected, there are many activities we can plan as a club to set up. For starters, we could REALLY use an updated picture of a lot of the members. We can plan a photoshoot sometime for which the majority of us members can appear and take a large group picture of all of us. We can also take pictures of us, with our cars. That way its easy to identify people with names/faces/cars. I only know most of you from that towers meet and the London Square meets. BBQ's is a MUUUSSSTTT for a club. I dont care if its at a house or at a park. Nothing beats some Churrasco on the grill.

Another great thing we got not is that SOFLA car show thread. Unfortunately, ive had misshaps and RL plans that have intervened with me entering in any of them, but once danny is done with my headlights, if i can spare the time, i will be at most of them.

Something also that Tian touched on is labeling on the forums. I dont know the majority of yall's names. Its too bad there isnt a way to see people's names on these forums cuz that would help a LOT. Also, most of you dont even have pics of your ride on your profile. Its so much easier to find eachother when we know what we all look like, you get me? This has really nothing to do with "building the club up" i admit, but it would be helpful to know who we are talking to, right?

These are just ideas im tossing out. I will keep blurting stuff out until i run out of ideas.

 

Totally disregard the thought of removing people for not attending. I hope Danny does not mind me saying, but that is ridiculous. Any club that would treat members like that I could not support. All the stuff about identifying members is valid, but not the main issue at this point. I personally think we should have a thread in the members section for 1 or 2 pictures of you and your ride. I might start that tonight. Good ideas. Keep them coming.

Chris

 

Yea like i said, its not a priority thing, but it would be a nice thing to have. Its kinda embarassing when you have NO idea some guys name just because youve never seen his name before.

We should serious plan a day for a shoot. I think if everyone puts down we can arrange for a group photoshoot. Anyone got any good pro photogs?

 

^Maybe not professional level, but decent camera and would probably do it for free.

 

i do :-) but im not local .. im starting to get with everyone in our club and do official shoots of their cars.. i know danny "screensavors" has a decent camera and could "maybe" do it for you guys , depending on what he says i don't know. but if you guys are every around id be more then happy to shoot some cars :-)

here was the shoot i just did a few days ago ..

https://g35driver.com/forums/florida...oto-shoot.html


danny step it up and take some pictures down there i know you can do it homie

 

Those are great shots! Did you edit them at all or just as is? Some amazing shots there. If you are ever in the area, let me know. Im still amateur in my shots, but i have a thirst for learning.


One big thing, that gets the name of the club flowing is the participation in big events. For example, in Cali, they had a car show a while back. Wasnt meant to be huge, but it turned out to be. The Genesis crew made a HUGE name for itself, because they showed up about 100+ strong. That fame went around quick.

Something else that should be done is a bit more advertising for the club. If you see a car parked, modded that you dont recognize, leave a paper with the forum address on it. If you have to, write it out, make copies and have them ready. Sure its informal, but it gets the name across.