FUTURE MEETING PLANNING

[JSPERFORMANCE]

I have noticed a lack of structure in the planning of our meets. Before it becomes a problem I have a few ideas I would like to throw out there.

1) Designate 3-4 "zones" the the EPFBA meetings will cover

2) Elect officers to represent the club in these zones. The officers will be in charge of securing the meeting place, setting the time and date, and planning a cruise route if there is to be one held, and promoting their meeting on ours and other message boards.

3) Set a definate time of month (ie. third weekend of each month) so that when that time rolls around everyone knows that a meeting should be held soon.

4) alternate between saturday and sunday meetings so that everyone will be able to make a meeting depending on their work schedule
(the dates can be a soft rule depending on local cruises or pre scheduled events)

5) once 1-4 are decided we can set a rotation so that the club dosent focus on one area for too long. If we have 4 zones we can just go numerrically.


What do you guys think???

[TheWraith]

1. i definitely agree we need to rotate locations, we do definitely need to let the number of people in certain areas hold weight though too.

2.maybe instead of having club officers to do it, we'll split the work up further. we can just have zones set for the next bunch of upcoming meets, and 2-3 months in advance of a meet, we'll brainstorm place, and take a volunteer to organize that particular event

3 and 4, and 1 for that matter should definitely be subject to other clubs' events, as well as outside events too. i do think we should start incorporating cruises, car shows, etc, into our events because things are starting to stagnate a bit already. which brings me to a big time point.

We had 10 people show up today, which isn't a bad showing considering the weather and all, but there were over 20 people signed up. Granted quite a few maybes, but still not that solid regardles. That's pretty sad to be honest, and i do not want to see that being a repeated trend. it caused us a bit of trouble because chickie and pete's will only seat the people who are there.

[JSPERFORMANCE]

To be totally honest Chikie and Petes (and other places like them) was not a good location. We should stick to places that are at least semi-family friendly, appreciate our business, and can cater to our needs to a certain extent.

I like the idea of officers because the officers can build a repor with the restaruants in their zone and the more we go there that person will get more familiar with the management. This will hopefully help us get some perks like discounts, advertisement for the club or maybe even sponsorship for the club so we can get things like shirts, jackets, and things of that nature for much cheaper or even free in the future...

[chevylover5]

this is just a thought...

iv been thinking about it for a while tho, has anyone ever thought about having more than one meeting a month? like personally, i look forward to the meetings even if i cant go to them, just to see like what people come up with, and i know that the turn-out will be better if we have like one a month, but what about two a month or something like that? idk guys, just a thought...

-ken

[JSPERFORMANCE]

I think once a month is good for now. Come summertime we will definately be going to more events together though. But one official meet a month is definately sufficient in my opinion.

[Frosty]

Good points Josh, I agree.

[Nodnarb481]

i demand a cruise/track/dyno type gathering of some sort! demaannnddd

[Squints88]

I think we can all just chip in ideas rather than selecting a couple people to do it. Too much structure can be a bad thing as well.

I agree that we need to rotate Saturdays and Sundays, and we need to spread out our meetings across the area.

I say we simply rotate areas to the best of our ability, gather ideas for our next meet, and set up a pole. Set them up a month ahead like we've been doing and we'll have plenty of time.

[Frosty]

The point Josh was trying to make is that if you have a certain few people constantly talking to restaurants, park officials, etc you build a relationship with them, making it easier for them to fit our needs.

[JSPERFORMANCE]

Too much structure is a bad thing but right now we have none. The polls are becoming a pain, we have to vote on place, date, time... Blah. Like I said if there are coordinators a repor can be built with the local businesses if there is a diferent person coming to them there will never be a familiarity between the club and them. Like putting a face to the name...

[JSPERFORMANCE]

So, should we go ahead with this plan or what? Something definately has to be done. 10 people at any meet is NOT acceptable.

[01TransAmChick]

go for it. i dont mind. its worth a shot

[Nodnarb481]

cruiiiisee!!! we should cruise through every "Sector"

[Squints88]

10 people at any meet is NOT acceptable.


4 inches of sleet on the ground, and many of us including me don't have daily drivers..

[JSPERFORMANCE]

I didnt go and it wasnt because of the weather.. Three others have told me the same thing.. And if the weather was so bad then why were there 4 people that came from jersey without problems??

[Nodnarb481]

because it was plowed where they were? my neighborhood was not and squints lives in the same township i do

[damon_Z]

I didnt go and it wasnt because of the weather.. Three others have told me the same thing.. And if the weather was so bad then why were there 4 people that came from jersey without problems??

I know I would have went for sure, but short-term, unfortunate personal circumstances are keeping me from driving long distances. Even when the meet was advertised in the other events section of the NJFBOA message board, I think a lot of people overlooked it. I think more advertisement had to be done such as actually posting the meet in the lounge section of the NJFBOA message board and keeping it there as a sticky or at least updating it to keep it at the top of the forum. I have a friend who didn't want to go, because he didn't like seafood. And he has a friend who didn't even know about the meet until I told her about it a few days before. (She didn't know about it even though she's a regular in the NJFBOA message board. I don't think she went, because it was really short notice to her and she had just returned on that previous Saturday with her SOM WS6--she drove up from Florida.)

I think another good idea would be to post these meets in the eastern section of a really mainstream message board, ls1tech.com or even camaroz28.com. Furthermore, these meets shouldn't be so frequent. Maybe, at most, 1 meet per month, but ideally there should only be 1 meet every two to three months. Less frequent meets will give people a chance to spread the word and become more excited about these meets. The end result would be a huge gathering at every meet.

To conclude,

Better advertisement + less frequent meets = bigger meets

[JSPERFORMANCE]

I agree about spreading the word better that would be the job of the representative for the particular zone which is having that meeting. It wouldnt have to be exclusive so anyone could advertise any meet but the zone leader should do his or her part.. Monthly meets have worked fine until now, not just for this club, but others as well so I think we should keep them. I am not trying to say that we need 50+ people at every meet but 20+ was cool (look at the pics from buca)..

[JSPERFORMANCE]

Alex, you had made a list of zones before. were there 3 or 4? I would think 3 would be plenty but to keep this on topic first would be do we agree this is the right way to go, second what should the zones be? Third, how should we choose reps.

[Bow94z]

Less frequent meets will give people a chance to spread the word and become more excited about these meets. The end result would be a huge gathering at every meet.
Better advertisement + less frequent meets = bigger meets

Thats been my experience, seems like everyweek there is something new up..

Im sick of voting polls on dates, everyone is gonna pick something different, if u wanna set a meet, your gonna set the date too...

[JSPERFORMANCE]

thats why I suggested that we set a constant for the dates like having them on the third weekend every month. Of course we could change the weekend if there is conflicting schedules.

[TheWraith]

josh, here's my $.02 on this from the march planning post:



If we do have it there, I'm not banking on attending.

I'll be honest, i really think we're limited club participation regionally based on where we're having the events. I figure "eastern pa" really encompasses 5 distinct regions, and we have yet to wonder out of the first one yet for any meet or event.

njfboa seems to bounce region to region for each of their meets, and i think we really need to start doing the same.

our 5 "regions" are basically:

Philadelphia metro - bensalem, pottstown, lansdale, west chester, doylestown, philly itself, etc.

Poconos - stroudsburg, hazleton, wilkes barre, scranton

Lehigh Valley - allentown, bethlehem, easton, emmaus, quakertown

Southwestern - reading, carlisle, harrisburg, lebanon, lancaster

Northwestern - williamsport, state college

now obviously there are more people in the philly region, so I'm not saying it shouldn't have more events, but i think it's a big mistake to ignore the other regions completely. I've been seeing people from the lehigh valley springing up on the site, and if we had a lehigh valley event, it might bring in poconos region people, since it's half the drive philly is.

just some food for thought...

[obeymybird]

josh, here's my $.02 on this from the march planning post:



If we do have it there, I'm not banking on attending.

I'll be honest, i really think we're limited club participation regionally based on where we're having the events. I figure "eastern pa" really encompasses 5 distinct regions, and we have yet to wonder out of the first one yet for any meet or event.

njfboa seems to bounce region to region for each of their meets, and i think we really need to start doing the same.

our 5 "regions" are basically:

Philadelphia metro - bensalem, pottstown, lansdale, west chester, doylestown, philly itself, etc.

Poconos - stroudsburg, hazleton, wilkes barre, scranton

Lehigh Valley - allentown, bethlehem, easton, emmaus, quakertown

Southwestern - reading, carlisle, harrisburg, lebanon, lancaster

Northwestern - williamsport, state college

now obviously there are more people in the philly region, so I'm not saying it shouldn't have more events, but i think it's a big mistake to ignore the other regions completely. I've been seeing people from the lehigh valley springing up on the site, and if we had a lehigh valley event, it might bring in poconos region people, since it's half the drive philly is.

just some food for thought...



i like this because i live next to williamsport if you ever want to come up this way let me know theres a really big mix of cars that run on the williamsport circuit and lots of places to eat... but really i think the low number of people showing is just the weather or the cars aren't ready for a road trip things will get better..