Meeting

Cruiser804 · 07-01-09, 02:55 PM

Just realized the monthy meeting is tonight. I am feeling realy lazy. Anyone one else going to be there?

Devilmans Hand · 07-01-09, 03:10 PM

I doubt that I'd be able to make it in time. Getting to Alexandria around that time is a PITA from my direction. Just wondering, but is anyone interested in an alternate additional meeting place and/or time? I'd like to show up, but getting out there is proving difficult.

colangut · 07-08-09, 04:17 PM

We had meetings in the Fairfax, Sterling and Tyson's area for years and years. At times, there would up to 60 people and dozens of trucks...we averaged around 30 people. The biggest meetings were in Tyson's were many people from Maryland could make it. We had a reserved room at the Fudruckers there.

Then, the meetings were moved to the current location to suit the core members of at the club at that time. They have moved on and are no longer active, but the club still meets there???

Move the meetings back to where people actually live?

Thornton · 07-08-09, 06:46 PM

I can relate to that. Also maybe a little earlier, or am I in the minority of the ones that is up at 3:30 in the morning going to work.

colangut · 07-08-09, 07:06 PM

Saturday or Sunday is good too...

greytandy · 07-08-09, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colangut

Saturday or Sunday is good too...

Me like. Less traffic. Not a school night.

Devilmans Hand · 07-08-09, 10:03 PM

agreed on the Sat/Sun.
Thornton, I'd think that you are in the minority...That is when I go to sleep. I'm not even getting off from work until 1830hrs in Manassas. Later is always better for me during the week. When school starts back up then the weekends will be the available time for me.

H2o · 07-09-09, 09:07 AM

We have looked at this repeatedly but always seem to come back to same location. The conference room at the dealership is ideal for doing business and I think we want to keep to this kind of environment (as opposed to bar and restaurant that get loud and there are many distractions.

If anyone is able to secure a similar type space at another dealership or community center, we could look at alternating: one month in Virginia, one month in Maryland. I don't think you want more than two locations since members will forget where to go when.

Alexandria works great for me. There are many groups that use it so it would be a good idea not to loose it...

colangut · 07-09-09, 09:16 AM

H20

That is why I put the beating the dead horse in my post.

I can tell you, that since the meetings were moved to Alexandria the turnout has dropped by 50 percent or more.

I guess you guys really want to have a small club! My perspective is that this meeting location suits certain people in the club vs. the needs of the club in general.

Perhaps this the time to start an outside of the beltway land cruiser club that focuses on it members instead of it's officers and their club business!

greytandy · 07-09-09, 10:10 AM

It would be interesting to print a map of the DC metro area and put a red pin where each paying CLCC member lives. Then put a blue pin every place somebody lives that says they would attended and be members if it were more convenient. Obviously the latter would have to be done with a 'MUD post. Just curious.

colangut · 07-09-09, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greytandy

It would be interesting to print a map of the DC metro area and put a red pin where each paying CLCC member lives. Then put a blue pin every place somebody lives that says they would attended and be members if it were more convenient. Obviously the latter would have to be done with a 'MUD post. Just curious.

Dave, are you a pragmatist? Wise words.

I think this is wise, but you'd also have to consider folks like me who have given up membership because they are not going to drive to Alexandria after work on a Wednesday in DC traffic.

greytandy · 07-09-09, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colangut

I think this is wise, but you'd also have to consider folks like me who have given up membership because they are not going to drive to Alexandria after work on a Wednesday in DC traffic.

Oh yeah John, there are MANY factors involved with attendance (and commitment), but I figured it would be an interesting exercise.

colangut · 07-09-09, 10:47 AM

Ur Smardt!

Do u werk for NASA or sumthin?

fjman · 07-09-09, 01:11 PM

As Seb. mentioned, we looked at moving the meeting a number of times because we realize it is not ideally located in alexandria. We may need to open it back up for discussion. Personally, I think tysons would be great but we need a space to do it. We decided a restaurant/bar was not ideal for the actually meeting each month so we'll need to look a other spaces. Admittedly, the bar selection for after the meeting is a good bit better in tysons and it would be easier for a larger number of members to attend.

We had a small turn out for the last meeting but it was very productive. There are a number of things we need to address in order to grow this club and the last couple months have been a bit slow in the growth/activity department. But we are looking to expand and take on some things that, quite frankly, should have been addressed long ago. These include marketing of the club, membership and a more active role with supporting TLCA.

colangut · 07-09-09, 04:53 PM

FJ Man,

Fudruckers in Tyson's has a large meeting room in the back that they used to reserve for us, just for the asking. It's cool because there is no check to settle at the end of the night as each person pays separately when you order. It's a huge room and it's free for the asking.

Anita's in Vienna also has a large area they can set aside upstairs (the POG - Potomac Owners Group of the Porsche club, meets there once a month on Sunday mornings and they have a huge turnout). The Cobra Club meets Sunday AM's at the Vienna Inn and they have a HUGE turnout. Weekends are logical...people are off work...common sense.

The Model A Ford club and the Antique Tool Club (patinatools.org) both meet at the American Legion hall in Mclean.

Just my opinion, but I'd bet a Sunday AM/lunch thing would have a much bigger turn out.

jmaiella · 07-09-09, 07:19 PM

I like to be offroading on weekends, so I'm rarely around the area to go to a board meeting on a Saturday or Sunday. Also, I live 1 1/2 blocks from Jack Taylor's, so I'm definitely biased, but I like things the way they are now.

My two cents is that the goal of the meetings should be to facilitate offroading and wrenching events, where we socialize on the trail or in the garage. I feel like the monthly meetings should be administrative in nature, with the other, fun events being the guts of the club's get-togethers. Maybe that's not how everybody else feels - I don't know.

I'm not trying to change minds, or throw down or anything - just articulating my thoughts on the subject.

colangut · 07-10-09, 11:05 AM

I like you approach to responding and I think an open and level headed approach to this is ideal.

You wheel 52 weekends a year? Respect.

Not all of us are into wheeling, I used to go every weekend, heck sometimes every day as a teenager and in my 20's, but after 10 years of that I'm not into it anymore but I still love the trucks and turning wrenches.

Idea, have your "club business" board meetings at the board room and then have a "club meeting" somewhere else more central and fun.

There are far more people in the area who have a Land Cruiser, love it and are into it for camping, hunting, fishing and access to the outdoors (the trucks purpose) than there are Hard Core four wheelers. The Land Cruiser is something that transcends that and bring us all together so perhaps there should be a focus of meeting the needs of the local community vs a few specific people, whomever they might be.

To clarify, I too am not saying that I am right, or anyone else is wrong - this is my opinion. However, I remember how much bigger and more active the club was when we had a more central meeting location. With all of the guys in FJ Cruisers around I'd have a hard time understanding why there would be less people. I see a well setup FJ almost every day roaming around the area.

H2o · 07-10-09, 11:52 AM

I feel the same way about the weekends... I am always out and about and would rather keep it to the week. If people want to try a couple of weekend meetings, we can...

But I have found that people always complain about Alexandria, but no one ever puts up the effort to find an alternative location. We had decided to keep the meetings in Alexandria, but do happy hours at various locations around DC in between meetings as more of a social networking thing. We even did a BBQ in MD, Great falls park; attendance was always about the same if not weaker.

We need to look at things in perspective... There are other clubs out there, including new clubs like the FJ Bruisers, and the internet as a means of people networking has made the club a little obsolete.

If we want to increase membership/participation, we need to get a little organized... marketing, updating website, specialized events, etc... We have been a little flaky with all of this (myself included in the tech days).

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmaiella

I like to be offroading on weekends, so I'm rarely around the area to go to a board meeting on a Saturday or Sunday. Also, I live 1 1/2 blocks from Jack Taylor's, so I'm definitely biased, but I like things the way they are now.

My two cents is that the goal of the meetings should be to facilitate offroading and wrenching events, where we socialize on the trail or in the garage. I feel like the monthly meetings should be administrative in nature, with the other, fun events being the guts of the club's get-togethers. Maybe that's not how everybody else feels - I don't know.

I'm not trying to change minds, or throw down or anything - just articulating my thoughts on the subject.

colangut · 07-10-09, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H2o

people always complain about Alexandria, but no one ever puts up the effort to find an alternative location.

I just said that the Fudruckers in Tyson's has a room we can use. Let me know if you want to have a meeting there and I'll call and reserve the room.

We had an informal non club gathering there and had over 25 people show up.

Felix · 07-10-09, 12:23 PM

Personally, I like the map pin idea. Let's plot out where the current paying members live, then have pins for the people who aren't current paying members but would be if the meeting location was closer. This, of course, would take a significant polling effort to ID that second group, along with a trust that the folks that say they'd be in with a better meeting location actually would be.

I used to be on the side of folks that preferred the quiet board room to the noisy restaurant, but now I'm not so sure. Our larger meetings these days have a dozen or more people. If even half the legends are true, the meetings in the "good old days" regularly drew 30-40. I'd be willing to try whatever it took if it meant getting back to that kind of attendance.

I'm going to copy some of this thread over to the listserv to try to get more input from folks that don't surf MUD.

jmaiella · 07-10-09, 12:45 PM

Yeah, my approach comes from being one of the founders of the Bruisers. Our credo, as it were, was 'first we wheel.' We started out as a wheeling trip, progressed as an email loop, then a listserv, then a forum.

Their monthly meeting is a meeting of the Board, open to anyone who wants to attend, with a lively happy hour at the TGI Fridays near the dealership in Silver Spring. It's generally the same 8-10 people every month. All of the socializing happens on the trail, at a garage, or at get-togethers at bars, concerts, Renaissance Faires, whatever - not at our 'meetings'. Most of the social planning is facilitated through our forum.

Now, I just get a different vibe from this group. Colangut summed it up pretty well, I think, that he's not that into wheeling anymore. That's honestly a feeling I get from a big chunk of this club.

I guess, as a guy in my mid-20's with an FJ Cruiser, I'm probably coming at things from a different angle than the older (no offense! I mean it as 'mature' and 'worldly'

) FJ40 crowd.

No, I don't wheel 52 weekends a year, but I do wheel, or wrench, or go shooting, or hunting, 2-3+ weekends a month. So, I just don't see sitting through a meeting about TLCA membership quotas and finances and t-shirt designs as a weekend-worthy activity. It's more reminiscent of work, than fun to me.

iptman · 07-11-09, 09:06 AM

Blue pin here. Fairfax Corner area.

I don't necessarily want to attend every month's meeting but I do want to wheel and wrench. My CLCC membership check is in the mail as soon as I see a wheeling trip I want to go on or a few tech days I'm interested in. To be fair I did go to the welding tech day at colangut's house (which was great btw) but I haven't seen an interesting tech day since.

However, if the meeting was in an area where I could get to sans traffic then I would attend to try and influence the direction of the club and give my opinion on matters (at least I think that's the purpose of non-officers showing up).

-Patrick

Devilmans Hand · 07-11-09, 11:03 AM

Red Pin in Burke, Va

I would have loved to check out the welding tech day...but i wasn't yet around here. The electric tech day was good, but the general maintenance tech day at Convenience was pointless...just a change your oil kind of event. Think only Jmaiella got something out of that one w/ a wheel bearing replacement.
I haven't seen too many events that would warrant belonging to a club...I'd like to go wheeling...but I'm not seeing many club outings...
I could just be missing something though...

-Sam

colangut · 07-11-09, 03:29 PM

Regarding the last two posts about getting something out of the club (which I understand and agree with).

I would argue that if there was a bigger regular meeting with more enthusiast that there would be a larger network of people making connections to do what ever it is that they are interested in. Some into restoration, some into wheeling, some into wrenching and some into posing (with others into restoration, wheeling, wrenching and posing

Perhaps we should consider the club as more of a network rather than a organization burdened with keeping a few members entertained via events, dog and pony shows, etc. Get the people involved and the good stuff will happen on their own with less involvement from the club.

I think that we have to consider the human element of car culture aside from the particular interest level where and whatever it might be. There was plenty of wrenching, wheeling and hanging out that went on in the old club with out have to do as much formal organizing on behalf of the club to make that happen. A larger group of people is what will make the club worth belonging to.

My two cents. I've comment enough on this, thanks for listening.

Jakes40 · 07-12-09, 01:26 PM

I agree with colangut. but you can not make every one happy. there are plenty of wheeling trips. out there (just got back from CMCC) just not from our club. I believe this is because of were we are located. There is no great place to do big 4wheeling events with several different trail levels local.

I live in Winchester, I've tried to make it to the meeting but after a days work and a 2-2.5 hour drive home Alexandria is bad for me. Not saying I could make it to all the meetings but Tysons is only 15 min past my office and I do a lot of work at the malls in Tysons. Tysons is ideal or closer to ideal for me.

Chris

John Smith · 07-12-09, 03:48 PM

Red Pin in Silver Spring, inside the Beltway here.

I joined CLCC when Josh was President. I can't remember how many years ago that was but I bet Stumbaugh does, my guess is near 10 years ago. In my opinion the club had the same issues it does today even way back then. We are a transient area with traffic that sucks and unless you are getting something out of the monthly meetings or club you stop coming.

If we want to grow the club we need to offer something for everyone. Wheeling trips for the wheelers, tech days for people who like to wrench or want to learn, social gatherings, events, for people who like to hang out and look at vehicles, drink beer, etc. I joined the club to initially learn about Land Cruisers, hang out with people who love them, and go wheeling.

The internet, and this Web site has had a huge impact on many local chapters I bet. You can get all your tech questions answered, buy and sell parts, find people to wheel with, and hang out with virtually everyday. Before the Web you needed to meet face to face to accomplish most of this in our hobby. Not so much any longer.

I just got back from the CMCC event and got to meet Jesse there. We were there with a few former and current CLCC memebers. I had an excellent time wheeling, wrenching, talking trucks, and just hanging out socializing. The reason I joined CLCC in the first place.

Please, would every red pin and blue pin person who posts up to please let us know what you would like out of CLCC.

I like the idea of hosting alternating meetings on the MD side of the Potomac. Depending on the number of MD red pins an easy meeting spot could be Darcars Silver Spring where the FJ Bruisers meet. I also like the idea of hosting meetings at individual members houses during the slow Summer months when many are out of town or busy with other things.

76FJ40 · 07-12-09, 04:32 PM

Blue pin in Warrenton. I'm not much on the formal club side of things but I do appreciate the ability to get together with other Cruiser Heads to wheel and exchange tech advice ... and ma.ybe drink a beer

greytandy · 07-12-09, 06:49 PM

Red pin in Olney, MD.

Dan, you need to add a pin too to shift the balance to northern Montgomery county!

Blue77FJ40 · 07-13-09, 06:16 AM

Red pin in Rockville, MD. Interesting discussion.

I like the idea of meetings at DarCars, but every time I go there, parking is at a super premium, even when I go there on my bike - at least near the parts dept. Perhaps at Rockville dealer, they have a lot of space there. Either way, MD mtgs would be appreciated by the MD contingent, small as it is.

I got to experience the club back when it was meeting near 236 in VA, a long drive for me, but traffic was way way less than now. There seemed to be a lot more buzz and events, but many of those members have dropped out of view.

I enjoy the tech days at member's houses where the host gets a chance to participate in the repair of his vehicle and learn something. I also like the wheeling and socializing. Unfortunately, there are very few wheeling choices left open to us in our area.

Thornton · 07-13-09, 06:08 PM

Red pin , Manassas.

I understand that the majority probably get off later than I do and that's why the meetings are at the time that they are. Had the same issue when I was a scoutmaster, the committee would not budge on the time. That's when I found out I was a minority.

Weekends are totally out. They should be for wheeling, wrenching or with the family.

As far as heading back in towards D.C. for a meeting, thats not a pleasant thought for me. Thinking more about it I'll just try to make 1 or 2 meetings a year and pay my dues. Maybe the meetings should be rotated between Maryland and Virginia.

I just hope that this doesn't get to the point everyone just wants it in there backyard.

Hell, if thats the case I've got a detached garage I'll pull the cruiser out, set up some tables, parking is no issue and we can have them in my backyard. For a small fee I'll even make sure there is cold PBR in a cooler.

Sam you'll be close to work.