How can we get more of the Denver people to show up at meets?

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

The problem that we've had with electing an event coordinator in the past is everyone wanted one but no one was willing to do it.

Postby **Huzer** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

chickenwafer wrote:What I'm talking about it a "Mod meet", held at a members house, to talk and wrench on cars, and possibly have a BBQ. We had a meet very similar to this last summer at Eric's house in the Denver area and I thought the turnout was pretty damn good- we had members from NoCo, Co Springs, and the Denver area, and it was a lot of fun.

I'm not saying this is the only type of meet we need to have, but it goes a long way to help. But yes, this is mostly a Spring/Summer type of meet.

Another thing that tremendously helped the Arizona club was electing a sole individual as an event coordinator. This way we had one point of contact to helping to set up and organize meets. This didn't preclude anyone from starting their own meet or get together, or sharing info for a car show they heard about, but it just centralized the information. In my experience, better organization, better turnout.

Thanks for the input. By tech days, I meant both at a dealership and at someone's house. Very rarely do any members here (as I said, it is a minority) apparently work on their own cars.

I figured a dedicated day/place/time was pretty well organized. The problem is we have a pretty apathetic membership. The "event coordinator" we had here was so fed up with people not showing up, they stopped trying.

Website · Postby **Shadowden** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

Since I am in the minority, I would love a tech day. Didn't go to the Mazda show simply because no one responded to my question regarding level of ability to work on the car at the tech session, so with a busy schedule, I didn't force it in.

I have a lot of things I would like to do, want to do them right, and have minimal experience. So those types of things would work perfectly for me.

However, I think those should be more specialty meets. A regular meet at a simple place for people ot get together would be great.

I agree on the following points:
no hassle parking, preferrably together
food and drink (reasonably priced)
other activities available (which may include tvs galore loaded with various sports)
weeknight

I can't commit to being an event coordinator because to do it right would take some serious time, especially in the front end.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

At the risk of sharing my opinion, what is it exactly you want from this thread? We have had multiple threads in the past about increasing member participation across the board, and plenty of good ideas have been brought up.

And. Nothing. Happens.

I have brought up, among other members in this discussion, some good ideas, which are always meet with the same resistance: We tried that before, it didn't work. So why even start a thread? Why even have the discussion?

Look, these ideas I have aren't mine. These are ideas I have borrowed from a very successful car club that routinely had meets with loyal member turnout of 10-20 people each and every meet, at least once a month. Maybe that club was just better? I don't know, but these are ideas that work, when embraced.

Or maybe we should just come to the ever realizing conclusion that this club doesn't have the membership support to keep up with even a monthly meet, and it's just a 3-4 big event turnout club a year?

Is that what we want? Or do we want more? Because it takes more than a few us (like here) tossing around ideas around the campfire. It takes real member commitment, it takes real leadership and organization, and a real sense of a car "club".

I honestly don't know what else to say about this, since I know every idea will be meet with resistance, including this one.

D Walker · Postby **D Walker** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

As a couple of suggestions-

First- regular monthly meets are OK I guess, but honestly I cant make restaraunt type meets. There just is not enough time, especially over a weekend- weekend hours are valuable.
Also, perhaps a routine monthly meet is not the answer at all, but rather a monthly meet that changes a bit, maybe a restaraunt one month, fun center the next, club members place the next, lunch meet the next, and so on. Yeah, it requires people check a thread or two, but honestly if someone cant look up a simple thread do you really want them at a meet?

Next, tech meets are cool, and for example there will be occasions where I can open the shop up for meets without much issue. The last one went along pretty well.

Might have some other ideas, will put some thought behind it.

~Barn~ · Postby **~Barn~** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

I plan on going skiing a few times this season. I'm sure I'll post up about day trips here and there, and if enough people showed interest I'd be down to organize a long weekend somewhere. Cause I mean if hitting the slopes can't bring people together, then nothing will. =)

Learjet45 · Postby **Learjet45** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14

So I guess to sum some of this up:

Problem: Denver-only or whole club?
The thread says Denver, and it was mentioned that it shouldn't just be Denver but the club as a whole. Except, very rarely do people from NoCo or CoSprings and especially Pueblo come to a Denver meet or have Denver people go anywhere else. Except on the event of a "large" meet (eg cruise, tech day), people don't want to drive an addition 100+ miles round trip just to get to a meet. NoCo and CoSprings are way the heck out there (~65 miles one way) in relation to Denver. I wouldn't except any Springs or NoCo folk at a monthly Denver meet any time soon.
Result: Expect only people from the immediate area to show up (eg metro Denver people only/mostly at Denver meets)

Problem: Frequency of meetings
Some people say meet more often, some say it makes no sense. I can see it both way. Why try to meet more when we barely get anyone to show up as it is? But then again, with more meets that happen more often, then there's a greater chance of more people being available to go to at least one, or people might show more interest if it's a more regular occurrence. Result: ???

Problem: Types of meets
It seems that most everyone is open and possibly more willing to attend meets if they aren't always the same kind of meet and we broaden the time/place of meets. Nothing is necessarily wrong with a Thursday night dinner meet, but some people would rather go to a more "fun" place (Dave & Busters? movie? Lunch?).
Result: Need more variety with meets

Problem: Day of the meets?
Some people have said weekends would be better. Some of you old farts say weekdays are better. It really depends on the person, so it's hard to make a call on when to do meets.
Result: ???

Overall results of this thread so far that most everyone agrees on: Increase the variety of types of meets.

alex_n/a · Postby **alex_n/a** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

what is the purpose of meets? if it is to get to know each other than I don't see how seeing each other 12 times a year will work (once a month?). I could talk to someone for 2 hours and 30 days later I will not remember the conversation. but if i see the person the next week or other week than that will help in "knowing each other".

the tech meet at Chris's house this summer went great. I got work done on my car. got to see a few rx7's and an rx8 and two v8 miata "sleepers" lol. tech meets are not only for diy people. They are a great place to learn and get hands on with your own car. If you don't have to do anything to do to your car then you can always help out others. either way it gets people to talk and have an activity.

I have to agree with chickenwafer. saying that "it has been tried before" won't really help. sometimes cruised failed miserably but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be tried again.

Postby **Huzer** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

I just reread my post and don't think I met anything with resistance. I don't even see anything where I've said "we're tried that before, it didn't work, so screw it".

But to be specific, the "meets" I'm referring to were the regularly scheduled monthly meets that we held at BWW. What can be done, if anything, to get more people to go? I'm guessing from the general consensus of "do something else", it's a moot point and we should scrap the idea of a monthly get together and just do what chickenwafer said, try to come up with 3 or 4 larger meets. After all, the old adages says insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The few of us that do want to continue the BWW-style meets can just do it under the guise of happy hour.

geo2maz · Postby **geo2maz** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

First of all THANK YOU too everyone who has ever setup a meet/event,

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These last 2 Denver meets I serially tried making it to, I did make it to Brooklyn's last week, just too late... like I said, free-parking + beer, or even no-beer and a cruise and i'm in.

Maybe since last-weeks' fell through we can still have another Denver meet this month?
Breckenridge Brewery? (mmmmmmm Agave Wheat...)

kingtut · Postby **kingtut** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

geo2maz wrote:Maybe since last-weeks' fell through we can still have another Denver meet this month?
Breckenridge Brewery? (mmmmmmm Agave Wheat...)

I support your appreciation of the Agave Wheat.

That said, how far South would you be willing/able to travel?

Website · Postby **Shadowden** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

geo2maz wrote:First of all THANK YOU too everyone who has ever setup a meet/event,

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These last 2 Denver meets I serially tried making it to, I did make it to Brooklyn's last week, just too late... like I said, free-parking + beer, or even no-beer and a cruise and i'm in.

Maybe since last-weeks' fell through we can still have another Denver meet this month?
Breckenridge Brewery? (mmmmmmm Agave Wheat...)

Breck off of Santa fe or the one near the stadium? Also, seeing at it may only be four of us and tut and I are easy, I bet we could make something happen.

Sorry about Brooklyn's.

geo2maz · Postby **geo2maz** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

Shadowden wrote:Breck off of Santa fe or the one near the stadium? Also, seeing at it may only be four of us and tut and I are easy, I bet we could make something happen.

I was thinking the one on Santa Fe, I haven't been to the one by the stadium so don't know much about it...

kingtut wrote:I support your appreciation of the Agave Wheat.
That said, how far South would you be willing/able to travel?

To Mehico with the rest of my Mehicans!

hcbr929rr2 · Postby **hcbr929rr2** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

Just a suggestion, a good buddy of mine owns a bar/grill on the corner of arapahoe and I25, huge parking lot, lots of TV's, and we've hosted some small car meets and some great car washes over the years. There is a really big all cars meet every Sunday night around 8ish 9ish at toys r us in park meadows (approx 10min from the bar) if anybody is interested you could always start using the parking lot and then those looking for more excitement could head on down to the bigger meet...

kingtut · Postby **kingtut** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:14

Could I trouble you for the name of 'said' bar/grill?

How can we get more of the Denver people to show up at meets?

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