Mid-Atlantic Cobras come on in.......

[IronTerp]

A number of Cobra owners in this area have expressed an interest in forming a club of enthusiasts for the purpose of planning and holding various events throughout the year involving our SVT Cobras. The events would range in a number of different areas including drag days, cruises, car shows, and other "Get Together" (GTG) type activities.

Need feedback from the 35+ Cobra owners that have losely been doing events together for the past year or so, as well as any others in the area that are interested. If the interest is there, then some topics that need to be addressed would be naming the club, club logo, draft schedule of possible events, and potentially getting SVTP to add a new "Regional Club" forum to their Taste of Home menu. (If you've never seen MCT's forum, check this out: http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=185

What do you all think?

 

[TRBO VNM]

I nominate IronTerp to organize all the sporting event get togethers that we do. :thumbsup:

 

[NJCOBRA10thA]

I can host a website, videos, pics, sound clips... My site has at least 50mb free and is super fast w/ redundant OC3's.

 

[IronTerp]

Yea Jason....I will definately volunteer for sporting event coordinator. First event: Dematha vs. Good Counsel, high school football....Friday night, Oct 15, under the lights! Omar (GC grad) and Sean (Dematha grad) have to come to this one! JK...

Dan, that would be great. Thanks for the offer.

 

[mystangs]

Sounds like an idea, I had fun with you guys yesterday! Is it going to be a Maryland thing or find a place that is between NOVA and MD? Being in Fredericksburg it is a heck of a hike to get into Maryland. The other NOVA/Fredericksburg guys are interested as well. We have been talking about this for awhile.

Chris

 

[IronTerp]

Definately NOT a Maryland thing......Sean and I talked about it and feel it should include you guys, along with Pa (JR, etc), New Jersey (Dan, etc) and possibly Delaware. You guys have to come up with some good NoVa events too!

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Originally posted by IronTerp
Definately NOT a Maryland thing......Sean and I talked about it and feel it should include you guys, along with Pa (JR, etc), New Jersey (Dan, etc) and possibly Delaware. You guys have to come up with some good NoVa events too!

Agreed. I don't want to limit it to the Maryland guys only, but I'm guessing that Maryland is where the majority of our draw will be from.

I think topic #1 should be the name for the club. If we don't have a good name, we won't get any respect from vendors, tracks, or anything. I like the idea of having the words "Mid-Atlantic" and "Cobra" in the name. Something similar to "Mid-Atlantic Cobra Owners X" would be cool. The "X" is there because we gotta decide what we would like to call the group. For example: "Club", "Association", "Group", "Team"

Each designation seems to have different implications. I personally would go for "Club", as it implies hobby and exclusive membership (well, as exclusive as owning a Cobra is :-D ).

I say we have a number of different "meetings" if you will, perhaps over a meal at restaurants in and around the Maryland/NoVA/PA area to discuss these matters and set a topic and a goal for each meeting. This would allow us to forge ahead in the formation of the group while still allowing us to get together.

Let me know what you guys think. And by the way, I would love to be nominated to some position that helps in co-ordinating events and/or planning. I guess I've done alright in the past :-D

P.S. DeMatha vs. Good Counsel prediction: 28 - 7 (if not worse) :-D

 

[Hissssnsvt]

Great idea, there seems to be a good number of Cobra owners in the area that would be interested in this to make it work. Seems like each GTG we've had lately has gotten bigger. I'm usually up for traveling also, NOVA or PA, even went to Mrytle Beach this summer for MustangWeek. Would be great to have a group of us go down next year to represent the Mid Atlantic area.

Also this weekend, a few of us have talked about going to 75/80 Dragway for the Fall Ford Spectacular. Heres a link with all the info about this weekend......
http://www.7580dragway.com/events/fordspectacular.html

For those of you not wanting to race, there is a car show on Sunday, only $10 to enter and also a burn-out contest which is always cool to watch...:burnout:

 

[RAWSN8K]

I may try to come to that. BTW, my clutch seemed to be okay on the way home. I have no clue as to what happened. Although it did pop out of gear when I got into it. I think that the trans is on it's last leg. Oh well, I will run it until it goes. Meanwhile, I'm going to place an order for a Tremec TKO-600. It may be overkill now but at least I won't have to replace it later.

BTW, I nominate Sean as the Event Coordinator. He has done a hell of a job arranging our GTGs.

RAWSN8K

 

[jcayer]

I would be interested in this as well, Had a good time on Sun...

Mystangs and myself have been talking back and fourth about this for our local group of cobras... I think that if the meeting point was within reason, that it would work out... but its just not worth the drive to go far into maryland all the way from Fredericksburg, thus why I personally didn't join SVTOA, the events are just too much of a hike to make it too...

I will subscribe to this thread just to see how things are progressing and to when and where you are all meeting up at...

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Originally posted by RAWSN8K
I may try to come to that. BTW, my clutch seemed to be okay on the way home. I have no clue as to what happened. Although it did pop out of gear when I got into it. I think that the trans is on it's last leg. Oh well, I will run it until it goes. Meanwhile, I'm going to place an order for a Tremec TKO-600. It may be overkill now but at least I won't have to replace it later.

BTW, I nominate Sean as the Event Coordinator. He has done a hell of a job arranging our GTGs.

RAWSN8K

Good to hear about the clutch man. But sorry to hear about the trans. Look at it this way... It's justifiable to the wife that you have to get a new transmission now :-D Haha...

As far as event coordinator goes, that is yet another thing we have to discuss together. We need to think about organizational positions and explanations thereof. In other words, we would have to create positions and define what exactly the person in that position does (ie coordinator, treasurer, etc). Only after that, would it seem appropriate to nominate people for something. One thing to think about though, is that we could perhaps have "regional coordinators" as well, because obviously, people from the different states know more people and places where they live and thus it would be easier for THEM to organize a particular event. Just a thought.

As far as the meetings to clear all of this up are concerned, I was thinking 1 meeting per weekend for as many are necessary. We would have them at different locations in MD, VA, PA, etc to try to cater(sp??) to everyone and so that everyone can be involved in some part of the organization of the club/group. For format, we would have a set discussion point and goal for each meeting. We could make the meeting spot at different places to make sure no one particular part of the group is being forced to travel more. Obviously sometimes different people will have to travel different distances, but we would try to make sure that over the course of the meetings, the amount of travel is equally distributed amongst all involved.

I figure with a schedule like that, we would probably get everything we need to ironed out. We could make a general template for how the meetings should go too, to make things run smoothly. A process, if you will.

I think this could be the start of something really, really big. There's simply too many car nuts in the Mid-Atlantic region for it not to catch on.

How do you guys feel about all this?? Let me know :thumbsup:

Originally posted by jcayer
I would be interested in this as well, Had a good time on Sun...

Mystangs and myself have been talking back and fourth about this for our local group of cobras... I think that if the meeting point was within reason, that it would work out... but its just not worth the drive to go far into maryland all the way from Fredericksburg, thus why I personally didn't join SVTOA, the events are just too much of a hike to make it too...

I will subscribe to this thread just to see how things are progressing and to when and where you are all meeting up at...

I understand where you're coming from (no pun intended). That's why I tried to make the meet in closer to the MoCo guys and ending down near the SoMD guys this time. I don't just want to make the GTGs convenient for me or any one particular group of people. I want it to be a situation where though I may have to travel 60 miles to get to some location for one GTG, the next couple of times, I may only have to travel 10-20. You know what I mean?

 

[predator]

All of this sounds great to me. :thumbsup: It is invaluable to be on a forum like this with all of the common interests, varied skills, knowledge and experience....but it is even better when you get a chance to get together in person and do things like we did this past weekend. Worth every mile to me.

 

[jcayer]

Thats a good suggestion/ solution having a meeting at different places. I was just trying to make the travel point, in that if its always in one place thats far away (from some) then you will loose interest, but I think it if varies, so sometimes its far and somtimes its close, it will make it a little easier on all.

 

[NJCOBRA10thA]

I am married with 2 kids and it's not likely I can attend many meetings but would still like to be a part of this and have a lot to offer in return. (No one can snap a 1/2 shaft like me )

I am sure I am not alone in this situation. Perhaps the secretary can take informal minutes at the meetings and email them to the somewhat distant members.

 

[NJ 03 GT]

I'd deff like to be in. I just got my 04 Cobra Oct. 1st, lookin for a club or just a cobra owners GTG. The sooner the better. I'm in South Jeresy, Burlington County. Let us know!

- Sean

 

[TRBO VNM]

sean,

keep in mind you can also open it up as a business as well and have it as a non profit organization and stuff. we can put on events to raise money to support the club and stuff. another club I am part of does something similar. Just an idea.

if you don't want to open it up as a business type thing, I would lean more towards association(not sure of particular criteria for the naming, if any). I like to stay away from "club" type naming. Association makes it sound more professional I guess. Not that it really matters, but you know what I mean.

Dwight, I will be there. I can cruise on up and ride along with you to the game. might have the pullies then and we can setup an install or something that weekend or even sunday maybe.

 

[FISHTAIL]

I am game for a club, but being that I'm already VP of another local mustang club I may run into issues with conflicting events and such. So between that and wedding planning I won't be available to do much more than show up and have fun

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Originally posted by jcayer
Thats a good suggestion/ solution having a meeting at different places. I was just trying to make the travel point, in that if its always in one place thats far away (from some) then you will loose interest, but I think it if varies, so sometimes its far and somtimes its close, it will make it a little easier on all.

That's exactly right. That was my intention.

Originally posted by NJCOBRA10thA
Perhaps the secretary can take informal minutes at the meetings and email them to the somewhat distant members.

I completely agree. Meeting minutes are an awesome idea. All we would have to do is get an email for any/all that would like to be involved/informed with the organizing and that way they would stay informed on the progress of the club. That is a wonderful idea that we will definitely have to implement.

Originally posted by WUTWINE
sean,

keep in mind you can also open it up as a business as well and have it as a non profit organization and stuff. we can put on events to raise money to support the club and stuff. another club I am part of does something similar. Just an idea.

if you don't want to open it up as a business type thing, I would lean more towards association(not sure of particular criteria for the naming, if any). I like to stay away from "club" type naming. Association makes it sound more professional I guess. Not that it really matters, but you know what I mean.

I'm speaking for myself only here. I like the idea of raising money for the club so that it costs less and less for members to participate. However, maybe you could be more specific with what you mean by making it a "business". I'm not sure I really grasp what you're trying to say. It sounds like a good idea, I just don't really know what you mean. This definitely sounds like something that we would have to discuss in a separate meeting.

When I get home tonight, I'll try to sit down and list out a number of different things that we would need to discuss and agree on as a group to get this thing off the ground. Then I'll try to break up those things into the necessary number of meetings, trying not to assign too much for a particular meeting.

In the meantime, I would love it if you guys could come up with as many discussion points/issues as you can think of. I KNOW Dwight and Jason both have some. And I know someone else out there who hasn't chimed in yet has something we haven't even thought of yet, so please feel free to contribute.

I'll try to come up with a general format for the meetings as well. I have no idea how we would determine when we are in "agreement" as there are more than likely going to be people that have a difference of opinion in most matters. I guess we could do it in the "Yea", "Nay" manner and majority rules.

Any and all input is appreciated.

P.S. Dwight - What do you think about all this? As far as I remember, you were the first one to voice the desire for a club, so I am wondering what you had envisioned for it.

 

[Evan5469]

This sounds like a good idea to me as well and was thinking about it today at work and last night about stuff we could do.

This is just a suggestion and to gain interest and we don't have to do it anytime soon since it will be cold and we have to get this together before we do anything, but if a group of us want to get our windows tinited there is a place a mile from my house called GW Motorsports that does a good job and the more cars we have the cheaper it will be for all of us. Also, since I live so close I could "shuttle" those of you that want to come back to my house for a cookout or something like that and take you back when your car is done. There is also a big parking lot (30-40 spaces) right across the street from my house for parking. Just throwing out a suggestion maybe for right before it starts to get warm so we'll have it for the summer. I'd be willing to set that up when the time comes.

And also, if you couldn't tell, count me in for the club, association, group or whatever we are going to call it.

And I just wanted to say again how much fun I had yesterday even though i couldn't make it to the track and think this would be a good thing to have for us car enthusiats.

Also, (last thing i promise) I have a few air tools here if you ever need to work on your car. I definitely would be willing to help a fellow Cobra owner.

 

[Evan5469]

Double post - Please excuse.