Pulse of the club

[CurtEgerer]

I'm talking about the original e30 M3. It's a real cult car and closing in on 20 years old. Fewer of these built than early 911s by far. Guys who are into the e30 M3 (insert 'early 911') consider the later e36/e46 M3 (insert 'SC/964/993/996/997') versions to be sacrilege - overweight, overpowered, overrefined, and overoptioned - and have no interest in them ..... sound familiar? Anyway, the point being that we may be a little too close to the trees to see the forest.

[911scfanatic]

I'm talking about the original e30 M3. It's a real cult car and closing in on 20 years old. Fewer of these built than early 911s by far. Guys who are into the e30 M3 (insert 'early 911') consider the later e36/e46 M3 (insert 'SC/964/993/996/997') versions to be sacrilege - overweight, overpowered, overrefined, and overoptioned - and have no interest in them ..... sound familiar? Anyway, the point being that we may be a little too close to the trees to see the forest.

Good point. Early 911s are counter-cultural. Why spend money on an old "dilapidated" car when you can buy new, shinier, faster 993 or 996, blah blah blah? I guess it could be as simple as that.

[kenikh]

Ah, we were talking E30 M3s. We are talking apples to apples with E30 M3s, except they are still much easier to street daily than an early 911.

[B D]

Branding is the key!

We need to stop piggybacking on the R Gruppe and either lead the way or be an equal. It seems R Gruppe members organize (I appreciate the effort on their part) most events and just let us follow along. I understand many are members of both groups, but the R Gruppe is the one that gets the attention and talk. Look at any recent magazine featuring an early car and the article will mention R Gruppe and nothing about the registry. Also at events like GAF the corral for our cars was not referred to as the early 911 corral or the 911 Registry corral it was the R Gruppe Corral.

The fact is we are not recognized as a club or group we're just a bunch of registry members with a slow but helpful board with a minimal amount of events, very boring. The fun factor is what's missing, we need to host events and invite the other groups to join us and brand the events as Early 911 Registry events.

[Chuck Miller]

B.D.

Sounds like you have some good comments and ideas...

How would you like to come to our next meeting and perhaps volunteer to help with events and our image.... I'm serious... WE NEED HELP

Costa Mesa isn't that far...

El Segundo for about 4 hours on the 1st. Sat. of the month.. every month...
and a little work at home depending if an event is close... then it's lots of work at home......... but the more people - the less work

I agree with most of what you're saying...

Please step up

[bob tilton]

We are still hovering around 500 paid Registry members with a registered message board participation of 1617.
This still baffles me.

let's say there is a concert going on at the local venue. doors are open for all to enter but you still have to pay the guy inside for the event - the honor system. some people stay for the show and pay. some people stay for the show and don't pay. some people enter, listen for a tune or two and leave. all who entered are counted. the money is counted and does not equal the number of people - big shock. the honor system is obviuosly not working. who do you blame? FLAME AWAY!

i think this is a great site and gladly pay. i don't want to get into the whole "for paid regesterd members only" and exclude other people. seems to me a hard decision needs to be made or we'll be reading about this again in a couple months. FLAME AWAY!

[CurtEgerer]

"we need to host events and invite the other groups to join us and brand the events as Early 911 Registry events."

On the positive side, the awareness and popularity of the club is growing, outside of southern Calif. anyway. We've got a meet coming up in a couple of weeks here in Michigan. Looks like we could have 10-15 very nice early cars in attendance - that's huge by midwest standards where members often have to drive hundreds of miles (or load their cars onto ships!) just to get to the event!

[B D]

Please step up

Chuck I tell you what I'll step up and I'll see you at the next meeting. I would be happy to volunteer to help with events and the registries image. PM me with the meeting details.

Just got this email from my future wife (getting married on 10/15): "I can help you organize events, I love making calls etc. Get your butt up to El Segundo!"

[ValveFloat]

As a lurker I'll answer the easy question first, why haven't I joined? (or rather why didn't I renew, as I did join the Registry back in '99)
Main reason is one that has already been stated, I live so far from the epicenter of the group, that it really wasn't realistic for me to participate. And active participation is the biggest reason in my mind to join a group like the S registry, or the PCA.
2nd reason was even though I was welcomed to join as an 'L' owner, I wasn't a "member", I can't remember the term that was used at that time for non 'S' owners, but there were members (S owners) and the others. Sounds like that is being resolved.
As to what to do about those early 911 owners that don’t join because they are distant from CA (or Michigan ), I see it as kind of a chicken and the egg problem. In order for there to be "chapters" of the registry around the country there has to be members around the country, but if folks won't join because there is no local chapter, how do you gain any members? I don't know the answer to that one.
Regarding what Mr. Tilton said above, his analogy is perfect.
I think having this board available to the general public is a great promotional tool, so to make it for members only might be counter productive. It has opened my eyes to what is going on in the registry, and has made me feel sufficiently guilty about not being a paying member.

[Chuck Miller]

Thanks B.D. will get back to'ya...

As for difference in 'sexiness' between the Registry and R-Gruppe...
Well, allot has to do with the time available... Roger and the Gruppe does a bang-up job organizing events and runs and alike... We wish, with the 4 board members we have, we could have the time to do more of that with the Registry...

However...
The Registry keeps a very accurate club member/car data base
We also publish, write, and edit a quarterly news letter...
We also have a well run club merchandise concern...
We try to keep up the clubs web site and message board...
And... every once in awhile do events as well...

So...

We are the reliable - steady Freddy - on time - go to - information source for all of us to turn to all the time.... We're always here...

If that isn't enough for the price of a $30.00 membership please you tell me what is.

When we have more board members and more time I promise we'll be more sexy...