What: RX-Club of Houston Monthly Meeting
When: Tuesday May 2nd 2006 (meet at 6:30, dinner at 7:15)
Where: At Barry's Pizza ~ 6003 Richmond Ave. Houston, TX 77057 TEL. 713-266-8692
Menu and info: http://www.barryspizza.com/

Located at the corner of Richmond and Fountainview. Near the Galleria. Visit Barry's website for menu & map. We will meet in the parking lot around 6:30 pm...

Should have some nice weather, and some extra daylight.

 

We should plan a Mazda parts swap/sale meeting where we all can bring spare or performance parts to swap, buy, or sale.

 

Are you offering to organize the event Chuck ?

 

We would have to hold the meeting on a Saturday, but first we need to find a place to hold it. I'll check into it.

 

somone find me a s4 t2 engine hanress

 

Maybe we could hold it at maz-max, just let them put a table of their stuff out as well. I know they don't like to give us discounts, but it would be great free exposure for them.

 

I sent a mail to Bryan asking about that. Awaiting a responce from him.

The local Houston Parks are booked up months in advance.

Now if someone lives on a mini ranch wherer we could meet!!

 

All we need is a meeting place with some shade and free tables right?

 

That is correct, but need a central location for Houston if posible.
Would be nice if it had grills so we could cook hot dogs and burgers, or allow us to bring our own.

 

Do it on a Saturday....I hate these middle of the week meetings.
I can never make it, I always want to attend but I have other commitments like my 14 month old son. What is the reasoning behind the weekday meetings? I would think you would have a better turn out on the weekends.

 

I thought the next meeting was at the gran prix?

 

Bring your son =). We have a 1-2 tykes at each meeting.

The reason for the weekday meeting is multi-faceted. I agree with you in that you would think a weekend meeting would produce a better turn out, but in fact it is quite opposite.

1.) Work: Many of the younger members are in service industries and therefore getting a Saturday off is practically impossible. Not to mention it is the day of the week many of us unwind from our 9 to 5's. For several members who commuters to work inside the loop and live out in Katy, Spring, Woodlands etc, being able to drop by the meeting on the way home from work is very convienent as well. Getting a Tuesday night off from just about any job isn't difficult. Heck, unless your a big American Idol fan there isn't anything special about Tuesday night at all.

2.) Family/Home: Many of the family-types consider Saturday the family day. This is the day that Dad does the lawn or Mom does the shopping or similarly is the only day of the week many of the rotor-heads have to work on their cars. Historically, things just "come up" for lots of folks on Saturday meetings. Some divorced families have their kids on the wekened and typically the last place they come is a club meeting.

3.) Riff-raff: In the past (over 5 years ago) we had all of our meetings on the weekend, and found that not only were we attracting a different crowd, and trouble that came with that crowd. I won't get into the details, but by moving our meetings to a weekday night we have found a more mature and serious group of members who have grown the club to where it is today with about 75 regularly attending members (people who show up once every 3 meetings or more) and a solid group of 25-30 at each meeting.

4.) Location: On the weekend the increased traffic (at resturants) makes getting 30-50 people taken care of difficult and problematic. Giving a bunch of business to resturants on a weekday keeps them happy and allows us to use the parking lot for a much more extended period. Additionally, cops typically aren't looking to harass a bunch of car guys on a weeknight, whereas on the weekend we know this isn't the case (speaking from experience).

All in all the decision to switch to weeknight meetings was not one made lightly. Many factors were considered and there was even a migration period where we had meetings regularly on both the weekends and weekdays. After about a year of this transistion we found that the weekday meetings were just better all the way around. If you look at other organized car clubs (including our fellow clubs in Dallas/Austin) you will notice that weekday meetings are the norm, rather than the exception.

....... now, if you are interesting in becoming a meeting host and working with the events coordinator to setup some weekend meetings please let me know, this is something that we do recognize as a possible need. Typically in the summer months, when the days are longer we try to have a series of Saturday meetings. Most of these meetings revolve around an activity or drive, rather than the old parking lot routine. We would love to see you there. I hope this sheds some light on the reasoning behind the scheduling of the meetings.

Thanks,
Keith

 

There is no official meet at the Grand Prix. It is listed on the club website for informational purposes only.

 

Yeah, those are all good points and I can see why you made the change to week nights. I guess I just need to plan further in advance.....I usually forget about it until the last minute and then its just to hard for me to get there.

Oh, trust me it will be better for everyone is my son stays home.

 

The terrible 2's are just around the corner you know.. hehehe...

Watch for the Saturday afternoon meetings to start in June, we are working on several ideas. Which reminds me, what type of events would you guys like to see?

(Remember the club has no funds of it's own)

 

Hey Keith, we were talking about going bowling for a monthly meeting. When I brought it up last night there was some intrest in it. They usually have pretty big parking lots for before/after meeting activities. Then there was Scott who said if we go bowling he'll have to KEEP a beer or two in his hands at all times.

Who needs a bowling alley for that!!!!

I think it would be fun and build a little more camaraderie if we had teams!!!!

 

I think that sounds awesome. Of course we'd have to keep people on the lanes instead of outside tinkering with cars. Tuesday nights are league nights at most alleys, maybe we can work that out for the June Saturday meeting.

Heck, I think Lori has her own ball.

 

We were talking about the idea of bowling at UH UC because they have a big lot and there's pool or bowling and it's cheap and they also sell beer (for those who are interested) I think bowling or the Astros game meeting would be nice. Anyways, I like the meeting the way they are on tuesday. I have to work on the weekend so couldn't go to those.