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NJSPEEDER · 08-13-2014, 06:28 AM

The short (and edited for all audiences) version is that there was another club started by a young lady from south Jersey. She had a lot of grand ideas but was new to both cars and car clubs so the direction was shaky at best.

After several of us pointed out the shaky grounds on which the club was resting a small internet skirmish broke out, arguing, accusations, people getting banned from the existing club..............the usual website/club demise kinda stuff.

Tru2Chevy, Little G, Pbody87GT, and myself had all been friends for a while at this point and were hanging out when things kinda came to a head. So possibly partially inspired by beer and the rest inspired by being pissed off I threw a credit card at Tru2Chevy and told him to get us a website. He wheeled around without missing a beat and said we needed a name to which Little G blurted out what has been the name of the club since. You seriously have to imagine this part happening real time, it probably takes longer to read than it actually took to have that conversation.

Since the other club and the related butt hurt still existed at that point we basically went on AIM (as Deadtrend mentioned) and email and started messaging pretty much everyone we knew to sign up. I don't remember the exact order or who came on when but I know j0n, BigAl, 12secondV6, CamaroRacer (PA Joe), Squirrel, PamperedZ, ProjectZ28, and several others jumped on board that night or shortly after and it started to run.

We joked about hitting 200 members or whatever the old club had and then that happened with in a week or so, then we joked about hitting 500 and passed that mark with in months. It ran away from there.

The first club meet was actually in September of that same year and for years stood as the largest attendance we had at a regular meet, I think it was around 50 people and 35 cars or something ridiculous like that and was held at what has become the traditional host of the January monthly meet, the Firkin Tavern in Ewing.

In the early days we would actually experience down time because we vastly underestimated the activity level. We used up our bandwidth several times and got scolded then basically kicked off the original server after we had a really big day and lagged out ever website hosted there. lol

We had some great luck with some great people joining up very early on. CamaroDiva saw the flyers we hung up at Island (including the one a nice young woman hung for us in the ladys restroom) and became a very vocal supporter, the folks down at Atco let us run with some promotion and shenanigans as well. Early members like BigAl, PamperedZ, and many others that were well known on lots of other forums helped promote everything we did and championed the cause as we continued to rip off every good idea we could flush out of the mountains of successful marque specific and regional club sites that exist.

There are a lot more details and many more stars of the early days of the club but that covers the basics.

Perhaps this fall when Little G is home we will have to write up a more long winded brief history of the NJFBOA for everyone to enjoy.

-Tim

08-13-2014, 06:28 AM	#27
NJSPEEDER NJFBOA Co-Founder Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: All up in your kool aid! Posts: 12,235 iTrader: (10)	The short (and edited for all audiences) version is that there was another club started by a young lady from south Jersey. She had a lot of grand ideas but was new to both cars and car clubs so the direction was shaky at best. After several of us pointed out the shaky grounds on which the club was resting a small internet skirmish broke out, arguing, accusations, people getting banned from the existing club..............the usual website/club demise kinda stuff. Tru2Chevy, Little G, Pbody87GT, and myself had all been friends for a while at this point and were hanging out when things kinda came to a head. So possibly partially inspired by beer and the rest inspired by being pissed off I threw a credit card at Tru2Chevy and told him to get us a website. He wheeled around without missing a beat and said we needed a name to which Little G blurted out what has been the name of the club since. You seriously have to imagine this part happening real time, it probably takes longer to read than it actually took to have that conversation. Since the other club and the related butt hurt still existed at that point we basically went on AIM (as Deadtrend mentioned) and email and started messaging pretty much everyone we knew to sign up. I don't remember the exact order or who came on when but I know j0n, BigAl, 12secondV6, CamaroRacer (PA Joe), Squirrel, PamperedZ, ProjectZ28, and several others jumped on board that night or shortly after and it started to run. We joked about hitting 200 members or whatever the old club had and then that happened with in a week or so, then we joked about hitting 500 and passed that mark with in months. It ran away from there. The first club meet was actually in September of that same year and for years stood as the largest attendance we had at a regular meet, I think it was around 50 people and 35 cars or something ridiculous like that and was held at what has become the traditional host of the January monthly meet, the Firkin Tavern in Ewing. In the early days we would actually experience down time because we vastly underestimated the activity level. We used up our bandwidth several times and got scolded then basically kicked off the original server after we had a really big day and lagged out ever website hosted there. lol We had some great luck with some great people joining up very early on. CamaroDiva saw the flyers we hung up at Island (including the one a nice young woman hung for us in the ladys restroom) and became a very vocal supporter, the folks down at Atco let us run with some promotion and shenanigans as well. Early members like BigAl, PamperedZ, and many others that were well known on lots of other forums helped promote everything we did and championed the cause as we continued to rip off every good idea we could flush out of the mountains of successful marque specific and regional club sites that exist. There are a lot more details and many more stars of the early days of the club but that covers the basics. Perhaps this fall when Little G is home we will have to write up a more long winded brief history of the NJFBOA for everyone to enjoy. -Tim __________________ Tim - NJSPEEDER Currently F-bodyless New Jersey F-Body Owners Association Last edited by NJSPEEDER; 08-13-2014 at 06:30 AM.