San Diego Z Meet - SAT Dec 1st

[Doc Hawk]

The first official meet of the San Diego Z Association will be this Saturday, 6PM, at Dave & Busters in San Diego (Mission Valley, at the intersection of the 8 & 805). You can Google directions to 2931 Camino Del Rio N, San Diego.

Don't skip it just because your Z isn't on the road yet - come down and hang out, have a drink, enjoy some food, play some video games, and meet your fellow San Diego Zed Heads!

San Diego Z will have all of the things you'd expect from a car club, including meets, fellowship, shows & events, cruises, group buys and discounts. However, we're going beyond the traditional bounds of many clubs, and will be striving for historic restoration, preservation, and preservation of the Z car heritage, lending the group a nonprofit charitable education status. In addition, we will also be putting considerable effort into hosting bracket racing in the SCCA and other series, including club rankings, teams, and opportunities for sponsorship. Racing will include autocross, track days, and full-fledged road racing. Coaching and driver training will be available, so no racing experience is necessary.

More info at http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/sandiegoz/

Hope to see some of you this Saturday!

- David

[e_racer1999]

count me in!

[sblake01]

We've got a show at Corona Nissan that day (tomorrow) also if it doesn't rain.

[Montezuma]

What is the weather forecast for tomorrow in Corona? It is raining like heck here in San Diego today.

Is there any coincidence that the enagraual meeting of this club is the same night and time of the current Z Club of San Diego Holiday party? I would like to check it out but I must give my respects to the end of my beleaguered SDSU football team’s season. I have to catch Kevin O’Connell’s final game as an Aztec, so I will be out at the Q, maybe next time.

[Doc Hawk]

The old Z Club of San Diego is still alive? That's a surprise! Their website has been dead and broken for over a year, although upon logging in just now, I see that it has been replaced by a one-page homepage now, which actually has one lone piece of current info: the next meeting date and location, on Dec. 4th.

Over the past year, I personally called every phone number listed in their bulletins, and never talked to a live person (apparently all the officers screen calls). I left a total of roughly ten pleasant voicemails at various numbers expressing my interest, asking for more information on the club and a next meeting date. I never once received a return call. I also sent emails to the contact email back when the old dead website still listed one, and never heard back. In desparation a while back, I even showed up to one of the dates when there was supposedly a meeting, and I was the only Z at the restaurant, so I left.

Given the lack of response and lack of any visible activity on or off the web, I eventually just gave up on ZCSD and assumed they were either dead, or really, really uninterested in new members. I also noticed that the parent organization, the ZCCA, is also languishing with a dead website where even the members are posting questions about what is going on (which have gone unanswered for months, thus reinforcing the complaints).

Last month, however, within the space of a week I just happened to meet 4 other San Diego area Z owners who had the exact same experience with ZCSD. At that point we said "screw it, let's form a new club," since the old one is obviously dead. I have considerable nonprofit leadership experience and many ties in the automotive industry and racing communities, so it was not a burden to fill a need that was obviously going unserved in our community. Within 2 weeks of starting a simple mailing list, 25 people had joined the group, so clearly there is a need in San Diego that the ZCSD is not meeting.

To hear that the ZCSD is still around, and doing anything so proactive as a party, no less, is quite a surprise to me. Certainly, there is no intentional slight to ZCSD behind the coincidental scheduling of our meeting. There could be no chance of that, since to us it appeared that the ZCSD was no longer around. Frankly, I would have far preferred to join an active and established group. Heck, I would have even been willing to contribute my time to organization and management.

It is disappointing to now hear that the ZCSD is not dead. This means that all of us who have tried to contact the ZCSD were in fact unserved, as opposed to have just been knocking on the doors of empty offices. That's an unfortunate reflection on the state of affairs in the club, because it was not just one person who called, and it was not just one person who failed to return calls. As I mentioned, I left messages with every club officer listed in their newsletter, and I presume others tried multiple officers as well.

Nonetheless, the answer to your question is no. The meetings being concurrent is a product of pure coincidence. We could not have intentionally scheduled our event to compete with the ZCSD, because as far as we knew at the time, the ZCSD had no events to compete with. I don't mean for our activities to detract from the endeavors of any other person or group in any way, and there are no hard feelings among us. However, given the shared experiences of many people with the ZCSD (which is to say, no experience whatsoever), clearly something is amiss in that organization, at least in terms of leadership and relations with potential members.

Hope to see you next time,

David Chong

San Diego

[Doc Hawk]

...striving for historic restoration, preservation, and preservation of the Z car heritage...

Sorry, that should have read, "preservation and presentation," suggesting plubic displays and publicly accessible information. Restoration and preservation of the heritage to us means all forms of Z ownership, from factory stock restorations to wild street builds, trailer queens, project frankencars, and everything in between.

Cheers,

David

[e_racer1999]

hey david, it was nice meeting you (and the rest)!