Northwest SVX Awards Banquet!

[WestCoastSVX]

It's already 2008 so I guess it's time we started thinking about our 2007 Awards Banquet!

For those new around here, this is our annual winter event where we focus more on being indoors and just hanging out. I try to make things fun by giving out awards based on different categories like attendence, inspiration, etc. We host it at a restaurant with our own meeting room so of course there is lots of eating, drinking, and talking. And of course we encourage everyone to bring their SVX so we can kick tires and have our "Winter Classic" car show too!

This year marks the 5 Year Anniversary of NWSVX, so I will have additional categories related to that as well. So if you've attended any of our events in the Northwest over the past 5 years, be sure to come out and be honored!

It is also with a bit of sadness that this will be the last NWSVX event ever, so please come out and celebrate with us one last time. Certainly events in our area will continue, but not under the organization of the club, and this will be the last Awards Banquet.

So basically all I'm saying is BE THERE!

Look for an "official" thread soon, but I'm still working on the date and details. It will probably be in February, but we can even push it out to March since nothing else is going to be happening.

In the meantime, post your enthusiasm here and/or post any dates in the next three months that may not work for you, etc.

[ensteele]

I am excited, but am very sad to see this organization go away.

[Hondasucks]

Where's it at? and don't axe the club. Just cut down on gatherings and such until more people join.. Maybe we can make it into the NW Arm of the SVXWN? That's an idea.. Just integrate it in with the SVXWN....

[WestCoastSVX]

Originally Posted by Hondasucks

Where's it at? and don't axe the club. Just cut down on gatherings and such until more people join.. Maybe we can make it into the NW Arm of the SVXWN? That's an idea.. Just integrate it in with the SVXWN....

Location will be somewhere around the Puget Sound area where most of our long-time loyal members are that I know will show up.

But I am working putting together several extra activities that will make this a whole weekend long event so it is worth a long trip for our friends out of the area.

As far as the club, no worries, what you are saying is somewhat along my line of thinking. The SVXWN does to some degree consider itself an organization. And while it may never have regional divsions, I think being a member here and checking in once in a while should keep our meets going just fine without the extra "baggage" and confusion of a smaller club which many people thought was part of the SVXWN anyway. If this place didn't exist, I would definitely keep NWSVX going and really work on making it great. But since we already have this and everyone puts so much focus into it, I feel like NWSVX is "second fiddle" and not really needed. For those that are not members here and don't wish to be, I will continue to maintain a email list with updates that will come out as new meets are planned here.

[KVRXS]

Hi,
I'm a bit confused about what all of this means. NWSVX will end, but we will still be active on SVXWN. We are still going to have meets, maybe just not as many. I can understand having less due to diminished attendence, but I would hope that we can still get together. I have always looked forward to our meets, though I have probably only attended half since becoming a member. I would hope that we still have several per year.
A couple of drives, a maintenence meet, Dabob, and a banquet. I hope that that is what everyone else is thinking, not a total annililation just a scaling back. I, personally, have totally enjoyed every event that I have participated in. I am aware that our cars are a bit on the quirky and rare side, but that is the major draw for me, iconoclast that I am.
Anyways, previously we have toyed with the idea of including others at our meets. The other day I saw a group of 90's Japanese cars cruising around Mt St Helens as I was scoping out a potential SW WA drive and I thought maybe we should join them. 300ZX, RX7, NSX, 3000, Supra and SVX. All classy, fast and relativily rare and Japanese, of course. I have been unable to locate this club, unfortunately. Should have turned around. Just an idea.

Hope we hang in, Mark

[ensteele]

Mark - I have to talk to McGyver, but I am sure there will be some continuation of NWSVX even if he is going to scale his portion of it. We will see what we can do with this. Don't panic yet.

[WestCoastSVX]

No worries!

Sorry for any confusion. Make no mistake, there will still be events in the NW region, and they will probably be very similar to those we've had in the past. Northwest SVX "the club" is for the most part my baby. I am making this decision alone to end the club. But that does not mean the events have to end. These meets are organized by many different individuals and I have no say over them!

The very fact that there is confusion backs up my point. People are members of the forums, people are members of Northwest SVX, people come to the meets in the Northwest. All three get blended together. I just think we can cut some of the extra "trimmings" out and not worry about an organized club. We are all individual SVX owners. Some of us like to get together and do things. Some of us are members of this forum, which helps greatly in facilitating these get-togethers.

As I said before, if these forums did not exist, I would definitely keep the club going and look to expand it's benefits, ask for help, etc. We would need something like that to keep us together. But since we DO have these forums, I think it provides enough of a bond to keep us in touch and give us a place to plan out the next meets.

I do realize I had members of the club that never had interest in joining these forums, and also some that are signed up here but never check in. These folks would stop receiving notice of our upcoming meets, so I will continue to maintain the NWSVX email list, we will just call it something different. As an event comes up in the area one of us can send out a notice to the email list that "hey a SVX meet is happening soon in such and such place".

So as far as future events, I don't see much change. I think our local SVX owners are happy with the variety of events we have around here. So as long as the organizers continue to throw them out there, I'm sure we will get together. As an example look at the Reading meet, the largest annual SVX gathering in the U.S. They are on their 9th year I think, and average 30+ SVXes. All of this without any formal club or organization. They just plan it out and announce a time and place via these forums. We can continue to do the same with our classic events like Fall Colors, Dabob, etc. And I doubt most people would notice any change.

I do want to mention that out of respect I would appreciate dropping the name "Northwest SVX" from any of these events that are planned. Again, no big change as most people never referred to our events with Northwest SVX in the title anyway.

Only event I see changing immediately, and I only bring it up because Mark mentioned continuing it, is the Annual Awards Banquet. If the "club" is gone, there really wouldn't be an awards banquet. Rather, I like the idea of little raffles and fun awards at the end of an individual event like Mark, Eric, and Co. did at the end of the Gorge Run. If the organizer feels like doing it of course. And instead of the organized Awards Banquet, we can certainly still get together for dinner sometime in the winter non-driving season.

Don't forget, we are having the biggest Awards Banquet this year though!!!

Again, don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a regional club dedicated to this rare car. I just don't see enough interest to make it stand on it's own and really be out there as a viable club. There is also not enough to break it out away from these forums. I figured might as well just let it abosorb into these forums and be part of the international SVX community, which is really the level the SVX needs to be at right now. I mean internationally there are probably a couple hundred hard-core SVX enthusiasts, while locally there are probably about 10. Makes more sense to focus on being part of this "World Network" than trying to organize ourselves into a small local group. And then of course we meet locally because we can't all drive across the country 5 times a year.

I considered this decision for over a year and it didn't come lightly. Having made it is a relief though. Trust me, I'm not out of the game yet, and with the burden of the club stuff gone, I am going to focus more on individual events. Some of the biggest and best car events have no affiliation with a club (then again, some do). Our friend Jim did a Run to the Gorge a few years back with all makes and models of sports cars (from Tacoma to Rainier, down backside of St. Helens, to the Gorge, stay at the lodge down there) - it's an annual event. Also I'm betting this group of 90's sports cars Mark saw the other day, if they weren't just out on a casual drive organized through some forum, were part of an annual event rather than a club. Closer to home, look at the West Coast Subaru Show - originally put on by a NW Subaru club that many years ago ended, but the event continues as a one-off annual event that takes most of the year to plan on it's own. Ditto with the Reading SVX meets, one big event planned by a group of people and promoted through these forums. We are bound by the love of this car, we don't need any organized name to keep together!

[KVRXS]

Troy,
Thanx for the clarification. You mentioned the Reading meet, sounds like one that would definitely be worth attending. I know that Earl always seems to enjoy it. Hey, what if our last banquet had 30 SVXers, no 31. I know that the Northeast has a larger population, but the Northwest has the second largest Subaru fanbase. Just a thought. See you there.

Mark

[WestCoastSVX]

Yeah I would love to see 31 SVXes around here some time. Not counting Earl's.

Not sure if the banquet will be that time, but I do hope for a large turn out and I hope a lot of faces from the past show up even if they are no longer active. Kinda to honor the past and what not.

[STORMINORMAN]

It takes a lot of his time & $ to keep his site up. Nothin' is really & truly FREE now-a-days (how's that for an "antique" platitude?) and I don't blame him one bit.

I do hope that we can all still get together as the "NORTHWEST" SVX'ers I've met are a pretty damn good group, nonwithstanding those rEEdiculous & confusing ralley rules, Earl's not letting me live up at Dabob for free, etc.

Anyway, just count me in and keep me advised as to where this all is going. When the date for the FINAL NWSVX activity is known get it posted here: the more time those of us who have to drive ALL THE WAY FROM THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER have in advance the more likely we'll be able to attend!

Cheers! (& Happy NEW YEAR!)

Norm

[Turbone]

I never really did understand the SVXNW and SVXWN thing. Still think they are pretty much one and the same. I was only able to make one event/drive last year, but it was great! I hope to make all the others that will be coming up and dont doubt that the same group and maybe new folks will show too.
On a side note, I've been taking my SVX to a Subaru meet locally (Auburn) every Sat night and the folks there love seeing it. Most of the Subaru's are newer WRX's and STI's. I cant wait to do some more cruises this year.

[WestCoastSVX]

Thanks Norm and yes, I am feverishly trying to pin down a date as I understand how it is. I'm leaning towards March now as Feb is totally booked up for me and Earl and I talked about doing a "mini-maintenance" type thing at his house before the banquet (which may be near his house), so March would be better for that. I'm definitely tyring to sweeten the pot to this meet by adding in some extra weekend activities like the gathering at Earl's, etc.

I also already have a plan for a late-spring/summer cruise, but I have to keep trying to ignore that and focus on the task at hand. See what I mean?

[Keoni]

i just bought my svx and would love to meet other people who love their svx as much as i do. so please keep us updated on any meets in the northwest.

[ensteele]

Just watch this forum for more details. Details are being figured out now.