Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

Chicago Ecotec has been going on for somewhere around two years now, I'm not really sure. I have been going to meets since last July, so a little over a year now.

In the past the monthly meet/dinner has been in various suburbs, which changed every month. Last winter the popular vote was to change and only meet in the city, at the same place, on the last Wednesday.

Last night we had 5 people, which has been what attendance has been for the past 2 or 3 months. Last year we had 20 to 25 people, easy.

People move on from the Cobalts, we know this. But this site has proven that the next group of Cobalt owners are finding this site and want to be involved with their cars.

Again, yes, these monthly meets are just us getting together for dinner. But it's these dinners that keep us close. That allow us to just talk and come up with other things to do as a group. Being a part of a car club is more than just only standing around our cars looking at them. There can and should be a social side to it as well.

What is it going to take to get all of you new Chicagoland Ecotec owners involved? We are willing to go back to suburb meets, if that is what people want. We just want the club to survive.

Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

Evening bump...

hydroturboss

i wish i lived near chicago......I talk to whyyoumadson all the time and he has made me some custom parts and is ALWAYS givin me advice..........if the rest of the members from chicago are like him id love to come......

BartSS

I have 3 kids at home and barely any free time

LittleRedRocketSS

plus since ur in africa now isnt helping :/
^^

Frogstofall

iTrader: (1)

Two things for me personally... Weeknights aren't so easy to make and it being in Chicago every time is quite a drive. I'm all for weekends and rotating locations.

Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

We will for sure be changing location for next month.

Tom@CED has already decided on that, and he's sorta the official leader of everything.

In the past we would vote on day of the week, and no one ever wants to meet on weekends for the monthly meet/dinner.

kdub1492

iTrader: (8)

Weekends would work best for me, I would love to come and meet everyone. Being a full time student with day and evening classes meeting during the week just isn't possible

corky3

come a little closer to indiana and meet up with some of your friends in indiana ecotecs.

LittleRedRocketSS

^^ now why would we do that you Indiana's smell funny lol jk

DirtyBalt09

iTrader: (2)

Yea meeting in the city are rough for me. Why don't we try a regional thing and couple times a year we meet up . Like south side crew, north crew ect. Have local meets convienient for members but meet up here and there so we can meet everyone.

Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

Could be an option.

I know for at least those of us on the north side of the city and the near north suburbs, we are all good enough friends we're hanging out most weekends anyways. Also I know a lot of the guys in the south suburbs are always together as well. The lack of activity in the thread is a pretty strong indicator that there probably isn't enough people who would be committed to having regional meets that often. That's why we need this to be everyone at once, to get the numbers up again. If it takes off and we start seeing 20 or 30 people a month again like we used to, then we could think about splitting up.

That's what made meeting the city make sense for awhile. Everyone was driving the same distance to meet in the middle, rather than making the north side travel to far to the south, and vice versa.

That being said, if everyone wants to meet in a certain suburb, start throwing out your vote for where to meet. You all know the area where you live. Pick a place that is good for groups (Sports bars are where we usually end up) and has a large parking lot.

guess1

Id be in, maybe most likely probably? Throw some more non committal words in there

LittleRedRocketSS

ummmmm

guess1

Can't meet till after 10 on weekends unfortunately.

Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

Shouldn't be an issue.

We were still at the meets that late on a Wednesday night in the past. lol

Sleeven

I work mon-fri til 4. So im basically wide open besides thursdays. weeknights or weekends.

What kind of places do you guys go? like bars? restaurants? big ol parking lots lol?

Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

Parking lot size is def the first concern. Also needs to be good for groups. In the past we went to a Brickhouse Tavern, but bleh. It was bad.

KrisBKreeme

I'm likely getting my SS this week. So as soon as I get good at driving stick I'll be glad to meet up :P

Joemaster70

iTrader: (6)

Since everyone here knows strats. There's a portillo's on 83 and St.charles rd that has a huge parking lot. Just an idea. plus bikers and other car enthusiast sometimes chill there

whyyoumadson?

basically...meeting concerns... we have had meets in the past with 20+ cars. there needs to be a parking lot and table arrangements to fit that. and half way decent food.

we use to have a meet at the brickhouse in downers grove. everything was good like table arrangements and a decent size parking lot but the food was horrible.

i use to be more on top of this group but ive had things in life happen that have just taken time away from that. however i plan on making that change as soon as a few things are taken care of and i get back in the rhythm here.

we use to do a different meet spot every month.... one up north, one some what in the southern area. the problem is everyone started complaining or there was confusion to where and when. brags gave us a permanet establishment with a little discount on food and what not. we get a whole section to ourselve too.

meeting out in the suburbs again ISNT a bad idea. the biggest problem i have found is people say I DO and never carry through. the usual people are almost always there but a lot of the guys say they want things done so we have tried in the past to accomdate things for newer people but ive seen 1 new face fresh face in the past year and maybe 2-3 since this whole thing got going. obviously people come and go and thats a given and this doesnt have a top priority for anyone but if your to sit there and make suggestions and try to be apart of thing i think at the very best you should at one meet here and there in person to speak your peace on subjects like this. doing it through the interenet sucks.

Whitnith

iTrader: (2)

What's the seating situation in that Portillios? I've never been to that one. Are there lots of table so we can all sit together? I've been in a couple that are only booths, which wouldn't work.

I would love to again just find one meeting spot in the burbs, and then stay there for awhile. I only started coming right at the end of the switching stuff, which was had to keep up with if you aren't on here all the time.

I hate to leave Brags and the Palace. But we gotta do something to get the numbers back, and a fresh meeting spot could do that.

I can think of 4 new guys who have each came to meets once. They all were "So... there's 5 people here..." and then haven't been back since. Which makes sense.

whyyoumadson?

thats just a gay excuse to not show up or because they dont feel like they fit in. the group will never go if people show up once and ditch out. thats just how it is.

CrateEngineDepot

iTrader: (5)

Whit, thanks for keeping this going, I'm already wondering how to pull this month's meeting because I will be out of town the last wed/thurs of the month and with T-giving its going to be a bit tougher.

Although saying that, i used to have a car show on that sat following T-giving so maybe that Sat evening would be a good time. A break from the mid week meeting plus we can try out a new place.

I agree we need to really reach out to members who are way north/south/west etc. St Charles sounds good for west. Up north we could go to the place we all went to dinner for the mega meet. Think it was called In-laws in Gurnee.


I'm open for ideas for the south side area. Orland Park area?

kdub1492

iTrader: (8)

Orland Park is a pretty good area. I don't know too many places too meet but there are a ton of parking lots around that way