Southern California Club Xterra
Southern California Club Xterra => SCCX General Discussion => Topic started by: FrankB on May 27, 2010, 10:36:30 PM
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. . . What I would like to suggest is that we post up xcursions far more in advance in the calendar section and stick to them. . .
Even though it might not be what some people want to hear, I don't see that happening anytime soon. I'll try to explain why. Also, this is not directed at the person who posted the comment, but the comment does open the opportunity for this discussion. Further, this is just my opinion, and I have written this without talking with anyone else. Anyone can step forward and change things if they want to make the commitment, and it fits within what the owner of the site and domain name is comfortable with. It is my understanding the Brian (Xtoolbox) owns the SCCX site (I may not have the exact terminology correct).
This club is pretty much a loose association of people with a more or less common interest in Xterras. Not everyone here drives an Xterra as their only vehicle, and it has nothing to do with "love" of any kind of vehicle. The club is not run as a business, no one gets paid to plan, schedule or lead runs, and no one is paying to be led on runs. There are no dues, and we are not incorporated. The website hosting and maintenance has always been provided by someone at their own time and expense. Ever since the new site went up it has been hosted and maintained by Chris. Everyone here should be grateful to him for providing the opportunity for us to have a place to communicate and socialize (for lack of a better description).
As for runs, in the past Brian led a lot of runs. Now, as his children get older, he has less free time to plan and lead runs. That is certainly understandable. Others here have planned and led runs along the way, myself included. We have tried to maintain some regularity to those runs, but sometimes due to various reasons a run may be suggested that few or none are interested in. If no one else wants to step up and do something different, then maybe nothing happens that month. Most of us have other things going on in our lives besides off-roading, and we all have different levels of interest in what we expect or want to do on a run.
Unless someone is willing to step forward and take responsibility to plan and lead runs on a regular basis, I think what we are going to wind up with is something along the lines of what Don responded to the same comment, that is that we may well wind up with small groups getting together, often on short notice. The club website has been used for that for as long as I can remember, and it works well for that. For any given trip set up that way, the practical matter is that ultimately someone has to step up and say something like "I want to go to this place, on this date and time, who wants to come along, and here is what I think the trail will be like and here is what is required".
What you are going to find is that planning activities for a diverse group, as essentially a volunteer, is not as easy as it sounds. People want to know all the details, and be assured of what conditions will be like (which by the way is pretty much impossible to do). They'll want to know well in advance, but many won't themselves commit to anything until the last minute, if at all. Most importantly, they'll want the run to cater to their idea of what a run should be, and their desired level of difficulty. You could spend a lot of time planning something, and block out the date and commit yourself to be there and lead, only to have people say the idea is too easy, or too difficult. Or just not respond at all.
I still plan to organize a few runs, and would hope that people want to attend, but they will never be the difficult rocky terrain that many here prefer. Someone else will need to step up for those. Also, for me at least, I find it easier to do things in the winter, and due to my schedule often can't get too far from San Diego. For this reason I generally set up runs to Anza Borrego or the San Diego backcountry area. Someone else will need to do areas like Big Bear or north of Los Angeles.
This is getting way too long already, so I won't get into what someone who wants to lead a run should consider or do. That can be a separate discussion, and certainly anyone can look back at previous runs to get an idea of what is expected.
So, let's open this up for discussion and hear what others have to say, and what, if anything, others are willing to do.
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I agree with Franks analasys of the current state of the club. I have more to say and a few ideas but I'm short on time so I'll save it for later.
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I agree with Frank as to the sites direction. I have spoken with several other website developers/moderators, and it is a lot of work. Also, organizing a loose group of people that have never physically met is a challenging endeavor. The best way to provide a Club atmosphere is consistency-people following through on commitments of obligations, be it for a trail run or a simple get together for coffee to discuss mutual interests.
Frank properly directed me to thenewx.org for a more formal Club atmosphere, with How To posts and more in depth analysis of my searched topics. This is a great site (SCCX) to have casual input, view some great local Xcursion pictures, infuse sporadic humor, and plan for get togethers for those who can plan AND SHOW UP.
If some one on this site wants to support it in a more organized fashion, I would support that as well, but for now, this works as a casual hub for which we can all travel to our desired Xterra/Nissan/4x4 passions.
Just my .02 cents. ;D
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Great post, frank ;D
I've been missing going on the runs a bunch and wishing I could do more.
Besides all the kids stuff with the weekend packed with sports, other activities I haven't mentioned it before but my wife, helene has had some medical problems the last 9 months that we're helping her through so I've been reluctant to leave unless I can get somebody to stay at the house even when I have a free weekend which is rare.
This club is great: what makes it so are the people. Things ebb and flow so I'm sure we will get things going again. Please let me know if I can help in anyway? If somebody picks a area I'm sure I can give some advice, maps, etc.
I like the idea of ad-hoc run's and maybe we can have the bigger ones like 3-4 times a year.
This summer I should have some time and want to go up to the sierra's so I will be posting a fun summer run soon.
Take care
Brian
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Frank, you summed it up very well.
This club has been around for a long time and has endured many states of flux, if you will. One thing it has done very well over the years is remain more or less true to its intent, which is to serve as an informal hub of people who like Nissans. Things go in waves, and while you may not like that there aren't as many scheduled runs as to your liking, you may also may not have liked it when the regular runs were much more involved, body damage/broken stuff was probable and things were much harder for those who weren't into wheeling in general. SCCX, however, has never been a real rock crawling or wheeling club, but rather a rag-tag collection of people with grossly varying interests as to four wheeling and has served well in bringing them together.
No one gets paid to be here or take anyone on vacation. Everyone has to be responsible for their own deal, and if someone wants to go out to the mountains or go off-roading, then they should plan to do so and not be expecting anyone here to do it for them.
Probably the last two major things that affected the state of the runs have been the crappy economy (everyone has less free $ for gas or going out) and the introduction of the second gen X, which meant that more newbies were trying to explore new areas with their daily drivers that they were making payments on instead of paid-for trucks that they could mod more and pound on a little.
Right now a lot of people have scaled back their activities and the wheeling community is no different. Those can do so now, go for it. Otherwise, don't (for all intents and purposes) blame the club for keeping you from enjoying your X and free time.
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No one gets paid to be here or take anyone on vacation. Everyone has to be responsible for their own deal, and if someone wants to go out to the mountains or go off-roading, then they should plan to do so and not be expecting anyone here to do it for them.
Probably the last two major things that affected the state of the runs have been the crappy economy (everyone has less free $ for gas or going out) and the introduction of the second gen X, which meant that more newbies were trying to explore new areas with their daily drivers that they were making payments on instead of paid-for trucks that they could mod more and pound on a little.
Right now a lot of people have scaled back their activities and the wheeling community is no different. Those can do so now, go for it. Otherwise, don't (for all intents and purposes) blame the club for keeping you from enjoying your X and free time.
Excellent points.
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The future is going to be like the past.
Since the runs have been spotty I've cleared my calendar of the third weekend of the month that use to be reserved for the club's runs and have filled it in with other things.
If we get more regular I wouldn't mind going out more. My wife and I have made a number of trips recently alone and with the weather warming are going to start back north into the southern end of the Sierras. Leading a trip is a whole lot more work than just putting my gear in the truck and grabbing the wife. I don't feel comfortable without really good GPS coordinates and still get complaints if we make a bit of a detour until I sort things out. When we're on the trail it's pretty much the same whether we're lost or not ... it's all good in my book unless it's paved!
It's always fun to get together and I really enjoy meeting, driving with, and camping with the club.
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Well, I was going to say some stuff but it has already been said and then I started getting a little pissed off about certain things. So I'll just let it go with only this being said, if you want to do a run, do it.
That being said, I personally believe that we need to have some sort of club type of business meeting. We do need to discuss, as a group, items like BOD members, the web site, stickers, shirts, runs and whatever else there may be. Any suggestions?
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yeah a duel at high noon. Lets not forget why we have this club. to have fun....I have seen so much come and go. Brian said it best as we have talked about this a couple of times. There is an ebb and flow. We have times when there is max participation. There are times when only a few show.I have noticed over the last couple of years that many relied on a few to co organized runs. ANYONE can do this. If you want to organize a run two years in advance . Do it . I on the other hand might only have a week here or there and have tired to make time to wheel. I have been with this club for over six years. I wish I had more time to devote to this, but I dont. I know and have seen people rely on the BOD to assist in organizing runs. I have also watched the BOD go out of their way while dealing with things we call life. It stated in our Bylaws , we are a group of people who wish to get together to have safe fun. Not to criticize some of putting effort forth, or not.
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Since the runs have been spotty I've cleared my calendar of the third weekend of the month that use to be reserved for the club's runs and have filled it in with other things.
For me this was one of the problems, once a month was way too often for us, and IMO it's way too often to have an official run given the large area area of SoCal. For us most runs were ~4 hours away which is a lot of driving to do every week.
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I've been wanting to go on several of the xcursions since last year but the motor overheating problem prevented me from doing so. Especially when out in the middle of nowhere in 120' deg. temperature. Now that I have a fresh motor and some upgrades, you'll see lots more of me.
What I think would be nice is to see the 4-6 annual club Xcursion trips posted up early so we know what to look forward to in the coming months.
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For me this was one of the problems, once a month was way too often for us, and IMO it's way too often to have an official run given the large area area of SoCal. For us most runs were ~4 hours away which is a lot of driving to do every week.
I can relate to this as well I think me and the other chris are the farthest out that I know of. it cost me over an hundred to wheel on most of the runs. Let alone the time issues
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I cost me about $150 including food and supplies for 1 day only. And being out of work at this time and having three kids ages 5, 2, and 6 mos. means lots of diapers, wipes, and baby food. All this makes for a very tight budget. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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Just so everyone knows, we (the BOD) are working on some ideas. We've been having a lot of discussions lately, it just takes time for stuff to happen since everyone has other stuff going on their lives.
We are putting together plans for an SCCX Picnic / Meet & Greet type of thing, to be held in a family-friendly location, sometime this summer.
In the meantime, if anyone does want to organize a run, I do suggest that everyone re-familiarize themselves with the Xcursion Guidelines found here http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,212.0.html (http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,212.0.html). With all the scrutiny that off roaders are getting these days I think it is important that we all try to set a good example.
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Just so everyone knows, we (the BOD) are working on some ideas. We've been having a lot of discussions lately, it just takes time for stuff to happen since everyone has other stuff going on their lives.
We are putting together plans for an SCCX Picnic / Meet & Greet type of thing, to be held in a family-friendly location, sometime this summer.
In the meantime, if anyone does want to organize a run, I do suggest that everyone re-familiarize themselves with the Xcursion Guidelines found here http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,212.0.html (http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,212.0.html). With all the scrutiny that off roaders are getting these days I think it is important that we all try to set a good example.
Excellent idea Frank!
I support this 100%, so if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.
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A meet & greet sounds like a great idea. And I agree its a good idea for us to all set a good example on the trails.
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I can relate to this as well I think me and the other chris are the farthest out that I know of. it cost me over an hundred to wheel on most of the runs. Let alone the time issues
Aye, speaking of which we should do lunch some time, I work in Oxnard now and soon enough might actually be working at Port Phueneme naval base.
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Meet and Greet is a great idea. Do we have a tentative date and location? I could recommend the Frank G. Bonneli Regional park in Pomona, CA 91764 by the 10, 57, and 210 Fwy. just east of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel valley, west of the Inland Empire.
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Road trip! 8)
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That spot looks good -- according to what I read, dogs should be ok to bring along as long as they're on a leash. So now we just need to pick a date.
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Just so everyone knows, we (the BOD) are working on some ideas. We've been having a lot of discussions lately, it just takes time for stuff to happen since everyone has other stuff going on their lives.
We are putting together plans for an SCCX Picnic / Meet & Greet type of thing, to be held in a family-friendly location, sometime this summer.
Is this idea still moving forward? Just curious if any dates or locations have been seriously considered? Thanks Frank!
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I can attest to the economy issue.... But I should be back in action soon (this month or next) and hopefully make a run with you guys finally once I get some tires replaced. I've managed an online community for a 10 year span, it ranged from 10 to 200 members at a time. It can be a lot of work. I find the biggest problem is people expecting the organizer/leader to provide the "fun" - which is an emotional state rather than a tangible item lol.
I think 3-4 organized events per year is plenty, the rest can just be loosely organized by members asking if anyone wants to 'join them'. Personally, a day-ride isn't worth all the trouble trying to 'sell'. Just a simple post and a meeting spot should be good enough.
I'm the kind of person that doesn't rely on anyone else to provide the fun, I definitely don't like to plan out my rides start to finish, I like to explore everything unless I've already been there. I just like to have a general idea of the starting point and the time I need to get home and just make the rest up along the way. I don't have a GPS yet and honestly can't think of a scenario other than 'convenience' that I'd actually need one (still planning on getting a cheap one), I'm a compass/topo person myself and would rather have a sextant than a GPS. I like to hike and explore off-trail as well and wouldn't want anyone to feel like they had to wait for me to come back if I stumbled upon a buried treasure. My 'fun' is contained within and other than something bad happening to person or vehicle then it doesn't matter if I'm with a group or not.... I'M JUST HAPPY TO GET THE HELL OUT OF L.A. WHENEVER I CAN!
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Yee yee yee, he said SEXtant.
I'm thinking north - a short two hour ride up the 395 to the southern end of Sequoia National ... 8)
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works for me. I should be back in business in 2 weeks. Gonna make one of the exec's at work buy me 5 new KM2's since I hooked him up with with a 2 million dollar sale a few months ago, he's taking home 20k and owes me.
By the way I sold that old shortwave radio... The last mayor of culver city bought it for his home station. He's going to administer the test for me soon and invited me to his home, he has a 100foot antennae. And I have a meeting with the Culver City soon to bid on a new telecom system for the city... maybe this'll give me an edge, hehe!
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Does the BOD have a place and date in mind for the Meet and Greet? Even if its tentative?
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Is there anything planned at all?
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Is this happening this year or next?
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We will do a meet and greet after the BOD meeting. I don't know when that will happen as of yet what with everyone having lives and stuff.
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Definitely a fantastic idea! I'm definitely in for this, and would gladly help in any way possible!
;D
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Count me in!! Even though it's 2 year old discussion, but still very relevant.
Count me in Fo Sho!!
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When the weather cools off a bit, I think we should plan a meet and greet barbecue weekend at the family property that I own. It needs a little maintenance (trees trimmed, etc.) and I will gladly trade a little elbow grease from a few focused individuals in exchange for a nice place where we can camp for free, have a nice campfire, and be within driving distance of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
As a matter of fact, the Grapevine Canyon Trail goes right by our property, running north from S-22 all the way south to Hwy 78. The Jesper Jeep Trail is also near by, as well as the Culp Valley trail.
Maybe have an SCCX barbecue, invite everyone to camp, as well as day access, some 2WD and 4WD trail opportunities, and talk about the Club around the campfire.
Keep this family friendly (kids welcome), good food for all, social sparklers enjoyed in moderation, as well as some serious S'more engineering...
Let me know your thoughts everyone.
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That just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
Can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Okay, going to start looking at some dates in October, 2012 to start planning this.
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Okay, going to start looking at some dates in October, 2012 to start planning this.
I like this :D
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Sounds great looking forward to October.
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Sounds great looking forward to October.
Great meeting you at Silverado Canyon Ron!
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I have a chainsaw and am willing to travel.
Let me know if I can help.
October sounds good.
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Sounds fun. I will assist with maintenance as well.
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I have a chainsaw and am willing to travel.
Let me know if I can help.
October sounds good.
Thanks Max, I could use yours (and the chainsaws) help for sure.
Sounds fun. I will assist with maintenance as well.
Thanks Mitch, it would be nice to put a conversation to a screen name. ;)
The input is great guys, now to select a date.
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I have a chainsaw and am willing to travel.
Max, you think you can mount the chainsaw on your rig with all your other tools up there??
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Max, you think you can mount the chainsaw on your rig with all your other tools up there??
Good point. Now you have me thinking. Might need two places to mount the chain saw; one on the roof for normal daily driving and the other on the front bumper for when the zombies come.
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Good point. Now you have me thinking. Might need two places to mount the chain saw; one on the roof for normal daily driving and the other on the front bumper for when the zombies come.
Here's a clip from a Stihl How To video I found...kinda looks like you Max, without the short hair. ;D
(http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t46/mytwistedmethod/leatherface.gif)
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I could bring my truck so you can toss all the branches/ dirt or whatever in the back. 8)
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Who likes pulled pork? If I get a few weeks notice I can get a small pig (25lbs) and all the materials we need to cook it in the ground..Some bring the fixings and some bring the shovels to help me dig the whole ;D It will need to be cooked for 12 hrs at least so it will need to be a camping trip/over niter or weekender....just throwing it out there....feel free to chime in.....
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Who likes pulled pork? If I get a few weeks notice I can get a small pig (25lbs) and all the materials we need to cook it in the ground..Some bring the fixings and some bring the shovels to help me dig the whole ;D It will need to be cooked for 12 hrs at least so it will need to be a camping trip/over niter or weekender....just throwing it out there....feel free to chime in.....
Chad...this sounds like a great idea! This is actually what we used to do each year for our big Memorial Day picnic out at the property...so the campfire area is where we used to do this. I am sure we could dig another hole nearby and set it up so we could do both (campfire/cooking pit).
I am thinking the last weekend in October/first weekend of November.
Getting ready to go into Strategic Planning/Budget prep here at work, which goes from August to October. I should know more on my dates in the next two weeks and will post up a Calendar Link/Run Posting in the Xcursion thread. As soon as I know more.
Thanks for the great offer!
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I could bring my truck so you can toss all the branches/ dirt or whatever in the back. 8)
Justin...thanks for the offer!
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I don't know. If you mount the chainsaw on the front bumper, how will you reach for it from the drivers reat when you're driving into the zombie hordes?
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I don't know. If you mount the chainsaw on the front bumper, how will you reach for it from the drivers reat when you're driving into the zombie hordes?
It's all done with pulleys.
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It's all done with pulleys.
And magic.
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Good point. Now you have me thinking. Might need two places to mount the chain saw; one on the roof for normal daily driving and the other on the front bumper for when the zombies come.
Well, if we're going to start mounting chainsaws and such, maybe the next Xcursion needs to be to www.wastelandweekend.com
(http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/PeoplePlacesandEvents/Comic-Con-2012-San-Diego/i-6V75HKg/0/L/51FB5325-L.jpg)
By the way, I like the idea of the trip to John's compound for an SCCX bbq.
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That guy looks like a character out of Mad Max.
I am trying to figure out my budget/strategic planning schedule for work....and then I will post up some dates for everyone to look at for a desert season opener/SCCX BBQ.