We haven't got all the details ironed out yet but this is what we have:

On Saturday April 5th we would like to invite any MINI owners that are interested in being a part of a Florida MINI club to come out and share your opinions and two cents with us, the Club Formation Committee. Items up for discussion: The club name, club logo, club officers, club purpose/goals and anything else you might want to bring up. This is your chance to nominate someone for a club office.

This event will take place on Saturday April 5th in central Florida. We have not nailed down a final location but as soon as we do I'll post that information in this thread.

Mark you calendars and plan on attending so you can throw your two cents into the ongoing effort to get the Florida club motoring! More information later.

_________________

Member #47

2002 Dark Silver Mini S white roof and mirrors with Premium and Sport pkgs.
He has come and his name is MINI ME

 

I'll try to make it up to that so please keep me posted...I won't be able to make it up to Spring Thing unfortunately so hopefully I'll make it up to this and get to hear what you all have planned. Interest down here in Miami seems to have dwindled quite a bit which is very unfortuanate do to the high # of MINI's that we have roaming the streets so anything we can do to fire up interest once again would be great. I'm not really interested in being any kind of "official" but I'd be glad to be a point of contact down in the South to get as many people as possible involved again.

Armando

 

This is just my .02, Living in South Florida and a MINI owner I heard about this club forming and was very excited. It was started by a lady who had so much energy that her ideas and vision was exciting. Then it all fell apart because someone said something to someone else and everyone got mad. The group (IMHO) never recovered and fell apart. So now another one has started to form. People were giving ideas and thoughts. Some good and some funny and some both. As things started to fall in place I was dissed on a few threads about the logo and the name of the club. No big deal. Being that I have a good sence of humor I tend to not let the little things bother me. I can give a crap what people do as long as it dosen't effect my life. But to start off posting like that, it will not get you much support.
If anyone gets upset by people taking the "Bull by the Horns" then to me those people need to either step up or sit and watch, not undermine someone's vision. Reading threads that some people already appointed themselves officers is no big deal to me. Hey I thought it was good that you all did because nobody else was coming forward. I was asked to join in but I cannot commit the proper amount of time it would take to assist. Being married, a father of two daughters and work, my free time is limited. Also something that is a problem for us down here is the communication issue. We are 350 miles apart give or take. Meetings need to done face to face, not in a chat room or P.M.ing. Don't get me wrong, I will join both clubs even if the one down here is formed but you have to admit it will be hard to get together for meetings. Truely I feel that a state club, with local chapters is the way to go. Local chapters meet monthly and then everyone meets all together in a different region of the state either annually, twice a year or every quarter. Local chapters run rallys,auto-x's, entertainment, setup hotel accomidations, etc. Just like HOG (Harley Owners Group), which I have been a member for many years. They are a worldwide, national, state and local chapter organization thats been around for ever. Just a thought.
I have heard that there might be a few people down here wanting to form a South Florida MINI Club. I am not aware of it but I will be looking at this as an option. So bottom line is, if you all up there in the north of the Orlando area to J-ville want to start a club, GREAT. Then we all can form local chapters, we can ALL (local chapters) get together in Orlando because it is central and work this state organization out and make it happen. Elect officers write the charter and get it formed right. This way nobody feels left out and nobody can say they were not included. Otherwise we are going to have little clubs that will start gung-ho and then slowly fade away. I believe this is the direction to go. Hopefully it will become a reality and the Florida MINI Club of America will be as strong as the MINI is!!!! feel free to pm me with your thoughts if you do not want to post them on this thread. Or feel free to add your opinion's to this idea. If your for it or against it, something needs to be done for it to work.
___

 

I live in Dunedin, on the West coast, near Clearwater and will attend the Apr 5th central FL meet, so keep me posted. I can understand why people would like to form separate clubs for their own areas though. As fun as the MINI is to drive, not many owners want to drive halfway up the state to meet. But, the more people who commit to going should result in more people wanting to go. It'd be great to see at least 50 MINIs at this meet. There are over 2000 MINIs in FL. Unfortunately, it seems as the majority of the owners are not MCO regulars so getting the word out will be difficult. Minimotorin, if you want it to be a success, I suggest PMing on MCO & MINI2, emailing, calling and whatever other means you have to contact FL MINI owners. If you have phone numbers in the Tampa Bay area I'll do some calling.

 

Yep. We have a list of folks that have attended other meets and will PM or email them when we have the details worked out. Thanks for the interest.

 

I'll be at the 4/5 meet... I'm all for democracy!

T

 

Greetings,
Keep me posted on the details and we will try to make it on 4/5. Give me a time and location.
Thanks for your efforts!!!
Regards,
Ron

'03 MCS ps/b

 

aye, i'll be attending the meet on 4/5 (hopefully my mini will be here by then, she's currently at the docks waiting to get put on a boat...)

in the interest of helping, i nominate my services to be the host of this event.
i go to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, and i'd be more than happy to try and get one of the rooms here at school (and there are rooms a plenty).

there are a bajillion +1 restaurants on Int'l Speedway boulevard, etc. etc. the accomodations here are well suited for holding events.

theres a remote chance that parking on campus could be an issue, but if you guys want to do the meet here i will talk to parking services and see if anything needs to be arranged.

-adam
aim: zherocharisma
email: admar_moondog@hotmail.com

_________________
Morgan: jet black mini cooper, matching roof, 15" alloys, sport seats in panther black
ooo, the wait is killing me!
morgan is at production status: 152!!

 

i've been scouting locations in the clermont area for the meet. i grew up there and know lots of curvy roads for fun motoring. i'm just trying to find a place we can all meet up and hang out. i was gonna head back out there today but the weather got a little ugly and i was little hung over this morning :smile:

i'll have more to report soon!

 

>>i've been scouting locations in the clermont area for the meet. i grew up there and know lots of curvy roads for fun motoring. i'm just trying to find a place we can all meet up and hang out. i was gonna head back out there today but the weather got a little ugly and i was little hung over this morning :smile:
>>
>>i'll have more to report soon!


Lake county has the best roads in Florida for Mini motoring...hills and curves

 

ok, here's the scouting report from the first trip through my old stomping grounds...

there's a few car clubs that meet on different nights of the week at the citrus tower so it has jumped to the top of my list for possible meeting points.

1. easy to find, you can see it miles away
2. lots of parking
3. its near the curvy roads

clermont has absolutely exploded since i left to go off to college. we'll have to drive a little further out to get some good motoring ground than we used to in my day! i'm thinking old hwy 50 to 455 through montverde, up sugarloaf mountain. i haven't figured out the rest of the route though. there's a mexican resaurant in the bottom of the citrus tower now. i heard its good. it used to be a generic diner with a breakfast buffet. the kiwanis club used to meet there all the time. it used to be you could see citrus trees from the citrus tower but now all you can see is houses and apartments.

i'm still considering other locations though. there are two small pavilions down by the lake but you have to pay to park now (grrrrr...) and its not as easy to find as the citrus tower.

more news to follow later...

 

Sweet, I live in Clermont. Rock on..

I might have a Middle School that has a BIG parking lot and Lunch Room with sound system we can use. Let me ask. It is in Windemere.

Cheers

_________________

 

cool! maybe we could meet up by the citrus tower (easy to find) and then motor through the back roads to windermere... that would be excellent! :smile:

 

>>Sweet, I live in Clermont. Rock on..
>>
>>I might have a Middle School that has a BIG parking lot and Lunch Room with sound system we can use. Let me ask. It is in Windemere.
>>
>>Cheers

That would be cool. Anyone have any cones they can bring? If the school doesn't object we could set up a small Auto-X course and go at it after the meeting.

 

i saw cones at home depot fairly cheap, i can pick some up. how many would we need?

 

>>That would be cool. Anyone have any cones they can bring? If the school doesn't object we could set up a small Auto-X course and go at it after the meeting.

That could be difficult.....There are all kinds of legal issues in doing something like that. Not to rain on your parade, but when you involve third parties, insurance issues can cause a problem. Especially at a public facility. If you wanted to do an autocross on private property, let the fun begin! Unfortunately, I am more than sure that everything would have to be straight and legal.

http://www.buccaneersolo.org
http://www.cflscca.org
http://www.floridaracer.com
http://www.floridaregionscca.com
http://www.scca.org

If you would like to autocross check out one of these pages. I personally would love to find a place to whip around some cones and show you guys how to toss around a MINI! =) Unfortnately big brother really cares about us.

 

True, insurance issues.

If we want to use the parking lot or a facility for the meeting.
First off we need to be non-profit.
Second we need a certificate of insurance, incase something breaks at the school that we are using.

If we can get the certificate of insurance then we can use the parking lot (NOT TO RACE), and a class room or cafetieria. This is for any OCPS school facility.

I need feedback asap. The certificate is the breaker.

 

You're right Electrc109, I forgot we live in the USA, land of insurance companies, HMOs, and lawyers.

_________________
[img]/albums/album25/aem.gif[/img]
“The Speed of Time is One Second per Second"

 

in reference to a certificate of insurance, unfortunately we will need to have established the club in order to do something like that. I believe that insurance for a non-profit organization is about a thousand dollars per year.

 

It is soley based on the amount of coverage you want. Usually a $1,000,000.00 policy is the minumum you want to have. And the cost is not that much.

 

i dont know about you guys, but this whole deal using a school as a meeting place is getting mighty complicated, with certificates of insurance and all.

considering that we are not even a club yet, i think we need to be concerning ourselves with actually getting together, not trying to figure out insurance policy would work best for us.

for the time being, i see us as a bunch of fanatics looking to get together to form a club. we arent a real club yet, so there shouldnt be worrying.

but what do i know? i'm just a kid.

 

careful of Windermere...notorious for "3 mile over the speed limit" tickets

I love the idea of Lake County swervy curvy roads

I'm torn between serendipitous sightings and "I would never join a club that would have anyone like me as a member"...

 

maybe to avoid litigation we can just meet at the tower, drive around some curvy curvy roads, come back to the tower, shoot this shizzle, eat some fizzle and that's that.

i know there is a classic car club that meets at the tower on thursday night so i don't think they'd be shocked if a bunch of car freaks showed up.

i forgot about the windermere cops too. they are notorious for hiding behind bushes like they're playing friggin hide and seek...

 

I agree, if and when we get organized, maybe we can go to the school. The also have a small oval (bus loop)...lol

The Windermere cops, are not an issue, as I do not go thru that town for any reason, nor would the directions from Clermont. we go thru Gotha.

So lets have fun at Citrus Tower, What are the times, for the meeting?.

 

What time?? We will try to make it...
Ron
'03 MCS PS/B