Happy 10 Year Anniversary NJFBOA!

[maroman88]

I think the new members need a history lesson of how this came to be....

[NJSPEEDER]

The short (and edited for all audiences) version is that there was another club started by a young lady from south Jersey. She had a lot of grand ideas but was new to both cars and car clubs so the direction was shaky at best.

After several of us pointed out the shaky grounds on which the club was resting a small internet skirmish broke out, arguing, accusations, people getting banned from the existing club..............the usual website/club demise kinda stuff.

Tru2Chevy, Little G, Pbody87GT, and myself had all been friends for a while at this point and were hanging out when things kinda came to a head. So possibly partially inspired by beer and the rest inspired by being pissed off I threw a credit card at Tru2Chevy and told him to get us a website. He wheeled around without missing a beat and said we needed a name to which Little G blurted out what has been the name of the club since. You seriously have to imagine this part happening real time, it probably takes longer to read than it actually took to have that conversation.

Since the other club and the related butt hurt still existed at that point we basically went on AIM (as Deadtrend mentioned) and email and started messaging pretty much everyone we knew to sign up. I don't remember the exact order or who came on when but I know j0n, BigAl, 12secondV6, CamaroRacer (PA Joe), Squirrel, PamperedZ, ProjectZ28, and several others jumped on board that night or shortly after and it started to run.

We joked about hitting 200 members or whatever the old club had and then that happened with in a week or so, then we joked about hitting 500 and passed that mark with in months. It ran away from there.

The first club meet was actually in September of that same year and for years stood as the largest attendance we had at a regular meet, I think it was around 50 people and 35 cars or something ridiculous like that and was held at what has become the traditional host of the January monthly meet, the Firkin Tavern in Ewing.

In the early days we would actually experience down time because we vastly underestimated the activity level. We used up our bandwidth several times and got scolded then basically kicked off the original server after we had a really big day and lagged out ever website hosted there. lol

We had some great luck with some great people joining up very early on. CamaroDiva saw the flyers we hung up at Island (including the one a nice young woman hung for us in the ladys restroom) and became a very vocal supporter, the folks down at Atco let us run with some promotion and shenanigans as well. Early members like BigAl, PamperedZ, and many others that were well known on lots of other forums helped promote everything we did and championed the cause as we continued to rip off every good idea we could flush out of the mountains of successful marque specific and regional club sites that exist.

There are a lot more details and many more stars of the early days of the club but that covers the basics.

Perhaps this fall when Little G is home we will have to write up a more long winded brief history of the NJFBOA for everyone to enjoy.

-Tim

[Little G]

Oh my I can't believe this has been going for 10 years. I do remember the beginnings quite well though don't recall naming the site. It's been a long time since I owned an Fbody and indeed a long time since I've been on the site. I've relocated to London and have lived here for nearly 5 years now so have gone quite dormant. It's good to come back and see all that's been going on and that it is still a thriving community. There are a great bunch of people here who have helped me tremendously over the years. Congrats to all the hard-working people that keep the community going.

All the best!!

g

[Mike]

Oh my it's a reunion and an anniversary all rolled into one

[ar0ck]

I actually found one of the original flyers I had printed back for our first meet at Fuddruckers, thats where I met a lot of people!

This is the oldest thing I could find in my archives, but its only 2008,

[NJSPEEDER]

Wow. That's from days of way back.

I'm just waiting for Tru2Chevy to check in with my lovely "artwork" for some of the early flyers before we had the help of talented people like you to help with the flyers, banners, and other such things. lol

-Tim

[sweetbmxrider]

We need a solid throwback meet guys, when the weather is decent and people are around.

[BonzoHansen]

Next month at Island is a good place, or November at Atco...

[LTb1ow]

Nov at Atco sounds like a good time, some grilling, hot chocolate and race gas

[sweetbmxrider]

Ya but its a weekday if we are talking about the rental. I was thinking more like spring next year. Get the word out to the OG crew, alex will be back, other faces may pop up. Do it at the firkin or somewhere with decent room and no haggling about hanging out.

[BonzoHansen]

January at the Firkin is good too.

[The BIG Show]

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

must write new newsletter tonight....

Flintstones song..........rotflmao!!!!!!

[The BIG Show]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

Hard to believe we took this site public 10 years ago today.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has helped make this club what it is today!

- Justin

Happy Birthday to us. Wish I could be around more. I found an old newspaper article about Cops-n-Rodders from April of 2001, so I guess "we" are not there, but maybe some of the members remember. Now let me see if I can figure out how to attach a photo.....

[The BIG Show]

Originally Posted by ar0ck

I actually found one of the original flyers I had printed back for our first meet at Fuddruckers, thats where I met a lot of people!

This is the oldest thing I could find in my archives, but its only 2008,

Ahhhhhh, Fudds. Good times. Too bad the one in Bridgewater has been gone for a while. Definitely good memories.

[BigAls87Z28]

****, ten years? I've been a member for 1/3 of my life.

[89 Trans Am WS6]

Oh Happy Birthday NJFBOA!! Time sure does fly! I remember the early days, and the club confusions lol.

I got a old NJFBOA flyer and lots of pics somewhere at my moms house..got to find some!

Heres a throwback of my old 89 TA and a flyer from the "other" previously mentioned club..lol

Good to see everyones still for the most part into the hobby!

PS: I def remember getting the AIM msg to join..from whom I dont remember...Alex or Justin id assume...hrm

Proud member of the Aug 04 Join date club

[Tru2Chevy]

Originally Posted by 89 Trans Am WS6

I got a old NJFBOA flyer and lots of pics somewhere at my moms house..got to find some!

That's not our flyer - look closely.

- Justin

[Tru2Chevy]

Originally Posted by ar0ck

I actually found one of the original flyers I had printed back for our first meet at Fuddruckers, thats where I met a lot of people!

I actually still have a few of the 4x6 glossy flyers that you printed for us when you worked at the photo lab.

I think it was this design: http://www.njfboa.org/JustinImages/Flyer3.jpg

- Justin

[Tru2Chevy]

Originally Posted by NJSPEEDER

I'm just waiting for Tru2Chevy to check in with my lovely "artwork" for some of the early flyers before we had the help of talented people like you to help with the flyers, banners, and other such things.

Oh geeze. Yes, back when Tim and I did everything around here, this is what would happen. Tim would show up at my house, grab a beer from the fridge, and then pull this out of his club notebook:



And a few beers later, I would turn out something like this:



Fortunately it wasn't much later that we got some pro design help

- Justin

[89 Trans Am WS6]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

That's not our flyer - look closely.

- Justin

I know that..could be my post arrangement that made it confusing but what I wrote was

"I got a old NJFBOA flyer and lots of pics ***somewhere at my moms house..got to find some!***

Heres a throwback of my old 89 TA **and a flyer from the "other" previously mentioned club..lol"**

Was the oldest thing i had a pic of on my phone figured it could add a visual to Tims story..lol. I do have some of Alex's photo lab ones somewhere...but small ones..the standard picture size ones..4x6 or whatever.

[sweetbmxrider]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

That's not our flyer - look closely.

- Justin

That's not what he said - read closely.

[ThoR294]

first meet I think I went to was at Chili's in flemington years back lol. probably the only club i know that has no drama

[Tru2Chevy]

Originally Posted by 89 Trans Am WS6

I know that..could be my post arrangement that made it confusing but what I wrote was

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

That's not what he said - read closely.

Yea, that's what I get for trying to multi-task at work.

- Justin

[Ian]

Originally Posted by BigAls87Z28

****, ten years? I've been a member for 1/3 of my life.

My thoughts exactly!

[damon_Z]

Congratulations.