"TerribleTom" <SilverEightynine@aol.com> wrote in message
>
> Wow - I'm really surprised to hear SCORE disbanded. I think also, that
> this illustrates just what a fine orginization - or LACK of an
> orginization, that DML is lol. Our haphazard, loose, anrchist style is
> prolly what keeps us together!
>
> I was watching the BBQ Vids from last year, that I filmed. And not only
> are we not that structured - but we're more of a large family instead of
> a club. That more than anything, I think, keeps us together :)
If we're a "family," we're pretty a disfunctional one. I see where you're
going with this though, it seems that the DML is always there because
there's such a large member base and everything is all voluntary. If you
don't make it to a meet that's cool, eventually you'll make it to one (or
not) and get to meet the people you've gotten to know through the online
part of the club. As far as structure goes though, we're all slackers who
can (and do) sit around shooting the breeze all day tossing back a few cold
ones. The shenanigans make the DML what it is, it wouldn't be as fun if we
didn't have them. I think that any new attendees to the BBQ this year will
probably be able to tell us that one of the reasons they're going to attend
is because of all the fun (read: shenanigans) that we have/do while we're
there.
The first BBQ that I made it to I thought about something... The only
person in attendence that I had met before the BBQ was going to be Barry,
and that was only because I'd met him at earlier DML meets. I thought about
this and came to the conclusion that while we may not know eachother IRL, we
definately know eachother over the internets, and by the time a BBQ rolls
around, most of the members have had enough time to actually get to "know"
eachother so that when they're there together there's always lots to talk
about. Of course it helps that we're all geeks and gearheads too, not to
mention that some of us have "been there done that" or maybe even designed
something that'll "do that" or make "that" better.
The broad member base that we have here is what makes the DML so successful.
Well, that and the email format. Any yahoo can join an internet message
board and post nonsense but you have to really want to be a memeber, to be a
member of an email list. Granted, we may not stay on topic all the time (or
ever) but there's a definate sense of community here that I've yet to find
on another list/board of this type. I do belong to a few private
messageboards that have the sense of community we have here, but those are
all very small by comparison - 20 or 30 members to the DML's hundreds.
-- - Josh Lowered 2000 Dakota CC 3.9L I put on my robe and wizard hat.... www.omg-stfu.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 01 2005 - 00:13:21 EST