[Rich Z]

OK, I just sent out the invite email to all the clubs I have on the list above. Here's the email I sent in case anyone is interested:

Hello!

I hope you don't take this as an intrusion, but my options are limited in the manner in which I can contact you about this opportunity I wish to speak to you about.

Recently I have gotten the idea of setting up a message board forum exclusively for and about Florida Corvette owners and enthusiasts. Being a Florida resident myself, I found that I was looking for more locally oriented topics on the various message boards I have been frequenting, and the thought occurred to me that perhaps other people in my home state might be in the same boat. Things like where the best tuners are nearby. What shops can I trust to work on my car? What about local places to buy accessories? Where are the local clubs meeting and having their get togethers? When the next hurricane comes calling what are you all doing with your pride and joy? Or just some way to correspond with people with similar interests and in relatively close proximity.

Yes, I have been to most of the Florida based Corvette club websites, and although many are done well, I noticed something lacking in nearly all of them. Online interactivity. Meaning, there really was no way for anyone (even potential members) to intereact online with ANY of the members of the local clubs. None. When I got my Corvette, I would have sorely loved to have some place where I could exchange messages with other local enthusiasts. Some place where they all would have the same local concerns and interest that I have. But this capability just did not seem to exist.

Not one to try to nag someone else into doing what I thought was a darn good idea, I just went and decided to do it myself.

So just under 2 months ago, I set up http://www.CorvetteFlorida.com and began preparing it with some finishing touches to try to make it attractive and interesting to anyone interested in joining. Right now we only have 50 members, but in reality that is not all that bad for a site that is spreading solely by word of mouth and the enthusiasm of the current members to try to make this work.

So where, hopefully, do you come in? One of my original design goals was to offer any and all Florida based Corvette clubs the opportunity to have their very own forum on the site in which to have an online meeting place for their membership. This is offered for free. No strings attached and no hidden charges. And certainly no obligations on your part whatsoever about what you HAVE to do in return. You can come and go as you please. Anyone in the club can be assigned as the moderator of their own forum, and it is completely up to the moderator to control what is posted within that forum. If it is found prudent to do so, I can expand the forum with relevant subforums if that would be more helpful in segregating the posting in a more rational manner. But this is strictly optional and completely up to the club itself.

One side benefit of this will be a natural cross-pollination between all of the clubs and allow ALL of the members access to each of the other clubs' online membership. There are many local clubs that are close enough that some members may find it advantageous to become paid members of more then one of them. So this does present an opportunity for you to *sell* your club to people who may not otherwise have an inside view of the benefits of the expertise provided by your local members. Heck, from what I have seen, get up a good enough reason, and most Corvette owners would gladly drive across the state in order to attend ANY cruise or hangout. From another perspective, what about when some sort of pending legislation hits the books and you may be aware of it but perhaps no one else is? How are you going to reach EVERYONE that it will affect and perhaps get them motivated enough to contact their representatives? Do you already have a grapevine set up to do this or perhaps would a centralized meeting place be helpful in a situation like this? How QUICKLY can you get the word out right now?

So here is your chance to be able to DIRECTLY interface with all online Florida Corvette owners at one location. And it probably can't get much easier for you to be able to do so.

So now you are probably asking yourself "What is in it for THIS guy?" Probably not a whole lot, actually. I lease my own servers, and already run several other message boards for other interests I have. A couple of them are doing VERY well for me, so I do have the luxury of being able to do something like this without much cash outlay and very little in the way of real work. I manage sites like this all of the time already. Yes, maybe in the future some Corvette related businesses may be attracted to the site and wish to pay for advertising, and that would be fine with me, but I'm not holding my breath over it and nor am I going to lose any sleep if it doesn't happen. I happen to be VERY enthusiastic about the Z06 I bought recently, and having a place to just interact with a bunch of other people, all pretty much nearby, and just as excited about their cars as I am about mine, just excites me no end. Personally, I just think this could turn out to be one heck of a lot of fun.

So what do you think? Interested? Take a look and let me know what you think, either pro or con. If you need changes made, let me know, as nothing there is set in concrete. If you have a good suggestion that is technically feasible, then by all means I will make it happen. Or if you think it is just a bad idea completely, heck, lay it on me. My skin is pretty tough and I can take the criticism.

But if you are definitely interested in YOUR club participating, just let me know. Take a look at the format in the Florida Corvette Clubs section of the site to see what I will need from you: (1) Club title you want to have as the forum heading, and (2) A short description of the general topic matter you wish to see within your own forum. If you wish to be assigned the moderator of that forum, simply let me know. If you want subforums right off the bat, then that can be done as well with no trouble at all.

Anyway, I know this was rather long winded, and I do apologize for taking up so much of your time. I tend to run off a bit when I am excited about something, and I am REALLY excited about this.

So please, check it out and strongly consider joining us. We are already off to a fairly good start for a forum site so newly formed, and I think it is going to begin growing by leaps and bounds as the word spreads. I know all the other current members would sincerely welcome your participation along with us.

Thank you!

Now, let's cross our fingers and hope some of the clubs would like to join us.