Stovebolt.com Forums The Side Lot Rocky Mountain Bolters Ideas for Summer

I know it is still a bit early, but with the storm about to come through here I am really looking forward to summer.

I would like to try and get some activities set up for the Rocky Mountain group, but I can't do that without support from other members. My first question for the crew is: What are you interested in? Some ideas:

1. Would people be up for kind of large meet-up somewhere central? With the fairly tall aspect ratio of our map it would take some thought to decide where to meet, but that is certainly doable. It could take the form of a GABFest (https://www.stovebolt.com/events/) or be something less formal depending on what we could find as a venue.

2. We could schedule some smaller (monthly?) meet-ups in a few places for the locals. I know that one of the car clubs here in the Boise area has a deal with a local restaurant to use their parking lot for a weekly meet-up and gets discounted food. Weekly would probably be too much for me, but I would be happy to look into somewhere that we could do a monthly get together.

3. I personally find that doing projects is a lot more fun with other people. Would members be interested in some kind of a schedule (logistics to be figured out later) to work together on projects? As an example, I might say I am going to take my front clip off on Feb 4 if anyone local-ish wanted to come over for smoked meats and to lend a hand.

4. Make a list of specialty tools and/or skills that members would be willing to loan out or help with in the group? As an example, I have a 36" wide vinyl cutter that I use to make stickers, paint stencils, shirts, magnets, etc. I would be willing to make things for members just for fun. I also have a 4x4 CNC gantry mill and a 40x16 lathe available, a fairly comprehensive set of LS specific tools, a cherry picker, a transmission jack, and a very nice soldering rig. I don't know what kinds of tools/skills others might have, but having a list somewhere that we could look for a local member with a tool we need could be nice. This one has some potential privacy implications. I don't know if we can make specific threads require a login? Maybe if that list was in a sub-forum? If people are interested in this, I can talk to John/Peggy about the logistics.

5. Other?

What do you all think? Anyone have better ideas?

To add a couple more ideas:

6. Have a sticky list of upcoming local events that could be relevant to members. I know there is a "classic chevrolet only" car show in Mountain Home every year and Firebird Raceway does swap meets occasionally. I could maintain a list of things in my area and if people wanted to give me more things from their areas, we could keep a sticky calendar of upcoming events.

7. One thing that I have thought would be fun would be to get truck calendars printed. They can be ordered online pretty reasonably. We could meet up in a few places around the area and take good pictures of our trucks and publish them in a calendar. I know I would be willing to be the photographer for the Treasure Valley (and anyone that wanted to come here). We could meet up at one of the scenic parks (Anne Morrison?) for a picnic/bbq and do a photo shoot.

The privacy issue: for the Annual Reunion in KC, we had personal info sent to us in a PM (like phone #, address, etc.). The other stuff was posted in the Forum. That worked out fine. We had somewhat of a phone tree one year since so many were coming from out of the area. It gave them an emergency contact.

In the recent KC Reunion wrap up for 2007, it came in handy when Cletis broke down on his way back to Texas.

Would people be interested in a rough map of where others live? Something like the attached map from the Midwest group? That is something that I would be able/willing to manage if people wanted to give me their approximate locations.

Lets say I will put that together if I get 10 bolters who are interested (9 other than me). Once it is made, then it can be updated as more people are interested.

The swap meet at firebird is coming up in April -



-Jim