07-02-2015, 11:12 AM
Zombie thread and I'm late to the show, per usual, but fascinating none the less. This club faces challenges that few other clubs do and only a good leadership team can handle it. What does that mean? What that means is that following club members will face the scrutiny of a active alumni base that will judge your success off of their success and many, like myself and Jake, consider our time there to be successful. I mean, Jake has been out of school for 4 years and is still involved. I remain tangentially involved, but will stick around as long as people are still driving cars at JMU.
Why?
Because MM gave me an outlet and brought me out of a weird, self-imposed isolationism. I've always had difficulty with developing friendships at school because I'm naturally an A-Type. Yet, Jake and I shared a class my sophomore year and he invited me in, despite my slight interest in cars. I was too much of an anxious person to step out and just join a club, so that invite meant everything to me. Sounds corny, but I still remember exactly where I was sitting when he asked me to check out MM.
Bottom line future leaders/club members: All clubs, anywhere, serve the essential social purpose that are necessary to be happy, healthy human beings. We may be into motors, motorcycles and road-racing but if our leadership lacks the social inclinations necessary to build strong relationships, then it will always be a failure. Some people, like Jake, are naturally gifted at it. Some other people, like myself, have a more difficult time with it and have to develop themselves, socially. I never really did that until I started working in a professional environment and it showed. This club can provide you with an opportunity to test out your abilities as a leader and your abilities with relationships. If you aren't good at either but want to learn, then this a great place to do that. If you don't want to learn and you have no neutral self-awareness, then you'll get roasted, and rightly so. I think this may be the underlying cause of what happened this past year. We had people interested in the title but not interested in learning some important lessons.
My 2 pennies, but hey, the forums are still up and the club still survives. The nice thing about having a weird-ass year like this past year is that there are a lot of lessons that can be learned for the future. Jake, archiving this was an excellent idea as it can help future leaders realign themselves when they start to get off track. Not throwing shade, Ryan et.al. I hope you guys can understand we just want to make this a good opportunity for everyone to connect and we hate to see politics block that.
I hope you guys remain involved and keep your chin up, even if you've graduated. This club offers a lot of good things, even if its a tough lesson or two.
Why?
Because MM gave me an outlet and brought me out of a weird, self-imposed isolationism. I've always had difficulty with developing friendships at school because I'm naturally an A-Type. Yet, Jake and I shared a class my sophomore year and he invited me in, despite my slight interest in cars. I was too much of an anxious person to step out and just join a club, so that invite meant everything to me. Sounds corny, but I still remember exactly where I was sitting when he asked me to check out MM.
Bottom line future leaders/club members: All clubs, anywhere, serve the essential social purpose that are necessary to be happy, healthy human beings. We may be into motors, motorcycles and road-racing but if our leadership lacks the social inclinations necessary to build strong relationships, then it will always be a failure. Some people, like Jake, are naturally gifted at it. Some other people, like myself, have a more difficult time with it and have to develop themselves, socially. I never really did that until I started working in a professional environment and it showed. This club can provide you with an opportunity to test out your abilities as a leader and your abilities with relationships. If you aren't good at either but want to learn, then this a great place to do that. If you don't want to learn and you have no neutral self-awareness, then you'll get roasted, and rightly so. I think this may be the underlying cause of what happened this past year. We had people interested in the title but not interested in learning some important lessons.
My 2 pennies, but hey, the forums are still up and the club still survives. The nice thing about having a weird-ass year like this past year is that there are a lot of lessons that can be learned for the future. Jake, archiving this was an excellent idea as it can help future leaders realign themselves when they start to get off track. Not throwing shade, Ryan et.al. I hope you guys can understand we just want to make this a good opportunity for everyone to connect and we hate to see politics block that.
I hope you guys remain involved and keep your chin up, even if you've graduated. This club offers a lot of good things, even if its a tough lesson or two.
2008 4Runner
1974 CB360
2015 FJ09
1974 CB360
2015 FJ09