Hello Everyone,

A reminder - Our NEXT club meeting for the CTZCC is at Miller Nissan in Fairfield

When: Wednesday June 21, 6:00 to 8:30PM - Rain Date: June 28

Where: Miller Nissan – 930 Kings Hwy East, Fairfield, CT 06825

Please visit our online discussion forums for full details and updates, especially if the weather looks questionable that evening.
Members and their guests can arrive between 6 and 6:30PM to gather in the parking lot and get reacquainted. Always fun!
Food and beverages will be provided by Miller Nissan around 6:30PM!

Meeting Agenda:
- Introductions
- New Members Intro
- Upcoming Event Planning
- Shirts / CTZCC logos planning
- Z Story (s)
- Other??

Bring your Z if you can and enjoy meeting with your fellow Z enthusiast.

Please confirm your attendance by than Monday June 19 so we can get a headcount to ensure that we have enough food and drinks for this meeting.

Pls email me at marcosjuan@comcast.net to confirm your attendance.

I look forward to seeing you there!

_________________
Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Juan,

Was there a CTZCC meeting at Miller this past Wednesday, 6/21? I wasn't able to attend ad would like to know how it went.

Phil

_________________
Phil
1981 280zxt - Now in the care my son!
2014 370Z Sports Touring Roadster

Hi, Uncle Philly!

Yes, about two doZen of us had a meeting, but it was a little unusual. Miller had to lock us out at 19:00 so we had less than a full hour for the actual meeting. The piZZa arrived very early too, so as soon as we arrived we were guided inside to eat and find a seat.

Juan had a very neat and well-prepared visual presentation for us, but it involved a subject which required far more than 20 minutes to discuss (possible new Club logo, new shirts and caps, etc). So we didn't get thru the entire discussion. We got locked out at 7PM and tried to take some of the piZZa outside to the windy parkinglot and schmooZe out there. I saw 19 cars and some were actually arriving after we had been locked out.

So it was good to Zee everybody again, but our time was cut unusually short. I didn't even have time to take pictures. An hour-long parkinglot on I-95 after the meeting put the cherry on our sundae.

We'll have to hope for a do-over at the next meeting, except for the highway backup.

Frank T

_________________
1970 240Z

Hello Everyone,

Great to see everyone, a good get-togeher last Wednesday, if somewhat discombobulated, as Frank pointed out, the pizza as delivered before we arrived and they locked us out at 7 pm, which did not leave enough time to finish as a group our logo and shirts discussion.

But, it was still nice for Miller Nissan to host us and we did get to see the Zs and continued the discussion about a new logo and shirts/hats/stickers. My takeways:

1. Can the hat be embroidered? There were some comments that the embroidered is preferable to a sublimated patch, and I agree.

2. There were split opinions on the logo that Brendan designed and was reworked by Kris Squires to make it more embroiderable. Personally I like it, the one change I would make to it is to put a black edge on the gray Z. There were also questions as to whether the car outlines would show up well or at all.

3. The cost seemed high for polo shirts and we should look at other suppliers, and I did get some more suppliers contacts.

So relative to the logo, and shirts/hats we will take it a bit slower now. If anyone else - artistically inclined or not! - wants to propose another logo - please do, for now we have our current logo (which I like a lot!) and some variations on the Brendan logo. Please email me at marcosjuan@comcast.net any new logo ideas.

To be continued!

By the way at the end of the meeting, Paul Miller told us that they are getting another 2023 Z allocation, not sure exactly when, but they will let us know - in case anyone is interested!

Our next meeting is July 26 or Aug 2 at Middletown Nissan.

Here are some pictures from the June 21 meeting.

_________________
Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Good meeting Juan!

This is just my opinion, but with regards to the proposed club logo's, I personally don't see the need in changing it. The current logo is a result of changes made previously and this current version seems to be fine to me. I do agree that with the proposed version, although very cool, I feel that the actual proposed car outline graphics will probably not show well when embroidered. I have old merchandise that had the old logo's and some with current logos's (3 logos in all I think) and would still purchase new merchandise regardless of the fact that the logo gets changed or not.

It was good seeing Alan again with his camera so I suspect he will be sending in a few pictures as well. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting in Middletown.

_________________
John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner

I personally don't understand why we would want to change our logo in the first place. It's been our world-wide standard for over a doZen years and is literally known around the world. More than 800 CTZCC members recognize it as our identity. Our Club decals appear on Z cars in many states and foreign countries. All our old hard-earned trophies bear our well-known logo as well.

We are living in an era where it's considered "good" to change everything, simply for the sake of change. I strongly disagree. If it ain't "broke", don't "fix" it.

What we do need (as we initially discussed at our final meeting last Zeason) are new decals, caps, T-shirts, jackets, windbreakers, thongs ( ), hoodies, and collared Polo shirts with our existing Club logo on them. Since Keith honorably retired from his position as Merch Czar, we have simply worn out our existing supply. They are becoming threadbare and unserviceable. We need to find a supplier(s) to replace our wardrobe.

Further, the Club Kitty was fronting Keith with a small fund which let him order these items in past years. Selling them to the members repaid that investment and built a slow positive cashflow into the Kitty. Keith never took a nickel for himself; all profit went to the Club. At that time we were also holding annual Z car shows which charged $20 per car to enter, and constituted our major Club income. The Club Kitty grew slowly over the years, enabling Keith to maintain a slow constant flow of new clothing items bearing our established Club logo, provide trophies at the Z Car Shows, pay for the Annual Fall Outing picnic, send flower memorials to Club funerals and keep our Cholesterol high during the monthly meetings. We also accepted some individual donations, and parted-out some gift Z cars at bargain prices for Club members. That way we remained the largest, most-popular, best-known DUES-FREE Z Club in existence.

Today those forms of income no longer exist, so we don't have the wherewithal to front $1400 for new "stuff". Forty-piece orders are outside our reach at this moment until we rebuild the Kitty. (Keith seldom had more than a doZen different items for sale at a time). I don't see us affording new artwork and 40-piece orders at this time, and doubt we will ever have need for such a large order at once.

I feel we need new suppliers (or the old ones!) who can begin trickling-in fresh items at a reasonable rate, so we can rebuild our small-profit Merch program and outfit our Clubbies in fresh gear. Keith's old contacts may still have our original artwork, and the new Merch Czar(s) should be put in touch with them to resume our old process of supplying new MerchandiZe at the volume we had before.

Just my 2 cents. We'll see what the Vote says.

Frank T

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1970 240Z

Frank, thanks for your 2 cents! I appreciate your longtime perspective.

A couple of points, perhaps not made clear previously.

The idea with the new logo design was not to replace the current logo rather to supplement. Not a replacement, I like the long-time official logo and that stays.

The cost of shirts AND hats AND polos AND stickers is way too much to do all at once. So, we will have to take it slow to build the "kitty." Perhaps stickers first, then hats, etc.

Back to the logo. I do like the idea of a logo design that ties the history of the Z design from the original 1970 to the current 2023. Brendan's logo design sort of does that, however it turned out not be embroidarable. Perhaps it can be changed to be more embroiderable, and more compact for stickers. That's why I asked for a change, and then perhaps we can entertain that.

To be continued...

_________________
Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX