We did make it over by my wife was not feeling well, she did try but in the end we just made for home....maybe next time

 

I had a great time. It was great to see everyone.







More pictures here:
http://dac.smugmug.com/gallery/3450648#P-1-15

 

Glad to see the Surprise! and meet some new members. Glad you all came out and made a great night! Hope you all had as good a night as we did!

PS- the waiter was NOT fired..they just told him to go home. He really appreciated our tip!

 

Great to see some long lost friends in those pictures....Wooottt - Thanks John for posting them

Donna

 

Which was...

 

That was a great time! It was nice to see old members, new members, everyone!

DaCrema - nice pics too

 

One of your previous Club Presidents - Michael Babs.

Donna

 

Renee and I just wanted to say that we had a great time and can't wait till the next event. Anyways drive safe and see everyone soon.

 

Thanks to all that attended - I had a great time - special thanks to John - no pics incriminating pictures of Krutty - as it should be. :-)

 

There is always .... NEXT TIME

 

I was very happy and suprised by the great turnout. I hope everyone had a good of a time as I did and hope to see everyone again soon. I am also happy to meet some new members as well.

I really did have a good time even though I had a serious look on my face in all the pics.

 

Hopefully Tom has a good picture of you. The light harted shots of you were out of focus. So it was the photographer's error. I did post those.

 

wow what a great turnout! It was great to see so many new faces...hope all you noobs had fun.

The surprise was that Michael Babischkin was there. He's a former prez of the club, and his moving to CA was the reason I became de facto queen...er..I mean, president of the club.

Jay, how many more appletinis did you have? I bet playing pool with you was ...interesting How late did you guys stay?

I didn't think our waiter was fired...just sent home early. Poor kid...3 jobs and one hour of sleep. No wonder the poor soul was barely functioning.

We need to make UJ's a regular "event" again, now that winter's coming. Whaddya all say?

 

I'm up for that as long as we can still do Mexican from time to time too!

 

That was a blast - always loved going to UJ's and last night was no exception. Great turnout, great food, great company! Anita's?

 

A good time and nice to see everyone! My only concern (assuming the service was atypical) with it being a 'regular' thing was the noise level. I found it impossible to hear anyone not next to me or across from me. I expect that 'clubing', but prefer to be able to talk at something like this.

I was a little disappointed in the place. I expected some British Pub ambiance. Aside from the menu it felt like just a typical football bar. Nothing wrong with that if your expecting it, just not what I expected last night.

 

This is one the reasons we did not stay, my wife feeling the way she did couldn't handle the noise. She also commented on the Football type bar thing vs a true British Pub type atmosphere.

As a newbie to DCMM, but an experienced member of different clubs, I find that it is difficult to get to know members in DCMM. I have been to a breakfast and found that it was hard to figure out who were members, customers and staff. There did not appear to be a central person to talk to and become aquainted. The run I went to was loads of fun but here again tough to really get to know members because you're running down the road, quick pit stops or a noisy lunch.

It seems to me that the club needs a location that it can meet at where new members can be introduced to everyone, maybe a bit more organized ? Thus an easier time fitting in and more enjoyment. The most communication that seems to happen is here on NAM.

I'm not complaining, just making an observation. I've noticed that there are member counts upwards of 300 members, but yet there seems to be mainly the same dozen or so folks turning up at these events. Is it that they (newbies) too have come to an event and felt a bit out of place or maybe they joined but really had no intention of participating ?

I understand that there are always core members who do the most work, that's true for any club but it seems like participation is low.

I do try my best to join in, it is just that my job is quite hectic right now. I watch the calender and hope that we won't be scheduled or have family commitments.

Maybe a new thread should be started to discuss ?

Cheers - Mike

 

I will add that the breakfast next weekend and my cookout the 29th are great places to talk and get to know folks! And not saying folks / the club shouldn't do the Union Jacks thing, just 'splaining why I'll probably pass on the next one.

 

It wasn't typical of our past visits. Normally, we're not directly under a speaker.
The waiter was operating on 1 hour of sleep...normally, service has been pretty good there.
I can do nothing about the ambience or lack thereof. I just go for the bangers and mash, and to make a fool of myself playing pool.

Mike, we get new members whom we never see. I'd say that's true for almost half of the paying members right now. I dunno why they join and then don't participate in events. All events are open to current members, but we obviously can't force anyone to attend.

The core group changes as is always the case with large groups of people.
I have been a member of DCMM almost since it's inception, and I've seen many faces come and go. Everyone has their reasons for moving on, all valid.

It's tough to find a centrally located meeting place that is large enough to host a big group, that isn't expensive and has parking (preferably free). UJ's, so far, has fit the bill. Our membership ranges, geographically, from western VA to Annapolis to northern MD. That's a lot of territory.
I would love to host a meet-n-greet for new members on a regular basis, but I live just north of Annapolis...a haul if you're coming from say Manassas. Also, I have one of the few homes that is large enough to host a large group. You see the quandry. Perhaps you might have ideas on how we might do this? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I'm sorry that you guys felt you had to leave. I tried to make the rounds to say hi to everyone and make them feel welcome. As membership liaison, I feel that's my role. I guess we all should've worn our badges.

Don't give up on UJ's, Mark...like I said, the noise level and lack of service wasn't typical.

 

OK, I'll try it again.

 

Mike- I am sorry that your wife wasn't feeling well and you had to leave early. I am also sorry that I didn't get to meet you guys. I do hope that you will come out to another event. Being in such a large group it is difficult to be able to talk to everyone. The noise level was NOT normal. I think someone wanted to hear over us and turned it up excessively loud.

Coming into the winter months, more of our events are casual meetings and dinners. Yes, it does seem that a lot of the same people come out to the events, those would be part of our core membership. Some of the larger runs pull more members in, but as in all groups in life, there are always core members.

Come on out to the breakfast next weekend, and you will be able to mingle with more than the "same" people. Sterling breakfasts seem to pull the largest crowds, and we all love to talk to MINI folk.

 

Sorry I didn't make it last night. I had a bachelorette party the night before and wasn't in the best of shape yesterday, even by 6:00 (i'm getting too old for this).

I know I'm a newbie, but I might suggest getting together at the Royal Mile Pub in Wheaton. It's a Scottish (not English) pub, but it's definitely pub-by and has some great food (can't wait for a cold day when I can have the Guiness and Beef Chili!).

 

Mike,

I'm sorry that you guys didn't stay. How long were you there? What time did you leave? I apologize, I am just trying to remember if I met you and your wife or not...

I agree it was very loud in the area we were sitting... usually when we've been there, we ate out in the alcove area in front, and it wasn't as loud. It probably didn't help that the Redskins first game was just prior to us showing up - they probably had the volume turned up for the game and never turned it down.

As for it being a "sports bar", may I remind you that British Pubs are ALL about sports too? What do you think they do at the pubs there - they watch football! (which is soccer to us, of course. ) Those soccer hooligans would make most NFL football fans sound like librarians!

I agree it isn't quite as authentic as a "real" British pub would be, but they've tried to decorate it with a strong English theme, and they carry English food & beer, so it's still a fun place to go. A real British pub design probably wouldn't be able to seat 24 people in 1 area though.

I hope that you and your wife consider come out to the MINI of Sterling breakfast on Saturday. I will make it a point here and now to suggest to all members to please wear your membership badges, so that people new to the club feel that they can come up and say hello (as we should too!).

There is no one "central" person to talk to - but we're a friendly bunch of people and we're always happy to talk with new members. We had 7 new members (or soon-to-be members) join us for the dinner last night, and 4 of them even stayed on to shoot some pool afterwards!

The "core" members point is valid, but that's only because those people choose to come to a large percentage of events. Anyone can be a core member, just keep showing up. We're not a clique, you know.

Looking forward to getting another chance to get to know you soon.

 

Guys,

Thanks, I'm not upset or ready to say this club sucks, not at all

After getting off from work I headed on home to find my wife not feeling well, she said she would give it a whirl since we really had no idea how UJ's would be.

We've been to England twice and I love beer (pints o' bitter actually ) so we were down th' pub quite a bit and I would say that UJ's really is a Yank's spin on a pub. The pubs around England (London, Cambridge, Colchester, Cheshunt, Wormingford, etc) we hit were not sport based, in fact, no football or Rugger "colors" were allowed at many of them.

Around here we frequent the Phoenix Emporium, Ellicott Mills Brewing and Ram's Head Savage quite a bit, they're rather tame, though Ram's can gets loud at the bar and down in the pool room area. But we figured we'd give it a go.

So we made it over about 15 minutes late, wonderfully slow traffic on the westbound beltway was to blame. We popped into the pub and my wife said it was a bit much so we just bailed rather than trying to make an attempt to join in. I'm sure if she had felt better we would have stayed, she does some concert photography, so loud places are the norm.

I guess I've just had some bad luck/timing getting to know you guys and really my own particpation has been low as I pointed out. I love my job but too much of a good thing is just that However, even though love makes the world turn, money sure makes paying the bills easier

We are dealing with some hefty issues at work right now and I'm not sure I'll be off this weekend or really any weekend in September. I would like to come over for the breakfast, my Brother lives right in Assburn.....uuhhhh I mean Ashburn so I could pop in his place afterwards and see him and my favorite nieces too !

I completely understand the distance and facility problems, I guess the breakfast get togethers are the next best thing and the badges will help us newbies to join in. I'll see how things go.

Cheers,

Mike

Check out the thread on Burtonsville

 

I know you're not upset, but I just wanted to explain the difficulty of getting a lot of members in one place. The breakfasts really are the best venues to meet other members. Wear your DCMM member badge and don't be shy about talking to folks.

I hope, if and when we do UJ's again, you'll give it a second chance, and join us. Those get-togethers are never dull.