South East Scoobies

[Rdlangy1]

Not a trick question - but I wondered what's the history of the site - how did it start? By whom? What's its origins?

Gotta say I've been a member of corsasport, club Astra, total Vauxhall and Total ford, and SES is the most helpful and friendly group I've ever been honoured to join...

Those I've met at meets are fantastic and very honest people which for a young owner is hard to come by...

So what's the history behind the site and its founding members? And also its current moderators?

Ryan

[555_Si]

The onky reason i still have a scoob........or two �� is because of SES, very nice helpful bunch. I am not so clued up on history, i have a vague idea.

[Rdlangy1]

Well I gotta say so far - u and Jo included - are a great bunch!!! Steve, Dave, wanda, big e, rob, amazing bunch of people and very welcoming and helpful and the events and meets are better than any group I've been a part of before! But yeah if the mods wanna shed some light on the history - just being nosey I guess

[Banstead Stig]

I don't know the full history either, but I find Subaru to have a good community spirit.

Here, Surrey Scoobies and subaruforester.org all have friendly and helpful members with good meets and people who help each other out in the real world as well as the virtual world!

Could be I'm just lucky to know the three good 'uns!

[Ginola]

SilverSurfer, BigE & Steve do most of the organising behind the scenes!

I have stayed active on SES when I have hardly posted on many of the other subaru owners forums I am subscribed too, I have to go with the above post Subaru do seem to have good community spirit and SES has a particularly good one

As for history, There is a long and colourful one!

[Rdlangy1]

So who started the site? Again am amazed by the people I've met but wondered bout history behind SES in particular...it seems so we'll run and thought out its a credit to all those behind the scenes...

[XRS]

I agree. Those responsible should own up and tell their story

[alfa male]

I like this thread. Good post.

[Lucky]

Ok. SES was launched in September 2008. We were all members of another club, Sussex scoobies, when 2 (worzel and crowman who are no longer members) started SES. They both then left at a later date (the colourful bit!) and stevePPP and Silversurfer took the reigns and with the help of others, particularly BIG'E' got it to how it is today. And all credit to them as I agree it's one of the friendliest and most informative clubs around. There are lots of original members still on here and active today, too many to mention, but each has contributed an enormous amount to the club whether is technical , Scott, ginola, CJ etc, or events organising, stevePPP, BIG'E'. Admin are SILVERSURFER, and STEVEPPP. Current mods are BIG'E', ginola, hongkongfooi, myself , bluebugeye and SUBERMAN.

ive owned scoobs since 2004 and more recently have been in and out of ownership but it's nice even when I don't own one to still be involved in a club like this. It's great to get some positive feedback too

[Rdlangy1]

Well u guys have done amazing work and all credit to u all great to get some history too!

[Steve_PPP]

Lucky's covered most of it.....

I can't remember the full details these days of why Sussex Scoobies went offline for a while... which led to Worzel and Crowman creating SES as a replacement in 2008. They ran the club/forum (with help from ThePieman) until about 3 years ago. During that time, Big'E' and I were the events organisers.

Then it went a bit wonky for various reasons (the colourful bit) and the forum had some technical issues as well. All in the past now, but the bottom line was that Silversurfer and I took over to keep the club and forum running. We've tried to build on things since then whilst catering all types of members, young and old

[Scott.T]

Thanks for all the positive comments above it is really appreciated.
To add to what Lucky has posted above :

Myself (previously known as Scott.T, which is my username on all other forums except SES) and Keith (Subarman) first met back in around the year '2000' and had our first meet at The Lamb Inn on the A259 between Hastings and Eastbourne.

The first meet consisted of 2 people (Keith and I) and was arranged via Scoobynet.

Then through a friend with a Lotus Carlton (Reg No. L9 TUS) we arranged a car meet at Coopers Pub, Stonecross Eastbourne.
The meet consisted of 1 Lotus Carlton and a handful of Subaru Impreza's and 'Sussex Scoobies' was born and a forum was setup.

Sussex Scoobies continued to run fairly successfully with monthly meets, but it didn't really extend beyond that.

A few of us wanted to push Sussex Scoobies on/out further with merchandise and a visible attendance at local/national events. This caused some friction with the Admin/Site owner and some moderators.
Colourful seems to be the word being used in this context and as a result of this some members were banned (IIRC Me, Big'E', CJ, Crowman and Worzel). Others also chose to leave.

SES was then formed by Crowman and Worzel as Admin, with most of the current SES Moderating team being setup as Moderators from the outset.

Another 'colourful' incident occurred with SES Admin, which I still don't fully understand the reasons for today. As a result of this and to prevent SES going down the toilet myself and Steve_PPP stepped in to take over the forum as Admin, retaining most of the moderation team.

Several years have passed since the last 'moment' and we are where we are today.

SES survives only because of it's members and their attendance to meets and events.
Yes, sometimes rallying the troops takes more effort then I would like but I am sure you will agree that we have had a good selection of events over recent years including :
Free Events
Pub Lunches
Christmas Meals
Low Cost Events
Charity Events
Track Days
Overseas Trips to a ring or tarmac on a hill somewhere

We aim to continue this and with the help of member donations (accepted via www.paypal.com to donations@southeastscoobies.co.uk ......chance for a plug), we will continue to run SES and hope to extend the use of the donations fund to subsidise some future events (more on this another day).

Thanks again, and it's threads like this that keep us going

[scotty]

Can't agree more even though I have moved away I still get more info and help from everyone on here than I do on my local club , I wish I could attend more meets but you never know what the future holds anyway keep up the good work to all the staff to making what this club is today .

[Bytes]

[Rdlangy1]

Well all I can say is thank you - great to learn the history of those who put in the time and effort to provide what we see today...

Thanks guys - ur all legends

[Scott.T]

I did a bit of a trawl of the early meet threads on Scoobynet and it reminded me a bit more about what happened that the old grey matter had forgotten in the last 15 years.
We did a lot of arranging through the regional section of Scoobynet and SIDC.
There was a West Sussex Group already established up at Pease Pottage with myself and Keith (Krud/Subarman) trying to kick off the East Sussex / Sussex coast interest :

http://www.scoobynet.com/southern-en...astbourne.html

http://www.scoobynet.com/southern-en...-the-lamb.html

LC Geezer is my mate with the Lotus Carlton, myself, XRS and Rex93 (which is Ron/Pieman) are all in this thread ::

http://www.scoobynet.com/83299-blue-...-sussex-2.html

[Rdlangy1]

So good reading these old threads

[XRS]

Good find Scott. I'm sure the first time I met Krud was at a Bentley meet (probably a Porsche meet) in around 2000, just after I bought my STi.

Joni is still driving a Scoob, but I've not come across him for a few years.

[Steve_PPP]

Those threads are long before my time in the scooby world, interesting read. In 2002 I was still at university driving around in a beast of a 1.4l escort

[Rdlangy1]

1.4!!! U animal!!! I could only run a mighty 1.2 corsa!! Ha ha (3rd party insurance was £1010!) ha ha

[Banstead Stig]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Those threads are long before my time in the scooby world, interesting read. In 2002 I was still at university driving around in a beast of a 1.4l escort

Very similar to me...in 2002 I moved from a 1.4 205 to a 1.4 106... should have kept the 205 to be honest!

[C. J.]

The history of SES an interesting one !

[NL03Scooby]

Having only been part of this great group for around 9 months I certainly don't know any history of the forum so its great to hear little bits about its evolution. I was worried you might open up a can of worms when starting this thread Ryan if it transpired the history was 'colourful' as described. I think it is apparent that whilst things may have occurred in the past the people who put their time and effort in to todays forum are clearly a great bunch who deserve a lot of credit for what they do and have done.

I have been to pretty much every meet since joining and love every minute of driving to and from them, chatting with those that are their, filling up on good food and taking inspiration from peoples cars, wealth of knowledge and friendly nature.

You are right about the events organisers especially like Steve, Dave, Big 'E' and Silversurfer who continually put time and effort into researching and organising great events so the likes of us standard members can just put our name on a list and pay some money for a great day out.

I am sure there are loads of people on here who put a lot in to the forum on a regular basis I haven't met or got to know properly but I suppose without every single one of us involved nothing would be possible, that's why I think it's important that as many of us as possible sign up for the events organised.

It is also good to see members who still remain part of the forum and come to meets even though they no longer own Subaru's. It's often noticeable how interested we are in other cars and projects from those such as Granby as we all like to poke our head under the bonnet of something different.

I feel fortunate that this is the first forum I have ever really been part of and I am on my first Scoob, maybe I was lucky and got things right first time! Thanks for being so welcoming and supportive. I look forward to a future of events, meets and general chat with you great bunch and hope I can be a part of things here for a long time.

[Rdlangy1]

Good post rob -

Opening a can of worms was never the intention - purely to find out how something I now regard as integral to what I do started from the mindset of a few good willed people

[Stacey]

This was a good read, thanks! and totally agree, everyone has been very kind, helpful and welcoming!! thanks x

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Stacey

This was a good read, thanks! and totally agree, everyone has been very kind, helpful and welcoming!! thanks x

Stacey,

I had a look and I do have 2 SES side stickers spare so can either bring them to the next meet, or post them to you?.

Steve

[jmcc42uk]

Ah, I remember the early days, I was on corsasport as I had a GSi 16v. Happy days - when 100 odd bhp was more than enough

[Stacey]

Originally Posted by Lucky

Stacey,

I had a look and I do have 2 SES side stickers spare so can either bring them to the next meet, or post them to you?.

Steve

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That's great!! thank you. Are you going to be at Leeds castle? I will be trying to attend most club meets so I'm sure I will see you at some point soon to get them from you if that's ok. Thanks xx

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Stacey

--------------------
That's great!! thank you. Are you going to be at Leeds castle? I will be trying to attend most club meets so I'm sure I will see you at some point soon to get them from you if that's ok. Thanks xx

Cool. Yes, I'll be attending Leeds so will bring them with me.