I was all set to go but my sister went in the hospital early Sat morning...it's all good and I get to be an uncle now so it was worth missing the meet.
Everyone is going to say the next meet should be local to themselves...not like they're biased. Pick a location based on fair rotation of members or the most centrally located city.
I'm in a CRX club that does the same thing. You guys might want to take a few of their better ideas.
1. Dyno time...one of the Dodge dealership here in Austin specializes in Vipers. They have a dyno and charge a very reasonable group rate of $45 for 2 runs with wideband o2 hooked up. Running thirty cars will take a few hours and everyone goes home with something, as well as seeing what setups/modifications really make more power.
2. Poker Rally...every car has a driver and codriver. If you don't have someone with you, pair up with another single driver and decide who drives.
You're given a series of clues that will eventually get you to the next checkpoint (4 in all not counting start) where you get the next set of clues and a card from a deck. Winner is tallied from a combination of best time and poker hand. And this isn't a speed oriented event, it time oriented. If you finish too early, you get penalized. Of course, if you miss a turn you have to hurry to catch up. It's a lot of fun and makes a good substitution for trying to organize 40+ people into a decent drive if you put the checkpoints down fun routes.
3. Go karting...RPM Raceway in North Austin/Round Rock has an indoor track(used to be a Walmart) with awesome "real" go karts. Fast and fun. It's a great location to park and bulls***, then go "rub fenders" without damaging anyones car.
4. Group drive out to Enchanted Rock...a lovely scenic drive, a great destination. BBQ/cookout when you get there. People can park and bulls***, climb the rock, try a few of the surrounding FM roads. There's also some great photography vantage points from elevation for a group of cars. The homestyle BBQ atmosphere and secondary entertainment(rock climbing) is conducive to forming friendships that go beyond typical car meet parameters.
Additional ideas:
G-tech runs...something to do while everyone parks and bullshits and can be done just about anywhere, anytime.
Seminars...like, here's this mod, what it does, how much it costs, small installation demo. Informative, educational, benefit from others experience.
Competition...sounds like some guys worked in a run to the dragstrip. Good. Try coordinating the event to happen on a weekend when autox is happening also. For those who haven't done it, autox offers the best/cheapest way to becoming a better driver and it's loads of fun.
Sponsors...unless a sponsor really wants to commit to bringing a valuable feature to the table, it's better not to rely on them to pull off a successful meet. I haven't heard anything negative about Roger Beasely, which is good for the meet, but locally I've found them to be a crooked bunch of bastards.
Anyway, that's my .02. Congrats to T3ase for pulling off a meet, short notice, minimal help. A lot of people just have no idea what's involved.
