My input here isn't about setting up a full-on event with $$ backing from DC and/or Cummins, but I thought I'd tell you a bit about how we do the L. A. TDR chapter.
In the TDR there is a page of names and addresses of members who have volunteered to head up a "local chapter". Here in L. A. , it's Scott Dalgleish. He has accumulated a mailing list of members who have contacted him about a local gathering. Recently I volunteered to take charge of the mailing list for our group. Scott pays for the postage out of his own pocket.
Anyway, here's what we do every few months.
We get together at a restaurant on a Saturday morning for breakfast and a parking lot b. s. session. Usually we get about 20-25 people and 18-20 trucks. Many members have businesses selling parts/accessories, such as Roy w/Mag-Hytec and Scott w/Amsoil, so they have tailgate sales presentations as we all gather around. It's a good chance to get information and buy some goodies, and of course it's a great chance to see what others have done to their trucks. We've also tried to have a "tailgate swapmeet" where people bring along parts that they want to sell, like original bumpers if they replaced them with custom ones or whatever. Our gatherings usually break up around 12 noon.
Based on my experience with helping organize a breakfast, along with the suggestions of our members, I offer you these guidlines for setting up your own gathering:
1. Pick a location that is relatively centralized and close to freeways or major roads so that it's easy to get to for those who are driving from a distance. That's a problem we have in L. A. , it's so spread out that it's difficult to have a centralized location without getting into a bad part of town. We don't want to be dodging bullets.
2. Find a place with a large parking lot where you can park away from other vehicles in your own cluster, where nobody will bother you. Here in L. A. , the last few gatherings have been at an Int'l House of Pancakes in a large shopping mall parking lot.
3. A relatively inexpensive menu with lots of variety means that everyone will be happy. This is another advantage of IHOP restaurants.
4. Work with the manager of the restaurant in advance to see if they can accomodate the entire group at one large table. The IHOP that I've been coordinating with does not take reservations on Saturdays, but they said it doesn't get crowded until after 9:00am. So we eat at 8:00 and clear out when the crowd shows up. Management is very understanding and friendly, and they enjoy having us.
5. Make sure it's okay to park all your trucks in the parking lot for a few hours. Before the IHOP, we got booted out of the place we used to go to. They got mad because we were hogging up too much space. At the IHOP, we park away from the restaurant in a wide open area of the shopping mall parking lot. Nobody has bothered us.
6. Get the word out via this board and put your name/phone# in the TDR as a local chapter volunteer (do that now so it will be in the next TDR's when the weather warms up). Or if there is a local chapter volunteer in your area, give them a call and ask what you can to do help. When you do set something up, tell people to bring friends and relatives along who own Dodge Cummins trucks. It's a fairly low percentage of truck owners who are TDR members. Many owners out there don't know the fun they're missing.
7. When you do accumulate a mailing list, keep track of who comes and/or RSVP's. There were a lot of people on the L. A. list who would never show up and never bother to reply and say "I can't make it this time, but let me know the next time. " After wasting the postage on these "deadbeats", we took them off the list to save money. If you do set something up and pay for the postage yourself, usually a few people who attend will be considerate enough to kick in a few bucks to cover your exepenses. One time at our breakfast, all the meals were on one tab. After the tip, we had something like $13 leftover because people overpaid a bit. Everybody said "keep it", so it went into the kitty to pay for the next mailer. I've tried to accumulate an email list to save on postage, but not very many in our group are on the net.
8. Don't schedule a gathering on the first weekend of hunting/fishing season or a holiday weekend, or during the middle of summer when everyone's on the road.
So there you have a guideline for organizing your own local gathering. Don't sit around and wait for someone else to set something up, get involved! It doesn't have to be a Saturday morning breakfast deal. Leon Mendenhall, who organizes the Antelope Valley chapter (Palmdale/Lancaster Calif. ) has a gathering at a restaurant on a specific weeknight every month.
Bring the spouses along too. They all seem to enjoy sharing a laugh about us and our "big toys for big boys", while we're all gawking at yet another engine bay with the latest "super turbo injectomatic filter pump-drive intake speeder-upper" or whatever.
Andy
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
