Fwd: <CORSA Chapters> Club policy about CORSA

[Charley Biddle]

Barry,

I've been involved with Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts for about 33 
years.  I have served on our board of directors numerous times, in 
several different positions.  Currently, I edit the club 
newsletter.  CORSA was formed in part with help and encourgement of 
one of our members, back in the early 70's.  I watched it happen.  I 
heard the arguments.  CORSA continues today thru the hard work and 
effort of several of our current members.  We have about 180 members, 
of which about 50 or so show up at the monthly meetings.

We don't have a policy that requires CORSA membership.

Over the years, this has been exhaustively discussed, and we have 
decided it is not worth losing good local members over a policy of 
enforcing 100 percent CORSA membership for our local chapter.  We 
strongly encourage CORSA membership, and occasionally run CORSA 
membership forms in our newsletter.  We have monthly CORSA reports at 
our meetings, presented by one of those CORSA-managing 
members.  CORSA charges an extra yearly insurance premium for 
chapters who are not 100 percent CORSA membership.  We just schedule 
this fee into our yearly budget, and pay it when it comes due.

The vast majority of our members have joined CORSA on their own 
without a local chapter enforcement policy.

We still have several very active and enthusiastic members who 
absolutely refuse to join CORSA, unless it is a year in which we put 
on a convention, and then, only under protest.

The decision your chapter needs to decide is, how many members are 
you willing to lose over a 100 percent CORSA membership policy?

Charley Biddle



>
>Hey Guys - just joined, but mainly for a particular question that's
>splintering Corsa SC.  This is the perfect group to ask, w/o causing havoc
>on Virtual Vairs.  I do NOT want to start an argument on ANY forum.
>
>Background: I'm current President of Corsa SC, and will continue to be on
>the board for 2 more years as a Member at Large.
>
>Several years ago, Corsa SC amended the by-laws to require club members,
>after one year membership to also be a member of CORSA.  There were a few
>members in good standing that refused so they were "grandfathered" into
>Corsa SC.  There's one left and he pays an extra $10/year which we forward
>on to CORSA.  It gets too complicated to explain in email all the
>intricacies of the amendment, but you get the idea.  Basically, if I dropped
>out of Corsa, I would not be allowed to participate with Corsa SC.  (Not
>that I personally ever would - wonderful people, and w/o CORSA, the Corvair
>probably won't exist in it's fullness after 10-20 years)
>
>Main question: how many of the other clubs have a similar policy/by-law?
>
>Our goals and our by-laws seem to conflict.
>
>We've had the suggestion of having anyone that refuses to join CORSA, pay an
>extra $10 which we send to CORSA.  That seems a viable alternative.
>
>This year, due to a prospective new member wanting to participate in events
>with our club, but refusing to join CORSA, we sent his check back.  I, and
>several members of our club, think this is wrong.  We're discouraging this
>fellow Corvair owner from driving his car with other people with like minds
>and interests.
>
>We've had several new members join this year, also.  Time will tell if they
>will join CORSA.  If they refuse, we'll lose several members.
>
>Don't get me wrong - loosing a few members wouldn't hurt our club immensely.
>We're having almost 40 people show up for a dinner meeting practically every
>month.
>
>The 2006 board will have no problem voting this policy down, which will put
>it before the membership.  I suspect the membership would also vote it down,
>but not 100% sure.  But then again, they voted it in.
>
>Funny how things change, eh?
>
>Thanks for you time and thoughts,
>
>Barry Ellison
>CORSA SC 2005 President
>65 Black Corsa 140/4 Coupe - driven to work today, now that I've got the
>heater working.
>65 Red Monza 140/4 Vert
>61 White Wagon - next project