<VV> Corvairs at club meetings

aeroned at aol.com aeroned at aol.com
Thu May 31 10:11:12 EDT 2007


Oh, now you hit a nerve....

Getting members to drive their cars to meeting can be difficult. I think it is important because after all we're talking about a club that is about the cars. When I first joined the club and didn't have a running Corvair, there were only one or two at a meeting. There are many factors that are involved in getting them to drive their cars. Here are just three that I can think of and how our club attempts to solve them.

First is the reliability of the cars, actual or perceived. No good if their cars won't make it to the meeting or if the owner's feel that the car won't make it. Second is location of the meeting. If you're meeting in a crowded parking lot, many folks won't want to drive their cars and risk door dings or worse. And finally convience, why drive a 40 year car that's buried in the garage when I can drive my daily driver with nice comfortable seats etc.

To improve the reliability of our member's cars, we have the Tuna program. This is three tune up days every year where we work on our cars. Think BIG tech session. These have been so successful that we're running out of cars that need work. Next, we are fortunate to meet at a community center with a large parking lot (BTW it's free!). Our meetings are at a time when the center is closed to the general public (maybe they want to keep us crazy Corvair people away from the normal people?). We do share the building with a square dancing group. We have plenty of room to park our cars together. To address the "why should I drive my Corvair?" issue, there's nothing like a little friendly competition. We pit the earlies versus lates every month. The 'winning' style gets recognition on the from to our newsletter. This year we have also added a "Featured Corvair of the Month" to the meeting. This is where we ask for all versions of a particular Corvair style to come to the meeting, like sedans, 140s, Monzas, 500 etc. The newsletter has pictures of each car with a little info about the car and owner. Who doesn't like to see their name and car in print?

So does it work? Well, we average around 20 members at our meetings and usually get 15 Corvairs. I think it's not too bad, but still need more. The more the cars are driven, the more people see them. The more people see them the more potential new members can be found. There are a few Corvairs that I know of that are not in our club. I know some people are just not "club people" but I still want them to join. CORSA and local chapters have so much to offer.

Now, if I could just control the weather on meeting day....
Ned

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