<VV> CORSA as a military State/Club

[James P. Rice]

Tim:  There are lots of ways to do car clubs.

I get second hand the magazine of the BMW CCA.  They have 50k+ members, with
a much bigger pool of owners to draw from than CORSA.  They also have fewer
elected directors than CORSA, and many more SIG's.  Which is to be expected
for a marque going back to pre-WWII.

Sometime last year their then president wrote about membership and things.
I sent him an letter  and got a very nice reply and some interesting info.
I forwarded it to the CORSA office and the BoD.

If I remember correctly, they do have local clubs, but they do not have
local dues.  There is only the BMW CCA, which assigns members to a local
club, probably based on area code.  Only the BMW CCA collects dues, of which
the local club gets some percent.

No police/military state mentality is evident in their magazine.

I'm not sure, but I think I remember the Shelby American Automobile Club is
a for profit organization.  They have a few thousand cars to collect, but
lots of enthusiastic members.  Last I saw one, their club publication was
really good.

The Shelby Dodge Automobile Club is a not for profit, cost about what CORSA
does, has 3 officers, a really small membership and a about 2 dozen
chapters.  The newsletter comes out whenever they get around to it.  I have
lots of Shelby Dodge racing & rally info from the early days, but have no
desire to write anything for them because they are such a CS organization.

I'm sure many others amoung us have similar info on other clubs.  But it is
info we don't really need.  We have this one club, and need to make it work
into today's environment and with today's circumstances and conditions.

Have you read Lord of the Flies recently?  The current discussions reminds
me of those who shoot their wounded, leave behind their dead and then eat
whatever is left of what they perceive as the enemy.

We can be better than this people.  Everybody back off, turn it down a notch
or two and take a deep breath.  Some of you need to take more than one deep
breath.  You know who you are.  Ok now, everybody breath deeply.  Hold it.
Exhale.  Repeat often as necessary.

Historically Yours,
                   James Rice
                   CORSA member since mid-70's
                   Former Chairman of the Competition Committee
                   Member of original CPF Advisorary Committee
                   CORSA/CPF BoD member and CPF Liaison 1999-01
                   Occasional contributor to the Communique

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 09:45:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tim Verthein <minoxphotographer at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: <VV> VirtualVairs Digest, Vol 56, Issue 56
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org

Whoa! First we argue about 100% membership requirement, then it's suggested
that the national club collect the local dues for them, too? sure, the clubs
will love taking away their control of their finances.  I assume then that
the national organization would come up with some way tO disburse these
funds promptly to the chapters so they may operate their clubs?

Holy crap, that's on the road to being a military state!  Cripes, as it is,
when someone joins Corsa it takes a month or two to even get a membership
card (and nothing else, BTW) and now you want them screwing with 100+
chapters dues money! Egad.

Reading VV again is starting to scare me.

Tim in Bovey



Subject: <VV> membership requirements
To: "Virtual Vairs" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Cc: CORSA BoD <corsabod at corvair.org>

All,

Though I personally would in theory support 100% membership for chapters, I
also see the potential hazards in making it mandatory. That is why I
proposed a voluntary system, involving the national collecting the local
dues. Think about it, people. If CORSA were to offer that service, locals
could have that system take care of their CORSA members, while only having
to collect local dues (on the sly?) for those who didn't belong to CORSA.
They would know positively who they are, and may be able to more
effectively win them over. Chapters (like the special interest groups)
could use the system and not have to worry about collecting dues, period.
And those chaptes who wanted to have 100% CORSA membership only also
wouldn't have to mess with collecting dues. Plus an added benefit to ALL
chapters is that they would probably pick up "new" members from other areas
who wanted to join their local for whatever reason. This last point has
been proven the case in that club in which I belong that uses this system.

I wonder if anyone has thought about this. Such a system would benefit
everyone. There would be no negative effect (beyond more bookwork for the
national office) and much positive benefits for everyone. What I don't
understand is why the board refuses to even try it out. Can any of the
board members give me their reason(s)?