<VV> CORSA Membership

[bob mccrum]

Was going to keep quiet on the CORSA membership debate, but just have to put
my .02 in. I'm not a member and have no real reason to join, IMHO.
reason(s)? 1) background-had a 62 spyder in 64 and 65, bought another in
2004. 2) joined local club(Covair Minnesota) in 2004 3) my sked and theirs
simply never coincide-the one time it did-a drive in meeting, was a
misprint. 4)however, their newsletter is timely-has good
info/classifieds/parts  5 their dues are 15.00/yr--much better value than
CORSA.  Am I cheap? yes, probably-but I belong to Minnesota Street Rod
Association, Goodguys Rod Association that I also pay dues to. What I really
look for is value.  CORSA is 35.00/yr-that's far more than either MSRA or
Goodguys and their monthly stuff is really slick and informative. For tech
help, I really believe I've never seen anything as good as, or as quick as
Virtual vairs--you guys are awesome.  I possess a copy of the most popular
books, the shop manuals, a CD and of course the catalogs of Corvair
Underground and Clarks.  Now, in all reality, I can see no, repeat no,
rational reason to join CORSA.  I perceive better value in about any other
direction than CORSA.  Not a slam at either the organization or its
leadership, but a sincere explanation of not much value for the money.
thanks for the bandwidth, bob mc
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Keillor" <dkeillor@ultrex.com>
To: <virtualvairs@corvair.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 4:47 PM
Subject: RE: <VV> CORSA Membership


> I believe the problem is rooted in the car and its ownership community.
The
> car is very unique and the ownership community is quite insular and tends
to
> have a bunker mentality.  Corvair people have a tendency to stick together
> in their own little community instead of being part of the larger car
> community.  There also seems to be a kind of perverse pride in owning and
> driving a car that other people think is dangerous, odd ball, etc.
>
> For example, I used to take my '66 convert to a lot of "mixed" car shows.
> Often I had the only Corvair and if there did happen to be another, it was
> generally rather scruffy.  As a consequence of having a rather unique (and
> nice) car, I won a lot of 1st place trophies.  Eventually, I ran out of
> places to put the trophies and time to attend the shows, so I quit going.
I
> know there are other very nice Corvairs in this part of the county
> (Minnesota), so why don't they display their cars more?
>
> By contrast, I also have a very nice '73 Nova Custom Coupe that I've also
> taken to shows.  Although the Nova is almost as nice as the Corvair, it
sort
> of fades into the background next to all the other nice Novas.  As a
result,
> it will likely never win any kind of trophy because it's upstaged by all
the
> very nice SS Novas, Yenko Dueces, etc.
>
> So, here are some of my ideas of ways to improve visibility of the
Corvair:
> 1. Articles in the popular car press.  This will take some work, but there
> may be some magazines looking for fresh material.
> 2. Encourage people to attend "mixed" car shows and provide them with an
> information packet on both the Corvair and Corsa.  You have to get them
> interested in the Corvair before they're interested in Corsa.  A stack of
> "About the Corvair" handouts sitting next to a really nice Corvair would
be
> quite popular I'd wager.
> 3. Update the Corsa web presence (it's really dated).  Two suggestions
here:
> 1) Put up a Corsa-sponsored forum.  stevesnovasite.com is an excellent
> example.  The site was developed and maintained by Steve, but it's
sponsored
> by National Nostalgic Nova and also supported by donations.  2) Develop a
> Corvair resource site.  Two examples here are novaresource.org and
> miata.net.  With the latter, checkout the reviews section and the garage
> section.
>
> I also belong the National Nostalgic Novas and their monthly magazine is
no
> better than Corsa, so I don't think the magazine is nearly as important as
> visibility through articles, car shows, and the web.  I think the latter
is
> really important if you want to attract younger people.  Btw, the folks on
> Stevesnovasite.com range from old geezers like me (65) to kids just old
> enough to have a driver's license.  And, contrary to popular opinion, not
> all the Nova people are into high performance -- they just like old cars.
>
> Look around at the marques that are successful and steal some of their
> ideas.
>
> Dave Keillor
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