<VV> CORSA Membership

[Bill Elliott]

Extremely good post, Lon.

I am not a "club" sort of guy. I play with plenty of marques. CORSA is the only club that I belong to that I don't "have to".  Other clubs require you to be a 
member to get access to their club-managed spare parts and/or online discussion groups. We have such a wonderful vendor community that the first 
requirement isn't necessary and CORSA is generous enough that the second isn't required either.

I have been around long enough to have seen the Corvair community morph from a LOT of people who daily drove their cars as their primary transportation 
to the majority just using them as a collector car. (I personally have been part of that shift as well...)  While I'm encouraged by the influx of young people into 
the hobby, the fact is the primary CORSA base is eroding away and we aren't getting the backfill from the younger crowd.

I left CORSA for several years when I was younger. At that time, CORSA did NOT seem as accepting of younger folks... especially ones that were more 
performance oriented than show car oriented. I got tired of the politics (as you have in most all clubs), all the club stuff, and the general lack of 
accommodation that CORSA was offering the younger crowd. I wonder how many folks of my general age and interests left at the same time and never 
returned?

Over the past 10 years, I have seen that almost completely switch... to the point that we saw complaints that too much attention was being paid to the 
performance crowd! The efforts of Sarah, Larry Claypool, and most especially Warren have really transformed CORSA into a more inviting club. I sincerely 
applaud their efforts. I think the Communique has always been impressive and has only gotten better over the years.

I guess my advice would be to try and get some more press for the club (Hemmings, GRM, etc), to show that we are a more inclusive club, very supportive 
of the performance-oriented folks, they we have the best vendor base of any collector marque, etc. 

Maybe CORSA could offer membership discounts for members that are part of SCCA, AACA, etc... and maybe try to get other clubs and/or vendors to do 
the same.

Local Corvair guys that autocross, ice-race, track days, show their cars, etc... can do a lot of free publicity by simply showing up and participating in local 
general marque events.. having a CORSA flyer to hand out in these situations would be even better.

Bill Elliott
Urbana, MD


>FIRST - MOST people do not join clubs, no matter how great they are. The 
>fact that 75% of our mailing list doesn't belong to CORSA doesn't 
>surprise me a bit. I would expect CORSA membership to actually be less 
>than 10% - that would be about 2200-2400 members.
>SECOND - When you make a heroic effort to attract new members (like the 
>recent discount coupon) you have to expect that when it comes time 
>around to renew - AT FULL PRICE - you're going to lose a high percentage 
>of those people.
>THIRD - If you expect to "get YOUR money's worth" in direct  proportion 
>to what you pay  most people are going to decide that "it's not worth 
>it". A club isn't like paying 38$ for a blower bearing that you expect 
>to be quality and you expect to be new - tit for tat. When you join a 
>club you should expect many or most of the benefits to be 
>"intangiable."  Insuracne for club events, sponsorship of conventions 
>and a general support network  for the hobby - It takes at least 
>partially altruistic members to join and stay joined.
>Membership in most organizations requires people who are at least 
>partially altruistic, interested in helping thier fellow car owners, who 
>enjoy socializing, and who beleive that what they do might help make 
>things a little better all the way around - that ain't everybody - sorry.






-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.5 - Release Date: 2/3/2005