<VV> Corsa Membership vs. Local Club Membership (long)

[Russ Moorhouse]

Being a relative newbie to Corvairs (about a year and a half), I have to ask 
if anyone has considered the relationship of membership in local CORSA 
supported clubs to that of CORSA itself.  Are the local clubs losing members 
at the same ratio as CORSA.

Based on my experience alone, I've been a little disappointed in both the 
local clubs in my area and with CORSA.  I joined my local club, just a few 
days after getting my first and only Corvair.  They were having a show at a 
local Chevy dealer in Sept 2003.  I went there to look at other Corvairs and 
talk with other owners of Corvairs, plus they claimed to be having a tech 
session, which I was interested in.  It was raining that day so very few 
Corvairs were there to look at.  I did talk to a couple of people who looked 
the car over and offered a couple of tips, but not what I was expecting a 
tech session to be.  I had visions of putting a car on a rack at the 
dealership and having someone knowledgeable look over the whole car and 
point out things that needed to be attended to immediately.  The one person 
who fit the description was an ex-factory trained mechanic, and all he did 
was walk over, looked at the engine and say "Yep, that's a Corvair engine" 
and walk off.

I joined the club anyway, hoping that at future meets there would be more of 
a tech session.  There hasn't been.  I was hoping the club would have a 
cache of special tools for members to use when working on their Corvair, but 
none were ever mentioned. In fact there haven't been anymore shows.  There 
have been a couple of tours, but from what I understand only a few Corvairs 
have shown up.  I've inquired of other clubs in the area, as to whether or 
not they were more active in working on Corvairs or more of just a social 
clubs and the answer from each one was: social.  So for all intents and 
purposes, there's no reason for me to belong to a local club.  Sure I have 
had help and suggestions from some of the my clubs members, but it all came 
via Virtual Vairs.

The same can be said for CORSA.  I joined CORSA, more out of feeling I 
should support it.  I was hoping that the vendors might offer special 
discounts to members or have member only sales, but I don't see any of that. 
A large number of the articles I've read in the Communiqui, I have already 
read in VV.  In fact even some of the tech articles that appear in the 
Communiqui, are right out of VV.

>From reading Communiqui, I have found that there are some very active 
Corvair clubs out there.  Some of these have even built buildings to work on 
their Corvairs and hold their meetings.  I also see that where area local 
clubs that get together and hold mini-conventions. I would love to see this 
take place in my area.  I would just like to go to a Corvair clubs function 
and see more than 5 to 10 Corvairs there.

>From most indications I have seen in my brief Corvair experience, the local 
clubs are getting smaller, some of it from their own doing and some from 
older members getting out of Corvairs, for one reason or another.  If local 
clubs membership are dwindling, it stands to reason CORSA will feel the 
affects in loss of membership also.  Many Corvair owners are reaching or 
have reached the retirement age, myself included.  When you retire, you need 
to weigh your priorities as to what you spend your money on.  With VV, most 
of what your getting in the Communiqui is already there, so why spend $35, 
when that is all you get for it.  That's $35 that you can spend on your 
Corvair!

What can local clubs do to attract new members?  BE MORE VISIBLE - Have more 
shows and attend other non-Corvair car club shows with a show of force, not 
2 or 3 cars.  You need to get younger people interested in the car.  At 
these shows, offer to take people for a ride in your car or even run them 
through an autocross track if you have one available, just be gentle. 
Provide more technical, hands-on support to new members.  Sure, these cars 
are old hat to you, but to a newbie, this is a strange new animal, like 
nothing they may have ever worked on before. VV is a great help, but there 
is nothing like having someone there to show you a shortcut or better way of 
doing something.  There's still a lot of younger people out there that have 
memories of a relatives that had Corvairs.  You need to attract them and 
their children.

What can CORSA do?  For one thing if local clubs increase in membership, I 
would suspect that CORSA would also see an increase.  DON'T make VV 
available to club members only.  This would be preaching to the choir only. 
VV is a great source of information to anyone just getting started in 
Corvairs; why shut them out.  It was the main reason for me eventually 
joining CORSA, just so this forum would continue to exist.  It took me over 
a year to join, just because my money was going to fix the car first.  The 
Communiqui is a great magazine, but as I said before a lot of it is a 
re-hash of what has been on VV already.  If it is a big drain on the budget, 
perhaps it would be cost effective to produce it bi-monthly or quarterly 
instead.  Another approach would be to determine how many people would be 
willing to accept an electronic copy (PDF) instead.  As an incentive to 
members, offer members onlyal sales or discounts with the vendors a couple 
of times a year.  This would be beneficial for both members and vendors.

As for me, I will continue to support my local club, in hopes it will get 
better and I will continue to support CORSA, at least until  retirement, 
then I will have to re-address my financial priorities.


Russ Moorhouse
'65 Corsa coupe 140 HP
Corsa Member
Kent Island, MD