<VV> Re:l Corsa Membership vs. Local Club Membership 1

[Gary Swiatowy]

Here in the NFCC we are lucky enough to have a club president who has run
several tech sessions where club members cars have been worked on. Most
recent one is a front suspension change. A few years ago I ran a tech
session at my house where a group of volunteers came over and we did a
clutch job on another members 64 Spyder. We had plenty of help, and
"payment" was in the form of pizza and wings for the workers. It was a good
turnout with various different levels of skill present. Of course the
pressure was on me when I broke off a clutch bolt in the flywheel and had to
extract it..............
Another thing I have noticed, is some people do not want their cars put
under the microscope. I have been treated gruffly when I have pointed out a
dangerously failing motor mount, or what appeared to be a failing belt.
Not all owners are even mildly mechanical.
At one time we had a member who constantly chased everyone around and really
only joined the club to get free work done on his car. He once dropped the
car off at my house with a list of things wrong. a day later he picked the
car up but had no money with him to pay for the parts I had to go out and
buy to fix his car. To top it off, he borrowed my tow chain to tow the car
home...........
Myself, over the years I have had people ask me to look their cars over and
evaluate them, from mechanical standpoint, safety standpoint, and even a
before concours look over. I generally have no problem with that kind of
thing, and have been more than willing to help.............

Give your local group a chance, there may be more things coming up! Did you
ever ask if there was anyone to look your car over............
Gary Swiatowy
> From: "Russ Moorhouse" <corvair65@verizon.net>
> To: "VV" <virtualvairs@corvair.org>
> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:38:00 -0500
> Subject: <VV> Corsa Membership vs. Local Club Membership (long)
>
> 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.
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