<VV> Corvair Museum

[james rice]

Terry:  First off, I prefer James to Jim.  It is my given name.  Thankyou for respecting this.     

Your idea of moving the Corvair office to co-habitat with any Corvair museum is, if I may quote myself "well intentioned, by not well informed and/or realistic."  Harry and Mike work from their homes, and I doubt there's enough money to get them to move.  You are probably going to say, "Well get somebody else to do it."  As one who has seen the functions Mike and Harry perform first created in about '78, them move to another management company before landing with them that idea is way easier said than done.  I know there is a reason for the two previous business' no longer being in our employment, and that the transitions were not pretty or seamless.

Harry and Mike created their company because they cared then and now about Corvairs and CORSA.  Their local chapter, CCE created CPF with the profits from the CORSA convention in Chicago in about '84.  Any other group do anything similar?  We get more than we pay for with them.  Because they are Corvair people, they do lots of stuff for CORSA, CPF and us members which are not part of their job description. 

I was not on the BoD's when the Fitch came into CPF hands.  Someplace in the back of my mind tells me it needed work when received.  Storing the restored Fitch Sprint?  Beats me.  Ask the CPF leadership!!

I have not been to the Corvair Museum in several years, and cannot comment about recent or current real estate availability.  The building next door could be attached to the existing YHM building very easily.  Knock a whole in a wall for a door, build a ramp up from a existing door in YHM's building and cover the passageway with a roof.  Some means of getting cars in & out of this building would also have to be done.  The rest is fairly minor redecorating on the interior and building of displays to show CPF material.  

When you say "a donated space in a building worked so well for several years, why can it not work in the future?" is optimistic, if my memory serves me.  I think Richmond was only open by appointment and maybe one day a month.  Wade Lanning could tell us, if he chooses to get back into the crossfire. 

I've never said it cannot be done.  I believe, having been on the combined BoD's, that it will not be done with the current organization and leadership stucture CPF has.  There needs to be a revamping of CPF leadership with folks dedicated to CPF issues, primarily the Corvair Museum.  But doing so must be done without separating CORSA membership from CPF efforts.  A reorganization could be done, but it will take some car club people giving up some part of their empire to people dedicated to CPF's Corvair museum.  Even then, there are no guarantees.    

Thanks for you comments.

Historically Yours, 
			James Rice         

-----Original Message-----
From: tkalp at cox.net [mailto:tkalp at cox.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 12:33 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org; james rice
Subject: Re: <VV> Corvair Museum


Jim, you are correct, with an attitude like yours and Clark's we will never have a Corvair Museum. Once you decide it cannot happen, it never will.

i toured the Corvair display during the Detroit convention. What the CPF created within the space limitations was great, but the Corvair deserves more. Also noticed the building across the street was for sale.

When a donated space in a building worked so well for several years, why can it not work in the future?  How much parking do we need when only a few people a day visit the museum? And parking is not abundant at the present location, no lot, only cubside spots. If we need a paid person there all the time, move the Management team offices in there.

Right now CPF is spending $10,000 to restore the John Fitch Sprint.  It was restored when they got it, It needs the re-restoration now because of poor storage conditions . . .  do they have a place to store it properly when it is finished?

Improving the CPF museum facilities should be a goal we are working for, it may not happen immediately . . . it may not be as large or perfect as we would like, but surely we can improve on the present situation in a time frame of 10 years if we plan and promote.

Clark, when I started out with Corvairs it was because they were affordable . . . now that I have more resources I still play with "rusty Corvairs" because they are great cars, supported by a great bunch of people.

Terry Kalp





---- james rice <ricebugg at mtco.com> wrote: 
> All:  A lot of the discussion about the museum is well intentioned, by not
> well informed and/or realistic.
> 
> Clark's observations are well worth each of us burning them into our memory.
> Let me add my own thoughts and another burn into your memory truth, down at
> the bottom, which may be inflammatory.
>