<VV> CORSA's Future. long and opiniated

[Roger Gault]

Lots of valid opinions being expressed in the annual Death of CORSA thread.
I thought I might as well express a couple of mine (valid or not).

Yes, the membership (and potential membership) is aging out.  This is
inevitable when the club is centered around a car no longer in production.
Less Corvairs is obviously going to mean less Corvair drivers.

Yes, it's going to be hard to interest the mainstream youth car guys.  This
is America, the land of "my dad can beat your dad".  We're not going to
convince many kids that a 100 hp car that you can't buy speed equipment for
is going to be more fun than some hot used Jap car.  (And, in truth, it
might not be.)

That doesn't, however, spell the immediate doom of CORSA.  If CORSA dies in
the near future, it will be because we couldn't convince enough people that
the benefits to them were worth a tank of gas per year.  Frankly, it CORSA
is not worth that much to us, maybe it's time to shut it down.  But I don't
think that's the case, or I wouldn't be a member.  We need to look at what
we're "selling".

It seems to me CORSA provides the following:

1)  A central point of organization, focus, and communication
This is actually, the most valuable "product" of CORSA (IMO).
Unfortunately, it's intangible and invisible to most Corvair owners.  I
don't know how to impress on Corvair owners that this is important.  I
suppose it would be too much to expect that our vendors might give a few
percent discount to CORSA members to show that THEY think it's important.

2)  Help with the national convention
The conventions are fun - I've been to two over the last few years.  But,
they don't effect the rank-and-file of Corvair owners.  Less than 10% of our
members attend each year.  The country's just too big.  I can't justify
spending several thousand dollars to travel 1000 miles away and stay a week
very often.
If they were in Texas each year, I'd probably never miss one. ;-)
BTW, the last time one WAS in Texas, I wasn't  a CORSA member, so I never
heard about it.

3)  The website
Pretty well done, will be better when the e-communique is matured.  Would be
better if it had a technical reference section.

4)  VV
Very valuable to the relatively small number of members that use it.
Despite the fact that it sometimes appears to be almost entirely populated
with thin-skinned, angry old men with a mental age of 3, it remains the best
source of Corvair help on the web.  I wonder how many Corvair owners even
know about it, and how many of those know CORSA supports it.

5)  The magazine
This is where we spend nearly all our money, which is correct, since this is
pretty much all the tangible benefit to most Corvair owners.  No magazine =
no dues = no CORSA.  Raise the dues and spiff up the magazine.

The mag is pretty well done, within the constraints we've set for it, but
there's room to make it more interesting/attractive so we can up the
circulation.
a)  Color.  Yes, I know it's expensive.  I'd certainly pay more.  I canceled
the best car restoration magazine I've ever seen years ago because they went
from color to B/W.  It destroyed the appeal of the magazine.  I love good
B/W photos, but not of cars.  B/W is as old as the cars.  A lot of the mag
costs are fixed.  What would be the increased cost to go to color?

b)  More technical articals.  Yes, I know Harry can't write them all.  So,
how about some encouragement to the membership to contribute?  Dedicate a
piece of add space to a "call for articals" - "We're in need of an artical
on xxx.  Can you contribute?"  Pay $25 a printed page so the author can brag
to his friends that he's a published writer.
Ask the chapter newsletter folks to send in their newsletters and allow
CORSA to publish material from them (months later).  There are some great
tech articals in some of those newsletters.

c)   How about some inteviews with "famous Corvair guys".  Maybe some of our
vendors.  Phoenix Charlie might be fun.  Some of the racers?  Some of the
non-mainstream guys --- "Can Concours Craziness be Cured?"  "Why I own a
Whale"?

Anything to get away from the all-stock-don't publish-anything-different
tone of the magazine.  Today, if there was an artical about a right hand
drive Corvair, most of the readers would assume it was a trick.  ;-)

Roger

PS:  If we're really feeling radical, we could always join forces with the
Corvair airplane crowd.  Despite the fact that these guys are trusting their
lives to misused 40 year old engines, there are some pretty interesting
folks out there.  We should at least invite them to fly in to our
conventions.