<VV> BMW CCA vs CORSA

[James P. Rice]

 All:  Bryan wrote: "As a standalone marque club, we do have things in
common, but they have advantages (the BMW club is sponsored by BMW to start)
that we don't share."

I do not know how many BMW clubs there are at the national level.  But the
BMW CCA, the publisher of the Roundel, is not sponsored by BMW of NA.  Which
is why they are the "BMW CCA" with the space.  BMW made them do it.  The
other choice was lawyers.  BMW CCA has something like 50K members if I
remember correctly.  Roundel pays money to their writers...!  What an idea!

BMW CCA has one membership, one dues.  New members are assigned to the
nearest BMW CCA chapter, which gets some portion of the membership dues.
What a plan.

I get the cast off Roundel's from a friend, and have photocopied some of the
column's their officers have written and sent them to our BoD.  I've also
e-mailed one of their officers about the BMW CCA's relationship with
chapters, and got a very nice reply, which I sent to on to our BoD.

That said, a club for a currently produced car is fundamentally different
from a club for a car last produced 40 years ago.  Added to the equation is,
as others have noted, the independent nature of many (most?) Corvair owners.
The mere fact we remain fans of the Corvair makes us a
in-your-face-independent person in the eyes of society in general.  Dealing
with that internally is one of our real problems.  Externally, I suspect we
are looked at with some suspicion.  Many car people, because of their
personality, cannot bear the stigma of suspicion of a lack of normal, good,
common sense, as a car owner or any other area of their life.  Us, we like
to fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

Historically Yours,
                   James Rice
                   CORSA member since mid-70's
                   Former Chairman of the Competition Committee
                   Member of original CPF Advisorary Committee
                   CORSA/CPF BoD member and CPF Liaison 1999-01
                   Occasional contributor to the Communique