<VV> Beyond a Dues Increase

[Russ Moorhouse]

Excuse me for butting in here and offering my two cents, since I'm already 
an ex-CORSA member.  I dropped out of CORSA a couple of years ago, when the 
price of membership was raised.  It wasn't a case of not being able to 
afford it, but rather it really wasn't of any benefit to me.  The Communiqué 
was the only thing of any value that I was getting out of it and each issue 
might only have one, maybe two articles of interest to me.  These were the 
ones that pertained to a persons Corvair or technical articles.  The most 
interesting article to me that was published during the time I was a member 
was the one done on decoding the build tags on the late models.  The rest of 
the magazine was pretty much useless as far as this new member was 
concerned.  I didn't care to read about the results of some clubs racing 
event that was half way across the country from me, or their show and the 
results of the judging.  I was never going to race my Corvair and probably 
never meet these people or attend one of their events.  Several pages of the 
Communiqué were dedicated to clubs events in each issue.  Then you could 
count on several issues, having the pages filled with information pertaining 
to the yearly CORSA convention, both before and after event.  In fact you 
could count on a couple of  issues after the convention being mostly filled 
with articles from that event.  Here again, although some were interesting 
as far as places I would like to tour or visit at some point, the rest was 
of no interest to me.  Around election time for CORSA, again before and 
after several pages were dedicated to those running and who won and their 
blurbs on what the felt they could do for CORSA.

So after several years of being a member, when it was time to send in my 
dues, which had just gone up, I had to ask myself, what was I getting of 
value out of being a CORSA member.  VV was the only thing I was getting out 
of being a member and I didn't need to be a member for that. I felt that 
CORSA was keeping the Corvair people united and promoting the interest of 
the Corvair, but I felt the magazine was geared more to long time active 
members who all knew one another and have owned Corvairs forever.  This was 
their way of keeping up with their friends across the country and what the 
other clubs were doing.  I was hoping for more articles on the car and tech 
articles, rather than social items.

I joined CORSA after getting several older Communiqués off ebay and after 
reading them, I thought it would be worth it to join CORSA just to get the 
magazine.  These were from the early '80s and were filled with much more 
interesting articles than the newer Communiqué.  Maybe there isn't anything 
new to print about Corvairs, because it already has been printed in the 
older Communiqués, but for us newer members, it would have been interesting 
seeing one or two of these older articles in the new Communiqués.

 Why doesn't CORSA consider offering two price levels of membership?  One 
for those of us who want to belong and are willing to pay for VV and also be 
able to read or download  the Communiqué on line and a higher membership fee 
that will support the high cost of publishing the Communiqué, for those who 
insist on the paper copy.

After 42 years in computers, I would much rather be able to download a 
magazine to my computer where it takes up much less room than an actual 
magazine.  Yes I'm an old fart, but I've been in computers all my life and 
have come to appreciate the capabilities the computer age is providing in 
the ways of on-line publication.


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