<VV> Directories and other thoughts

Mon Apr 7 21:58:09 EDT 2014

If you think Corvairs owners all fit a certain demographic, you are mistaken.

I was floored when I stumbled across Instagram and found a whole new generation of enthusiasts enjoying their Corvairs.

You just won't find them if you go looking in the "usual" places.  These kids do communication entirely differently than you or I.

Here's a link to some of the 75 pics I pulled down that came from a 2 week period on Instagram.

http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,652669,652669#msg-652669

Regards,
Joel

> Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 20:39:35 +0000
> From: ricebugg at comcast.net
> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Subject: <VV> Directories and other thoughts
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> All:  Sorry for the late response to the CORSA directory discussion.  I've spent the last 3 days playing with our 5 yr old grandson.   I am trying to recover. 
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> I think I have all the paper directories back to what I believe is the first one in 1976.  I generally take the current one with me on road trips.  Paper never crashes.
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> I think Bill's demography analysis is flawed.  I think his demographics does not reflect current or future near term CORSA membership.  I think his income amount is to high.  Cheapness, generally out of necessity, runs deep in our Corvair community.  And I think it will continue to be true.  If we had the kind of money he suggest, would we be playing with Corvairs vs other available toy cars?   I think his assent of tech savey is not so prevasive within the Corvair community, given the age and income levels of folks currently or likely to play with Corvairs in the future.  And his target age is to old.  I think 40 is closer to a good target.  I was about 30 when I got my first Corvair and somehow found CORSA.  I knew it was out there because of all the Corvair magazine articles I started collecting in 1959. 
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> So tell me now, how is it there are Corvair owners who don't know CORSA exists?!  That's a failure on our part.  All of our parts.  
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> I have a flip phone...Star Trek influence!  I don't have GPS, or a pad of any kind other than yellow ones with lines across them which require some writing stick to use.  Nor do I have a lap top.  Just a now old PC.  So - you know this is coming - I don't have what my oldest daughter and I refer to as a SPP - Smarty Pants Phone.  She has one.  My other daughter "only" has a cell phone. There are pads of various origins laying around our grandkids rooms.  But they are all 12 or younger and not candidates for CORSA membership.  But then, none of my family reaches Bill's income or technology level, so what do I know?!   And none of my family care about any 50 year old car.  Of any kind.  Dealing with 10 to 15 year old cars required for hauling kids around is more than enough.  Outside my Corvair friends, I know less than a dozen people who actually care about old cars.  Makes me wonder if I maybe need some new friends!   
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> I have no idea how may Corvairs are out there with current license plates on them.  If you assume the Corvair community is 10 times larger than CORSA membership, we have a potential of 40K folks to reach.  But the BMW CCA has a membership of about 50K.  They have a currently in production car to grow their community.  And, last I knew, they are asking some of the same questions as we are about the future of car clubs.  
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> Given the iconoclastic nature of Corvair folk, as exemplified by all the non-CORSA members in local chapter and the "you cannot make me join CORSA", we have a dim future.  Some of us are just to expletive deleted paranoid for our own good.  We don't want any "outsiders".  They might drive up the cost of my next cheap toy car...or daily driver. (!)   
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> I don't fundamentally disagree with Bill about dragging CORSA into the 21 century as a good concept.  But I'm not actually sure what that means.  An app with CORSA membership available to CORSA members who know their membership number is a solution? Who is going to uset?!  I don't know my memberhip number.  Not about to learn it. 
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> We all understand how our kids and grandkids communicate.  We know smoke signals don't work anymore.  The EPA doesn't allow them. 
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> You want an CORSA app for a SPP!   Fine, gofurit.  First define what content you want available.  Tell us.  You will get the best feedback from this CORSA community.  Then develope the app...I don't know what that involves, nor can I dt, so it is easy for me to say.  But I will object strongly if the info in the directory is made available to any non-CORSA member at anytime for for any reason. If that is the limit to your app idea.  
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> I do not think the root problem is CORSA as a organization/car club.  As Pogo said 50 some years ago, "We have met the enemy, and it is us."  Until we find or become the folks in the CORSA community who both believe CORSA is worth keeping AND who can devote the time to trying to do things on its behalf, like define and develop an app, we will not make much progress. 
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> We have to, in the core of each of us, get over "Unsafe At Any Speed."  If you hear that said, respond with stories of Corvair/Stinger racers who have yet to find that true, or of our friend Tom who ran 176.point-something at Bonneville in a Corvair. 
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> I so like Clark's ads I see in magazines: "Forget the myth, drive the car."  Wish I had thought of it and that CORSA could use it.   
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> Historically Yours,
>                     James Rice
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> Message: 7Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2014 21:22:17 -0400From: "Greg Hanlin" <g.hanlin at earthlink.net>Subject: Re: <VV> Membership DirectoryTo: virtualvairs at corvair.org
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> I think Bill has pretty much captured exactly what I was thinking when I suggested a
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> Corsa (or CORSA) app on Friday. We must take this club to the members we hope to attract. Thanks for putting it so succinctly.
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> 
> Greg
> HanlinDayton, OH
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> -----Original Message----- From: Bill HubbellSent: Sunday, April 06, 2014 7:42 PMTo: Jay MaechtlenCc: virtualvairs at corvair.org ; Harry Jensen Executive SecretarySubject: Re: Membership Directory
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> Ok, so there are a bunch of guys who don't have smart phones or tablets. I get it, but guess what - you are in the minority, as recent studies show that approximately 56 percent of the adult US population and as much as 61 percent of all people who own a cellphone now own smartphones. Further, among those in the 30 to 49 age category making $75,000 or more, 87 percent have a smartphone.
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> I realize that most of us in the Corvair Hobby are older than that age group, but if we really want to attract younger members to this hobby we should understand how they communicate and strive to bring our organization up to modern standards.
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> Heck, even Smitty has a tablet.  
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> Bill
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> On Apr 6, 2014, at 3:58 PM, Jay
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> Maechtlen <jaysplace at laserpubs.com> wrote:
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> > On 4/6/2014 6:35 AM, Bill
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> Hubbell wrote:> Harry,>> Glovebox? Laptop? Aren't those relics of the previous century?>> Everybody uses smart phones or tablets and GPS units now and they fit just  fine in our pockets.>> It's past time CORSA joined the 21st century and had a CORSA ap.>> Bill Hubbell
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> "everybody"?I don't have a bloody smartphone.  Or a tablet. I'd probably have to root my wife's Nook to put a 3rd partyapp on it, and that's not going to happen any time soon.And we have GPS units, but they won't have the CORSA directory in them.
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> Yes, an app could be nice.  But if you have a tablet, you can probably use the CORSA website. Jay Maechtlen
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