I ,too, enjoyed being in our club...Cruzin Unlimited, in the Baltimore area. We raised alot of mney for charities so it gave all of us a great sense of accomplishment. We travelled to get togethers together and had a ball. Unfortunately, as the original poster queried , crooks will be crooks and dishonesty and the lack of integrity plague all forms of business...clubs included!!! Like almost all have suggested here, do your homework and check out the group you are considering associating with.
Clubs are still for Seals and just for though. If you hang out with your friends and they are all into cars is'nt that the same ?? Whats a club other than some ID be it patch or logo that says, " hey im with them" ??
Car Clubs are just like marriages ... Some are good and a lot of them turn out BAD. We had a HOT ROD car club here in SC ( pre 49 vehicles only ) ... ( older than the club Hotrodprimer is in ) and we made it 20 years with no problem. We raised over 100 thousand dollars for the local childrens home. We all got along real good ... then we messed up and let a fellow in and his wife ( who was real nice for about a year ) tried to break up the club and run it for themselves. HER way or the HIGHWAY. She divided the club by getting the wives all upset .. broke up the club. We made it over 20 years without her and only two years with her .. Be real careful who you let in your club ...
Our club is very important to me, but we're probably not like most clubs. Not a lot of rules, no dues, no set meetings, etc. We've recently taken to making prospective members wait a year before they're in, which has been very efficient toll in weeding out wannabes that just want a jacket and a drag plaque. Like most things in life, it's what you make of it.
..........what he said. My club meets once a week, rain or shine, for breakfast. With us together we get all of the scuttlebut, event schedules etc. Consists of about 20 people that enjoy talking about the hobby without having to sit and listen to the stuff that is necessary at organized club meetings. Not a bad thing, it goes with organized meetings. My main problem with the organized club I belonged to was the rut they got into, trying to put every member in the box they had built for themselves...........
I am not a memeber yet but have been approached a few times and I am planning to to that just for the reasons you stated, to maybe hook up with a smaller club or group. Thanks.
I typically dont frequent THOSE clubs. I agree with most of what has been said. Seems to be important to keep it small. I always look at it as only my family comes before club members. Easy to do if you have the right folks in the club.
The only problem with my club is the requirements for becoming a member I don't want to be a Geezer! (312)
Dos lo Baws isnt really a club just a bunch of guys that run together and build hot rods.We help each other when we can,some guys are better at some things than others but every one has skills.
find out thier "mission statment"....before you join...my club continues to earn more and more money....i asked whats the point if we don't do it for a cause(food bank, cancer whatever)...the senior members say we don't get enough recognition for donations....sheesh if you are out to get recognized then your priorities are wrong...oh ya...ive been a member of a fifty y/o car club for 4 years and we only have worked on one car for one night....lame...i'm better off in the garage!
I have always been sort of a loner all my life. If everyone else said it was blue, I said it was green. I always said I didn't want to be a part of any organization that would stoop low enough to have me as a member. About 6 or 7 years ago I got back into cars, ran into an old friend at the 2nd Lonestar Roundup, started hanging out and 3-4 years ago got accepted into our club. Our club doesn't have officers, doesn't have dues and very few rules, We don't have meetings, just our weekly Thirsty Thursday, to which anyone and everyone is invited. We induct 1 new member a year. You must have or must be actively building a pre '64 vehicle to be considered for membership. If you are a member you must attend the Lonestar Roundup and park with the club. You must show up at Thirsty Thursday at least once a month. If work, family, etc gets in the way that is not a problem. We are a close-knit group, a family. We give each other parts, help each other in any way we can, help build cars etc. A few of us have been friends for over 40 years. Like family, we sometimes have our differences, but it seems to always work out. This has been a really positive experience for me and my wife, met a lot of people, made a lot of new friends.
Our local should be called the Trophy Whores. They have 2 car shows a year and make sure only members win. Gay.
clubs are cool if they are cool.. that being said, ill probably get kicked outta my club now that i sold my hot rod and im buildin a lowrider haha
My Buddy and I started our club about 4 years ago, seemed like the clubs around us were too established to expand so we just started our own. 2 members, 2 cars! Makes parking our club easier at a show when you only need 2 spots !
If you get married just to get married you're gonna have problems. If you get married 'cause you love your wife it'll last forever. Don't join a club just to get a cool jacket, Only join if you enjoy haging out and driving with its members.
Well, I've always been somewhat of a loner, so I don't really see what a car club would do for me. Another thing is that I'm only 16, and most of the car clubs I see around are filled with guys twice my age, so I don't really see myself eating breakfast every week with a bunch of older guys. So for me, I couldn't really relate to a lot of what was being said. Maybe if there was a club of younger guys I could be into that? But either way, I don't really care.
I have belonged to both car and motorcycle clubs for over 35 years. The car clubs were always goo d experiences because I spent time with them before joining and when my interests changedd or I no longer had that type of vehicle, I moved on. Still good freinds with guys from a truck club that I was in in the late 70's. I belonged to motorycle clubs that varied from local race clubs (in my desert racing days) to H.O.G., the biggest "Club" in the world. In the late 80's out H.O.G. chapter was a pretty rough group of real bikers - guys that really lived to ride, and rode to live. Like most chapters it became full of RUB's (Rich Urban Bikers) and no longer held any interest for me so I moved on - no regrets, just wan't my scene anymore. One of the best car clubs I belonged to had an ointeresting "rule". The jackets and plaques belonged to the club, no the member - if you decided to quit or were asked to leave you returned the jacket and plaque. What this did was make sure that a disgruntled member or an A Hole didn't sully the name of the club!
Been there, done that. No more. Just hang around people with common interests and who share your views on how to act in public...no club, no dues, no club name, no jackets. Like-minded people with like-minded qualities don't need anything else. Just have a list of phone numbers and emails and have an occasional get-together of some sort. Rules, dues, personality differences, etc. usually creates tension or some kind of drama. Somebody always HAS to be the "top-dog" or the group "big mouth". All will suffer from the lowest denominator's actions. Just get together, do whatever it is that you want to do, go home and do it again someday soon...done WARNING: This is how the public sees you.
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