i am in a club - i am the president, v.p., sec., and treasurer - a lousy one at that...NO meetings, all the BS any one guy could handle....drive where ever and when ever i want ...socialize with most all the car guys and gals - kool club!....jb
Don't want a "club"...just a place to hang, to work, have fun. To "give back" just show up, lot's of people like that organization shit. Trying to put that kinda place together,we'll see if it can be done.
Years ago when vans were the hot ticket I was the secretary/treasurer of a club.I too got burned out on the rules & politics.Now...I just go alone.I have just as much fun & I do it my way. Giz'
I've been in the same club since 1993 and I can honestly say that all in all it's been a good time . Our group is very diverse in both career and finanicial demographics and we all get along very well. The common bond is the cars and having a fun time. In a few weeks we're going on our annual turn around with one of the bay area clubs on the central coast , always a great time . For me it's working out very well.
Not my club... We keep it just between 5 guys. TIGHT! I been in others.... no comment on that. I just know that what I got now is cool. I have to be 50/50 on it. It's all about the right guys with the right atttitude. I guess solo is okay too.
I was in the local Mopars Unlimited club for a couple or three years back in the early 1990's. There were a few cool guys in the club, but the membership was more than a few. Kept getting more and more 'gold chainer'... if you didn't have a big block stick car, a hemi, or six pack, you weren't 'cool'. About a year after I quit, I rolled with my buddy Jon (who was still a member) to their yearly drag race. He wanted to run but didn't have anything ready. We went thru a different carb (lookin' for performance) and got it on the car about 1:00AM the evening before the race. Carb had problems... convoyed with the club to the strip with the car bucking and snorting. Had a problem with the main circuit in the primary barrels. Nobody would talk to us, or even look at us, because Jon was poor-ass broke and didn't have a ride to take to the strip, and my Valiant was about four different colors and looked like ass - and wasn't running right. When we got to the strip, we swapped back to the original carb, and realized we didn't have a baseplate gasket. So, we re-used the one that was on there. Of course, it decided to leak. Badly. And almost nobody from our chapter (well, by that point Jon's chapter) would talk to us, let alone sport us a gasket! Don't know how many guys I talked to, but it was a bunch. Luckily, there were some guys there from a dealership; not the one who was sponsoring the event. I asked if I could beg/borrow/buy a gasket, and the guy grabs me by the arm and pulls me into the trailer, talking real loud about something completely unrelated. When we got inside, he explained that he wasn't supposed to be giving out parts, because the guys from the sponsoring dealership would likely get a case of ass. He tucked a baseplate gasket into a trailer brochure, and wouldn't take any money. We exited the trailer, and he started talking loudly again, and said that he'd be glad to hook me up with the guy who built their trailer. Short story long, we replaced the gasket, and took street class (6 rounds of eliminations). The dealership sponsoring the event, who was in tight with the club officers took pics of every car but our Valiant. And acted like we had the plague. Of course, the Handlers (the association who runs Bremerton) guys were super cool. And I met some good guys from the peninsula side and south Sound. On the ferry ride back home, a bunch of the same dicks who literally turned their backs and walked away when we tried to talk to 'em on the ride in wanted to yak about the car. Yeah, you can guess how I treated 'em. That was in May 1995; haven't been tempted to join another club since. YMMV -Bill
I helped start one and was the president for a few years. It was fun for a while and then everything changed when a couple of drama queens decided to throw a monkey wrench in everyone's fun. Some people that aren't happy unless they are making everyone around themselves as miserable as they are. I stayed on as a member because I didn't want to walk away from all the work I had done. It just kept getting a little worse every year and finally one day I said I'd had enough. I quit and never looked back.
Im the VP of our car club, and most of the Bishops are on the hamb (Bloodyjack, wolfhound423, rev. Jack, Flatheadfred ect.) When my brother and i started the club a few years back, we set out strict rules on no dues, everyone pays for their own stuff, 15 member cap, and everyone has to have eithor a project car or a running car. we have 9 members now and we couldnt be any closer friends. If we wernt friends to begin with, then it might be a different story. If we dont like ya, your not in, and if you mess with us, you mess with everyone. And no hippys
As my sig. says I'm a proud member of the SCTA Road Runners. We don't mind hippies but drama queens are definitely verboten.
I've been in 2 car clubs and got fucked over both times! The fuckin jerk offs stand there, drinking beer, watching you work and then complain they don't like the way you did someting! I'm hanging out now with gear heads I've hung with since high school back in the 60's and having much more fun. Clubs are for seals!
Yeah me too! No club for me. Ive been a member of a club that all they did was watch football & drink beer.They even set up a grandstand in the clubrooms but none wanted to go to runs outside of area.Down here we have 2 associations that we can belong to.The main one has all the small clubs which are affiliated to that make up the majority of yearly runs,which is what Im suppossed to join if I want to have a fender exemption etc.The other association caters for the rest of us who dont want the politics & bs that goes with it.Both have their good points & bad,,Deadbeat
old one, i've been using that tag for years..... seriously, clubs have their places but i quit one many years ago and swore i'd never join another.... and now i belong to an amc club in northern colorado...
Frank, Gave up clubs years ago because mission statement kept changing and small number of members did all the work. I am 70 just quit NSRA which I joined in 1970 at the first Street Rod Nationals. OK just doing my own thing with who I want. JMO Bob
We have two roadsters in the club but as you well know roadster guys are totally screwed up. They're so busy trying to figure out what exactly is a roadster that they have no time for prima donna fits.
Clubs invariably devolve into cliques that don't get along to one degree or another. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a car club or something else. Me, I never have joined one - my standard is I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member.
I'm an inactive member of two classic-car clubs. The dues won't break the bank, and I get the newsletters which, in the absence of any local classic/hot rod press worth mentioning, keep me posted on what's going on. I've responded to a couple of classifieds, attend the odd show, but my life is too hectic for meetings. Yes, a few members do all the work, but they are born club-organizers who just can't stop themselves. They work for the enjoyment of the thing, and to be honest I don't hear them complaining. It's sort of accepted that not all club members can be active members. I'm about to join a third club, which specializes in pre-WWII cars. For the equivalent of about US$25 a year I get access to a huge automotive library - and they lend!
was never into the club thing..was a lone wolf , before being one was cool Hard enough to get shop time, than to have other people putting schedules on me...well i wouldnt get nothin done, meeting for this meeting for that..and all the politics in a club..who needs it besides this place is good enough
wow after hearing all this I started thinking, politics, drama and clicks it sounds more like high school than a car club. It makes me want to quit a club...but then I rember that im not in any clubs. Any club that would have me for a member is not worth joining.
Car clubs are no different then most religious groups, a few decide the direction to head the group, follow or piss off! Right? Well if the right leaders are in charge, fine, if not, well there you have it.................. No differnt then the fine Christian's who allowed the KKK to run rampant back in the day or the Muslims who allow the extremist to run amuck with out policeing them......... If you have a club and allow the flakes to ruin it, who do you blame? The flake or the group?........ Any group will have up and downs, how much of each can be determined by the members with any luck............... I have belonged to the same club sine 1976 and we have had our ups and downs but here we are still messing with cars. http://www.streetkingsokla.com/HISTORY_1.html
They are not for everyone.. you have to be able to "play well with others" and communicate effectively.. you have to commit to a common goal.. and be willing to do what it takes.. sometimes its rough. But you can accomplish many things with a group of people all pitching in .. look at the pileup.. or other club events that do the hot rod world good. club driven.
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