What do you do at your regional Meetings?

[Guest Mark Golding]

Just wondering what other groups do to keep your members happy. It seems we are losing members in my local chapter and I was wondering what other groups do?

[Jay Wolf]

One thing we do is move the meeting to different members garages and have the owner discuss recent or current projects.

If not at the new garage I have a speaker come in to talk about something car related.

We have had lectures/lessons on:

repairing plastic bumpers

Paint

Plasma cutters.

OBDII

Look over our site I have photos of several meetings.

http://beaver.vinu.edu/lover.HTM

[ppaquet]

Mark...we do the same as above with speakers but not frequently. We have almost as many women as men in our group and they sometimes get a bit bored with technicalities. We do some triva (that both husband/wife can participate)with a prize, about every third or fourth month we have a meal before the meeting and really try to dispense with the business aspect AQAP so that we can enjoy fellowship with some type of refreshment. Hope this will give you some ideas that could be tweaked to fit your group.

[Terry Bond]

Tidewater Region has a monthly dinner meeting. We have floated around over the years and for the past few have been meeting at a really nice country club for a buffet dinner and then a program. Programs are scheduled to provide a good mix. We have a lot of members who give programs on restoration, tours and events they've been on, etc. During the summer we have a picnic in lieu of a monthly meeting, and during the month we host our annual show, we skip the meeting. In November we always hold a silent auction as a fund raiser. Lots of donated stuff gets auctioned off and it is always a good time.

The solution to membership decline isn't always just about your monthly meetings tho. It's what you do all year long that is important. A good variety of activities and plenty to choose from will keep the club moving. It takes a great newsletter and nowdays, a great website to keep everyone involved and informed.

AACA Regions and Chapters has a whole network of development and support volunteers to help with great ideas. Dave Zimmerman (past AACA Prez) is VP of the Eastern Division. You can reach him thru the AACA front page or call HQ in Hershey for a phone #. Anything we can do to help, just ask!

Terry

[Studemax]

Our Studebaker chapter attends monthly meetings at a different location chosen by the Tourmaster. I'll give you the run-down for this year.

Jan. - We attended a local indoor car show as a club.

Feb. - We met at a local fast food restaurant popular with car clubs.

Mar. - We toured a local car collector's building to view his 100 or so Euro classics (Bentley to Isotta Fraschini).

Apr. - We toured the local City-County Historical Museum.

May - We caravaned to a historic restaurant for lunch.

June - We attended a local outdoor show as a club.

July - We will caravan to a historic millhouse for lunch.

Aug. - We will caravan to an underground city.

Sep. - Our Intl. Meet falls that weekend, so those who stay home will meet informally at a local fast-food joint.

Oct. - We will caravan to lunch with the local Hudson and Packard clubs, and then tour a small-town museum.

Nov. - We meet locally for Studebaker Stew & elections.

Dec. - We meet in a members home for Christmas Dinner.

Every three years we host a multi-state 3 day Studebaker meet drawing around 65 Studebakers, and 125 members for a car show, a caravan, a chili feed, and tours of McPherson (KS) College of Antique Automotive Restoration School.

The final event is an Awards Banquet with entertainment.

It's a lot of work, but also lots of fun.

[WireWheel]

We have tours every month from April thry October. Our meetings take about five minutes to bring everyone up to speed on what will be happening the next few months. Each tour is hosted by a different member or couple.

November is our annual business meeting for election of officers. December is a Christmas Dinner. Nothing in January, Valentines dinner in February and March is up for grabs.

[ex98thdrill]

Mark,

You can get a lot of answers just by visiting the various AACA Region websites linked right to this homepage.

I belong to GVACS and a rough overview of what we're doing is as follows:

January - Year end party and awards banquet.

February - Winter Picnic.

March - Usually an indoor meeting with a guest speaker.

April - Same as March with a different speaker.

May - Spring dust off and brunch run.

June - Ice Cream social.

July - Region annual car show.

August - long mileage tour (either overnight or 1,000 mile tour).

September - Mystery tour.

October - Fall Picnic.

November - Indoor meeting with a guest speaker.

December - Chrismas Party.

PLUS right now we're planning for a national meet in 2010.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

This is an interesting thread. Our region is actively trying to recruit new members. Many of the long timers understand some are getting less active and others of course, are passing on. There is a general interest in gaining members. The two suggestions above (checking other websites and getting a hold of Dave Zimmerman) are great suggestions.

Our region has a pretty balanced schedule,which includes some social outings like winter banquet, a couple of tours, a large parade at Memorial Day that are family or couples oriented. Monthly meetings are really more technical in nature - we look for restoration shops or simillar for these, and the location is the primary draw of the meeting. We do one show per year, a local show that was just held a couple weeks ago.

Besides a desire to increase membership we are in the process of looking at other activities that would be of interest. I would like to see more garage tours, which we are working on. Personally I would like to see some activities designed to keep some of our experienced collectors interested and hopefully for them to share knowledge, etc. One thing I was going to suggest is a spring get ready day where some of us who are younger and have mechanical skill assist those who may need it to get their cars ready for the season. Often you hear about a collector who stops bringing his/her car out as they simply get too old to manage the maintenance, etc. We will see.

One suggestion I have is to ask your membership what they want. Some members may have ideas but are too busy or not interested in being on the board, etc. If asked, they may give you an idea of what interests them. I think we may try to survey our club on this as well.

Locally I think the mix of activities is a huge plus. I also belong to a club that is pretty much based on touring. No technical, really a social club. Overall, unless you are into touring more than anything, this is a bit narrow in focus.

[ex98thdrill]

Steve,

Another thing to consider when planning region activities also includes something that will interest the wives. If the wives are interested, it'll make it easier to get out and participate.

[Paul Dobbin]

We have belonged to the same local car club for 35 years

and finding new stuff for the club to do is always a challenge. What we need to remember is that some of the old stuff we did is new to our newer members. Re-doing tours of old and revisiting old eating establishments is still fun if you go with fun people.

A couple of things we do that are different:

#1. A FREE car show every Easter Saturday for antique cars built before 1960. We hold in the county's historical park

among the old buildings and encourage people to come in period costume. It's a real hoot with only peoples choice awards (dining gift certificates) It draws 150 cars and 5000 spectators, always results in new members joining the fun.

#2. We charter a bus to visit museums that are a hard days drive in 75 year old cars. Make it an overnighter and these folks are like college kids! We've been to the Tallahassee Car Museum, Don Garlit's Speed Museum, the Packard Museum in Ft Lauderdale, the Ford & Edison homes in Ft. Myers, we even rented the Sarasota Classic Car Museum for our Christmas party.

#3. Our regular meetings always have a literature exchange.

bring your Hemming's or other publications and take Classic Car Magazine, Old Cars, Car & Driver, Etc. Etc.. Very popular.

#4 Get folks involved. In addition to the four officers we

have a Membership Chairman, Tour Director, Editor, Roster Keeper, Refreshment Chairman, Sunshine Lady and various Liaison people for other organizations, and a Photographer. Involvement grows interest.

#5 We have at least one or more local tours (within 50

miles of the start) each month and at least one overnighter

(within 150 miles) each year.

#6 We don't take ourselves to seriously. The purpose of this club of 176 member families is to have fun with old cars. We don't define "old cars" but are primarily Pre- WWII vehicles (we began in 1964 as a Model A Club), but anything is welcome. When we tour, the rule is older cars

up front. You'll see our tours with everything from a 1912 to a 1970's driving in chronological order. (We've had as many as 60 cars on these tours.) So if you want a good seat at the eatery, drive and older car!

[Guest AntarcticDave]

Our regional Cadillac & LaSalle car club has a monthly meeting, in addition to all our normal acivities. We have a guest speaker each meeting, everything from a video on traffic signals from 1936 to a talk on computerized manufacturing (with samples). We encourage donated items, which we auction or raffle off at the meetings. The proceeds go to a Christmas fund, and we either adopt needy families or donate to a local charity each Christmas.

Last year we did one monthly meeting and offered a BBQ with free food, courtesy of the region. We had quite a turnout.

As for our non-meeting actitivies, we try to do a driving tour every year, a number of parades, participate in a few shows, hold at least one fancy dinner, do trips to museums and other points of interest (this year we went to a washing machine museum), and hold our regional meet at a local dealership. On the less formal side, we also try to hold a few burger runs during the year as well.

There is never a month we don't have a meeting and at least 1 other activity going on. This is all for a regional club with around 140 members.