Just wondering, how many Gurus belong to local Corvette Clubs?
I joined the local club here last year, but wasn't able to participate more than a time or two due to baby, work, etc...

Every club around me is well... kinda lame. All they do when I show up is bash my car, rag on C4's. and (LITERALLY) compare window stickers.

I didn't renew after I joined one the first year of owning my vette.

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Sounds kinda like the NCRS members I run into. I didn't renew aftermy first year either.

I was in clubs for a long time, was a V.P., did all the work, etc. The 10% rule, 10% of the members do all the work.

After a while, it got boring. The cruises and the shows were just sitting on your butt unless you were judging. And if you were judging, you worked your ass off.

I did all this pre- C5. Nowadays, the clubs (at least here) seem to sit around discussing wax and floormats.

I did enjoy the NCRS judging I did but that was when the early C4s were new.

I couldn't stand the lack of excitement and moved on.

long business meetings... and little technical discussion.

I swear, I knew more about the mechanics of these cars than the rest of the club members combined.

They were nice folks, but just a little insular. And I did make a couple of friends. I think in general, my personality didn't mesh with them. They were quite low keyed.

A little microcosm of our club: Our former president, God rest his soul (died tragically about 5 years ago, heart attack and car accident, in that order), was a retired school teacher/vice principle.

He was nice and very knowledgeable. I volunteered to run the trivia during the meetings. I would always wear a Corvette themed ball cap, because the meeting ran close to work ending and sometimes I could'nt change, so the hat was easy. He actually motioned to me to REMOVE THE HAT inside. I graciously acknowledged and promptly ignored the request. To me, the hat inside thing is perfectly acceptable when in a professional environment. I do it at work when I wear my rain hat, but a Corvette themed ball cap at a Corvette club meeting at an Olive Garden?

Same thing happened at a Lions club where we were holding our meeting... the bar tender was living some kinda 1950s propriety thing...

I remember vividly when I installed the LTCC in my 92... only one member was impressed with the idea... the rest were non-plussed, at best.

It was experiences like this that caused me to not rejoin a club out here.

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One of the things I liked about the early NCRS meetings was the business discussions were about 5 minutes and the rest of the meetings were technical, rebuilds, etc.
But that was before the C4s came out and before the ego trips.

I went to one meet in NC here (Wilmington, Jacksonville, New Bern clubs), and didn't really have such a good time listening to all the fossils talk about non-tech stuff - wax and floormats, like BH said...

It's a struggle to make a C5 or 6 'stand out'.

I'm a club President of a pretty big club (180 members)and we have all kinds of people in the club. Some are real works of art, and others are just great people.

Different people have different areas of expertise. We have some real gurus at drag racing that have been doing it for over 30 years and others just getting into it.
We have master restorers like Tony and his guys from Tony's Corvettes in Maryland.
We have famous SCCA racing drivers from years gone by. We truly have a great group of people.

True though, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the fun, and there is always one horses ass in every crowd. You just have to learn to live with em or let them leave.

As far as car envy and screwing with owners of some cars, I don't see much of this going on at all. I think the C5 guys are getting hit pretty hard right now by Corvette Envy over the C6 Vettes in our club. We have a huge number of C6 Z06s and two new ZR1s already. The C5 guys that can't move up yet are feeling the pinch and no love for thier 75k mile C5s.

Just on the board we have the following cars. So the demographcs are pretty diverse over the entire club.
C1 1
C2 1
C3 1
C4 2
C5 3
C6 4

Everyone loves my C4, as they have followed my trials and tribulations of rebuilding it. Besides, a lot of C4 guys have done real good at the races, both drags and autocross over the years.

I think some clubs are just poser clubs and don't do a lot of fun stuff or are not into bringing new members on board. We are very pro-active about recruiting new members and making them feel part of the group right away. It wasn't always like that, but we have made an effort in the past few years to make it that way.

Don Haller
President, Corvette Club of America

I just got elected president of my club

We're a pretty laid back club, even when it comes to competition
"run what you brung"

I've also belonged to the largest, LoneStar Corvette club

and the oldest, Corvette Club of Michigan.

I found you get what you put into them.

I like the car shows the best. The local club had a good show last year, but I did not have my car then. I am going to sign up for the show this year. I am not sure if I want to join the club though.

Slate Belt Corvette Club, We are all simple people who like to have some fun

Thanks for the replies. I'm just not sure if I'm going to renew or not. Right now, I'm leaning against it.
Granted, I didn't really have time to get involved; however, the few times I was there I felt strangly out of place. In my opinion, there seemed to be a 'club within a club' atmosphere, if you know what I mean, and that's just not for me. I don't need to buy my friends, never have, and never will.
Anyway, Happy Friday!
Hope everybody has a good weekend!

Maybe try another club. Some can be a cliquish, and sometimes don't even know it.

But... I always say to new members that you
"reap what you sow."
You need to get involved and make yourself known. Generally people don't come rushing up to strangers and dote all over them. I find that those new members that jump right in feet first and come to meetings and get involved usually stay around. We get lots of new members that join and bail out because clubs might not be their cup of tea, or they just don't have the time to do all the things we do.

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Thanks for the reply. I may give it another go, we'll see.
My problem was at the initial meeting, when the 'officers' of the club didn't bother to introduce themselves. I wasn't the only newbee there who noticed it. You know what they say about first impressions! Call me old fashioned, but if I was hosting a meeting, I would make an effort to talk to everyone present, but that's just me!

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I agree 100%! Those clubs that don't acknowledge visitors and new members at first meeting are doing themselves and the new member an injustice, and soon will have a dwindling membership base.

Leading a club or organization is no different than leading a good business or other venture. Good people skills, and sound judgement are critical to success.