[VAC] Re: Membership revisited

["Wayne A. Moore" <wam52@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bob and all Listees,

    I will need to put my WBCCI Unit President hat on for the next paragraph
as these are the rules and mind you they are not verbatim. The club we all
belong to is the WBCCI. The Vintage Club although having a full slate of
officers is still only a large unit in the WBCCI and its officers are bound
by the rules of the main club and the International Board of trustees. It is
an additional organization to the individual local units and has all the
rights, privileges, insurance protection and Non Profit Organization
(Recreational)Status as those units. MEMBERSHIP is in the WBCCI /VAC. An
official WBCCI /VAC rally, although informal with respect to
regular WBCCI unit rallies, must be posted for and by the Members of the
WBCCI/VAC. All non members who wish to attend a rally must be invited and
sponsored by a WBCCI Member/ Unit. Non-members can only attend one (1) of
these invitationals as a non member. The exception would be, if an
additional WBCCI rally had been scheduled as a Buddy Rally (1 is authorized
per unit per year) allowing that non-member to attend twice in that year.

    The SUBSCRIPTION of VAC Friend was created to provide future VACers a
means to get info (Vintage Advantage and Website Access) on club activities
and entice them to full membership. This was not intended to be an end in
itself. Its purpose was and is transitional. There was never any intent to
create a separate non WBCCI membership.

    Now let me put my VAC hat on and elaborate. As you can see, if you have
attended a VAC Rally, the way the VAC has been functioning has more to do
with whatever gets people excited than strict adherence to the rules. We
endeavor to conduct these gatherings in a manner which maintains peoples
interest,  in hopes of gaining their membership. Most VACers tend to take a
much looser approach to the rules and in some cases those promoting rallies
bend them quite a bit and allow non members to continue to attend without
membership. However, make no mistake about it, the organizational goal of
the VAC is membership growth. The
WBCCI/ VAC needs rules to establish order and maintain its traditions and it
needs membership funds to defray the costs of promoting and conducting these
rallies and caravans we all enjoy so much.

    The VAC Experiment will be 10 years old next year. It appears to be
doing what its founders intended, creating an interest in Airstream
Tradition and Nostalgia by bringing back Vintage Trailers and camping
through an interest in Restoration and the free spiritedness of the club
outings in days gone by. Something that appeared to be missing for some
folks in the Main Club of ten years ago. Out of this has grown an
organization so large that eventually it may rival non-VAC WBCCI Club
membership in size.

    There are a number of growing units in each Region that have a large VAC
membership. For those of you who have had a negative experience with a local
unit of the club, I say join the WBCCI as a member at large then look for a
unit that has the kind of people and activities that interest you. As long
as you are member you can attend any WBCCI/VAC event you wish.  For all you
first timers I say exactly the same thing, join us and together we can
create an environment that caters to present and future VACers and their
needs. This in turn will help us be successful in spreading the fun and
growing the organization.

Thanks for reading!

Later

Wayne A. Moore
President
Washington, D.C. Unit
Region 2 WBCCI/VAC