[VAC] Re: Proposed Change for Vintage Airstream Club Eligibility

["Kevin D. Allen" <kallen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings Noland!

I have been following the debate (on the VAC List) regarding changes to
the rules making a particular Airstream product eligible for inclusion
in the club. I became involved with the club in a slightly different
manner from many of the more recent members. In 1995, I joined the
WBCCI after having purchased my 1964 Overlander and then learned of the
Vintage Airstream Club. (I had been searching for an Airstream product
simply because I wanted to join the WBCCI.)

I can see a few possible reasons why such a change might be considered:

1. An effort to keep our intra-club membership numbers at a
manageable level.
2. An effort to keep from over-shadowing our parent-club.
3. An effort to set the foundation for creation of several, related
intra-clubs that might be less
threatening to the parent-club:
A. Antiques - - 50 or more years of age
B. Classics - - 40 - 50 years of age
C. Special Interest - - 25 - 40 years of age

I can also see several detrimental aspects to such a change including:

1. A diminution of the "sense of inclusion" that has been a
foundation of the Vintage Airstream Club
for as long as I have been a member.
2. A very definite risk of fragmentation of the current Vintage
Airstream Club that might seriously
jeopardize the future health of the organization.
3. A very definite risk of creating the perception of an "elitist
philosophy".
4. The potential of creating "cliques" within the club that could
ultimately undermine the club's
existence.

I believe that this may be a case where our intra-club should learn from
the parent-club's example. Evidently our parent club learned from hard
experience that excluding segments of the ownership base (Argosy
products, Integrity products, and the "square-streams") can have an
overall detrimental impact on the club as a whole. When I was searching
for my trailer, I was actually looking for an Argosy. It had never
occurred to me that there might have been a time when an Argosy owner
would have been excluded from WBCCI membership. I have always assumed
that the inclusionary 25-year rule was one of the founding tenets of the
organization, and was one of the reasons for our intra-club's great
success and growth. With our parent club beginning the process of
reaching-out to the broader ownership base, I am not convinced that this
would be a good time to consider a move that would potentially diminish
the effectiveness and scope of our organization.

One of the reasons that I have always happily mailed in my dues is the
fact that our organization has made such an effort to include all 
eligible owners. I will admit to feeling a little out-of-place at my
first two Internationals where my trailer was one of a relatively small
number of the larger tandem axle units; and especially my first
International (Boise) where (for just reason I learned later) my rig was
excluded from the Wagon Wheels Caravan simply because it was more than
24'. The most recent two Internationals have had an exceptionally
welcoming atmosphere for all qualified Vintage Airstream products. I
would truly hate to see this change, which I see, in a sense, as a step
backward - - not so much in our intra-club's history - - rather in our
parent club's history - - possibly mimicking a rule that obviously
didn't work for the parent organization.

Kevin D. Allen
WBCCI/VAC #6359
1964 Overlander International/1999 GMC K2500 Suburban