Gents,
Now that I am a proud owner of a Corvette, it was suggested that I join a Corvette Club. As I am not a big club guy except for the American Legion, I am throwing this out to you for comment.
Should I look into a club?
Do you know any clubs at the Jersey Shore?
what are the benefits?
Is it click-ish?
Do I need to wear a special shirt or hat?

Just sayin that I think it would be fun

CPO Rob

 

There are clubs and there are really good clubs...

I happen to be very lucky to be part of a very good club, and by "good" I mean active. A good club offers activities for all types of Corvette owners.

You should first decide what you want to do with your Vette and find a club that meets your requirements...

Here are some popular things clubs will do for you:

• Car Shows (both attend and host)
• Charities (always good to give back)
• Cruises (get in your cars and take off)
• Dinners / Lunches (socialize at some fun places for a nice meal)
• Sponsorships (Discounts from certain vendors)
• Clinics (teach you how to detail your car, or judge a car show, how to make a certain repair, etc)
• Vacations (certain larger clubs even book vacations together)
• Make new friends that share the same passion as you do

Decide what you want to do with your Vette and then decide if a club is for you or not...

Good Luck!

 

Yes.

 

Here's one in Tom's River
http://www.surfcorvetteclub.com/index.html

south Jersey
https://www.google.com/search?q=sout....0.epBh-p_5bFw

I'd also ask this question in the Upcoming Events section under "Northeast" .

Great area -- spent 5 years in TR/Ortley Beach in the '70s.

 

You'll find that some clubs are great, some are clickish. The only way to find out is to go to a meeting and see how things are run and how the club members interact. I was in one club for a while and although there were some really great people in the club, there were others that just because they had a certain generation of Vette, they thought they were better than anyone else. A real turnoff in many respects.

If you find a good club where members get along and want to do things together, it can be a real rewarding experience. You make friends, talk cars, and take cruises/do shows/etc. Plus you build a knowledge base of expertise among the members that can prove useful should you need help with your car - kind of like here on the forum.

 

Many clubs are just "hey lets meet every sunday for breakfast" clubs. Very boring. Find one that meets your desires in a club.

 

I agree with everything you said. Clubs can be a great source of shared information and can be a lot of fun. I also agree that some clubs can be extremely clickish, just about to the point of being exclusionary to new members, could be of what gen vette, or perceived financial status of the owner. In general, I admire the shared knowledge deal, not so much the rest of it. The best club I ever belonged to was the Porsche club of America. Very welcoming, inclusive to all, helpful to all regardless of what model and your financial status. Simply the best at fostering their brotherhood. Maybe there are some vette clubs like that but its been my misfortune to not find one yet. Take care

 

Check out Boardwalk Corvettes they put on a great show on the OC Boardwalk every September. (400+cars). Everyone I have met from the club was very friendly.

 

If you want to have some fun with your Corvette, meet new people, learn more about your car, for service and parts, and have weekend getaway, and go to car shows, join a club.
If you want to look at it in garage, stay home!

 

Like you, I am not a club person. But I decided to try one. It did not last long. Like many of other types of clubs that I have tried, there were too many rules such as must attend and must participate. Give it a try. Maybe the atmosphere will be right for you.

 

Clubs are a very good resource for things like good shops to take a car to. Usually members know the best places for things like maintenance or tuning that is local (I discovered a local tuner that I wouldn't have otherwise known about from the local Corvette club).

I've been to some of the various meet-ups for my local clubs but I don't belong to a club because 1) I'm not into cliques of any sort, 2) I'm not a stickler for rules, 3) everyone is double to triple my age in most Corvette clubs, 4) I don't understand the point of going to a car show just to sit in a lawn chair (infuriates me). I'd rather meet up with a broad general club or just go to a cruise-in.

 

True

 

It really depends on your expectations going in and the activity level of each club. I agree that the Corvette-only clubs have a higher age demographic than other clubs and groups I belong to, however most of the people are nice and the common passion for all things Corvette provide another avenue in developing friends outside of just Corvette-related activities.

However, like any other social activity, some people just have a hard time with larger groups. We had a new member who had just purchased a new $100K C7 Z06/Z07 have a complete meltdown over paying the small annual club dues to cover administrative and other misc. costs of being non-profit organization.

 

The Cruises can be a lot of fun. There are some benefits to belonging to a Corvette Club. You can get information and share your experiances with your fellow Vette owners.

 

First off, thanks for your service
Check out the local club, more than likely, they'll let you attend a couple of meetings without joining. If you like it, join, if not, walk away.
Yes, you can wear a special shirt or hat, just not both

 

 

Off topic, Love the pic of your car in your sig. That is "the money shot"

 

I belonged to a club in So Fl for a year, terrible experience. Went to every monthly dinner meeting and only one person ever greeted me and we've remained friends over the years. Another club required attendance at 4 events before joining. When I received an email accepting me, I declined. Too much drama. I recently settled in Central Fl and attended a show. The club turned me down as "they were full". Anything I need to know about the car is on this forum.

By the way, my wife and I entertain professionally so we are very friendly.

I eventually joined a new open club, no dues no meetings no rules.

Dues are not much $ so join and get a feeling for it. I gave up on clubs.

 

I belong to an active club with various ages, incomes and year cars. Any club will be cliquey because you are just not interested in hanging out with certain people. You don't have to be each persons best friend in a club. It is a social environment. There are trips and cruise ins and shows. Do what you want to do, but be somewhat active. That is what it is there for, corvette owners that want to get together and share a common bond. Try it. If you don't like it get out. I went to a bunch of meetings before joining to see how the club was run.

 

As already stated, it's what you want to do with your car. Decide first.

We are on our third Corvette. For the first one, we joined a local club sponsored by a Chevy dealership a short distance from the house. Seemed to be nice people at the initial meeting so the wife and I joined. We went on their "sponsored" rides to a designated restaurant where 50 or 60 people all showed up at the same time. Needless to say, there were some long waits for drinks and a few cold dinners at these locations as the owner hadn't thought of adding extra staff for the additional number of clients....

The following year, we paid the annual dues but were in the process of selling the 2001 convertible to buy the 1991 Callaway Twin Turbo.... the convertible had sold and the Callaway was on a transport finding it's way to Detroit from Denver.

At the monthly meeting, comments were requested by the President on the topic of a cruise destination for the following month. When I voiced my opinion, I was told "well since you don't even own a Corvette, you really don't matter". Nice.....

When the Callaway arrived, it was the darling of the club's annual car show. It was all decked out with every option including the Sledgehammer-like Aero body and magnesium wheels. It has been through a couple of collector's hands and had been meticulously maintained. Other members would come up to us and say "that really is an outstanding car".

Needless to say, we didn't go to any more monthly meetings and eventually stopped going to the events. Our membership expired and we had no regrets.

Fast forward to 2015. I'm on the hunt for a 2013 60th Anniversary Edition 427 and finally find one. In discussions with the wife about it's purchase, she says it's fine to buy the car on one condition.....

No clubs.

We still do a couple of car shows in the summer and of course the Woodward Dream Cruise but as far as a Corvette club.... no thanks, not for us. We still cruise, go to dinner and the ice cream store, basically the same things we would do in the club. But to us we don't need the social approval to own this car and we have a much larger group of "car" people that own a variety of different cars, even a couple (Oh My GAWD!) that are not made by Chevy.... I'm very happy with her in the passenger seat rolling down the highway and life is too short to worry about what other snobby people think....

Just my 2 cents... YMMV

HH