Our Corvette Club is dying on the vine...how to save it?!?!?!?
 

Our Corvette club is DYING on the vine....it has gone from 250-300 members down to about 40! And at the meetings the same guys show up and we talk about the same stuff...when & where we are going on a dinner cruise, what car shows are upcoming etc etc etc. The problem is that NO one from the Corvette Club shows up a the different car shows to participate (Mustang Club & Mopar Club are both huge and always participate). And the dinner cruises....BORING.....same ole same ole. Nothing new and exciting. In fact we cancelled our annual show because of lack of member participation as well as lack of entries. Our monthly meeting today lasted 20 minutes......

HELP...I would love to figure out what we can do to turn it around and make it the proud club it used to be......:willy:

Well, if the topics are dinner cruises and car shows I don't blame people for leaving (I would too). You can do that stuff when you're 80 years old. Corvettes are sports cars. Does anybody propose any activities that require speed, handling, and reflexes? Something that's fun and challenging?

That stuff is why I have not joined our club here. They have a huge indoor show each year. They show up en masse at the local cruise night sit together and dont talk cars, just freakin sit there. There are only a few C3s in the club as far as I can tell, but the only participants are the extremely wealthy guys that have 3 or for sports cars. My opinion is to save a club, it needs to draw in new blood. C6 owners don't work on thier own cars, most C3 guys do, thats the difference. I don't know the answer but a show and shine day once a month or a coffee and shine. Or a cruise to a local track day. I think till attitudes change club may stay in trouble. I have been tempted to start a vintage Vette club here, but my wife suggested joining the local club and go from there to keep from stepping on toes, but I may do it my way anyway.....:O)

FLAT OUT, and I don't mean to be unkind but BTDT over some 20? years now....

without a strong sponsor like my old club up north in the DC region....NCCC club #1 the nation's oldest club....called Corvette Club of America WAY before that outfit in BG Ky. layed claim to the title....

well they enjoyed a LONG succession of Chebby dealers that supported the club....now 20 years ago...that included....

annual CORVETTE shows meaning cleaning out the ENTIRE dealership including the SHOWROOM to display the cars of historical interest....

cleaning out the shop and service ramps.....to display the club owner's cars....

during which the sales dweebs were present, the parts guys were present as well as shop managers....

then we get down to the once a month meets at the dealership...winter OR summer....they cleaned out the service bays, and so the members could detail their cars, WORK on them with the LIFTS and advice from the VETTE mechanic, Service MGMT, and the Part MANAGER.....we club members supported the dealership in return,


NOW, I can't speak of what is today....but I was severely disappointed when moving to Jax Florida and finding the local vette clubs were a bunch of cruisers with dues and NO benefits....

you want a ACTIVE vette club that just is into the cars, instead of just restaurants??

get a sponsoring dealer....a REAL one....not some gimmick....

Harsh, I know, but it's reality.....

:thumbs::leaving::hide:

Most of the members probably are. :lol:

All the younger members stop coming to the meeting a few months ago...all who show up now are about 65+ years old. I wish I could figure out a way to entice the younger group to come back.....

mrvette mentioned this club in DC. Check out the events they hold, maybe you'll get some ideas to attract new blood. http://www.corvetteclubofamerica.org/

Trips to races, breweries, wineries, joint events with other neighboring clubs, shine & shows with other clubs, hosting charity events, destination cruises, tech sessions and more. They have two big sponsors, one a Corvette shop and the other a large Chevy dealer. :thumbs: Good luck.

A new club name,Corvettes & Cougars and I don't mean the Mercury type. :rofl:

Pull the plug. :sadangel: Unfortunately most clubs have turned into social clubs and not car clubs. That's why I ceased to be a member. When I find one that's more about the car then I may rejoin.

Obviously you need to be doing something different. Try a few of these.

1. Get your old mailing list of members and send them a questionere. Call it an exit interview. What would they like to see/do different. Offer them a one time dues discount to rejoin. They were members once, maybe some of them would again.

2. Do something similar from the lists from your old shows (say maybe back 5 years). Try NOT to solicit members of other clubs, if possible.

3. If you're not affiliated with a dealer, do so now. Have them include a membership application with every new Vette they sell. Leave more at the parts counter. Keep some in your car, when you see a car you don't know, put it under the wiper.

4. Join a national organization like NCCC if you are not already. For a small group, the savings in insurance alone will be worth the cost if you do 1-2 events per year that require it. Then get involved! Drive as a club to their shows, rallyes, auto-x etc.

Our local Corvette Club isn't even connected with NCCC anymore :nonod: Sounds very similar to the loacl clubs dwindling memberships. Lots of new vettes that are used for going to local restaurants like mentioned above. They need to start surveying and seeing what people are looking for in a car club or just settle with what they currently are doing and have as a club.

Ask them.

corvette only shows are dead, we used to have the corvette nationals here in indy, that died 15 years ago. Super chevy show used to be here too, not any more....

the latest corvette show was state wide at a dealership had 4 C3's, 3 C2's and 90% was late c4 and c5.

I belong to the local classic car club that is all cars, not just corvettes. they continue to do downhill too, fighting amongst themselves.

the hot rod power tour came thru indy this year. I wanted to at least go watch and see them. I looked and looked.. where to see them, when, how long, admission price, nothing specific on the web and no newspaper advertisements either. I just stayed home.

but still, Mecum was pretty Cool, and Auburn Auction was fantastic. Bbloomington Gold is just a 3 hours away... but local small clubs are dead. People ( myself included) won't spend all day sunday at a show waiting to see if their car won a prize.

:iagree:

Yea and all the topics are flower gardens, Social security, the neighbors lawn and the old country buffet.
The young guys talk about getting drunk on Wednesday night and getting drunk this Friday night, bitches, 40 years of history out of a 20 years old mouth.
And if women show up then the whole thing is ruined just like any " mans club" after woman are allowed to join.

The problem I've experienced with large clubs which have been in existence a long time is that there are a few folks who want to run the show and the other folks just get tired of doing the same old thing and not getting any 'say' is what is done.

The successful clubs make a concerted effort to get new membesr involved and interested in being part of the planning process and leadership cadre. If you aren't doing something tangible to make that happen, that's likely to be your club's problem.

Last show we went to the highlighted topic was the electronic front license plate up/down on a c6. How sad! Most where worried about there next meal.
Very few C1,2,3S. Most all C4S and up had stuffed animals all over the place.

Car shows and club meeting are on a downward turn, same as all the computer fairs that we used to have. People are not interested in lame stuff.

I am one of the old people as you say, 64 and retired, and we skip the car shows and meetings because i cant stand those lame people doing nothing.

They will have to offer something new to get the users back, its just that simple.

Well I belong to a good group. No dues, no officers, just fun. It really does seem to work fairly well. We do some riding. We do a few shows. We even work on our cars. I think the big thing that holds us together is that we have become friends. We get together on a website and it has worked out well. The reality is there is about 15 or 20 that are involved. Hard to have big numbers without issues. I don't like issues, nor does the rest of the group.

Quit our local Corvette club in 1993 and never returned. Very Lame :eek: :ack: :canadaflag: Who knows - might be different now.

Sounds like a cool club. :thumbs: