Want to start a club

[rohnk]

There is an AMC club in Eastern Michigan but not much around my area in Grand Rapids. I've been thinking about starting a club with by-laws and dues which would organize events, swap meets, builds and regular meetings. Once a year the club would take the money from the treasury and find a salvagable AMC vehicle to clean up, fix and/or restore. Then offer them for sale to get new members and more money for the club to buy cars and equiptment.

I think if I can get 10 people to sign up for $30 for a yearly membership, that would give me a start. I have a large enough garage to work in and place to meet. I should finish my SX/4 by the end of the year so next winter the club woud be looking for it's first car to build.

Keeping it simple would be the key and getting members that are willing to get there hands dirty or help out with parts sourcing will be the challenge.

Am I crazy or does this sound like a nice idea? There are clubs around but they are full of fuddy duddies and guys with more money than knowledge. None that are specifically for car restoration, knowledge sharing or comradery.

[Sunny]

Great idea, but every car club seems to eventually have drama and fall apart. I've been apart of some great clubs in the past, but something always happens.

It's a really neat idea.
I actually helped with a live build at a 3 day car show once, where we redid most of a car.. The only problem is, that when the owner went to sell it.. some of the people who put a lot of time in, demanded that they should be paid if he was profiting off it in any way.. it caused a huge fight.

Also we had a 'club garage' we rented, and tools and stuff would go missing or equipment would be broken and no one would take the blame.

It is a great idea.. it's just really hard to full off flawlessly.

You also get people arguing over how certain things should be done and the people who's ideas are overlooked often feel hurt.

You also mentioned the guy's with more money than knowledge.. they always show up.. and try to outdo everyone else.. which really ruins the whole 'club' mood.


There's a lot of thing's I've noticed over the years being apart of clubs.

[Prafeston]

Sounds like a great idea man. I wish there was something like that around me! I'd totally be game!

[shaggimo]

Exactly what Sunny said, many of my friends have tried the same, but it seems greed eventually takes over (sucks how that works). A few of us got the idea of having a "no money involved" type of group, where we all just get together, bounce ideas around and help one another work on each others rides. Wrench and BS if you will, lol, but problem there was we were all so busy with our own stuff (priority projects) that this idea hasn't gone into play yet, eh maybe soon, lol. It'd be neat if you could pull it off, and keep everyone humble though  .