Starting a new Model A Club in Central North Carolina (Lake Norman)

[Model A Ron]

Has anyone started a new Model A Club in recent times? We have a club in Charlotte, NC but living north of the city many people are not involved in my area. Just wanted to see how hard it would be to start something new and how many people you would need. I would also like to start something that was more focused on driving so I am not sure if MAFCA or the Restores Club would be a better affiliation.

Thanks
Ron

[nkaminar]

Hey Ron, I'm in. I live in Wilkesboro. There is actually an official club in Wilkesboro that is inactive. It could be activated if someone wanted to take it over. It needs a "spark plug." I am not the one as my hearing is very bad and I am not the leader type. The club could meet in your area. I would be happy to drive to your town for meetings and tours. I especially like tours but also technical sessions.

[Chris in WNC]

Back around 2002 a small group of us in Jacksonville FL started a new club because we were dissatisfied with the philosophy and activities of the club there.

We started with 5 or 6 members and grew to about 15 or 20, I recall.
It was MARC & MAFCA club, focused mostly on touring and tech sessions.
We intentionally never had any regular business-only meetings or dinner get-togethers at marginal restaurants.

It peacefully co-existed with the first club in the area and our memberships did overlap slightly. I was co-author of the bylaws and will be happy to provide a copy to anyone who wants to see.

I left Jacksonville in 2011 and the club disbanded about 5-6 years ago, I'm not sure why.....

[Jim/GA]

I started a MAFCA chapter last year for the North Georgia and Western North Carolina area, called The Brasstown Valley A's. We have about 18 member families at this time. It was not too hard to start it up. MAFCA only requires 5 families to start out; we had about 12 at the time we sent our Charter Application in, and then grew. Our local papers are really good about running notices in the paper, often with a photo, telling about our formation and our activities. We got many new members that way.

We draw people from about 6 or 8 counties in the area, from Towns and Union counties in GA, and as far south as Dahlonega, GA, and up into NC from Murphy, Hayesville and Franklin areas. Our driving activities go all over, but tend to start mostly from Blairsville, GA (a central starting point). If anyone is reading this here that lives in the area, please come join us!

We alternate between driving activities and tech sessions for our monthly activity. We have agreed to do 1 "car show" type activity per year (kind of boring sitting by your car in a lot -- but a good way to attract new members) and to do 1 parade per year (also a good way to attract new members).

MAFCA has some draft Bylaws to start from, and an informative booklet on starting a new chapter. It does require at least one person that is really motivated to make it happen.

[alexiskai]

Someday I'd like to start a "project support group" club. We'd rotate each month to a new guy's house, and the host would be expected to queue up some project tasks they needed help with, and everyone just pitch in for a few hours. It'd be a good way to get stalled projects moving and to help folks decide to commit to new projects, knowing they'd get help.

[ModelA29]

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Do you need a "club"? Start out calling those in your area to go on a drive for breakfast or lunch. Plan things a couple weeks out or just say we're going on a drive every X Saturday of the month.
Our planned tour last Saturday was cancelled because we didn't have the minimum to do the historical tour part - there was a lunch planned for afterward that also didn't happen. One of the club members got on the phone and we ended up with an impromptu breakfast for 10 the next morning with 4 old and 3 modern cars. A drive out Rte 66 happened afterwards. I think rather than cancelling the tour we should have still met for the drive and lunch. Yes the historic tour was the reason for meeting but it was secondary to driving our cars and enjoying a lunch with friends.

[Model A Ron]

Originally Posted by Jim/GA

I started a MAFCA chapter last year for the North Georgia and Western North Carolina area, called The Brasstown Valley A's. We have about 18 member families at this time. It was not too hard to start it up. MAFCA only requires 5 families to start out; we had about 12 at the time we sent our Charter Application in, and then grew. Our local papers are really good about running notices in the paper, often with a photo, telling about our formation and our activities. We got many new members that way.

We draw people from about 6 or 8 counties in the area, from Towns and Union counties in GA, and as far south as Dahlonega, GA, and up into NC from Murphy, Hayesville and Franklin areas. Our driving activities go all over, but tend to start mostly from Blairsville, GA (a central starting point). If anyone is reading this here that lives in the area, please come join us!

We alternate between driving activities and tech sessions for our monthly activity. We have agreed to do 1 "car show" type activity per year (kind of boring sitting by your car in a lot -- but a good way to attract new members) and to do 1 parade per year (also a good way to attract new members).

MAFCA has some draft Bylaws to start from, and an informative booklet on starting a new chapter. It does require at least one person that is really motivated to make it happen.

Jim
If you could send me some info on MAFCA that may be the way to go. Do you know the benefits of MAFCA vs MARC aside from needing 5 to start?

[Model A Ron]

Originally Posted by Chris in WNC

Back around 2002 a small group of us in Jacksonville FL started a new club because we were dissatisfied with the philosophy and activities of the club there.

We started with 5 or 6 members and grew to about 15 or 20, I recall.
It was MARC & MAFCA club, focused mostly on touring and tech sessions.
We intentionally never had any regular business-only meetings or dinner get-togethers at marginal restaurants.

It peacefully co-existed with the first club in the area and our memberships did overlap slightly. I was co-author of the bylaws and will be happy to provide a copy to anyone who wants to see.

I left Jacksonville in 2011 and the club disbanded about 5-6 years ago, I'm not sure why.....

I would like to see your bylaws ....Thank you Sir

[Model A Ron]

Originally Posted by nkaminar

Hey Ron, I'm in. I live in Wilkesboro. There is actually an official club in Wilkesboro that is inactive. It could be activated if someone wanted to take it over. It needs a "spark plug." I am not the one as my hearing is very bad and I am not the leader type. The club could meet in your area. I would be happy to drive to your town for meetings and tours. I especially like tours but also technical sessions.

I am all for tours and technical sessions. I want a club that would take a nice drive at least once per month......getting something to eat is great but I do not want dinner to be the activity lol. What is the name of the inactive club in Wilkesboro?

[Jim/GA]

Start here:
https://www.mafca.com/chapter_starting.html

Read this:
https://www.mafca.com/downloads/Chap...arter_2015.pdf

Sample Bylaws
https://www.mafca.com/downloads/Chap...mpleBylaws.doc

I will email you a copy of our Brasstown Valley A's Bylaws.

I was surprised at how many Model A's came out of the woodwork when we started this chapter. They are all over the place! And many of our members have owned a Model A (maybe not the one they have right now) for many years.

[Model A Ron]

Does MARC or MAFCA provide insurance to members when on club activities and events?

[Jim/GA]

Originally Posted by Model A Ron

Does MARC or MAFCA provide insurance to members when on club activities and events?

That's a good question. I can speak for MAFCA (but MARC is probably the same). The short answer is that MAFCA provides Liability insurance for the Club's Officers and Directors if there should be any incident where someone (from the club or from the general public) sues the Chapter and it's Directors and Officers for negligence related to the Club's activities.

It does not provide liability to any club member car owners for any action that they might take with their car (like hit someone). Every car owner/operator (including Directors and Officers) must carry their own personal liability insurance to cover the operation of their vehicle.

The Directors and Officers have liability protection from MAFCA around the planned club activities.

For example, the Tour Director plans a scenic drive through the countryside and a member driving on the route has an accident, injuring a member of the public. If someone (injured party, for example) sues the Chapter Officers and Directors (the Tour Director) because they claim Director negligence in planning a tour with a 90+ year old car on a country road, the MAFCA D&O Liability Insurance will step in and defend the Tour Director against the negligence claim. (This assumes the Tour Director is not the person who had the accident.)

Insurance is very complicated, but in general, no member should assume they are getting any insurance from MAFCA that covers them driving their car. That is not happening.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by Model A Ron

Does MARC or MAFCA provide insurance to members when on club activities and events?

(Jim covered it before I finished my post)

[Chris in WNC]

Originally Posted by Model A Ron

I would like to see your bylaws ....Thank you Sir

Like the sargents in the army told us, "please don't call me 'sir', I work for a living."

When I dug the bylaws out of my archives, they were less than I recalled them being, but here they are (attached).

Post #6 above asks why do you need a club to do what you want to do? We asked ourselves the same question but ultimately decided to go for the MARC/MAFCA affiliations for visibility, so when a Model A owner moved into town or a local bought their first A they would be able to find us......

[Model A Ron]

Originally Posted by nkaminar

Hey Ron, I'm in. I live in Wilkesboro. There is actually an official club in Wilkesboro that is inactive. It could be activated if someone wanted to take it over. It needs a "spark plug." I am not the one as my hearing is very bad and I am not the leader type. The club could meet in your area. I would be happy to drive to your town for meetings and tours. I especially like tours but also technical sessions.

Send me a message with your contact info and we can get you on the list.

[Model A Ron]

If anyone north of Charlotte NC would like to start a new Model A Club let me know. Charlotte has the Queen City A's and that's great but for me Charlotte is just far and they have many members in South Charlotte and some in South Carolina. I am looking to start a Club for people in the Lake Norman Area including Huntereville, Mooresville, Troutman, Statesville, Catawba Hickory, Winston and so on. Basically a club for us guys who are too far to drive to Charlotte.

[TinCup]

As this year's Chapter Coordinator for MAFCA I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about starting a chapter. I am also here to help you get that chapter started. Send me a PM if you would like to get started on standing up a new chapter. I am just finishing up with a new chapter in the Northwest. Jim has already provided links to the information but I am available to help you with the process.

[WTSHNN]

If you're looking to become the 8th MARC Region in North Carolina you should contact Jim Zimmer ([email protected]) he's the Director of Regions for MARC. He can help set you up.

The form is also available on the MARC website here; https://model-a-ford.org/top-page-1/regions/