Let's start with my own car clubbing record. I go back to 2004, when I found a lonely Yahoo! group online called 'Colt Lancers 1970 to 1979 models'. This was later renamed to 1stGenLancer and later spawned our forum/sort-of-car-club www.1stgenlancer.co.nr where I am forum Admin. The 1stGen forum is fairly quiet, mainly because we're really a small bunch to begin with. There's a handful of us here in the Philippine Islands, two guys in Malaysia, another handful scattered across Australia, a few in New Zealand and one guy in Germany (who owns 5 or 6 of the little beasts). There maybe a few lurkers from other similar old Mitsubishi forums in there (Sigma Galant, Japanese Nostalgic Car) because I see some familiar handles in the list but they have yet to introduce themselves there. Anyway, so it's a small and not a particular active group. The few of us here around Metro Manila have actually become friends and we do meet from time to time to catch up, but we are far from what you'd call a formal club, but the rare meets we do have are fun when they happen. (reminds me to schedule something soon since it's been a year since we've had a meet).
After 1stGen I became part of two clubs that are now dead. There was the Trooper Club, actually started by Isuzu Philippines for Trooper owners which died a natural death when the vehicle was phased out and later silenced even more due to a certain fuel injection problem (shhh.) Then, there was Club Old Skul Mitsu (OSM) which was pretty cool for a while, but money issues and bickering among it's officers and whatnot killed it as well. There was the Old-Schooler car club, this one even had a numbered sticker on it, my car was Old-schooler No. 350. This one seemed to have died a similar death as OSM.
Then there's Mitsu Lancer Ph that I'm still today a member of. I'm also supposed to be a 'crew captain' for Old-school and 1stgen Lancers but I have not really been active much in the last year or so. MLPh is fairly big and very organized. SEC registered makes it extra legit. There seem to be issues and haters once in a while, but the core officers of the club have done a good job in keeping it solid.
There's Grupo Toyota that I'm a perpetual lurker in because they have an awesome selling section with lots of goodies. This seems to be the Toyota version of MLPh and just about as good. I also lurk in the VWCP forum because of the selling section.
There are two other clubs that I won't mention where I have forums accounts in, but due the fact that I'm stingy and don't want to pay a membership fee, I don't have full access to the forums so I don't log in there that much so I don't know much of what goes on in them except that I'm not cool with groups like this where paying a fee if a requirement for full membership; no matter how small the fee is.
Up to this point, starting one of these groups was fairly difficult. Yahoo! groups are obsolete for the most part, forums are the in thing, so you'd have to start a forum from a hosting site, pay for it if you wanna be fancy or get a cheap free one like what we use in 1stGen. Then you wait for word to spread and people to sign up. But lately, over the last year or so there has been a trend of hosting the car club on Facebook instead of a forum. In this new form of car club you don't hide your identity behind handle, since it's connected to your personal facebook account your name appears, this is good in a way since quite a lot of people make stupid handles and this setup is less likely to have trouble makers.
According to the left sidebar of my Facebook account, I'm a member of 6 of them. One, created just today I think where I got automatically added, how that happens I have yet to find out. I think one of my friends just clicks on something then I'm part of it.
Now, what bothers me and what prompted me to write today rather than continuing my chore of cleaning up my workshop, was the description of this new club;
"Anything about the ********** Automobile regardless of model or year and club affiliation we are doing this so we can be recognized by ********** Motors as one united group and be able to get sponsorships for events, races and preservation of the ********* Automobile."
What I did back there was omit the word 'Mitsubishi' in order to conceal the identity of the club I'm talking about because I copied that last bit right off their Facebook group thing before removing myself from it. (and Facebook is pretty cool, coz once you leave a group you can't be automatically added to it)
Anyway, that last bit of the description. I don't like that. It just reeks of what these things are about; getting recognition and sponsorship. Of course I'm not saying all Facebook based clubs are like that, some are pretty cool, fairly organized and have good camaraderie among their members (talking about you Lancer Boxtype Pilipinas) but this new thing.. I dunno yet but that description does not make me optimistic. And quite a few other I've seen are the same flavor.
The fact is, there is a lot of potential money to be made in these things. If a group is big enough sponsors at events can be pretty generous. I've seen free parts, motor oil, food, beer and quite a lot of other stuff. There are benefits like discounts at certain shops, sponsored events like a dyno testing day where I got to run my car on the chassis dyno for half price and cheap trackday events (that I've always managed to miss). It's very easy to see why you'd want to be part of that action. Money from simple membership dues or stickers can reach some pretty serious amounts. Remember the Old-Schooler club I mentioned earlier; I was member no. 350. Each membership/sticker costs 250 pesos. That's 85,500 pesos of 'club funds'
Of course there is a flip side to all the good things it brings. There will always be people who will take advantage of these situations to serve themselves. I remember back in 2008, prize money from Mitsubishi Motors Philippines for winners in a car show did not reach the actual winners who represented a club because someone else from the club acting as a liaison made off with the money. And I remember hearing some rumors about donated bottled water being sold to members. This is why I've always preached that money and sponsorship, despite being good for a club in a way, should be treated with the utmost care and delicadesa because those are the two things that can easily ruin a club. There are politics too, I've written about that before, but I would think that the politics is really motivated by the money making opportunities one would have once in position; just like in government then, and of course not to generalize; not all politicians are corrupt and not all car club officers are in it for the money. (I for one have never profited one cent from my positions in clubs.) But I can imagine, much like that Old-Schooler club with the some 85k worth of club funds, that there are some people who would want a slice of that fairly large pie.
The point that I'm trying to make is that we should all focus on what this hobby or lifestyle is about. It's about hanging out with like minded people, learning and developing your self into a better enthusiast and improving or preserving your car whatever your taste or passion might be. It's not about stickers, group names, chapters or positions. It's not about paying membership fees or seeing which group has more member than the other group. It's really stupid when the arguments are about 'territories' or where where to hang out, as f cars were not mobile and moving them from time to time was so difficult. It's no fun when it's like that and I make it a point not to be part of un-fun things.
While I'm on the subject, there are a few other things I'd like to touch on.
Not too long ago someone made a thread in a club asking if there was some kind of charity to help the less fortunate setup their cars, like that Pimp my ride bullshit on MTV before. First of all, having a car to take you from point A to point B is in itself a luxury, more so is setting it up. Those of us who have managed to restore or setup our cars are no different from other people. We've had to work for what we have... well a few didn't but most did... so if you want a nice car you're going to have to work for it to. What has worth is worth paying for. Charities are for the hungry and homeless and the cute animals about to go extinct.
For bigger car clubs doing events, I've noticed that there is a trend of hosting events at bars. Call me old-school, but I miss the days when an event or EB meant standing around in a parking lot checking out cars. Sure, people will eventually gravitate to some nearby watering hole, but don't make that the official event. It's almost as if it's promoting drinking and driving.
This is what it should be about, gathering and lining up cars.. Because there's just something so cool about seeing them all lined up like that.
I have also removed all the stickers from my cars designating me as a member of a particular group. Because sometimes I like to drive everywhere like I only have 15 min. left to save the world. So, I overtake people quite often. I noticed that when my car was marked with a sticker and I pass another stickered car from another group the car I passed was likely to try and chase. I've also been tailgated and cut off a few times by members of 'rival' car clubs. It's been a few months since I've removed all stickers and I can say for sure that there is a difference. That's kind of an interesting observation isn't it?
Anyway. that's all my ranting for today. If I stepped on anyone's toes with what I've written, I don't really care.
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